Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
Recording of the Week,
Donizetti's L'Ange de Nisida
22nd March 2019
Sir Mark Elder conducts the world premiere of Donizetti’s opera semiseria from 1839, composed for a theatre which closed down before the opening night, but subsequently heavily revised as La favorite.
Recording of the Week,
Isabelle Faust plays Bach Concertos
15th March 2019
The German violinist joins forces with oboist Xenia Löffler and Bernhard Forck's Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin for a tour of Bach's violin concertos, interspersed with alternate versions of sinfonias and sonatas that have been reconstructed for the first time.
Recording of the Week,
Philippe Jaroussky sings Cavalli
8th March 2019
The French countertenor leads Artaserse in a kaleidoscopic survey of the many and varied operas by the seventeenth-century Italian composer, shot through with the spirit of Venetian carnival.
Recording of the Week,
Franck and Vierne from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien
1st March 2019
The Russian violinist and French pianist bring a refreshing clarity and delicacy to two sonatas written for the Belgian composer-violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.
Recording of the Week,
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich cycle with Symphonies 6 & 7
22nd February 2019
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich series with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with thrillingly detailed accounts of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies.
Recording of the Week,
Paul Lewis plays early Schubert and Weber
15th February 2019
The British pianist radiates sympathy and imagination in two piano sonatas from the 1810s by young composers who both died before their fortieth birthdays.
Recording of the Week,
Kirill Karabits conducts the world premiere of Liszt's Sardanapalo
8th February 2019
Reconstructed by the musicologist David Trippett, the single completed act of Liszt's abandoned opera on a subject by Byron reveals what the composer's son-in-law Wagner described as 'the claw of a lion'.
Recording of the Week,
Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen perform cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky
1st February 2019
The cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky are given expressive performances by Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen, alongside Prokofiev's Ballade and a handful of shorter works.
Recording of the Week,
Maurizio Pollini performs late piano works by Chopin
25th January 2019
The Italian pianist revisits works by Chopin including the Third Piano Sonata, the Berceuse, and the two Nocturnes, op. 55, alongside his first recording of the three Mazurkas, op. 56.
Recording of the Week,
Berlioz from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles
18th January 2019
Tabea Zimmermann and Stéphane Degout are the soloists in period-instrument performances of Harold en Italie & Les nuits d'été.
Recording of the Week,
Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch from Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch
11th January 2019
The German tenor, soprano and pianist have a ball with Wolf's 46 miniatures on love, loss and fickleness, recorded live in concert in Essen last year.
Recording of the Week,
Orchestral Works by George Antheil
4th January 2019
The BBC Philharmonic and John Storgårds present the second volume in Chandos's survey of the orchestral works of American composer, George Antheil.
Recording of the Week,
George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence
28th December 2018
The British composer's third opera, based on the downfall of Edward II and starring French baritone Stéphane Degout as the conflicted monarch, has a compact, claustrophobic beauty.
Recording of the Week,
Presto Personal Favourites from 2018
21st December 2018
Bach, Schubert, Finzi, Liszt and Saint-Saëns feature among the editorial team's individual picks of the year.
Recording of the Week,
Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov from Vasily Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic
14th December 2018
The Russian conductor presides over sparkling, taut accounts of two avian fairy-tales: the complete ballet music for The Firebird and the suite from the posthumously-premiered opera Le Coq d’Or.
Recording of the Week,
François-Xavier Roth conducts orchestral works by Debussy
7th December 2018
James listens to a captivating account of three orchestral works by Debussy from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles, performed on authentic instruments.
Recording of the Week,
100 Years of Nine Lessons & Carols from King's
30th November 2018
David enjoys a retrospective recording from the choir of King's College, looking back on a century of festive music-making and forward to a new era.
Recording of the Week,
Vivaldi from Cecilia Bartoli and Ensemble Matheus
23rd November 2018
Nearly twenty years after her landmark album devoted to the operas of the 'Red Priest', the Italian mezzo is as dazzling as ever in arias from works including Orlando furioso, Il Giustino and Ottone in Villa.
Recording of the Week,
Late Debussy sonatas from Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov and friends
16th November 2018
Harmonia Mundi's ten-album series commemorating the centenary of Debussy's death continues with the Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, and Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.
Recording of the Week,
John Wilson conducts Copland's Third Symphony and Connotations
9th November 2018
Chandos's superb survey of the American composer's orchestral music with the BBC Philharmonic continues to raise the roof as the Fanfare for the Common Man returns transformed.