Latest News: Classical, Decca (label)
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Recording of the Week,
Aleksandra Kurzak and Renée Fleming 20th February 2012
Up-and-coming Polish soprano Kurzak radiates ‘gioia’ in her debut solo album of operatic arias by Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini and others, whilst Fleming is on ravishing form in an all-French programme of orchestral song-cycles by Ravel, Messiaen and Dutilleux (the latter composed for her in 2007).
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Recording of the Week,
Beethoven Symphonies from Thielemann and Chailly 23rd January 2012
Thielemann offers a cycle in the grand Germanic tradition with the Wiener Philharmoniker, whilst Chailly’s interpretations with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig emphasise lightness and freshness without ever sounding too hard-driven or breathless. James puts the case for each approach.
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Recording of the Week,
Benjamin Grosvenor 18th July 2011
Fresh from his BBC Proms triumph last week, the eighteen-year-old British pianist makes a hugely impressive debut on Decca with a programme which includes Ravel’s formidable Gaspard de la Nuit and music by Chopin and Liszt.
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Recording of the Week,
Beethoven’s Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann 20th June 2011
The German tenor is mesmerising from his very first note, whilst Nina Stemme is scarcely less compelling as his heroic wife Leonore in this exhilarating live concert recording from last year’s Lucerne Festival.
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Recording of the Week,
Daniel Barenboim plays Chopin and conducts Tchaikovsky 2nd May 2011
The pianist joins Andris Nelsons and the Staatskapelle Berlin for the two Chopin piano concertos, and conducts an electrifying Pathétique with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with the late Edward Said.
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Recording of the Week,
Striggio: Mass in 40 Parts 7th March 2011
Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini give the world premiere recording of the Italian Renaissance composer’s mighty Missa Ecco si Beato Giorno, rediscovered and identified in Paris five years ago, and composed shortly before Tallis’s Spem in alium.
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Recording of the Week,
Jonas Kaufmann: Verismo Arias 27th September 2010
The star tenor branches out from his usual French and German repertoire with an idiomatically Italianate recital of arias by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, Cilea and Boito, accompanied by Antonio Pappano and his Roman orchestra.
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Recording of the Week,
Cecilia Bartoli and the world of Castratos 26th October 2009
The intrepid Italian mezzo explores repertoire composed for Farinelli, Caffarelli and Senesino (including music by Porpora, Caldara, Vinci and Leo) with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini.
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Recording of the Week,
The forgotten Maria 12th November 2007
Cecilia Bartoli explores the legacy of the nineteenth-century Spanish mezzo Maria Malibran, who created the title-role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and was particularly associated with the heroines of Rossini.
