BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - August 2023 Choices
Category Choices include Alpesh Chauhan's 'spellbinding' set of Tchaikovsky fantasies with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on Chandos, an exceptional Walton and Respighi coupling from Bulgarian-born violinist Liya Petrova on Mirare, and a 'ravishing, hilarious and profound' account of Handel's Serse from Harry Bicket and The English Concert (starring Emily D'Angelo in the title-role, Lucy Crowe as Romilda, and Mary Bevan as Atalanta).
Recording of the Month
Florence Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement & Symphony No. 1
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano), Chineke!, Leslie Suganandarajah, Roderick Cox
'Under Roderick Cox, the orchestra gives a high-octane account [of the Symphony] with a wealth of drama and excitement and a palpable sense of mission...[Kanneh-Mason] performs [the Concerto] straight from the heart, with care, sparkle and self-possession, sympathetically partnered by the orchestra under Leslie Suganandarajah.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
'Alpesh Chauhan evidently has a tremendous flair for Tchaikovsky. Supported by stunningly responsive playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, his interpretations brilliantly project the music’s theatrical excitement as well as its subtle and sophisticated orchestration.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
![Momentum [1]: Walton, Respighi](https://d1iiivw74516uk.cloudfront.net/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwcmVzdG8tY292ZXItaW1hZ2VzIiwia2V5IjoiOTQ3ODQ0OC4xLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6MjAwfSwianBlZyI6eyJxdWFsaXR5Ijo2NX0sInRvRm9ybWF0IjoianBlZyJ9LCJ0aW1lc3RhbXAiOjE2ODEzMzMwNjF9)
Momentum [1]: Walton, Respighi
Liya Petrova (violin), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Duncan Ward, Adam Laloum (piano)
'Liya Petrova’s new recording of Walton’s Violin Concerto grips you from the outset. Her phrasing of the opening material ideally combines singing tone with subtle inflections of pulse and dynamic, the phrasing supple and pleasingly coherent...Both these performances mark Petrova out as an exceptional talent.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
Handel: Serse
Emily D’Angelo (Serse), Lucy Crowe (Romilda), Paula Murrihy (Arsamene), Mary Bevan (Atalanta), Daniela Mack (Amastre), Ariodate (Neal Davies), William Dazeley (Elviro); The English Concert, Harry Bicket
'With his ravishing, hilarious and profound recording of Serse, conductor Harry Bicket once again puts all rivals in the shade...The suave assurance of Bicket and the English Concert is expressed in gracious tempos, translucent textures and poetic continuo realisations, which also send up the emotional incontinence of the characters on stage.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
''Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child' fizzes with urgency...and quickly establishes Mobley's extraordinary vocal flair...For all its beauty, the album also feels like a call to action. The horrors of racial violence cannot be separated from this repertoire, and a sense of urgent injustice is brought home by these performances of dignity and power.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber Choice
'In the right hands, [the Trio] can be both inspiring and rewarding; luckily, the Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch Trio are just that. Their passionate engagement with the work ’s stirring rhetoric is evident throughout and the flexibility of their approach avoids the rather effortful stiffness that mars a number of available recordings.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Instrumental Choice
'Julian Perkins has chosen an eclectic variety of pieces ranging from the first half of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century. New to my ears was a Capriccio by Wolfgang Ebner, whose dance-like character makes it, in Perkins’s words, ‘a great opener’...A fascinating release, thoughtfully assembled and stylishly played.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
World Choice
'This new music pulses with hypnotic polyrhythms, largely courtesy of long-term collaborator Mamadou Sarr and is given a bright electro-acoustic sound by returning Swedish producer and multi-instrumentalist Johan Karlberg. Maal still sings exclusively in his first language of Pulaar, urging his people to honour tradition while dealing with new technology.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
