Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - Awards Issue 2016
It's fair to say that this month's Choices are even more eclectic than usual - ranging from reconstructed Mahler (with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard) to an upper-voices Stabat Mater by David Bednall; from Florian Boesch's performance of lieder by Křenek and Zemlinsky to a celebration of the music of the Russian Orthodox church!
John Wilson's second volume of orchestral Copland also makes the cut, alongside Pavel Kolesnikov's Chopin Mazurkas and Fiona Shaw's acclaimed conception of Britten's Rape of Lucretia.
Recording of the Month
'I can’t remember hearing a more turbulent and propulsive rendition, nor one that does so much to address the string-heavy bias of the Cooke realisation...This exceptional issue from the Pacific Northwest ought to be a game-changer for all concerned.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Editor's Choices
Copland: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 - Symphonies
Jonathan Scott (organ), BBC Philharmonic, John Wilson
'Copland made a strong case for [the Orchestral Variations] in his 1968 recording but Wilson’s version is even finer, and the recording is of demonstration quality. An outstanding release.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Playing a bright German-style harpsichord with quick decay but plenty of colour and depth, Hantaï shows what can be achieved by a virtuoso who commands perfect technical control...with Scarlatti, there’s almost always something that can excite, surprise or beguile. In the hands of this top-level interpreter of his works, they never fail.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Throughout, the Parker’s reactivity makes for the most engaging music-making...The immediacy of the Parker’s playing is matched by the immediacy of sound and altogether this is a delectable addition to the Mendelssohn quartet discography.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
'It would be fair to say that Boesch has done nothing finer on disc. This is exceptional Lieder singing, fusing line, text and dynamics into an indivisible whole, all of it delivered with a conversational intimacy that is often breathtaking.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The work’s idiom is immediate and easily digested...The young choristers clearly relish the vividness of Bednall’s word-painting. This significant addition will surely be taken up by many of our other crack upper-voice choirs.'
Available Format: CD
'There’s the shadow of Beethoven. (Isn’t there always?) in Dean’s Testament (2008)...Like everything else here, it’s dispatched with breathtaking ease by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'I know of no other pianist who combines attention to the smallest detail with such nobility of phrase and cohesive sweep of the dance as a whole. The engineers have captured Kolesnikov’s sound – silvery, deeply resonant – perfectly...for me these performances are the most beautiful and strikingly original I’ve heard.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Goldmark: Die Königen von Saba
Jin Seok Lee, Irma Mihelič, Nuttaporn Thammathi, Kevin Moreno; Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, Fabrice Bollon
'subtlety in music that can turn bombastic if insensitively handled; orchestral refinement and a refusal to indulge in melodrama or crude effects; and singing of great authority from a uniformly fine, if unfamiliar cast, who more than adequately meet the score’s challenges.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC
'This is an astounding recording, on account of both the repertoire selected and the quality of the singing...Performances throughout are of the highest standard and my only reservation would be a slight excess of vibrato in the upper voices from time to time. This is a revelatory disc, by any standards.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Christine Rice, Allan Clayton, Kate Royal, Duncan Rock, Matthew Rose, Michael Sumuel, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Louise Alder; Glyndebourne, Fiona Shaw
'It’s beautifully acted and sung. Rice wrings your heart throughout...Rock, lethally handsome, superbly captures the violence beneath Tarquinius’s surface charm...Lyrical yet incisive in his approach, conductor Leo Hussain gets finely detailed playing from his LPO instrumentalists.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Christine Rice, Allan Clayton, Kate Royal, Duncan Rock, Matthew Rose, Michael Sumuel, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Louise Alder; Glyndebourne, Fiona Shaw
'It’s beautifully acted and sung. Rice wrings your heart throughout...Rock, lethally handsome, superbly captures the violence beneath Tarquinius’s surface charm...Lyrical yet incisive in his approach, conductor Leo Hussain gets finely detailed playing from his LPO instrumentalists.'
Available Format: Blu-ray
Re-issue of the Month
'Sokolov’s voicing of textures throughout the sonata is a marvel in itself. But it is the 1975 slow movement above all that has the stamp of mastery of a Gilelsian order. Sokolov may only have been 25 at the time and not everything in his performance feels fully mature...but there is certainly a massive self-belief and artistic presence here.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
