Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
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Recording of the Week,
The final instalment of Andrew Manze's Vaughan Williams cycle with the Liverpool Philharmonic 24th May 2019Andrew Manze and the Liverpool Philharmonic round off their Vaughan Williams series with vivid accounts of the majestic seventh and pensive ninth symphonies.
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Recording of the Week,
Kirill Petrenko conducts Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony 17th May 2019Recorded live in concert in 2017, the Berliner Philharmoniker's first album with their new Chief Conductor augurs very well indeed for their new partnership.
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Recording of the Week,
Les Siècles perform Mahler's symphonic poem, Titan 10th May 2019François-Xavier Roth and his period-instrument orchestra perform Mahler's "tone poem in the form of a symphony in two parts and five movements", an early version of his First Symphony.
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Recording of the Week,
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts symphonies by Mieczysław Weinberg 3rd May 2019For her first recording with Deutsche Grammophon, the Lithuanian conductor offers haunting accounts of two symphonies by the Polish-born Soviet composer, Mieczysław Weinberg.
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Recording of the Week,
Rachel Podger plays the Bach Cello Suites 26th April 2019The baroque violinist's own transcriptions of one of the pinnacles of the cello repertoire have an integrity and intelligence that's entirely convincing on its own terms, and the music never stops dancing.
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Recording of the Week,
Schumann from Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes 19th April 2019The German bass-baritone brings near-Wagnerian intensity to Schumann's two great cycles of 1840, yet he and Andsnes are at their most spellbinding in the introspective songs.
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Recording of the Week,
András Schiff plays late Schubert 12th April 2019The Hungarian-born pianist brings introspective poetry to two late sonatas, the Four Impromptus D899 and the Drei Klavierstücke D946, recorded on his Franz Brodmann fortepiano from 1820.
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Recording of the Week,
Jordi Savall directs JS Bach's Markus Passion 5th April 2019David listens to a newly-reconstructed version of JS Bach's lost St Mark Passion, from Jordi Savall and the Capella Reial de Catalunya.
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Recording of the Week,
Martyn Brabbins conducts Elgar's Caractacus 29th March 2019Martyn Brabbins conducts the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Orchestra of Opera North in a stirring new recording of Elgar's rarely-performed cantata, Caractacus.
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Recording of the Week,
Donizetti's L'Ange de Nisida 22nd March 2019Sir 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.
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Recording of the Week,
Isabelle Faust plays Bach Concertos 15th March 2019The 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.
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Recording of the Week,
Philippe Jaroussky sings Cavalli 8th March 2019The 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.
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Recording of the Week,
Franck and Vierne from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien 1st March 2019The Russian violinist and French pianist bring a refreshing clarity and delicacy to two sonatas written for the Belgian composer-violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.
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Recording of the Week,
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich cycle with Symphonies 6 & 7 22nd February 2019Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich series with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with thrillingly detailed accounts of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies.
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Recording of the Week,
Paul Lewis plays early Schubert and Weber 15th February 2019The British pianist radiates sympathy and imagination in two piano sonatas from the 1810s by young composers who both died before their fortieth birthdays.
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Recording of the Week,
Kirill Karabits conducts the world premiere of Liszt's Sardanapalo 8th February 2019Reconstructed 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'.
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Recording of the Week,
Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen perform cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky 1st February 2019The 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.
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Recording of the Week,
Maurizio Pollini performs late piano works by Chopin 25th January 2019The 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.
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Recording of the Week,
Berlioz from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles 18th January 2019Tabea Zimmermann and Stéphane Degout are the soloists in period-instrument performances of Harold en Italie & Les nuits d'été.
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Recording of the Week,
Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch from Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch 11th January 2019The 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.