BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - July 2023 Choices
Category choices include a 'vivid' world premiere recording of Mercadante's Scottish melodrama Il Proscritto from Carlo Rizzi and company on Opera Rara, Alexander Melnikov's septet of keyboard fantasies on seven period-appropriate instruments for Harmonia Mundi, and a warm and witty trio of Beethoven violin sonatas from Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon on Avi Music.
Recording of the Month
'The emphasis here is on beautifully judged line and flow, allowing the music's expressive extremes to speak for themselves without any need for exaggeration…This is one of those special listening experiences where the world afterwards is a different place.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Choice
'Albrecht’s players establish a magical silkiness in the Prelude, delicately reflect Isolde’s arousal after the horn call in Act II and create a hallucinatory momentum for the lovers’ mounting excitement until they are struck dumb by the arrival of King Mark.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto Choice
Bacewicz: Concertos for 1 & 2 Pianos, Overture & Music for Strings, Trumpets & Percussion
Peter Jablonski and Elisabeth Brauß (piano), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
'The Piano Concerto (1949) might well appeal to those who enjoy Prokofiev and Bartók, though its sweep, energy and internal logic are entirely Bacewicz’s own. Peter Jablonski, whose recording of the composer’s solo piano works was shortlisted for a BBC Music Magazine Award, is the excellent soloist.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera Choice
Mercadante: Il Proscritto
Ramón Vargas (Giorgio Argyll), Irene Roberts (Malvina Douglas), Elizabeth DeShong (Odoardo Douglas), Sally Matthews (Anna Ruthven), Iván Ayón-Rivas (Rodrigo), Goderdzi Janelidze (Guglielmo Ruthven); Britten Sinfonia, Opera Rara Chorus, Carlo Rizzi
'Mercadante cocks an intelligent ear in the direction of a young Verdi. However, Mercadante is no faithful follower of fashion, as Carlo Rizzi, who rediscovered the opera in the Naples Conservatory archives, demonstrates in a vivid performance...Mercadante wrote for a stellar cast, and Opera Rara field fine singers too.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral & Song Choice
'Christopher Purves sings magnificently, spinning an enviable thread of legato through the narrative of each song. A consummate actor, too, with commanding diction, he invariably finds a distinctive colour and tone…Simon Lepper is a hand-in-glove partner throughout.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Chamber Choice
'Humour, wit, playfulness – they all explode into life in the artful hands of Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon. Granted, the playfulness can be more tiger-like than kittenish (or even devilish in the first movement of the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata), but there’s a delicate touch as well.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental Choice
Fantasie: Seven Composers, Seven Keyboards
Alexander Melnikov (harpsichord/fortepiano/tangent piano/piano)
'Contextualised so strongly and imaginatively, the modern grand emerges simply as the latest development of many – equal yet not superior to its predecessors. While reaching for increased power and brightness, it yields to older models for subtlety, colour and character. Melnikov does justice to them all.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jazz Choice
'All the compositions are heartfelt and honest, as are the performances, not least by pianist Rebecca Nash whose crisp, elegant work I first heard when she was playing and arranging for the fine singer Sara Colman.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
