Classical Guides
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Bernard Herrmann
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the American composer and conductor, best known for his impressive roster of enormously successful film scores.
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Charles-François Gounod
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the French Romantic composer, known for his operas, sacred music and songs.
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Gounod: Faust (1859 version)
Benjamin Bernheim (Faust), Véronique Gens (Marguerite), Andrew Foster-Williams (Méphistophélès), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Valentin), Juliette Mars (Siebel), Ingrid Perruche (Marthe), Anas Séguin (Wagner/Un mendiant) Les Talens Lyriques, Flemish Radio Choir, Christophe Rousset
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Ethel Smyth
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the late Romantic composer, known for her groundbreaking operas, her solo songs, and her fearless involvement in the suffragette movement.
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Arthur Sullivan
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the great Victorian composer - best known for his light operas written in collaboration with William Schwenck Gilbert and for his hymn-tunes.
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Sullivan, A: The Mikado
Donald Adams (The Mikado), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Nanki-Poo), Richard Suart (Ko-Ko), Felicity Palmer (Katisha), Marie McLaughlin (Yum-Yum), Richard Van Allan (Pooh-Bah), Nicholas Folwell (Pish-Tush) Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras
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Louis Spohr
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the early Romantic violin innovator - composer of eighteen violin concertos, thirty-six string quartets and more, and developer of two invaluable musical inventions: the chinrest and the rehearsal mark.
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Charles Villiers Stanford
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the Anglo-Irish composer - known particularly for his sacred choral music but also a prodigious composer of chamber and orchestral works, songs, part-songs and more.
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Hugo Wolf
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the arch-Romantic Lieder composer - best known for his intense, harmonically adventurous Mörike-Lieder, Italienisches Liederbuch and Spanisches Liederbuch.
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Bedřich Smetana
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the great Czech Romantic composer - best known for his stirring pictorial tone poem Má vlast and opera The Bartered Bride.
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Carl Friedrich Abel
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by perhaps the last of the great viola da gamba players, in a slightly belated celebration of the 300th anniversary of his birth.
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Peter Maxwell Davies: A postcard from Hoy, and a farewell to Stromness
An account of a miniature Presto Pilgrimage over the summer holiday, in search of the former home of Peter Maxwell Davies in the Orkney Islands.
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William Byrd
A selection of some of the best recent recordings of music by the giant of English early music, for the 400th anniversary of his death.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff Russian composer
A selection of some of the finest recent recordings of the Russian colossus, to mark his 150th anniversary.
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Valentyn Sylvestrov
As the Ukrainian composer turns 85, David listens to some of the greatest recordings of his music - by turns introverted and reflective, rapturously spiritual, and politically impassioned.
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Weber’s Bassoon Concerto turns 200!
Our in-house Instrument Repairer Alex Preston (also a freelance woodwind player) celebrates 'one of the two titans' of the bassoon concerto repertoire, and selects some favourite recordings.
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Leonard Bernstein
On the composer's 100th birthday, Chris recommends some favourite recordings of his key works across all genres, from the ever-popular West Side Story to comparative rarities like Trouble in Tahiti and the song-cycles.
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Sibelius
Presto's founder Maurice Millward chooses his favourite recordings.
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Edvard Grieg
David picks some of the best recordings of the works of the Norwegian Romantic nationalist, Edvard Grieg.
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Camille Saint-Saëns
James explores the music of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and chooses some of his favourite recordings.
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Jacques Offenbach
Katherine explores beyond the Barcarolle and the Can-Can to uncover some neglected gems…
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Les Contes d'Hoffmann - CD Choice
Joan Sutherland (Antonia/Stella/Giulietta/Olympia), Plácido Domingo (Hoffmann), Gabriel Bacquier (Coppélius/Dapertutto/Lindorf/Miracle), Huguette Tourangeau (Nicklausse), Hugues Cuénod (Franz) Suisse Romande Choir & Orchestra, Richard Bonynge
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César Franck
David picks out some of the finest recordings of Belgian organist-composer César Franck.
