Classical Reviews
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Vasily Petrenko and the RPO hear the chimes at midnight
14th Nov 2025
An unlikely-looking diptych of Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Elgar's Falstaff puts the RPO and chorus through their paces; Vasily Petrenko brings to the surface the common ground the two works share.
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Walton's Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1 from John Wilson and Sinfonia of London
7th Nov 2025
John Wilson and Sinfonia of London continue their survey of the orchestral works of William Walton, combining a compelling, mesmerising account of the Cello Concerto (featuring Jonathan Aasgaard as soloist) with an impressively detailed, thrilling performance of Symphony No. 1.
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In Spain (and elsewhere) with the RLPO
31st Oct 2025
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic present two contrasting albums - Spain viewed through rose-tinted French glasses, and some rarely-heard masterpieces of pastoral English Romanticism.
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Gelosia from Philippe Jaroussky and Artaserse
24th Oct 2025
The French countertenor does battle with the green-eyed monster in a programme of secular Italian cantatas, featuring two popular examples by Handel and Vivaldi, one relative rarity by Alessandro Scarlatti, and world premiere recordings of works by Porpora and Galuppi.
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Véronique Gens and Offenbach's Divas
17th Oct 2025
The great tragédienne lets her hair down in a sparkling programme of excerpts from Offenbach's comic operas, including La belle Hélène, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and La Périchole.
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Bracing Brahms from Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon
10th Oct 2025
A fresh new recording of Brahms's quasi-sacred masterwork combines hints of past approaches - both the luxuriant and the austere - for an overall impression that's clear and light but deep and profound when it counts.
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Tchaikovsky from Daniil Trifonov
3rd Oct 2025
The Russian pianist combines deft dexterity with a vivid musical imagination across a programme which includes Album for the Young and Mikhail Pletnev's transcription of The Sleeping Beauty Suite.
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Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady from John Wilson and Sinfonia of London
26th Sep 2025
Jamie Parker and Scarlett Strallen head a luxury cast on this luscious recording of the Pygmalion-inspired 1956 musical about an irascible phonetician who gives a Cockney flower-girl a socio-linguistic makeover.
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Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady
Scarlett Strallen (Eliza Doolittle), Jamie Parker (Henry Higgins), Alun Armstrong (Alfred P. Doolittle), Malcolm Sinclair (Colonel Pickering), Laurence Kilsby (Freddy Eynsford-Hill), Julia McKenzie (Mrs Pearce), Penelope Wilton (Mrs Higgins) Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
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The Pavel Haas Quartet perform string quartets by Martinů
19th Sep 2025
Three years on from their previous recording of music by Brahms, the Czech quartet returns with a stunningly virtuosic album of four string quartets by their compatriot Bohuslav Martinů, showcasing an enormous dynamic range combined with an impressive precision and unanimity of purpose.
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Martinů: String Quartets 2-3-5-7
Pavel Haas Quartet
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The Kanneh-Masons' River of Music
12th Sep 2025
The seven Kanneh-Mason siblings come together to celebrate their origins and the 'river of music' that has run through the generations of their family, in a selection of music which pays homage to their West African and Welsh roots, as well as the classical tradition in which they have grown together as musicians.
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River of Music
Braimah Kanneh-Mason (violin), Konya Kanneh-Mason (violin, piano), Aminata Kanneh-Mason (violin), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Mariatu Kanneh-Mason (cello), Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano), Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano), Edgar Francis (viola), Toby Hughes (doublebass), The Kanneh-Masons
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Jonas Kaufmann's Doppelgänger
5th Sep 2025
The German tenor and his regular recital-partner Helmut Deutsch are on peak form in these 2020 accounts of Schumann's Dichterliebe and Kerner-Lieder, supplemented by a glimpse of a very young Kaufmann in the former cycle (and, in the case of the physical product, a DVD of Claus Guth's extraordinary staging of Schubert's Schwanengesang).
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Purcell's Dido and Aeneas from Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d'Oro
29th Aug 2025
Nearly a decade after singing Didon and Énée in Berlioz's Les Troyens, Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres are reunited as the star-crossed lovers in Purcell's much more economical treatment of the same story, with a luxury supporting cast and colourful, imaginative playing from the Italian period instrument ensemble.
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The Seasons from Yunchan Lim
22nd Aug 2025
Yunchan Lim follows his award-winning debut with a colourful and imaginative recording of Tchaikovsky's best known work for solo piano, demonstrating fertile imagination and further dimensions to his pianism.
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Four Spirits from Abel Selaocoe
15th Aug 2025
The cello-centred multi-instrumentalist presents his genre-defying new concertante work, drawing on South African and Western classical musical lineages and with co-starring roles for percussion and voice.
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Sparks From Ashes
8th Aug 2025
Scottish tenor Nicky Spence and his husband Dylan Perez deliver wit, flair and pathos aplenty in song cycles by Antonín Dvořák, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Béla Bartók and Jaroslav Křička.
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Sparks From Ashes
Nicky Spence (tenor), Dylan Perez (piano)
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Orchestral transcriptions of Bach's organ works by Andrew Davis
1st Aug 2025
The late conductor demonstrates his love of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with a series of orchestral transcriptions of the composer’s organ works, the recording of which was completed by Martyn Brabbins after Davis’s death last year.
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David Atherton – Vienna: From Mozart to Schoenberg
30th Jul 2025
Our contemporary music guest-writer explores a 13-disc anthology of recordings from the London Sinfonietta, including the group's 1974 debut on Decca with Schoenberg's complete works for chamber ensemble.
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Steve Reich, Big and Small
25th Jul 2025
An EP of two new works by Steve Reich, a new live recording of Reich and Hisaishi, and a huge, delicious box-set of Reich on Nonesuch.
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Mozart's Clavichord from Alexander Gergelyfi and Georg Nigl
18th Jul 2025
The Austrian clavichordist and baritone explore a range of keyboard pieces, songs and arias on the soft-grained instrument where Mozart first conjured several of them into life in a remarkable recital recorded at the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg last spring.
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Orchestral Works by Grażyna Bacewicz
11th Jul 2025
Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra continue their survey of the orchestral works by the Polish composer, including Symphony No. 2, the Concerto for Large Symphony Orchestra, and the Piano Concerto with soloist Peter Donohoe.
