Ravel, Berkeley & Pounds (Chandos)
Three fulfilling works interconnected by pedagogical history [JF]
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (Naxos)
Alsop’s Brahms series has gotten off to an excellent start [PCW]
Schumann and Grieg: Piano Concertos (Warner Classics)
Fine performances, but do we really need any more? [MBu]
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]
Lalo: Orchestral Works (Chandos)
A typical Järvi performance for good or ill [NB]
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]
Bach: Goldberg Variations (Dynamic)
Bach, beautifully embroidered [PJ]
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]
