Classical Reviews
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Tchaikovsky’s Early Symphonies
17th Sep 2012
Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra makes hugely persuasive cases for Tchaikovsky’s neglected first three symphonies, Winter Daydreams, the ‘Little Russian’ and the ‘Polish’, in live performances given in London and Zurich last spring.
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Mozart’s Don Giovanni
10th Sep 2012
Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s project cycle of Mozart’s major operas on Deutsche Grammophon gets off to a scintillating start with a starrily-cast take on ’Il dissoluto punito’, with Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as the eponymous libertine, and Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato as Anna and Elvira.
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Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Don Giovanni), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello), Diana Damrau (Donna Anna), Joyce DiDonato (Donna Elvira), Rolando Villazón (Don Ottavio), Mojca Erdmann (Zerlina), Konstantin Wolff (Masetto), Vitalij Kowaljow (Commendatore) Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
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Stephen Hough's French Album
3rd Sep 2012
The British pianist’s ‘musical dessert-trolley’ includes popular favourites by Ravel, Debussy and Bach-via-Cortot, curiosities by Chabrier, Alkan and Chaminade, and his own transcriptions of bonbons by Massenet and Delibes.
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Stephen Hough's French Album
Stephen Hough (piano)
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Mendelssohn's Elijah from McCreesh
27th Aug 2012
A super-sized, historically-aware account of Mendelssohn’s Old Testament oratorio (with Simon Keenlyside offering a nuanced portrayal of the irascible prophet) sets a new benchmark for this oft-recorded work, with an orchestra of almost 100 and a choir of over 300!
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Carmen from Berlin with Kaufmann and Kožená
20th Aug 2012
The light-voiced Czech mezzo and heavyweight German tenor are an appropriately chalk-and-cheese pairing as the free-spirited gypsy and her obsessive soldier lover, with Kožená’s husband Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance which emphasises the score’s opéra comique pedigree.
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Mahler Symphony No. 1 from Iván Fischer
13th Aug 2012
The Hungarian conductor and his Budapest orchestra bring a wonderfully rustic, unrefined flavour to Mahler’s völkisch central movements, in an interpretation which benefits from Fischer’s ear for balance and attention to the smallest details of orchestration.
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Rhapsody in Blue – Grosvenor and Kempf
6th Aug 2012
Two former BBC Young Musician of the Year prize-winners record Gershwin’s best-known work – Kempf as part of an all-Gershwin programme, Grosvenor alongside Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2.
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Hans Rott’s First Symphony
30th Jul 2012
Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra make a great case for the sole symphony by a composer who was described by his friend Gustav Mahler as ‘the founder of the new symphony as I understand it.’
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L’Olimpiade: The Opera
23rd Jul 2012
The Venice Baroque Orchestra and a fine line-up of singers present a pasticcio setting of a libretto by Metastasio, with contributions from composers including Caldara, Vivaldi, Galuppi, Hasse and Paisiello.
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Holst and Delius on Naxos
16th Jul 2012
JoAnn Falletta conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Holst’s Cotswolds Symphony, and David Hill directs Delius’s Nietzsche-inspired Mass for Life with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
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Richard Strauss round-up
9th Jul 2012
Elektra from Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, Die Frau ohne Schatten from the 2011 Salzburg Festival, and the Four Last Songs from Anne Schwanewilms.
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New Shostakovich discovery - Orango
2nd Jul 2012
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the world premiere recording of an embryonic opera which Shostakovivch abandoned partway through the Prologue, fleshed out and orchestrated here by Gerard McBurney.
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Vivaldi from Rachel Podger
25th Jun 2012
Following her Gramophone Award-winning recording of La stravaganza in 2003, the British baroque violinist tackles La cetra with Holland Baroque Society.
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Two terrific Italian Renaissance reconstructions
18th Jun 2012
A new Venetian Coronation from Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, and a reconstruction of a typical Italian Vespers programme from circa 1612 from Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini.
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Shostakovich Symphonies from Petrenko and the RLPO
11th Jun 2012
The seventh instalment of the Russian conductor’s acclaimed Shostakovich cycle finds his Liverpool orchestra on top form in the Second and Fifteenth Symphonies.
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Bach's St Matthew Passion
4th Jun 2012
Peter Sellars’s ‘ritualization’ of the work with Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker packs a powerful punch, thanks in no small part to Mark Padmore’s harrowing central performance as the Evangelist.
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Bruckner Symphonies from Rattle and Barenboim
28th May 2012
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in the Seventh Symphony, whilst Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker tackle the Ninth.
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Handel in England
14th May 2012
The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort record Esther, Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company make a fine case for the incidental music for Smollett’s Alceste, and a legendary Glyndebourne Theodora makes its first appearance on CD.
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Handel: Esther
Susan Hamilton (Esther), Nicholas Mulroy (Mordecai), Matthew Brook (Haman), Thomas Hobbs (1st Israelite), Robin Blaze (Priest), James Gilchrist (Habdonah / Assuerus) & Electra Lochhead (Israelite Boy), Nicholas Wearne (organ continuo) Dunedin Consort, John Butt
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Britten: War Requiem
7th May 2012
Gianandrea Noseda leads an Italianate performance of Britten’s great depiction of ‘the pity of war’, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Sabina Cvilak, Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside.
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Hamilton Harty’s Chamber Music
30th Apr 2012
The Goldner String Quartet and Piers Lane bring out all the charm and flamboyance of the Irish composer’s two string quartets and piano quintet, dating from the early 1900s and composed shortly after Harty relocated to London.
