December 2025
Len Mullenger: an appreciation
by Rob Barnett
Obituary – Robert Massard (baritone)
by Ralph Moore
Beethoven: String Quartet Op.127
by Alan George
Schubert: Die Winterreise (Music & Arts)
(Déjà Review) Belongs among the Desert Island Disc recordings of Winterreise [GF]
Bach: Christmas Oratorio (Warner Classics)
(Déjà Review) A performance that will give much pleasure [JQ]
The Launy Grøndahl Legacy, Volume 11 (Danacord)
The final Grøndahl Legacy disc from Danacord embraces radio opera as well as the restaurant band pleasures of his rare 1923 Pathés [JW]
Christmas Music by A Scarlatti and Giorgi (Arcana)
Cheerful accounts of two Baroque Roman masses for Christmastide [CRo]
Mahler: Symphony 10 (Deutsche Grammophon)
A justly admired – indeed, near-perfect – account of Deryck Cooke’s third version of his completion of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony [RMo]
Bach: New Brandenburg Concertos (Berlin Classics)
These New Brandenburg Concertos, based on organ trio sonatas, make a delightful programme [SB]
Milhaud: Salade, Le pauvre matelot (DUX)
Two Milhaud rarities, one of them a first recording, but no texts [SB]
Sterndale Bennett: Piano Concertos (Lyrita)
Lyrita unveils English piano treasures anew [JF]
Marc-André Hamelin (piano): Found Objects/Sound Objects (Hyperion)
An ingenious and refreshing recital of 20th and 21st century piano music [DHa]
Elgar: Premiere Recordings Remastered (SOMM Ariadne)
Elgarian discographic firsts from the immediate post-war period, with competing Enigma Variations [JW]
Handel: Messiah (Hyperion)
(Déjà Review) A middle-of-the-road performance which just about presses all the right buttons [BW]
Galuppi: L’Olimpiade (Dynamic)
(Déjà Review) A desirable acquisition for lovers of baroque opera [GF]
MacDowell: Orchestral Works Vol 2 (Chandos)
A splendid selection of MacDowell’s concertante and orchestral music [EJW]
Stenhammar: Tirfing (Sterling)
Impressive performance of a neo-Wagnerian opera [NB]
Renée Chemet (violin): The HMV Recordings (Biddulph)
The ‘French Kreisler’ Renée Chemet proves a characterful, idiosyncratic and anachronistic stylist [JW]
Mahler: Symphony No 2 (Hallé)
An outstanding performance that can be ranked with the finest recordings of the ‘Resurrection’ I have heard [MC]
Farrenc: Piano Trios (cpo)
(Déjà Review) Well-crafted and top-quality and certainly worth getting to know [GH]
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (Chandos)
(Déjà Review) Excellence and depth: real transcendent Beethoven, almost all of the time [DC]
A Christmas Caroll from Westminster Abbey (Hyperion)
A first rate Christmas compilation [JQ]
Emily Beynon: flute & friends (Channel Classics)
Unmissable [CR]
Novák: Piano Concerto, Orchestral suites (cpo)
Another recording of Novák’s youthful Piano Concerto coupled with two ballet pantomimes [JW]
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