BBC Music Magazine Choices,
BBC Music Magazine - February 2018 Choices
Two firm favourites in the Presto office make the cut in this month’s BBC Music Magazine, and they could scarcely be more different – Cecilia Bartoli and Sol Gabetta’s good-humoured musical sparring on Dolce Duello (one of our pre-Christmas Recordings of the Week) and Teodor Currentzis’s apocalyptic account of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony with MusicAeterna, which James described as ‘one of the most tumultuous, breathtaking, and electrifying recordings of this piece that I have heard in quite some time’. (We hear that Currentzis’s next recording project is Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, currently scheduled for late spring/early summer).
Recent Presto interviewees Barbara Hannigan and Steven Isserlis also get a mention – Hannigan for her fearlessly virtuosic account of Ligeti’s surreal Mysteries of the Macabre with Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, and Isserlis for his fascinating ‘Trench Cello’ project which includes performances on a portable instrument which was taken to Ypres by its owner Harold Trigg during World War One.
Recording of the Month
'Currentzis has a clear and unified vision of the music’s trajectory, his interpretation grabbing you by the scruff of the neck…Most remarkable of all is the clarity of sound achieved here which ensures every single layer in Tchaikovsky’s miraculously inventive orchestration can be heard…This performance is so devastatingly powerful that it would be difficult to imagine hearing anything else alongside it.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Orchestral Choice
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Barbara Hannigan (soprano), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
'Every nuance [of The Rite] is crafted, each detail considered, yet there is still a sense of danger and visceral power…Rattle and the LSO are joined, usurped even, by the extraordinary Barbara Hannigan for extracts from two contrasting operatic landmarks…Make no mistake, the laugh-out-loud high spirits are underpinned by virtuosic, serious music-making of the highest order.'
Available Format: Blu-ray + DVD Video
Concerto Choice
Paderewski: Piano Concerto & Stojowski: Symphonic Rhapsody
Jonathan Plowright (piano), Iuventus Orchestra, Łukasz Borowicz
'Plowright cements his already proven connection to Paderweski’s music with an invigorating performance…the orchestral performance under Ƚukasz Borowicz is as good as any and the recorded sound is vivid…These performers make exciting work of [the Stojowski's] episodic nature, with Plowright again showing the expressive power of virtuosity.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Chamber Choice
'If IKEA were to make a cello, this would be it…Sow how does it sound? In Steven Isserlis’s hands, remarkably fine – though he only uses it for a handful of evocative miniatures…On Isserlis’s Stradivarius cello, Webern’s skeletal Drei Kleine Stücke make a clever connection between this soundworld and the great sonatas of the period: maximum expression from threadbare resources…Crowning all this is perhaps the finest recording of Faure’s First Sonata I have ever heard.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Instrumental Choice
Choral & Song Choice
'In this ingeniously assembled collection they delight us with songs of defiance and gentle rebuke directed against the gossips and naysayers of 14th and 15th century society. The result is a magical sound-carpet of music…The fluid ‘conversational’ style of these accomplished musicians (they perform some of these pieces without the music) enables them to provide especially realistic and vivid projections of the texts.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Opera Choice
Cecilia & Sol: Dolce Duello
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo), Sol Gabetta (cello), Cappella Gabetta, Andres Gabetta
'Bartoli and cellist Sol Gabetta make for valiant duelling partners who converse, parry and riposte in spirited combat. Bartoli is velvet-toned, vivacious and voluptuous as ever. Her diction is sharp as a sabre; attack and intonation are spot on target. Add to that a gamut of vocal timbres, colours and an expressive quiver and you have an intoxicating mix. Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta has an equally flawless technique.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
