Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
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Recording of the Week,
Haydn from Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker 19th March 2012
Chris applauds the ‘knowledge and sound musical instincts’ on show from the German conductor on this sixteenth volume of his Haydn symphonies cycle on Hänssler, which features Symphonies nos. 90 and 92 (the ‘Oxford’).
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Recording of the Week,
Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte 12th March 2012
Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.
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Recording of the Week,
Brahms choral discs from Gardiner and Herreweghe 5th March 2012
Gardiner follows his recording of the complete symphonies with an account of the Deutsches Requiem that scores highly on textual clarity, whilst Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent offer luminous performances of the Alto Rhapsody (with Ann Hallenberg as soloist) and Schicksalsied.
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Recording of the Week,
Vivaldi: Sacred vocal works and concertos 27th February 2012
Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas joins the baroque ensemble Florilegium for Laudate pueri and Nulla in mundo, whilst the group’s founder Ashley Solomon takes centre-stage in the recently-rediscovered flute concerto Il Gran Mogol (receiving only its second outing on record here).
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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,
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,
Alison Balsom 6th February 2012
The British trumpeter’s new album Seraph takes its title from a new concertino composed for her by James MacMillan in 2010, and also includes music by Arutiunian, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Takemitsu.
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Recording of the Week,
Britten Violin Concerto 30th January 2012
Anthony Marwood’s rich, singing tone and the impressive precision of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov combine for a tremendously touching account of Britten’s underrated concerto, whilst violist Lawrence Power is equally moving in Lachrymae.
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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,
New Year’s Concert from Vienna 16th January 2012
Mariss Jansons presides over the celebrations for the second time in his career in a sparkling, imaginative-planned programme which includes two little nods to the forthcoming London Olympics as well as the perennial favourites by the Strauss Family, Ziehrer and Hellmesberger.
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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,
Fritz Kreisler 2nd January 2012
Chris enjoys two tributes to the violin virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler, who died fifty years ago this month: a 10-CD vintage collection entitled The Charming Maverick and Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, in which his own recordings sit alongside accounts of his music by an array of great modern violinists.
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Recording of the Week,
Two legendary performances 19th December 2011
Rostropovich’s legendary account of the Dvorak Cello Concerto from the 1968 Proms, and Václav Talich’s emotionally-charged 1939 performance of Smetana’s Má Vlast, given at the National Theatre in Prague shortly after the Nazis entered the city.
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Recording of the Week,
Maurizio Pollini plays Chopin 12th December 2011
In the run-up to the great Italian pianist’s 70th birthday, Testament release a very early recording of the Études Opp. 10 & 25 (recorded when Pollini was just 18), and Deutsche Grammophon issue his complete Chopin recordings from 1972 to 2008.
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Recording of the Week,
Christmas roundup 5th December 2011
Arthur Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël from Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic, Vaughan Williams from Derek Welton and Iain Burnside, traditional carols from St. John’s College Cambridge, and an eclectic retelling of the Christmas story courtesy of Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices.
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Recording of the Week,
Havergal Brian’s Gothic Symphony 28th November 2011
Hyperion release a live recording of the British composer’s gargantuan first symphony, captured at a rare performance at the BBC Proms this summer and featuring an orchestra of over 200 and a choir of 600!
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Recording of the Week,
Duetti da Camera: Philippe Jaroussky & Max Emanuel Cencic 21st November 2011
Two of today’s leading countertenors join forces with veteran baroque specialist William Christie for a programme of non-operatic secular duets by composers including Porpora, Mancini, Bononcini, Marcello, Conti, and Alessandro Scarlatti.
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Recording of the Week,
Bruckner and Mahler from Haitink and Pappano 14th November 2011
Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, whilst Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia tackle Mahler’s Sixth in their first-ever recording of the composer’s music together.
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Recording of the Week,
Haydn from the Takács Quartet 7th November 2011
For their fifth and sixth albums on Hyperion, the award-winning quartet tackle Haydn’s Opp. 71 and 74, recorded at Wyastone Estate Concert Hall in Monmouth, South Wales last November and showcasing their rich, rounded sounded and clarity of texture to great effect.
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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.
