Protopopov: Piano Sonatas 1-3 (TRPTK)
The three piano sonatas of this bold Russian Futurist together on one disc [SB]
Smetana: String Quartets No 1 & 2 (Evil Penguin Classic)
A beautiful warm timbre but too relaxed and urbane compared with more energised accounts [RMo]
Gershwin, Montsalvatge, Bernstein & Campo: New Year’s Concert (Fuga Libera)
An unusual New Year Concert presents fine music in not quite top drawer performances [NB]
Grosz: Piano Music Vol. 1 (Grand Piano)
Brilliant playing and glorious late Romantic music – a happy mix [RCh]
Habanera – Music For Eight Cellos and Voice (SOMM Recordings)
New meat for cello fans [DC]
Bach: The Six Cello Suites (Reference Recordings)
A fine account on period cellos in excellent sound, beautifully played if without quite the character of David Watkin’s version [RMo]
Berg: Violin Concertos (Elatus)
(Déjà Review) The Violin Concerto gets the emotionally involved reading and lush sonorities it seems to call for [VM]
Debussy: La Mer & Ravel: Daphnis et Chloë (Warner Classics)
(Déjà Review) I have never heard textures with such cloud-like softness and insubstantiality [GPJ]
Scott: Orchestral Music Vol. 4 (Toccata Classics)
Kick off your shoes and take to the dancefloor with Scott’s tapestry of orchestrated dances [JW]
From Byrd (Seulétoile)
A thoroughly enjoyable tribute to English Elizabethan composers from a gifted, highly musical, French ensemble [RMo]
War Silence – Rare Italian Piano Concertos (Hyperion)
Dallapiccola’s unfamiliar masterpiece is a highlight: rarely was the cliché “something for everyone” more apt [RHa]
Dvořák: Symphony 7, Scherzo capriccioso (BR Klassik)
Two praiseworthy performances under Haitink [MC]
JS Bach: Organ Works (Danacord)
I cannot imagine anyone who loves the organ being disappointed by this top-quality release [MC]
Blodek: V studni (Supraphon)
A comic Czech opera recorded in 1959 heard for the first time in stereo [JW]
Sur le nom d’Alain: Organ Music by Alain and Duruflé (Ad Fontes)
An outstanding disc in every way [JQ]
Hevel: Polish piano works of the 20th and 21st centuries (Dux)
Wachowski’s excellent selection of works makes for a disc I shall be enjoying for a long time to come [SA]
de Séverac: Piano Music (Piano Classics)
Séverac’s impressionism played with technical brilliance, tremendous sympathy and vivid imagination [JF]
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (Chandos)
A recording which has a lot going for it but which just misses the mark [JQ]
Santos: In Parasceve (Passacaille)
Highly expressive settings from the classical period [JV]
R Strauss: Music for Piano Quartet (MDG)
(Déjà Review) A marvellously performed release that will surely win these Strauss chamber scores many admirers [MC]
Williamson: Orchestra Works Vol. 1 (Chandos)
(Déjà Review) It is wonderful to have the first disc of this series [IL]
Bruckner: Symphony 7 (Janus Classics)
The first two movements here of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony are mostly fine and measured – but the Scherzo and finale are erratic [RMo]