Classical CDs
Classical CDs: Elephants, clocks and palindromesSaturday, 12 October 2024
Georges Prêtre plays Francis Poulenc (Erato)Georges Prêtre and Francis Poulenc’s working relationship began in 1959 when Prêtre conducted the first staging of La Voix humaine with soprano Denise Duval. Already an experienced opera conductor,... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Trills, gavottes and barking dogsSaturday, 28 September 2024
Joan Sutherland: The Complete Decca Recordings – Recitals & Oratorios (Decca)The voice of La Stupenda must have been the most recorded in history, given Decca’s lavish heyday (La Divina, Callas, just missed EMI's stereo best). Even before... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Beans, carrots and bassoonsSaturday, 31 August 2024
Antonio Pappano: Complete Symphonic, Concertante and Sacred Music Recordings Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Warner Classics)Exploring this compendious 27 CD box set has been a lot of fun. Rome’s Santa Cecilia... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dinosaurs, harmonicas and final frontiersSaturday, 17 August 2024
Fauré: Requiem, Gounod: Messe de Clovis Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet (Alpha-Classics)It was as an avid fan of the short story author Saki that my eye was drawn to the title of Gounod’s Messe de Clovis, although the Clovis here is the... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Queens, crotales and secret gardensSaturday, 10 August 2024
Arthur Bliss: Works for Brass Band Black Dyke Band,/John Wilson (Chandos) I’ve really got into the music of Arthur Bliss over the last couple of years, aided by Paul Spicer’s authoritative 1923 biography. I had always had Bliss in my head as a... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Chorales, cathedrals and hardwood floorsSaturday, 20 July 2024
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Debussy: Préludes George Lepauw (piano) (Orchid Classics)Beethoven and Debussy don’t often share column space, but listening to these albums in succession proved to be an enjoyable experience. George Lepauw... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Ballades, barcarolles and hammer blowsSaturday, 13 July 2024
Fauré: Complete Music for Solo Piano Lucas Debargue (Sony)In lots of ways I was ready to like this boxset of the complete Fauré music for solo piano, having long seen it as an extraordinary strand of the piano’s literature. But also perhaps I... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Bare feet, hardback books and giant snailsSaturday, 22 June 2024
Allan Pettersson: Complete Edition Various artists (BIS)That this hefty anthology (17 CDs and 4 DVDs) has been with me for several months shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s encountered the work of Swedish composer Allan Pettersson (1911-1980);... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Sailors, serenades and slaverySaturday, 08 June 2024
ECHOES: Duets by Schumann Brahms, Saint-Saëns et al Katharina Konradi (soprano), Catriona Morison (mezzo), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)(CAvi/SWR/DG)For my first taste of this new disc of soprano/mezzo duets, I couldn't resist skipping the first... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Cowhorns, gloves and marching drumsSaturday, 25 May 2024
Britten: Spring Symphony, Sinfonia da Requiem, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (LSO Live)Here’s as good a Britten sampler as you’ll find, opening with a truly terrifying account of the early... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Coffee, peppercorns and puppetsSaturday, 11 May 2024
Sir Neville Marriner: The Complete Warner Classics Recordings (Warner)Assembling Sir Neville Marriner’s complete discography would probably require a crate; this weighty but compact box (80 CDs), released to celebrate his centenary, collects... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Swans, hamlets and bossa novaSaturday, 27 April 2024
Chopin: Études op.10 & op.25 Yunchan Lim (Decca)Chopin Nicolas van Poucke (Night Dreamer)I’m reviewing these two Chopin discs by a pair of young men together, even though there are lots of differences between their playing, and the way the... Read more... |
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