SACD
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Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
RecommendedLucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), Jan Martiník (Badger/Parson), Peter Hoare (Mosquito/Rooster/Schoolmaster), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harašta)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
If this Vixen is good, the Sinfonietta is outstanding – arguably the best on disc, though you need to experience the work in a concert hall with the nine trumpets blazing. They’re supremely... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th September 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Britten: Peter Grimes
RecommendedStuart Skelton (Grimes), Erin Wall (Ellen), Roderick Williams (Balstrode), Susan Bickley (Auntie), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mrs Sedley), Robert Murray (Bob Boles), James Gilchrist (Horace Adams), Marcus Farnsworth (Ned Keene)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
The best feature of this new Grimes is the orchestral playing, similar in tempo and character to Britten’s own recording. Where Edward Gardner really scores is the Bergen Philharmonic’s precision,... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Recording of the Month
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Presto Editor's Choice, September 2020
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Opera, November 2020, Disc of the Month
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Winner - Opera
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Recording of the Year
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Janáček: Katya Kabanova
RecommendedAmanda Majeski (Katya), Katarina Dalayman (Kabanicha), Simon O'Neill (Boris), Andrew Staples (Tichon), Magdalena Kozená (Varvara), Ladislav Elgr (Kudrjas), Pavlo Hunka (Dikój)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
Rattle and his recording engineers have produced a Katya that sound s magnificent both in its attention to musical detail and in those sudden orchestral climaxes that seem to sweep nature itself... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 23rd February 2024
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2024, Recording of the Month
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Offer,
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle RecommendedMika Kares (Bluebeard), Szilvia Vörös (Judith), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki
Both Kares and Vörös offer a subtle, understated approach…As well as conveying the piece’s taut structure and the orchestral writing’s sheer sweep, conductor Susanna Mälkki seeks out the detail... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2021, Editor's Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Opera
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex & Apollon Musagète
RecommendedJennifer Johnston (Jocasta), Stuart Skelton (Oedipus), Gidon Saks (Creon) & Fanny Ardant (narrator)
Gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Johnston's superb interpretation lifts the whole performance up a couple of notches...But John Eliot Gardiner's conducting somehow misses the work's elusive power. — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 7th April 2014
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Building a Library, May 2018, Recommended Recording
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Smyth: The Prison
RecommendedSarah Brailey, Dashon Burton, Experiential Orchestra and Chorus, James Blachly
Smyth was much influenced by neo-Platonism and appended a line from Plotinus to The Prison, suggesting that music was a means to releasing the divine in us, Soloists and chorus convey that very... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, July 2020
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Winner - Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Choral
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Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Sz. 48, Op. 11
RecommendedElena Zhidkova (Judith) & Sir Willard White (Bluebeard)
London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
…Gergiev and his superlative orchestral forces and vocal soloists, supported by magnificent sound quality, present the enigmatic piece with great power, leaving us, as adequate performances... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 10th August 2009
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BBC Music Magazine, September 2009, Opera Choice
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Opera, December 2009, Recording of the Month
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Strauss, R: Elektra
RecommendedJeanne-Michèle Charbonnet (Elektra), Angela Denoke (Chrysothemis), Dame Felicity Palmer (Clytemnestra), Matthias Goerne (Orestes), Ian Storey (Aegisthus)
London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
[Gergiev] conveys passions and tensions with compelling, sometimes deafening power...[Charbonnet is] strongly involved without, thankfully, overplaying the weirdness...[Palmer's Klytaemnestra... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 9th July 2012
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Strauss, R: Salome
Emily Magee (Salome), Wolfgang Koch (Jochanaan), Michaela Schuster (Herodias), Peter Bronder (Herodes), Benjamin Bruns (Narraboth)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Andres Orozco-Estrada
What we gain here in exemplary clarity of Strauss’s sonic spider-web we lose in momentum for, say, the climactic welter which ends in Jokanaan’s curse…Magee as the spoiled princess propels the... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2018, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Shortlisted - Opera
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Britten: The Turn of the Screw
Andrew Kennedy (Prologue, Peter Quint), Sally Matthews (Governess), Michael Clayton-Jolly (Miles), Lucy Hall (Flora), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mrs Grose) & Katherine Broderick (Miss Jessel)
London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Farnes
Britten's opera makes its usual harrowing impact...Broderick's darker-toned Miss Jessel contrasts well with [Matthews]...while Catherine Wyn-Rogers's Mrs Grose is faultlessly secure and vivid.... — More…
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