BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - February 2022 Choices
Alexandre Kantorow's 'romantic and impassioned' account of Brahms's Piano Sonata No. 3 (plus the Four Ballades and left-hand transcription of the Bach Chaconne from the Violin Partita No. 2) takes the top honours in next month's edition, with reviewer Erik Levi ranking the young French pianist's interpretation alongside those by 'formidable rivals' Murray Perahia and Nelson Freire.
Other Choices include Lise Davidsen and Leif Ove Andsnes's 'glorious feast' of Grieg on Decca (which was one of our January Recordings of the Month), Jeanne Candel’s 'cheeky yet sensitive' staging of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (with Reinoud Van Mechelen and Elsa Benoit in the title-roles) from the Opéra Comique, and James Ehnes's second complete set of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas - which, like his recent superb album of the Ysaÿe solo sonatas, was self-recorded at his home in Florida in the early hours of the morning during lockdown.
Recording of the Month
'An absorbing interpretation that revels in the quasi-symphonic dimensions of Brahms’s piano writing and allows the musical argument to unfold with the maximum degree of spaciousness. Above all, there’s a tremendous depth and beauty of tone to Kantorow’s playing, amply supported by a wonderfully warm recording.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
'Without being notably faster than the majority of contemporary accounts, this performance is much more flexible, less cumbersome, more of an experience and of a monument...Played and conducted like this, the work’s unity becomes much clearer, and it emerges, at least for me, as the greatest of all symphonies.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
'The menu is attractive. Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat sets a suitably dark-coloured palette for this context...This performance is intimately voiced, texturally clear and eloquently and lovingly articulated...The intimacy of the Sixth Brandenburg is preserved [in Telemann's Ouverture-Suite in D] by the softly spoken voice of the gamba and Rainer Zipperling’s solo playing is expressive.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Opera Choice
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie
Reinoud Van Mechelen (Hippolyte), Elsa Benoit (Aricie), Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (Phèdre), Stéphane Degout (Thésée); Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
'Here’s a captivating, glorious performance, complemented by Jeanne Candel’s cheeky yet sensitive stage direction brought home through innovative cinematography...Raphaël Pichon aids plot coherence by joining up solo verse lines in unexpected ways and licensing instrumental interventions in the action.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Choral & Song Choice
'This is the outstanding Lise Davidsen recording many of us who’ve experienced the phenomenon live have been waiting for...The partnership with Leif Ove Andsnes doubles the pleasure...Grieg’s songs are in the bloodstream; the full range up to that glorious and still-focused upper register is complemented here by word colouring and vivid dramatisation.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber Choice
'Ghosts haunt all three piano trios in this well-planned triptych...the rich but never over-resonant acoustic of the Royal Danish Academy of Music gives space to each player's special beauty of tone...While I’ve heard performances of Arensky’s work before which didn’t engrave it on the memory, the Copenhagen trio truly make it live. I won’t forget this disc.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
'Among the finest and most versatile of today’s violinists, James Ehnes’s approach to these demanding works matches a superb command of form with an expressive richness in interpretative detail, not least in the Second Partita’s famous concluding Chaconne...overall these excellently-recorded performances are among the finest available.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jazz Choice
'The intriguing thing is that there’s a genuine jazz sensibility at work here, but conveyed as if by a hypnotist’s power of suggestion rather than by forthright assertion. This set of short, aphoristic pieces will delight anyone already familiar with her work and fascinate willing and receptive newcomers.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
