June 2025
W Lloyd Webber: The Saviour (Priory)
Essential for all lovers of English music from the choirstalls and the organ loft [JF]
Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas (Hallé)
A fine new performance of Britten’s score doesn’t quite achieve top place among other versions [MP]
Sculthorpe: Requiem (ABC Classics)
(Déjà Review) A fine introduction to this endearing composer’s sound-world [HC]
Saint-Saëns: Requiem and Organ Symphony (Cala Signum)
(Déjà Review) A worthwhile restoration [JW]
Verdi: String Quartet
by Alan George
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.2
by Alan George
Schubert’s Dream of Eden
by Wilfrid Mellers
Schubert: String Quintet
by Alan George
Unpublished! Spalding and Dohnányi in Concert (Parnassus)
Albert Spalding in the sunset of his career accompanied by Dohnányi in a sonata sequence [JW]
W Mundy: Vox patris caelestis (Linn)
An insightful performance of the underrated music of a fascinating late-Tudor composer [GH]
Agricola: Masses (Fra Bernardo)
Two great masses in the Cantus firmus tradition from a master composer in splendid new readings from Vienna [PH]
Elim Chan (conductor) All These Lighted Things (Alpha Classics)
A new disc from a new star in the conducting firmament, featuring new music – and a couple of old warhorses [LD]
Pitfield: Orchestral Music (Toccata Classics)
A valuable exploration of Pitfield’s eminently approachable orchestral music [JF]
Poulenc & Francaix: Chamber music (Capriccio)
(Déjà Review) A thoroughly engaging disc of very worthwhile music all superbly recorded [DM]
Nielsen & Aho: Clarinet Concertos (BIS)
(Déjà Review) A clear winner on all accounts and Aho’s concerto is destined to be a standard work [GF]
Sohal: Lila, Violin Concerto (Heritage Records)
A welcome second instalment of Sohal’s key works [DHa]
Shostakovich: Symphony 1; Nielsen: Symphony 5 (ICA Classics)
A particularly intense Nielsen performance, and a fascinating little interview [GPJ]
Mozart: Complete Works With Clarinet Vol. 1 (Alpha Classics)
Nicholas Baldeyrou assembles a union of equals that is enormously appealing – bring on volume two! [ST]
Sibelius: Symphony 5 (Ondine)
Clear, cool, lucid performances, short on passion but interpretatively consistent and coherent [RMo]
Klaus Tennstedt (conductor) Live Vol. 4 (Doremi)
Klaus Tennstedt in repertoire he did not record commercially, in variable sound [LD]
Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Symphony No.3 (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) This carves a niche firmly for itself on any serious record collector’s shelves [CC]
Prokofiev: The Stone Flower (VAI)
(Déjà Review) You must have this very idiomatic performance and production if you have any liking for Prokofiev’s music [RB]
R Strauss: Arabella (Naxos)
An excellent film of a good production and performance [RWe]
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto 2 & Britten: Cello Sonata (Decca)
Some of the 20th century’s greatest cello music, superbly played and recorded [GPJ]
