Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
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Recording of the Week,
Wagner from Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra 24th June 2013
Wonderfully balanced and beautifully characterised accounts of the Overture to Die Meistersinger, the Siegfried Idyll and three excerpts from Götterdämmerung, including an Immolation Scene of laser-sharp accuracy and thrilling power from Petra Lang.
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Recording of the Week,
The Complete Works of Pierre Boulez on Deutsche Grammophon 17th June 2013
Assembled under the composer’s personal supervision (and featuring many of his own recordings with Ensemble InterContemporain), this 13-CD collection includes several works which have not previously appeared on CD and features fearless pianism from Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Maurizio Pollini.
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Recording of the Week,
Neeme Järvi conducts Richard Strauss’s ballet, Josephslegende 10th June 2013
Strauss himself may have spoke slightingly of this work (commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1914), but Chris is won over by the range and combinations of orchestral colours, and Järvi’s carefully calculated tempos and tempo relationships.
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Recording of the Week,
Valery Gergiev and the LSO begin a cycle of Szymanowski symphonies 3rd June 2013
The richness of the London Symphony Orchestra’s string section is showcased to great effect in the tender, lyrical slow movements of both symphonies, whilst Gergiev responds to the music’s more volatile moments extremely well.
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Recording of the Week,
100th anniversary of the première of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring 27th May 2013
The centenary of one of the most controversial premieres in musical history is marked by a new recording from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and a mammoth Collector’s Edition comprising 38 recordings dating from 1946 to 2010.
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Recording of the Week,
Cecilia Bartoli sings Bellini’s Norma 20th May 2013
Giovanni Antonini recreates Bellini’s masterpiece as it would have been heard at its 1831 premiere, with period instruments, a light soprano Adalgisa, and a high mezzo in the formidable title-role – Bartoli, radiating neurotic intensity and raw pathos as the infanticidal Druid priestess.
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Recording of the Week,
Martha Argerich and Friends Live from Lugano 13th May 2013
Highlights from the pianist’s month-long annual festival in southern Switzerland include Mozart with Maria João Pires, Schumann with Gautier Capuçon, Brahms with Nicholas Angelich, and piano quartets by Mahler and Dvořák.
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Recording of the Week,
Weber's Der Freischütz from Sir Colin Davis and the LSO 6th May 2013
Fresh, full-bodied and raucous when required, the conductor’s final opera recording is a fitting valedictory tribute to a great man, with Christine Brewer on sublime form as Agathe and Simon O’Neill a steely and secure Max.
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Recording of the Week,
Ian Bostridge sings Britten songs 29th April 2013
The tenor brings formidable musical intelligence to the Michelangelo Sonnets, Who are these children?, Winter Words and the Hölderlin Fragments (with Antonio Pappano), and is joined by guitarist Xuefei Yang for Songs from the Chinese.
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Recording of the Week,
Pappano conducts Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle 22nd April 2013
So theatrical that you can practically smell the greasepaint, Rossini’s ‘old man’s folly’ receives luxury treatment from the conductor and his Roman orchestra, with Marina Rebeka, Sara Mingardo, Francesco Meli and Alex Esposito making up a full-blooded operatic solo quartet.
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Recording of the Week,
Bach Cantatas from Sir John Eliot Gardiner 8th April 2013
As a coda to his mighty Bach Pilgrimage, Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir present the Ascension Cantatas, which were originally scheduled to be recorded as part of the project but had to be abandoned due to noise issues.
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Recording of the Week,
Julia Lezhneva: Alleluia 1st April 2013
The young Russian soprano makes her solo debut on Decca with cantatas by Handel, Mozart, Porpora and Vivaldi which showcase her scintillating coloratura, tonal clarity and warmth, and radiant middle register; Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini accompany with panache.
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Recording of the Week,
Moeran Cello Concerto from Guy Johnston 25th March 2013
Eloquent yet never saccharine, the British cellist is a wonderful ambassador for Moeran’s 1945 concerto, written for his wife-to-be Peers Coetmore and shot through with glimpses of Britten, Vaughan Williams and Walton.
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Recording of the Week,
Salonen conducts Lutosławski Symphonies 18th March 2013
The Finnish conductor and his Los Angeles orchestra mark the centenary of Lutosławski’s birth with a recording of his complete symphonies in performances which tap into the full range of exciting colours which the composer employs.
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Recording of the Week,
Mahler and Berg from Boulez 11th March 2013
Anna Prohaska is on mesmerising form in Berg’s Lulu-Suite, whilst the veteran conductor’s trademark attention to detail and balance pays huge dividends in Mahler’s early cantata Das klagende Lied, featuring outstanding contributions from Johan Botha, Anna Larsson and Dorothea Röschmann.
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Recording of the Week,
Gesualdo - Sacred and Secular 4th March 2013
James Wood directs Vocalconsort berlin in the second book of Sacrae Cantiones, whilst La Compagnia del Madrigale are on flamboyant form in the Sixth Book of Madrigals – dark, disorientating works which could scarcely be more different from their English counterparts.
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Recording of the Week,
Vaughan Williams from the Hallé and Mark Elder 25th February 2013
Following a splendid London Symphony last year, Elder and his Manchester orchestra continue a cycle which is shaping up to be one of the finest modern sets on disc with magnificent accounts of the Fifth and Eighth symphonies, with the Hallé’s horns emerging as first among equals.
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Recording of the Week,
JS Bach: St John Passion from Polyphony and Layton 18th February 2013
The crowd-scenes crackle with terrifying energy and Ian Bostridge’s volatile Evangelist brings great narrative momentum, whilst Iestyn Davies and Richard Tunnicliffe’s eloquence in ‘Es ist vollbracht’ is worth the price of the set alone.
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Recording of the Week,
Wagner from Jonas Kaufmann and others 11th February 2013
Gergiev conducts an electrifying Walküre starring René Pape as Wotan, Nina Stemme as his rebel daughter, and Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Kampe as the Walsung Twins; Kaufmann’s solo album of opera scenes and the Wesendock-Lieder, meanwhile, is the best thing he’s ever done.
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Recording of the Week,
Elgar & Carter from Alisa Weilerstein 4th February 2013
The American cellist worked closely with Carter (who died last year) whilst preparing his 2001 Cello Concerto, and brings a touching elegiac lyricism to the Japanese-influenced slow movement; her introverted and tender account of the Elgar is no less engaging.
