Handel: Messiah (Hyperion)
(Déjà Review) A middle-of-the-road performance which just about presses all the right buttons [BW]
Elgar: Premiere Recordings Remastered (SOMM Ariadne)
Elgarian discographic firsts from the immediate post-war period, with competing Enigma Variations [JW]
Marc-André Hamelin (piano): Found Objects/Sound Objects (Hyperion)
An ingenious and refreshing recital of 20th and 21st century piano music [DHa]
Sterndale Bennett: Piano Concertos (Lyrita)
Lyrita unveils English piano treasures anew [JF]
Milhaud: Salade, Le pauvre matelot (DUX)
Two Milhaud rarities, one of them a first recording, but no texts [SB]
Mahler: Symphony No 2 (Hallé)
An outstanding performance that can be ranked with the finest recordings of the ‘Resurrection’ I have heard [MC]
Renée Chemet (violin): The HMV Recordings (Biddulph)
The ‘French Kreisler’ Renée Chemet proves a characterful, idiosyncratic and anachronistic stylist [JW]
Stenhammar: Tirfing (Sterling)
Impressive performance of a neo-Wagnerian opera [NB]
MacDowell: Orchestral Works Vol 2 (Chandos)
A splendid selection of MacDowell’s concertante and orchestral music [EJW]
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (Chandos)
(Déjà Review) Excellence and depth: real transcendent Beethoven, almost all of the time [DC]
Farrenc: Piano Trios (cpo)
(Déjà Review) Well-crafted and top-quality and certainly worth getting to know [GH]
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]
Onslow: String Quintets (Naxos/Challenge Classics)
Very different takes on these attractive works, neither entirely successful [DJB]
Brahms & Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Pristine Audio)
Brilliant, driven performances which hardly show their age in Pristine’s remastering [RMo]
Novák: Piano Concerto, Orchestral suites (cpo)
Another recording of Novák’s youthful Piano Concerto coupled with two ballet pantomimes [JW]
Emily Beynon: flute & friends (Channel Classics)
Unmissable [CR]
A Christmas Caroll from Westminster Abbey (Hyperion)
A first rate Christmas compilation [JQ]
Delius: The Complete Violin Sonatas (Conifer Classics)
(Déjà Review) Done with unblinking and almost daunting passion [RB]
Mahler: Symphony no. 2 (CSO Resound)
(Déjà Review) Points to an affinity between Haitink and the CSO in interpreting Mahler [JZ]
Shepherd: Oratorio On a Clear Day (Avi-music)
A substantial and fascinating oratorio containing an important message [MC]
Rutter and Others: Christmas Music (King’s College Cambridge)
King’s voices, Rutter’s timeless Christmas gift [JF]
Shostakovich: String Quartets 14 and 15 (Genuin)
Interpretations of the last two string quartets characterised by an unwavering preference for overall unity [AG]
Krebs: Six Sonatas for Organ (cpo)
Excellent performances, beautifully recorded [SG]
Bach: Organ music transcribed by Busoni (La Dolce Volta)
A fine collection of Busoni’s piano versions of Bach organ works [SB]
