Gramophone Magazine: As his centenary year draws to a close, we can look back at some wonderful new recordings of Britten’s music: Philip Hingham’s disc of the Cello Suites (Delphi an), Oliver Knudsen conducting The Rape of Lucretius at Aldeburgh (Virgin Classics), Ian Bostridge recording Britten’s songs with Antonio Pappano and Xuefei Yang (EMI Classics), […]
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Phillip Clark writes: Ludwig van Beethoven, the composer who, more than any other, changed music, the sound of music and what it is that composers do, wrote nine symphonies that jolted music out of itself. Life could never – would never – be the same again. The “classical” rationality of structure, harmony, form, melodic development […]
Mark Bebbington reflects on the composer’s works for solo (or two) piano. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s extraordinary output for orchestra and voice is a central part of the repertoire – but not so his music for solo piano or piano duet. As he releases a new disc of the composer’s complete music for solo (or two) […]
The Scottish violinist takes an unusual route to exploring her Celtic connections, courtesy of two works written for her by jazz supremo Wynton Marsalis, writes Charlotte Gardner Continues HERE
Simon Broughton talks to pianist Lusine Grigoryan about her new Komitas recording on ECM Ask someone to name an Armenian composer and the first name on the list is likely to be Aram Khachaturian, famous for his Gayane and Spartacus ballet scores. But for Armenians, their most treasured composer is Komitas (1869-1935), often described as […]
………… we ask: which recording of his vast Eighth Symphony is best? Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is the calling-card for all orchestras with ambition: but which ones should you welcome in, asks Ken Smith.(Originally published in Gramophone, December 2008.) As soon as I got the invitation I immediately called my wife to tell her why I’d […]
The latest release from Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra features Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and Water, a new work by composer and member of Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood. For the lastest Gramophone podcast, Editor Martin Cullingford spoke to the conductor and violinist about the album, which is released by ABC Classics on vinyl in Australia, and […]
“Riccardo Chailly’s view of the Beethoven symphonies has been a well-kept secret, but now in a single well-coordinated gesture all is revealed. At concerts in Vienna’s Musikverein, Paris’s Salle Pleyel and London’s Barbican, Chailly and his Leipzig Gewandhausorchester will present all nine symphonies alongside five specially commissioned works that reflect their individual composer’s […]
Alec Robertson’s original reviews of Karajan’s DG recordings of Wagner’s Ring cycle offer a masterclass in critical listening Continues HERE
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Roman Rabinovich – born in Uzbekistan and raised in Israel, and an alumnus of both Juilliard and Curtis – has started a Haydn piano sonata cycle for First Hand Records. The first volume has been warmly received and Rabinovich is gaining a reputation for his Haydn, so a Wigmore Hall recital provided a good opportunity […]
The pianist Mark Bebbington continues his invaluable service to British music with a new album for Resonus that gathers together four rarities from Vaughan Williams’s output, ranging from the Piano Quintet of 1903 to the Fantasia on the ‘Old 104th’ Psalm Tune of 1949. Joined by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for three of […]
The violinist explores the composer’s music in our latest podcast Continues HERE
A diverse range of excellent recordings spanning a breadth of repertoire, reminding us just why the Britten Sinfonia is such a fine, not to mention versatile, ensemble, and sought after for the studio. Donizetti Il Paria Opera Rara / Britten Sinfonia / Sir Mark Elder cond (Opera Rara) ‘The music is splendid, well worth discovering…Shagimuratova […]
“Performers offer us listeners many things – transcendent playing perhaps, or interpretative insight. But some of our most meaningful encounters with musicians happen when they challenge or change our perspective.” Dip in HERE
Bělohlávek’s legacy is built on benchmark recordings of Martinů, Dvořák, Suk and Janáček Continues HERE
THE GUARDIAN: Best of the rest: the classical CDs we missed in 2022 We are able to review only a tiny fraction of the albums released each month. From Brahms to Berg, and Pejačević to Sohy, here are 10 recent releases worth going back to Despite more than a decade now of dire predictions of […]
From the archives “This month sees the issue of several records of Britten’s music from Decca including one in the ‘World of…’ series. It also marks the 25th anniversary of the night that transformed the face of British opera – the premiere of Peter Grimes on June 7, 1945, at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Britten himself […]
THE GUARDIAN / Andrew Clements It took Maurizio Pollini more than 30 years to complete his recordings of the Beethoven piano sonatas for Deutsche Grammophon. The first instalment of that series, which appeared in 1977, was devoted to the last five sonatas, including magisterial performances of the two paired on this new release, which was […]
Donald Macleod explores Mozart’s treatment of love in its many guises in Die Zauberflöte, Idomeneo, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Born in 1756, the theatre was a life-long passion for Mozart. Starting at the tender age of just 11, in the space of 22 years he produced […]
isa’s Piazza dei Miracoli, also known as the Piazza del Duomo, contains the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the Campanile (aka the Leaning Tower) – and the Camposanto Monumentale. Among its murals is an impressive fresco entitled Il trionfo della Morte: ‘The Triumph of Death’. Once attributed to Orcagna, nowadays to Buonamico Buffalmacco or, by some scholars, […]
Richard Wigmore marks the 300th anniversary of Handel’s era-defining move to London in 1712 Never short of confidence or savoir faire, the young Handel seems to have set out to become the supreme musical cosmopolitan. After a thorough grounding in the contrapuntal tradition of his native Saxony, he honed his command of form and fluid, […]