mon 11/08/2025

Classical CDs

Best of 2020: Classical CDs

My first shortlist had 27 discs on it, but, after much soul-searching, I’ve whittled it down to 12. These are all physical releases: I like being able to read sleeve notes in print as opposed to a screen, and CDs do sound better. Here goes:Conductor...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Christmas CDs 2020

 Bach: Christmas Oratorio Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Handel’s Company/Rainer Johannes Homburg (MDG)Another year, another new Bach Christmas Oratorio. Not that I’m complaining; this one is another zinger, up there with excellent contemporary...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Stravinsky, Weinberg, Igor Levit

 Stravinsky: Petrushka, Rossini/Respighi: La Boutique Fantastique Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko (Onyx)Stravinsky’s Petrushka is usually played in the 1947 revision, so it’s a pleasure to hear the 1911 original. The...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Anna Höstman, Mozart, Mark Simpson

 Brahms: Symphonies 3 & 4 Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti (ABC Classic)Why these live performances from 2015 and 2013 have waited so long for release is a mystery; this is the best Brahms symphony disc I’ve heard in ages....

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Classical CDs Weekly: Osvaldo Golijov, Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams

 Osvaldo Golijov: Falling Out of Time Silkroad Ensemble (In a Circle Records)Along with many others, I was beguiled by DG’s recording of Osvaldo Golijov's Pasión Según San Marcos a decade ago, an exuberant Latin American take on Bach. After...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Philip Sawyers, Ligeti Quartet

 Brahms: Chamber Music Alec Frank-Gemmill (horn), Daniel Grimwood (piano), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin) (BIS)An hour’s worth of Brahms’s chamber music for horn? Almost; we get the familiar Opus 40 Trio here, plus arrangements of the Op 38...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Josquin, Tabea Debus

 Beethoven Transformed, Volumes 1 and 2 Boxwood & Brass (Resonus Classics)The Harmonie, a small instrumental group made up of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, hit its stride in late 18th century Vienna. Early repertoire mostly...

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Album: Martin Simpson - Home Recordings

It’s 50 years since Martin Simpson dropped out of college to follow his vocation as a guitarist and his intention had been to celebrate the milestone with a live album. The best-laid plans… Instead Home Recordings finds him live in his living room...

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Classical CDs Weekly: US Election Special

 A New Century The Cleveland Orchestra/Franz Welser-Möst (Cleveland Orchestra)Have we reached peak box set? This debut release from the Cleveland Orchestra’s own label ups the stakes considerably, an exquisitely designed and engineered...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Henrique Oswald, Saint-Saëns, Tilson Thomas, Smaro Gregoriadou

 Henrique Oswald: Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 Clélia Iruzun (piano), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Jac van Steen (Somm)You can never have enough of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, a piece tailor-made to soothe and...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Jess Gillam, John Harle, Voces8

 Jess Gillam: Time (Decca)Cellists, violinists and pianists have it easy. They’re spoilt for choice when it comes to solo repertoire, a point made when theartsdesk reviewed the BBC Young Musician 2016 final, the year when cellist Sheku Kanneh-...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Ole Bull, Vítězslav Novák, Schumann

 Ole Bull: Stages of Life Annar Follesø (violin), Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Eun Sun Kim, with Wolfgang Plagge (piano) (2L)Schumann thought that the Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull (1810-1880) was as accomplished a player as Paganini,...

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