Classical CDs
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, New Year's Day Concert, Bjarte EikeSaturday, 08 February 2014
Mahler: Symphonies 1-3 Philharmonia Orchestra/Lorin Maazel (Signum)These are expansive, weighty performances, but they work. Mostly. Listening to this first instalment of Lorin Maazel's latest Mahler cycle is an occasionally frustrating... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Prokofiev, Dame Janet Baker, Henning KraggerudSaturday, 02 November 2013
Prokofiev: Works for piano 1908-1938 Roger Woodward (Celestial Harmonies)You don't often hear this music articulated with such steely power and intensity. Recently I've spent too much time listening to Prokofiev's more romantically-inclined... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly, Sean Hickey, Lang Lang, Piers LaneSaturday, 12 October 2013
Sean Hickey: Cello Concerto, Clarinet Concerto Dimitry Kouzov (cello), Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet), St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Lande (Delos)Sean Hickey’s 2007 Cello Concerto solves the problem of balancing soloist... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Feldman, French Piano Concertos, Andreas OttensamerSaturday, 13 July 2013
Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, Françaix: Piano Concertos Florian Uhlig (piano), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern/Pablo González (Hänssler Classic)I salivated when I read the tracklisting on this immaculately produced disc. I... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Goossens, Mackintosh, StravinskySaturday, 06 April 2013
Goossens: Orchestral works vol.2 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos)British conductor and composer Sir Eugene Goossens achieved major fame leading the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s. Previously he'd given the first... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Cage, Carter, ElgarSaturday, 23 March 2013
Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 7 Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Joshua Bell (Sony)Nothing to shock here – no period timbres, no radical speeds and no indulgence. If you’re hoping for a sense of the epic, the self-consciously profound, you... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Scarlatti, Pink FloydSaturday, 02 March 2013
Britten: Cello Symphony, Cello Sonata and Cello Suites Alban Gerhardt, Steven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Manze (Hyperion)This is a brilliant anthology, wonderfully performed and beautifully recorded. Britten’s cello music... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Mompou, Shostakovich, StravinskySaturday, 16 February 2013
Volodos plays Mompou Arcadi Volodos (piano) (Sony)This is excellent, and a brilliant introduction to an under-appreciated composer. Frederic Mompou spent most of his long life in Barcelona, dying there aged 94 in 1987. The piano pieces... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Smetana, Gidon KremerSaturday, 10 November 2012
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1 and 3 Leif Ove Andsnes/Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Sony)The best recent cycle of Beethoven piano concertos is Howard Shelley’s, recorded by Chandos with the Orchestra of Opera North. This first volume of Leif... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Morton Feldman, NielsenSaturday, 20 October 2012
Beethoven: Symphonies nos 5 & 7 Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner (SDG)John Eliot Gardiner’s set of period-instrument Beethoven symphonies was a bestseller in the early 1990s. Technically brilliant, immaculately... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Haydn, Gabriel ProkofievSaturday, 28 July 2012
Beethoven for All: Symphonies 1-9 West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (Decca)The back story behind this ensemble is an inspiring one – an orchestra founded by Edward Said to enable Arabic and Israeli musicians to perform together.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Bruckner, Poulenc, ShostakovichSaturday, 19 May 2012
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 (with Finale completed by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca) Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle(EMI)Anton Bruckner’s last symphony is near perfect in its three-movement form. The realisation that the Finale was left... Read more... |
