September 2025

Shani Diluka (piano): Renaissance (Warner Classics)

Suffused with serenity and poetry; look elsewhere for keyboard fireworks [DJB]

Grieg, Medtner & Franck: Violin Sonatas (Hänssler Classic)

A worthy album with playing of uncommon integrity [MC]

Cooke: Complete String Quartets, Vol 2 (Toccata Classics)

Arnold Cooke’s string quartets realised by the Bridge Quartet in some style [JW]

Mignone: Fantasia Brasileiras, No 1-4 (Naxos)

Exuberant and attractive scores very well played and recorded [NB]

Turina: Music for Violin and Piano (Naxos)

(Déjà Review) Panache and passion – you won’t be disappointed [JW]

Vivaldi: New Discoveries (Naïve)

(Déjà Review) Delightful and thought-provoking pieces newly attributed to Vivaldi [MS]

mahler sym9a hdtt 1

Mahler: Symphony 9 (HDTT)

A memorable performance of Mahler’s Ninth, commercially released for the first time [JQ]

Brahms firkusny PACM129

Firkušný and Primrose Play Brahms (Pristine Audio)

Reference recordings of the Brahms Viola Sonatas from a classic team [RMas
]

puts orch delos

Puts: Orchestral works (Delos)

An introduction to this Pulitzer Prize winner’s orchestral music, lyrical and listenable yet not “light” [EJW]

Requiem history CYP1651

A History of Requiem – Part II Campra & Michael Haydn (Cypres)

New light shed on Haydn’s Requiem [RH]

Heifetz virtuoso RRC1296

Jascha Heifetz – Violin Virtuoso (Regis)

Hard to see how this utterly committed recording could be bettered [RMay]

arnold homage dutton

Arnold: Homage to the Queen & Sweeney Todd (Dutton Epoch)

A very warm welcome to these complete digital recordings of Arnold’s finest ballet scores [PRJ]

Clyne Abstractions Naxos

Anna Clyne: Abstractions (Naxos)

An essential album of Anna Clyne’s orchestral music [DHa]

Colleridge-Taylor Avie

Coleridge-Taylor: Toussaint l’Ouverture (Avie)

Interesting, but probably not the best introduction to the composer’s works [MC]

LondonCirca1760 HarmoniaMundi

J.C. Bach, C.F. Abel & Friends: London circa 1760 (Harmonia Mundi)

An historically interesting and musically compelling portrait of the London music scene around 1760 [JV]

VaughanWilliams Symphonies LSOLive

Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 5 & 9 (LSO Live)

An exceptionally fine disc [JQ}

Offenbach Orphee WarnerClassics

Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers (Warner Classics)

(Déjà Review) Singers who know how to sing Offenbach and to act it [JPJ]

Tchaikovsky Suites Decca

Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites (Decca)

(Déjà Review) Compact good value and pleasing musical sense [RB]

Beethoven: Septet

by Alan George

wellesz stringquartets cpo

Wellesz: String Quartets (cpo)

Vienna to Oxford: Quartets Reborn [JF]

gypsymelodies talich ladolcevolta

Talich Quartet: Gypsy Melodies (La Dolce Volta)

Songs from the Czech Lands, and points further East, seconded to the string quartet genre [JW]

belle epoque alpha classics

Adèle Charvet (mezzo-soprano) Belle époque! (Alpha Classics)

An elegant, sophisticated mélange of mélodies, beautifully sung and played, incorporating some pleasing surprises and novelties [RMo]

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 (Pentatone)

Very, very good indeed [DC]

strauss salome opusarte

Strauss: Salome (Opus Arte)

(Déjà Review) I’ll be coming back to this again and again [ST]