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]
Martucci: Four Piano Pieces, Piano Sonata (Piano Classics)
An enjoyable disc of Martucci’s juvenalia which prompts reflections on his later, more substantial works [GPu]
Mozart: Requiem & Say: Mozart & Mevlana (Warner Classics)
An intriguing piece of cross-cultural programming combining an energised performance of Mozart’s Requiem with an exotic new work [RMo]
Miró Quartet: Hearth (Pentatone)
Wonderfully imaginative arrangements of Christmas favourites; something to enliven even the jaded palette – or ear [PRJ]
Strauss R: Elektra (Solo Musica)
Listeners seeking a completely unabridged Elektra may want to give this haphazard ‘karaoke version’ a miss [SSc]
Schloss Husum 2024: Rarities of Piano Music (Danacord)
This wonderful festival never lets us down [RCh]
Bruch: Arminius (cpo)
(Déjà Review) This recording is very welcome [CF]
Bartók: Orchestral Works, Dances (Deutsche Grammophon)
(Déjà Review) A good addition to your Bartók collection – some performances will be difficult to improve on [GH]
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opus Arte)
Get a Blu-ray player and buy this [JWn]
Mahler: Symphony 10 (Deutsche Grammophon)
A triumph, and one not to be missed [MJ]
Observations of Venice – Cinquecento consort music (Coviello Classics)
Ode to Venice and its musical culture [JV]
