Mahler: Symphony 9 (HDTT)
A memorable performance of Mahler’s Ninth, commercially released for the first time [JQ]
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites (Decca)
(Déjà Review) Compact good value and pleasing musical sense [RB]
Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers (Warner Classics)
(Déjà Review) Singers who know how to sing Offenbach and to act it [JPJ]
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 5 & 9 (LSO Live)
An exceptionally fine disc [JQ}
J.C. Bach, C.F. Abel & Friends: London circa 1760 (Harmonia Mundi)
An historically interesting and musically compelling portrait of the London music scene around 1760 [JV]
Coleridge-Taylor: Toussaint l’Ouverture (Avie)
Interesting, but probably not the best introduction to the composer’s works [MC]
Anna Clyne: Abstractions (Naxos)
An essential album of Anna Clyne’s orchestral music [DHa]
Shostakovich: Symphonies 1 & 7 (Deutsche Grammophon)
(Déjà Review) Passion and searing, white hot, insight and intensity [BBr]
Strauss: Salome (Opus Arte)
(Déjà Review) I’ll be coming back to this again and again [ST]
Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 (Pentatone)
Very, very good indeed [DC]
Adèle Charvet (mezzo-soprano) Belle époque! (Alpha Classics)
An elegant, sophisticated mélange of mélodies, beautifully sung and played, incorporating some pleasing surprises and novelties [RMo]
Talich Quartet: Gypsy Melodies (La Dolce Volta)
Songs from the Czech Lands, and points further East, seconded to the string quartet genre [JW]
Wellesz: String Quartets (cpo)
Vienna to Oxford: Quartets Reborn [JF]
And the Blackbird Sang (EM Records)
An interesting survey of British part-songs – sensitively sung and well-recorded [NB]
Debussy, Messiaen: L’extase – songs (Pentatone)
A valuable addition to the catalogue of French song [RWe]
Bruckner: Symphonies 4 & 7 (Pristine Audio)
Somewhat puzzling, even erratic, performances, alternately captivating and disappointing, recorded in Walter’s Indian Summer [RMo]
Tarney: Lux Stellarum (Convivium Records)
A new requiem with a difference, superbly sung [DHa]
Strauss: Elektra (Capriccio)
(Déjà Review) Varnay and Fischer are superb, alas in compromised sound [DH]
Scriabin: Piano Music (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) Stunning pianism and clever programming [GF]
Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos (Pentatone)
Could this be your ‘one and done’ set of Mozart’s Violin Concertos? [DC]
Assad & Villa-Lobos: Preludes & Dances from Brazil (Eudora)
An excellent disc of Brazilian music for guitar, played superbly and in fine recorded sound [GPu]
Bembo: L’Ercole Amante (cpo)
A fine, newly discovered Baroque opera receives a confident debut recording [MP]
Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady (Chandos)
A great show, vividly brought to life in this superb recording [JQ]
Stanford: Symphony No 1, Clarinet Concerto (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) A fitting culmination to the Naxos cycle of Stanford symphonies [JQ]
