jw
Jonathan Woolf
Carl Schuricht in New York (Archipel)
Schuricht leads the Vienna orchestra with surety and command [JW]
Wurmser: Piano Works (Hortus)
A near-forgotten man of French music reappears with a piano retrospective [JW]
Loeillet: Six Suites for Harpsichord (Prelude Classics)
A beautifully performed and recorded set of six modestly-conceived and barely known harpsichord suites [JW]
Alwyn: Elizabethan Dances, Oboe Concerto, Aphrodite in Aulis (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) Two premiere recordings at bargain cost and generally excellent performances [JW]
Murrill: The Rediscovered Songs (First Hand Records)
Deft and charming songs from a composer best-known for his choral and organ music [JW]
J S Bach: Mass in B minor (Tahra)
A living text; a source of drama and commitment [JW]
Dolce: Music for Saxophone and Piano (Crystal Records)
Drama, dance and delight from a masterful saxophonist [JW]
Sergio Fiorentino (piano) The Complete SAGA Album Collection (Rhine Classics)
Fiorentino’s complete Saga recordings of 1958-60 heard in excellent remasterings [JW]
Amorous in Music (Et’cetera)
(Déjà Review) Plenty of variety here and quite some historical frisson as well [JW]
Smetana: Má vlast and other Symphonic Works (Supraphon)
Smetana’s dynamism brought out by a conductor of clarity and subtlety [JW]
Constantin Silvestri (conductor): Debussy, Ravel & Falla (ICA Classics)
Dramatic Franco-Iberian precision from an unexpectedly potent 1960s partnership [JW]
Piston: Symphonies Nos 2 & 6 (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) The merit of this distinguished 1988 recording, in its new incarnation, burns just as brightly [JW]
Andrés Segovia and his Contemporaries Vol 16 (Doremi)
Segovia in Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto live from Lucerne and a phalanx of historical guitar recordings [JW]
Shura Cherkassky (piano) The Ambassador Auditorium Recitals 1981-9 (First Hand Records)
Autumnal never-before-released Cherkassky recitals show few signs of fatigue [JW]
Dupont: La Maison dans les Dunes (Piano Classics)
A lingering look at Gabriel Dupont’s marine imagination [JW]
Cécile Chaminade and her contemporaries play Chaminade (APR)
Cécile Chaminade’s 1901 recordings revisited, and a raft of shellac performances of her works by other pianists [JW]
Frankly Speaking with Leopold Stokowski (Somm Recordings)
A reissued BBC broadcast, two rehearsal segments in improved sound and a never-before-released BBC interview [JW]
Roussel: Symphonies Nos 2-4 (Warner Classics)
(Déjà Review) The Cluytens-Prêtre team is formidable and allied to the lesser known, but still ardent, Dervaux you have as incisive a trio of conductors as you could wish at this price range [JW]
British Cello Works Vol 3 (Lyrita)
Further discoveries in the British cello lineage [JW]
Christine Walevska (cello) The Beauty and the Bow (Rhine Classics)
The admirable cellist Christine Walevska traced over 50 years of performances and recordings [JW]
Ysaÿe: Poème nocturne (Musique en Wallonie)
More varied fare from Eugène Ysaÿe’s seemingly inexhaustible workbench [JW]
Václav Neumann (conductor): Lucerne Festival (Audite)
Convincing examples of Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic heard during Lucerne Festivals of the 1980s [JW]
Albert Sammons plays Elgar (Biddulph)
Sammons’ classic Elgar recordings offer virtuosity and tonal beauty as well as thrust [JW]
Michael Rabin (violin) Unpublished (Parnassus)
An unpublished live Beethoven Concerto spearheads this Michael Rabin release [JW]