Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - November 2014
Two mega-watt mezzos are amongst the crème de la crème this month, both flying the flag for previously unrecorded repertoire: Joyce DiDonato explores rare bel canto arias with Stella di Napoli on Erato, whilst Cecilia Bartoli mines the Mariinsky archives for St Petersburg: The Russian Album on Decca.
Riccardo Chailly's Mahler Five with the Gewandhausorchester takes the DVD/Blu-ray prize, whilst Re-issue of the Month goes to Murray Perahia's Chopin on Sony.
As it happens, we've run exclusive artist-interviews for three of the other chosen discs this month: read about Alessio Bax's Beethoven project here, Arcangelo's new Bach Mass in B minor here and Lawrence Zazzo's A Royal Trio here.
Here's the list in full, with a snippet of the review for each title. To read the full reviews as well as loads of other interesting features are articles every month be sure to check out Gramophone Subscriptions Packages.
Recording of the Month
Editor's Choices
'He subdues his legendary, transcendent technique to convey Debussy's very essence with a surpassing ease and naturalness....Hamelin's glistening sonority is flawlessly captured by the Hyperion team. This is a disc to treasure.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'I enjoyed this snapshot of London's operatic life almost without reservation. Zazzo and the players - not least the fabulous horns - have all the boldness and virtuoso panache one could wish for in the extrovert arias.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Anyone expecting...a diet of thin, phoned-in Neapolitan fare will be in for a surprise...There is rich music here, and dramatic too...Bartoli, as ever, is in complete technical command of this music...The playing of I Barocchisti...is brilliant, surging, ardent.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Stella di Napoli Bel Canto Arias
Joyce DiDonato, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon, Riccardo Minasi
'The finale of Zelmira provides DiDonato with the opportunity of showing off her brilliantly executed coloratura, while her mezza voce at the start of Romeo's farewell to the supposedly dead Juliet in Bellini's opera is sustained to perfection.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Hill maintains a compelling life and forward momentum in Howells's immensely contrapuntal score...The Bach Choir has a palpable vibrancy in its range and layers of dynamics which are complemented by the extensive and highly sensitive palette of Howells's orchestra.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'a reading of a formidable pace and impetus yet leaving ample time for expressive resource...this performance stands its ground in music to test the technique and intellect of even the greatest pianists...Bax is clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
'Cohen's rejection of the generic, within a grand and ravishing overview, is what propels an overwhelming sense here that this reading deserves to be taken very seriously...The work infrequently speaks with such gracefulness, freedom or conviction.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Bells of Dawn: Russian Sacred and Folk Songs
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, The Grand Choir ‘Masters of Choral Singing’, Lev Kontorovich
'The singing here...is more sophisticated than you might expect to hear in your average Russian church on a Sunday morning...In the characteristically lush harmonies of Pavel Chesnokov's anthems, Hvorostovsky strikes a note of artless sincerity...[in the Varlamov song] he is equally in his element.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Such is Bell's particular brand of ease with which he mixes traditional sensibility with the lighter articulations and gestures of recent tastes that one is instantly spellbound...the conception is original and exceptionally executed with searing and soaring artistic intent.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
'Chailly takes us on a journey from darkness to light...He's a pleasure to watch, being neither over-demonstrative nor affectedly matter-of-fact. He looks like what he's conducting and one sense that the orchestra agrees.'
Available Format: DVD Video
'Chailly takes us on a journey from darkness to light...He's a pleasure to watch, being neither over-demonstrative nor affectedly matter-of-fact. He looks like what he's conducting and one sense that the orchestra agrees.'
Available Format: Blu-ray
Reissue of the Month
'From Perahia there is order and lucidity at the heart of even Chopin's most audacious fire-storms and...you are made more aware than ever of an incomparable mix of poetry and precision.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
