December 2025
Brahms & Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Pristine Audio)
Brilliant, driven performances which hardly show their age in Pristine’s remastering [RMo]
Onslow: String Quintets (Naxos/Challenge Classics)
Very different takes on these attractive works, neither entirely successful [DJB]
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Pristine Audio)
A historical issue, the first Magic Flute to include dialogue, given a facelift and maintaining its significance after seventy years [PCG]
Krebs: Six Sonatas for Organ (cpo)
Excellent performances, beautifully recorded [SG]
Shostakovich: String Quartets 14 and 15 (Genuin)
Interpretations of the last two string quartets characterised by an unwavering preference for overall unity [AG]
Rutter and Others: Christmas Music (King’s College Cambridge)
King’s voices, Rutter’s timeless Christmas gift [JF]
Shepherd: Oratorio On a Clear Day (Avi-music)
A substantial and fascinating oratorio containing an important message [MC]
Mahler: Symphony no. 2 (CSO Resound)
(Déjà Review) Points to an affinity between Haitink and the CSO in interpreting Mahler [JZ]
Delius: The Complete Violin Sonatas (Conifer Classics)
(Déjà Review) Done with unblinking and almost daunting passion [RB]
2025 MWI Recordings of the Year
The 23rd MWI ROTYs
Pleyel: Clarinet Concertos 1 & 2 (cpo)
(Déjà Review) Most listeners will succumb immediately [RB]
Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Challenge Classics)
(Déjà Review) Scaled down, placid, serene, delightful, immediate and colourful [MS]
Schubert & Hummel: Piano Quintets (Somm)
A ‘Trout’ to challenge classic versions, exhibiting a welcome sense of forward drive, paired with a Hummel novelty [RMo]
Alfvén: Complete Orchestral Songs (dB Productions)
A perfect disc in almost every respect [WK]
Janáček: The Makropulos Affair (SOMM Recordings)
A very fine and fitting centenary tribute to Sir Charles Mackerras [JQ]
Stanhope: Requiem (ABC Classic)
This touching new Requiem from Australia haunts the mind [WH]
Bach: Organ music transcribed by Busoni (La Dolce Volta)
A fine collection of Busoni’s piano versions of Bach organ works [SB]
Brahms: Symphony No.2 (High Definition Tape Transfers)
(Déjà Review) So alive, so full of electricity, and there’s a passionate verve in evidence in almost every bar [BBr]
Clementi: The Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 4 (Hyperion)
(Déjà Review) Easily lives up to the very high standards of the earlier volumes [MS]
Palestrina: Missa Fratres ego enim accepi (Ars Produktion)
An unusual, exciting performance of a Palestrina mass [JV]
Fortea: Guitar music vol.2 (Op Cit Id)
Welcome additional acknowledgement of a past champion of the guitar [ZT]
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Pristine Audio)
A classic recording, with a great conductor and stellar singers, gets the Pristine treatment [RMo]
My Other Family. The London Philharmonic Orchestra
A unique, absorbing behind-the-scenes look at a top professional orchestra [JQ]
Vivaldi: La Gloria e Imeneo (Naïve)
A revelatory addition to the ongoing series of the complete works of Vivaldi [MP]
