jw
Jonathan Woolf
Cilea & Longo: Chamber Music (Tactus)
Unusual light shone on two composers not known for chamber composition [JW]
Andrei Gavrilov (piano): Complete Warner Classics Recordings (Warner Classics)
Gavrilov’s ups and downs charted in his EMI (now Warner) legacy [JW]
Spanish Works for String Orchestra (Nimbus)
A well worked programme; not to be overlooked in the welter of releases and re-releases that continue to saturate the market [JW]
Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen: Janáček’s new lease of life (Moravské Zemské Muzeum)
The first two great operas from Janáček’s final decade explored with generosity and detail [JW]
My Fayre Ladye – Tudor Songs & Chant (Nimbus)
(Déjà Review) This fine disc has worn very well [JW]
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (SOMM Recordings)
A live Beecham Scheherazade that generates the heat and drive sometimes missing from his commercial recording [JW]
The Great Forgotten Danish Violinist Henry Holst (Danacord)
Fascinating concerto survivors from Henry Holst’s British days [JW]
Wood: String Quartets No.2, 4 (SOMM Recordings)
Continued reclamation of Charles Wood’s string quartets in generous performances [JW]
Finzi, Swain & ApIvor: Clarinet Concertos (SOMM Recordings)
Imaginative programming presents two Clarinet novelties and an established classic [JW]
Fate and The Excursions of Mr Brouček (Moravské Zemské Muzeum)
The second of four memorable volumes surveys Janáček two problem operas with profuse documentation and historiographic clarity [JW]
Toscha Seidel (violin): American Columbia Recordings (Biddulph)
The brilliant tonalist Toscha Seidel in his first acoustic recordings [JW]
A Musical Soirée (Meridian)
A soirée well worth attending with something for just about everyone [JW]
If Music: Jakub Józef Orliński (Erato)
A recital that sets up tensions, fruitful and otherwise, between voice and piano [JW]
David Nadien (violin): Live in Recital (Biddulph)
A live concert from 1972 finds David Nadien and Jaques Abram in excellent form [JW]
Telemann: Fantasias 1-12 (Nimbus)
First releases by an admirable, though now forgotten violinist [JW]
Benno Rabinof & Toscha Seidel (violins) Grieg & Franck violin sonatas (Biddulph)
Two pupils of Leopold Auer share disc space, one in terminal decline, the other vivacious and brilliant [JW]
Lost American Violin Sonatas Volume 2 (Toccata Next)
Another valuable reclamation of Violin Sonatas spanning the decades from 1888 to 1944 [JW]
Sir Thomas Beecham (conductor) Schubert, Wagner & Delius (SOMM)
The realisation of this current disc is everything the conductor’s admirers could wish for [JW]
The Story of Janáček’s Jenůfa (Moravské Zemské Muzeum)
A comprehensive, beautifully assembled and illustrated history of the genesis and first performances of one of the most performed operas in the world [JW]
Brahms arr. Joachim: Hungarian Dances (Nimbus)
(Déjà Review) Surprises of this kind can’t come along too often [JW]
Charles Munch (conductor) A Treasury of French Music (West Hill Radio Archives)
There’s something here even for those with an extensive collection of Munch’s recordings [JW]
Pierre Monteux in Boston (West Hill Archives)
(Déjà Review) Authoritative, finely played, well recorded and transferred [JW]
Rózsa: Three Hungarian Sketches & Cello Rhapsody (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) Committed, idiomatic and sharply attuned to the composer’s sensibilities [JW]
Maria Tipo (piano): Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)
The uneven but unignorable Maria Tipo, too often let down by recording acoustics, but soaring high in Clementi and Scarlatti [JW]
