March 2025

From Byrd (Seulétoile)

A thoroughly enjoyable tribute to English Elizabethan composers from a gifted, highly musical, French ensemble [RMo]

ScottD vol4 TOCC0750

Scott: Orchestral Music Vol. 4 (Toccata Classics)

Kick off your shoes and take to the dancefloor with Scott’s tapestry of orchestrated dances [JW]

BachJS organ DACOCD606

JS Bach: Organ Works (Danacord)

I cannot imagine anyone who loves the organ being disappointed by this top-quality release [MC]

Arnold sym4 SRCD200

Arnold: Symphony 4 (Lyrita)

Riches to be discovered here [CC]

In Parasceve Dos Santos Passacaille

Santos: In Parasceve (Passacaille)

Highly expressive settings from the classical period [JV]

Brahms Requiem Chandos

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (Chandos)

A recording which has a lot going for it but which just misses the mark [JQ]

Deodat de Severac Piano Classics

de Séverac: Piano Music (Piano Classics)

Séverac’s impressionism played with technical brilliance, tremendous sympathy and vivid imagination [JF]

Hevel Wachowski Dux

Hevel: Polish piano works of the 20th and 21st centuries (Dux)

Wachowski’s excellent selection of works makes for a disc I shall be enjoying for a long time to come [SA]

Sur le nom d'Alain Naxos

Sur le nom d’Alain: Organ Music by Alain and Duruflé (Ad Fontes)

An outstanding disc in every way [JQ]

Blodek V studni Supraphon

Blodek: V studni (Supraphon)

A comic Czech opera recorded in 1959 heard for the first time in stereo [JW]

Williamson Orchestral Works Chandos

Williamson: Orchestra Works Vol. 1 (Chandos)

(Déjà Review) It is wonderful to have the first disc of this series [IL]

R Strauss: Music for Piano Quartet (MDG)

(Déjà Review) A marvellously performed release that will surely win these Strauss chamber scores many admirers [MC]

Salome – that shocking opera

by Len Mullenger

shostakovich symphony 10 signum classics

Shostakovich: Symphony 10 (Signum Classics)

Very well played and engineered, but only intermittently achieving the drive and intensity of Barshai, Shipway and Karajan [RMo]

17th century music for violin and organ false azure records

In the Cabinet of Wonders (False Azure Records)

A Hamburg organ-and-violin duo of the Baroque comes alive [JW]

music for viole de gamba alpha

Music for viola de gambe (Alpha Classics)

Outstanding in terms of programming, performance and sound quality, will delight all interested in the viol [GPu]

bennett orchestral works vol5 chandos

Bennett: Orchestral Works Vol. 5 (Chandos)

The excellence of the first four volumes is triumphantly maintained [NB]

brahms ein deutsches requiem bis

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (BIS)

A recreation of the 1868 Bremen Cathedral premiere of Brahms’ German Requiem with massed choirs and players [PH]

bruckner symphony7 janus classics

Bruckner: Symphony 7 (Janus Classics)

The first two movements here of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony are mostly fine and measured – but the Scherzo and finale are erratic [RMo]

whitacre choral works hyperion

Whitacre: Choral works (Hyperion)

(Déjà Review) Whitacre has a priceless ability to communicate strongly and effectively [JQ]

sibelius lemminkainen suite bis

Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite (BIS)

(Déjà Review) Vänskä has made me hear this pieces anew [LM]

Smaldone: What no one else sees… (New Focus Recordings)

Music with a strong spirit of innovation and spontaneity [SA]

Falla: Orchestral music (SOMM Recordings)

A most enjoyable disc [JQ]

The Graceful Ghost – Contemporary Piano Rags (Rivermont)

The Contemporary Piano Rag in the vitalising hands of a master practitioner [JW]