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Sublime Schubert from Paul Lewis
31st Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Following his ten-year immersion in Beethoven and critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s three great song-cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, the British pianist brings unrivalled poise and intimacy to the Piano Sonatas D840, 850 and 894 and the Impromptus D899. -
Franz Liszt
24th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Chris rounds up some of the many releases issued to commemorate the bicentenary of the Hungarian composer’s birth this week, including a song-recital from Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch, the Piano Concertos from Stephen Hough and the Bergen Philharmonic, and selected piano works from Lise de la Salle. -
The Decca Sound
17th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly
A beautifully-documented 50-CD box charts the extraordinary history of the record-label, spanning six decades and featuring artists including Herbert von Karajan, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, András Schiff, Emma Kirkby, and Alicia de Larrocha.Featured product
The Decca Sound
Teresa Berganza (mezzo-soprano), Alfredo Campoli (violin), Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano), András Schiff (piano), Joshua Bell (violin), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Simon Preston (organ), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), Takashi Harada (ondes martenot), Kyung Wha Chung (violin), Clifford Curzon (piano), Anja Silja (soprano), John Zirbel (horn), Renée Fleming (soprano), Larissa Diadkova (contralto), Jonathan Summers (baritone), Sir Georg Solti (instrumental ensemble), Nelson Freire (piano), David Thomas (bass), Michael Chance (alto), Daniel Lochmann (treble), Emma Kirkby (soprano), Catherine Bott (soprano), Elisabeth Priday (soprano), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Sara Stowe (soprano), Julianne Baird (soprano), Janine Jansen (violin), Julius Katchen (piano), Sylvia Stahlman (soprano), Helen Watts (contralto), Wilfred Brown (tenor), Tom Krause (baritone), April Cantelo (soprano), Stephen Cleobury (organ), Robert Tear (tenor), Barry McDaniel (baritone), Alicia de Larrocha (piano), Ute Lemper (soprano, vocalist), Jeff Cohen (piano), Timothy Hutchins (flute), Janet Creaser Hutchins (piano), Radu Lupu (piano), Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano), Marion Lowe (soprano), Hanneke Van Bork (soprano), Elly Ameling (soprano), Werner Krenn (tenor), Marius Rintzler (bass), Gösta Winbergh (tenor), Gabriele Fontana (soprano), Eberhard Wächter (baritone), Waldemar Kmentt (tenor), George London (baritone), Kirsten Flagstad (soprano), Set Svanholm (tenor), Hetty Plumacher (contralto), Oda Balsborg (soprano), Ira Malaniuk (contralto), Vera Schlosser (soprano), Hans Hotter (bass), Berit Lindholm (soprano), Brigitte Fassbaender (contralto), Helga Dernesch (soprano), Vera Little (mezzo-soprano), Claudia Hellmann (mezzo-soprano), Marilyn Tyler (soprano), Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor), Gerhard Stolze (tenor), Birgit Nilsson (soprano), Claire Watson (soprano), Gottlob Frick (bass), José Carreras (tenor), Plácido Domingo (tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Andrea Griminelli (flute), Teatro dell'Opera, Roma (opera company), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (opera company), Montserrat Caballé (soprano), Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass), Piero de Palma (tenor), Pier Francesco Poli (tenor), Dame Joan Sutherland (soprano), Pascal Rogé (piano), Barbara Bonney (soprano), Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor), Christophe Rousset (director), Heather Harper (soprano), Lucia Popp (soprano), Arleen Auger (soprano), Yvonne Minton (mezzo-soprano), René Kollo (tenor), John Shirley-Quirk (baritone), Martti Talvela (bass), Marilyn Horne (mezzo-soprano), Jake Gardner (baritone), Cornell MacNeil (baritone), Giorgio Tozzi (bass), Mariano Caruso (tenor), Renata Tebaldi (soprano), Mario del Monaco (tenor), Angelo Mercuriali (tenor), Giorgio Giorgetti (baritone), Enzo Guagni (tenor), Edio Peruzzi (baritone), Virgilio Carbonari (bass), Michele Cazzato (bass), Mario Carlin (tenor), Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone), Timothy Byram-Wigfield (organ) Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Wiener Philharmoniker, Highgate School Boys' Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Bach Choir, Highgate School Choir, Melos Ensemble, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, The Academy Of Ancient Music Chorus, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Wiener Staatsoper, Choir of King's College Cambridge, Choir of St John's College Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Matrix Ensemble, Female Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Wiener Akademie-Chor, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Hymnuschor Stuttgart, Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir, John Alldis Choir, New London Consort, Les Talens Lyriques, Wiener Singverein, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Sängerknaben, New York City Opera Orchestra, Takács Quartet, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Wiener Oktett, Members Of The Wiener Oktett, L'Inviti, Waynflete Singers, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Winchester Cathedral Choir, Ernest Ansermet, Ataúlfo Argenta, Anatole Fistoulari, David Zinman, Herbert Blomstedt, Karl Böhm, Willi Boskovsky, Benjamin Britten, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Rudolf Kempe, Christoph von Dohnányi, Antal Dorati, Bernard Haitink, Christopher Hogwood, Paavo Järvi, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Adrian Boult, Istvan Kertesz, Sir David Willcocks, George Guest, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Robert Ziegler, Peter Maag, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Marriner, Jean Martinon, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Monteux, Karl Münchinger, Philip Pickett, Richard Bonynge, Franco Capuana, Andrew Litton, David Hill
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Pavel Haas Quartet the big winners at the Gramophone Awards
10th Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly
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Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts from Paul McCreesh
3rd Oct 2011by Chris O'Reilly
With a massed choir of English and Polish singers and an orchestra which deploys as many authentic nineteenth-century instruments as possible, McCreesh plays up not only the sound and fury of Berlioz’s super-sized Requiem but also the astonishing range of textures which the young composer summons. -
Handel – Agrippina & Germanico
26th Sep 2011by Katherine Cooper
Bulgarian soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska is the scheming anti-heroine on René Jacobs’s terrific new recording of *Agrippina*, Max Cencic stars in Gluck’s *Ezio* and Vivaldi’s *Farnace*, and Sara Mingardo takes the title-role in the serenata *Germanico*, rediscovered in Florence in 2007.Featured product
Handel: Agrippina, HWV 6
Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Agrippina), Jennifer Rivera (Nerone), Sunhae Im (Poppea), Bejun Mehta (Ottone), Marcos Fink (Claudio), Neal Davies (Pallante), Dominique Visse (Mago Narciso) & Daniel Schmutzhard (Lesbo) Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs
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Wagner’s Flying Dutchman starts PentaTone’s 10th anniversary celebrations
19th Sep 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The first in a projected cycle of Wagner’s ten major operas from Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin stars Albert Dohmen in commanding form as the accursed sailor looking for love, Matti Salminen as a first-rate Daland, and Ricarda Merbeth as a stentorian Senta.Featured product
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
Albert Dohmen (Der Holländer), Ricarda Merbeth (Senta), Matti Salminen (Daland), Robert Dean Smith (Erik), Silvia Hablowetz (Mary), Steve Davislim (Steuermann) Rundfunkchor Berlin & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
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Schubert's Schwanengesang from Padmore and Lewis
12th Sep 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Padmore’s bright, light tenor is often hauntingly beautiful in Schubert’s ‘swan-song’, combining with Lewis’s imaginative and insightful playing in a performance of great musical integrity which is a worthy successor to their superb *Winterreise* and *Schöne Müllerin*. -
Gergiev and the LSO conclude their Mahler cycle
5th Sep 2011by James Longstaffe
The Russian conductor’s painstaking attention to tiny issues of orchestral balance and uncharacteristic willingness to allow the music breathing-space make for a tremendously moving Ninth Symphony. -
BIS - Maxim Rysanov, Sibelius and a special offer
29th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The Ukrainian viola-player persuasively appropriates works for cello by Tchaikovsky and Schubert, Okko Kamu conducts Sibelius’s suites from *The Tempest*, *Tapiola* and *The Bard*, and BIS’s mighty Sibelius Edition crosses the finishing-line with a collection of orchestral fragments and works with organ. -
Sublime Ravel from Ibragimova and Tiberghien
22nd Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Following their outstanding series of Beethoven sonatas from the Wigmore Hall, the Russian violinist and French pianist offer utterly absorbing accounts of Ravel’s complete works for violin and piano, plus Guillaume Lekeu’s Violin Sonata, composed at around the same time as Ravel’s first essay in the genre. -
Gustavo Dudamel
15th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The young Venezuelan conductor proves himself to be ‘a great musician with sound musical instincts ‘ in live recordings of Bruckner, Sibelius and Nielsen with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. -
Brahms/Schoenberg from Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker
8th Aug 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Rattle conducts Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, plus the Chamber Symphony No. 1 and * Accompanying Music to a Cinematographic Scene*. -
Lucia from the Mariinsky
1st Aug 2011by Katherine Cooper
Natalie Dessay brings fragility and neurosis to the title-role, contrasting powerfully with Gergiev’s red-blooded Donizetti à la Verdi, Piotr Beczała’s ardent, ringing Edgardo and Vladislav Sulimsky’s black-voiced Enrico. -
Benjamin Grosvenor
18th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Fresh from his BBC Proms triumph last week, the eighteen-year-old British pianist makes a hugely impressive debut on Decca with a programme which includes Ravel’s formidable *Gaspard de la Nuit* and music by Chopin and Liszt. -
Rossini’s William Tell
11th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly
Gerald Finley is the sharp-shooting Swiss hero on Antonio Pappano’s absorbing account of Rossini’s opera, with John Osborn sounding effortless in the taxing high role of Arnaud, and Malin Byström an expressive Mathilde.Featured product
Rossini: Guillaume Tell (William Tell)
Gerald Finley (Guillaume Tell), John Osborn (Arnaud), Malin Byström (Mathilde), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Hedwige), Matthew Rose (Walter Furst), Frédéric Caton (Melchtal), Elena Xanthoudakis (Jemmy), Carlo Cigni (Gesler), Carlo Bosi (Rodolphe), Celso Albelo (Ruodi), Dawid Kimberg (Leuthold), Davide Malvestio (Un Chasseur) Orchestra e coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano
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Bach Motets from Herreweghe
4th Jul 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The Belgian Bach scholar and conductor and Collegium Vocale Gent return to works which they first recorded back in 1981, bringing crystal-clear textures, impeccable intonation and excellent ensemble to the six motets. -
Sublime Vivaldi from Nathalie Stutzmann
27th Jun 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The French contralto sings and conducts her chamber ensemble Orfeo 55 (formed two years ago) with passion and panache in a celebration of the ‘Red Priest’’s roles for female characters – many of them originally portrayed by castrati. -
Beethoven’s Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann
20th Jun 2011by Katherine Cooper
The German tenor is mesmerising from his very first note, whilst Nina Stemme is scarcely less compelling as his heroic wife Leonore in this exhilarating live concert recording from last year’s Lucerne Festival.Featured product
Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72
Jonas Kaufmann (Florestan), Nina Stemme (Leonore), Falk Struckmann (Pizarro), Christof Fischesser (Rocco), Rachel Harnisch (Marzelline), Christoph Strehl (Jaquino), Peter Mattei (Don Fernando) Lucerne Festival Orchestra & Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Claudio Abbado
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Byrd’s Complete Consort Music
13th Jun 2011by Chris O'Reilly
The Gramophone Award-winning viol consort Phantasm brings sweetness and sensuality to the English composer’s fantasias, In Nomines and pavans and galliards on Linn Records.