BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - August 2017 Choices
Two outstanding baroque divas feature this month, with Carolyn Sampson's luminous accounts of three cantatas from Bach's Weimar period on Harmonia Mundi scooping Recording of the Month, and French-Canadian mezzo Julie Boulianne's gallery of heroes and heroines from Vivaldi and Handel operas also mentioned in despatches. There's also the latest instalment (and, in our collective opinion, a particularly charming one!) in Hyperion's hugely popular Romantic Piano Concerto series, focusing on the music of the British composer Cipriani Potter, and a real labour of love from Fugue State Films in the form of a 6-DVD collection of performances and a documentary celebrating the life and works of Max Reger.
Recording of the Month
JS Bach: Cantatas for Soprano
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Freiburger Barockorchester, Petra Müllejans
'Here are performances...to treasure for a lifetime...Sampson conveys a beguiling innocence, enlivening Bach's vernal masterpiece with affective ornaments, lightly articulated declamation and a carefully controlled vibrato. Tempos are justly chosen and the appropriately resonant importance given to the basso continuo provides icing on this most delicious of cakes.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
'The performances throughout by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Gustavo Gimeno are excellent, highly polished yet full of subtle nuance, wit and spirit, beautifully captured in SACD sound...Gimeno and his players reveal all the sharp contrasts of [The People's Will], ranging from eerie Ives-like sustained strings to the quirky concluding waltz.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
The Romantic Piano Concerto 72 - Cipriani Potter
Howard Shelley (piano & conductor), Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
'[Potter's concertos] are conservative in style, but distinctively coloured through their prominent use of wind instruments, as well as occasional passages for solo violin and cello...The warmth and fluency of Howard Shelley's playing present the music in the strongest possible light...[The Variations] couple glittering virtuosity with wit and inventiveness.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
'Boulianne navigates the stormy seas with terrific bravura and agility. Her androgynous voice - voluptuous in its upper reaches, reedy as a countertenor in its lower register - is perfect for a breeches role like Sesto in Giulio Cesare and, of course, for the various arias here written for castratos...Ensemble playing is slick, and the recording...is luscious and detailed.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
Chamber Choice
'Here's another enlightened programme from the young German Schumann Quartet...Haydn's Sunrise is freshly radiant in their hands, the Menuett almost swung with an elastic rhythmic bounce, the Finale a rollercoaster of surprises...[In the Bartók] the Moderato's contrapuntal conversation is exquisitely voiced and sung, underpinned by cellist Mark Schumann's deeply refined artistry.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
