Latest News: Classical, Harmonia Mundi (label)
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Recording of the Week,
Gesualdo - Sacred and Secular 4th March 2013
James Wood directs Vocalconsort berlin in the second book of Sacrae Cantiones, whilst La Compagnia del Madrigale are on flamboyant form in the Sixth Book of Madrigals – dark, disorientating works which could scarcely be more different from their English counterparts.
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Recording of the Week,
Schoenberg and Berg 13th February 2012
Isabelle Faust pairs the Berg and Beethoven violin concertos to great effect with Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado, whilst Pierre Boulez brings breathtaking clarity to Schoenberg’s densely-orchestrated Pelleas et Melisande with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.
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Recording of the Week,
Mariusz Kwiecień 9th January 2012
The charismatic Polish baritone’s debut solo album offers a compellingly sung and splendidly varied gallery of ‘Slavic Heroes’, including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Mazeppa, Szymanowski’s King Roger, Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Borodin’s Prince Igor, as well as two arias from operas by his compatriot Moniuszko.
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Recording of the Week,
Sublime Schubert from Paul Lewis 31st October 2011
Following his ten-year immersion in Beethoven and critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s three great song-cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, the British pianist brings unrivalled poise and intimacy to the Piano Sonatas D840, 850 and 894 and the Impromptus D899.
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Recording of the Week,
Schubert's Schwanengesang from Padmore and Lewis 12th September 2011
Padmore’s bright, light tenor is often hauntingly beautiful in Schubert’s ‘swan-song’, combining with Lewis’s imaginative and insightful playing in a performance of great musical integrity which is a worthy successor to their superb Winterreise and Schöne Müllerin.
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Recording of the Week,
Beethoven's Diabelli Variations from Paul Lewis 30th May 2011
Following his masterly traversals of the complete piano concertos and sonatas, the British pianist imbues the Diabelli Variations with humour, exuberance and poetic beauty in a recording which stands comparison with his mentor Alfred Brendel.
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Recording of the Week,
Winterreise from Padmore and Lewis 19th October 2009
The British pianist and tenor launch a series of Schubert song-cycles with a spellbinding account of the late, great ‘Winter Journey’ which strikes Chris as ‘music-making of the absolute highest order’.
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Recording of the Week,
Britten's homage to Purcell 29th June 2009
Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles join forces for gripping accounts of Winter Words, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, and a handful of Britten’s Purcell realisations, including An Evening Hymn and Job’s Curse.
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Recording of the Week,
Idomeneo from René Jacobs 18th May 2009
Following his landmark accounts of the three Da Ponte opera, Jacobs tackles Mozart’s early opera seria, with Richard Croft as the Cretan king, Bernarda Fink as his estranged son, and Alexandrina Pendatchanska spitting fire as Elettra.
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Recording of the Week,
Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 9th March 2009
Richard Egarr and The Academy of Ancient Music record Bach’s six concerti grossi at French baroque pitch (A = 392Hz), which has ‘a remarkable effect on the richness of the sound’.
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Recording of the Week,
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin put Platti firmly on the map 19th January 2009
The Italian oboist and baroque composer (1697-1763) emerges as a worthy heir to Corelli in this world premiere recording of three of the concerti grossi which he based upon Corelli’s chamber works.
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Recording of the Week,
Superb Scholl sings Dowland and his circle 26th May 2008
The German countertenor captivates in a programme of lute and consort songs by the great Elizabethan ‘poet of melancholy’, John Dowland, with lutenist Julian Behr and Swiss-based viol quartet Concerto di Viole.
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Recording of the Week,
The Jerusalem Quartet 21st April 2008
The former BBC New Generation Artists display ‘excitement and vitality’ in Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and Quartettsatz.
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Recording of the Week,
Paul Lewis's Beethoven 7th April 2008
Ahead of the release of the final instalment of his acclaimed cycle on Harmonia Mundi, Chris offers an overview of the Liverpool-born pianist’s ‘utterly compelling’ traversal of the complete sonatas.
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Recording of the Week,
Mozart - Don Giovanni from René Jacobs 1st October 2007
The final instalment of the Belgian conductor’s ‘refreshing and intelligent’ Mozart-Da Ponte cycle has Chris questioning his preconceptions about the eponymous libertine, sung here by 27-year-old Johannes Weisser.
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Recording of the Week,
Padmore and Bostridge sing Handel 11th June 2007
Two leading English tenors tackle opera and oratorio arias, including Jupiter’s ‘Where’er you walk’ from Semele, Jephtha’s ‘Waft her, angels’, and Samson’s ‘Total eclipse’.
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Recording of the Week,
Schütz's Legacy 7th May 2007
Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent performed the German baroque master’s ‘Opus ultimum’, a series of eleven motets for double choir setting Psalm 119.
