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BARTOK Violin Concerto, Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra. Barnabas Kelemen, Hugarian National Philharmonic Orchestra / Zoltan Kocsis. Hungaroton SACD
A warmly anticipated new release in the critically acclaimed Hungaroton Bartok series, featuring the award-winning conductor Zoltan Kocsis. The three works on this CD share an interesting peculiarity. For all three, Bartok composed an alternative ending (as he also did for the Concerto for Orchestra). Whilst concert practice in the past decades has come to prefer one or another of these alternatives, it is both unique and enlightening to listen to the different versions side by side.
Gramophone Editors Choice - October 2011 BBC Music Magazine Recommended - June 2011
RAVEL Piano Concerto DEBUSSY Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra MASSENET Valse Folle, Papillons blancs Papillons noirs, Eau courante, Eau dormante, Toccata. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, BBC Symphony Orchestra / Yan Pascal Tortelier. Chandos SACD
The exclusive Chandos artist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is a master of this repertoire. This is his second concerto recording for the label, after his survey of the complete piano concertos by Bartók (CHAN 10610) which was released in September to high acclaim and voted 'Orchestral Choice of the Month' by the magazine BBC Music. Bavouzet's complete recording of the piano music by Debussy also scooped awards from BBC Music and Gramophone, which wrote: 'This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.' On this new release, Bavouzet is accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier, a conductor steeped in the French tradition and utterly at home in this repertoire. The result is a totally idiomatic performance of these French masterpieces for piano and orchestra.
Gramophone Awards Finalist - October 2011 MDT Best Seller - November 2010
MAHLER Symphony No. 3 Mihoko Fujimura, Bamberger Symphoniker / Jonathan Nott. Tudor 2SACDs
Jonathan Nott has been the principal conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker since the year 2000 and this has been a very successful partnership
Gramophone Editors Choice - October 2011 BBC Music Magazine Recommended - October 2011
DONIZETTI Linda di Chamounix. Eglise Gutierrez, Ludovic Tezier, Stephen Costello, Marianna Pizzolato, Alessandro Corbelli, Balint Szabo, Elizabeth Sikora, Luciano Botelho, Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House / Mark Elder. Opera Rara 3cds
One of the biggest successes of Donizetti's career, Linda di Chamounix was performed all over the operatic world in the decades following its 1842 Viennese premiere, then fell into neglect. The live concert performances recorded by Opera Rara at Covent Garden, in 2009, were its first there since 1887
Gramophone Editors Choice - August 2011 BBC Music Magazine Recommended - August 2011.
HANDEL Agrippina. Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Jennifer Rivera, Sunhae Im, Bejun Mehta, Marcos Fink, Neal Davies, Dominique Visse, Daniel Schmutzhard, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin / Rene Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi 3cds
After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the 'caro Sassone' (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period. This version reconstructs the work in its original conception, the only one to combine explosive topicality with extreme dramatic cogency. As a result, this tale of amorous intrigues against a background of Roman history, the 'prequel' to Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, emerges more fascinating than ever.
VIVALDI Prima Donna. Nathalie Stutzmann, Orfeo 55. Deutsche Grammophon
Considered one of the rare authentic alto voices of our time, singer Nathalie Stutzmann also devotes part of her career to conducting, which she studied with two exceptional masters: Jorma Panula (who trained Sir Simon Rattle in particular) and Seiji Ozawa.
PARRY, HUBERT Songs of Farewell. Works by Vaughan Williams, Sullivan, Rodney Bennett, Parry, Howells etc. Tenebrae / Nigel Short. Signum
Following a string of five-star reviews for their previous discs of 20th-century French choral music (Poulenc's Figure Humaine ) and Renaissance polyphony (Victoria's Requiem), the professional chamber-choir Tenebrae go from strength to strength with this new recording of British partsongs and choral music – centred on Hubert Parry's Songs of Farewell.
Classic FM Best Buy - December 2011 BBC Music Magazine Recommended - December 201.
REICH Three Movements, The Desert Music. Chorus sine nomine. Tonkunstler-Orchester, Niederosterreich / Kristjan Jarvi. Chandos SACD
This is the third SACD recording on Chandos by the Vienna-based Tonkünstler-Orchester, Niederösterreich under Kristjan Jarvi, its Chief Conductor and Music Director from 2004 – 2009. They are joined by Chorus Sine Nomine, one of Austria's leading vocal ensembles and winner of numerous awards and prizes.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - September 2011
VICTORIA, TOMAS LUIS DE Requiem Mass, 1605. Tenebrae / Nigel Short. Signum
Tomás Luis de Victoria's requiem mass for six voices, written in 1603 and published in 1605, is a masterpiece. It is one of a handful of large-scale works which enjoys mainstream appeal in the 21st century. For many, it represents what Renaissance polyphony is, what it sounds and feels like, and how expressive it can be. The disc also features two well-known works by Victoria's contemporary Alonso Lobo.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - June 2011
LOEWE, CARL Songs & Ballads. Florian Boesch, Roger Vignoles. Hyperion
Many of the ballads on this disc are masterpieces of their genre and they are performed here in a magisterial Hyperion debut by Austrian baritone Florian Boesch. In these refined performances it is clear why Boesch has been labelled as 'one of the finest interpreters of Lieder of his generation'. His ability to create characters and enact stories brings the dramatic texts vividly to life, while he maintains musical coherence with astonishing lyricism.
PURCELL O Solitude. Andreas Scholl, Accademia Bizantina / Stefano Montanari. Decca
The greatest countertenor of today, Andreas Scholl returns to the Decca label with a recording of vocal jewels by the great baroque composer, Henry Purcell. This is Andreas Scholl's first ever recording of the music of Purcell and his uniquely beautiful voice is perfectly suited to the English composer's plangent melodies. The album includes pieces written for the stage, the church and the private chamber, some of which Andreas Scholl has sung in recital for many years, and some he sings for the first time.
BERG, ALBAN Sieben fruhe Lieder, Jugendlieder, Zwei Leider KARL AMADEUS HARTMANN Lamento. Juliane Banse, Aleksandar Madzar. ECM New Series
Eagerly-awaited new album by uniquely gifted soprano Juliane Banse, whose previous ECM recordings have been showered with awards and positive reviews. Accompanied by the insightful Serbian pianist Aleksandar Madžar, the German singer performs a wonderful programme of music by Alban Berg and Karl Amadeus Hartmann, powerful and poetic songs spanning a turbulent era.
JOHNSTON, BEN String Quartets 1, 5, and 10. Kepler Quartet. New World
This disc, with premiere recordings of Ben Johnston's first, fifth and tenth string quartets, presents his earliest and latest essays in the genre and one from roughly the middle of his output. The three pieces are highly different from one another in style, technique and expressive intent.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - May 2011
MOZART String Quartets K.157, K.458, K.589. Jerusalem Quartet. Harmonia Mundi
After two widely acclaimed Haydn releases, the Jerusalem Quartet now turns to an exploration of Mozart and three distinct periods in his creative life. Haydn is not totally absent from this recording, since the central quartet belongs to the glorious group of six which Mozart, now firmly established in Vienna, dedicated to his elder in 1785. Twelve years earlier, the teenage composer was still amusing himself with the Sammartinian model in the third of his 'Milanese' Quartets' and four years after the 'Haydn' set, Mozart abandoned the divertimento style once and for all, presenting in the second of the 'Prussian' Quartets a score that radically renewed the practice of chamber music.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - April 2011
PURCELL Twelve Sonatas In Three Parts. Retrospect Trio. Linn Records SACD
This second Purcell release by Retrospect Trio has been hotly anticipated since its debut recording, a Finalist at the 2009 Gramophone Awards, was released; BBC Music Magazine described the follow up as "a mouthwatering matter of urgency.".
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - December 2011 Classic FM Best Buy - December 2011 Gramophone Editors Choice - December 2011
GROSVENOR, BENJAMIN Chopin, Liszt, Ravel. Decca
Benjamin is due to receive nationwide media attention when he performs at the First Night of the Proms, which will be followed by a BBC Breakfast News appearance. He will also tour this season with the National Youth Orchestra (and play at their BBC Prom) showing his relevance and support to young classical musicians today.
RAVEL The complete solo piano music. Steven Osborne. Hyperion 2cds
New releases of Steven Osborne's best-selling discs have become some of the most eagerly-awaited events in the pianophile diary. This most delicate and subtle of musicians also displays a pyrotechnical deployment of digital acrobatics, mesmerising colour control and breathtaking articulation. All these qualities are visible in this two-disc set of some of the most important piano music of the early twentieth century. Ravel's works have been central, too, to Steven Osborne's performing repertoire throughout his career, making this set a perfect marriage of composer and performer.
BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Month - May 2011 Classic FM Best Buy - April 2011.
SCHUMANN Humoreske Op. 20, Studien fur den Pedalflugel Op. 56, Gesange der Fruhe Op. 133 Piotr Anderszewski. Virgin
For this new recital, Anderszewski turns his attention to some of Schumann's less frequently performed works. The Humoreske of 1839, far more serious-minded and substantial than its name might suggest, is built in five discrete sections. Mercurial in it shifts of mood, it reflects the composer's report to his wife Clara that, while working on the piece, he was "laughing and crying, all at once".
BBC Radio 3 Disc of the Week - January 2011 BBC Music Magazine Recommended - January 2011 Gramophone Editors Choice - January 2011.
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BRITTEN Billy Budd. John Mark Ainsley, Jacques Imbrailo, Phillip Ens, Iain Paterson, Matthew Rose, The Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Mark Elder. Opus Blu-ray disc
Glyndebourne has a proud association with the operas of Benjamin Britten, however until 2010 had never staged Billy Budd. The all-male opera with a libretto co-written by EM Forster, is based on the battle between pure good and blind evil, and is set on a British man-'o-war ship. Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, chose this work to make his long-awaited operatic debut. Sir Mark Elder returned to conduct, marking the 100th opera production in his illustrious career.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - July 2011
MAHLER Symphony No. 9 Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado. Accentus Music DVD
Claudio Abbado and his hand-picked players of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra take their acclaimed Mahler cycle to a new level with this performance of the most complex and compelling of the symphonies, the intense, searching Ninth. Abbado brings all his renowned clarity of vision and the experience of a lifetime to this contradictory music – half valedictory, half life-affirming – and his "orchestra of soloists", including some of the leading instrumentalists of our time, revels in the transparent textures and virtuosity of Mahler's last completed symphony. "A rendition ... of astonishing depth and subtlety" (Daily Telegraph).
Gramophone DVD of the Month - June 2011
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STRAUSS, RICHARD Elektra. Irene Theorin, Waltraud Meier, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Robert Gambill, Rene Pape, Wiener Philharmoniker / Daniele Gatti. Arthaus Musik Blu-ray (not compatible with standard dvd players)
"…a triumph for director Nikolaus Lehnhoff and his distinguished cast of singers." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Nikolaus Lehnhoff's new production of 'Elektra' ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock." Financial Times.
BBC Music Magazine Recommended - October 2011
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