Jenkins: The Armed Man (Signum Classics)
An arrangement for smaller forces that still makes as much impact [DJB]
Bacewicz: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 (Chandos)
This SACD presents music, in fine performances, that is well worth getting to know [JQ]
Lusitano Impero – Portugese Baroque music (Passacaille)
This disc documents the strong Italian influence on the Portuguese late Baroque [JV]
Henze: The Raft of the Medusa (Capriccio)
An impressive account of this once notorious work [SB]
Mahler: Symphony No 8 (BIS)
Vänskä’s performance of Symphony of a Thousand; a rave review [EJW]
Mozart: Complete Masses Vol 1 (Naxos)
Auspicious beginning to a series of Mozart’s Masses [DF]
R Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (Deutsche Grammophon)
(Déjà Review) A reminder of all the strengths of this cruelly-underrated conductor/composer. Certainly, this is a major addition to the Strauss discography [CC]
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (Decca)
This remains a powerful experience 49 years after its initial release [MP]
Mahler Pioneers (SOMM)
This release will be of great interest to all Mahler devotees [JQ]
Suder: Dona Nobis Pacem, Symphonic Music II (Hänssler Classic)
Committed performances of two mid-twentieth-century German works [WK]
American and English Orchestral Music (Claves)
A fascinating juxtaposition of the familiar and the unfamiliar [PJ]
Malcolm Frager (piano) – The Young Malcolm Frager (Parnassus)
Pianism of the highest calibre [SG]
Angela Gheorghiu: A Te, Puccini (Signum Classics)
Not my cup of tea – in spite of some sensitive, nuanced singing, Gheorghiu’s vibrato is now too much to stomach [GF]
Biber: Violin Sonatas (ECM)
(Déjà Review) I’ve been returning to this superb disc again and again over the past few weeks [GS]
Salzedo: Scintillation (Da Vinci Classics)
A valuable and thoroughly enjoyable anthology of works for solo harp, played with insight and vivacity [GPu]
Rachmaninov: Symphony 1 (Red Note)
An interesting, well-presented performance on a budget issue [EJW]
Andre Schoch (trumpet) Core (Es-Dur)
Readings that don’t match up with the best, and an ungenerous runtime [DJB]
Shostakovich: Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
The final instalment in Andris Nelsons’ Shostakovich symphony cycle [JQ]
D Scarlatti: Sonatas (Navona Records)
Metz’s playing has admirable directness of approach, but the lovely Clementi square piano is a revelation [MG]
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (High Definition Tape Transfers)
If you want to hear Stravinsky conduct his own most famous work in what is by far the best sound to date, this is it [RMo]
Beethoven: Piano Trios (Hyperion)
(Déjà Review) It’s difficult adequately to describe the essential rightness of these performances [SV]
Montgeroult: Piano Sonatas (Brilliant Classics)
Remarkable piano sonatas but check whether you are happy with the fortepiano [SB]