rmo

Ralph Moore

Mahler: Symphony No 10 (Telarc)

An urgent, highly competent reading, but coarse and lacking heart [RMo]

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Bruckner: Symphony 5 for organ (Profil)

A voyage of discovery into contrasting worlds of sound [RMo]

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Mahler: Symphony 10 (RCA/BBC Music)

Some byways in recordings of Mahler’s Tenth [RMo]

Obituary – Robert Massard (baritone)

by Ralph Moore

mahler symphony10 dgg

Mahler: Symphony 10 (Deutsche Grammophon)

A justly admired – indeed, near-perfect – account of Deryck Cooke’s third version of his completion of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony [RMo]

Brahms Serkin PASC753

Brahms & Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Pristine Audio)

Brilliant, driven performances which hardly show their age in Pristine’s remastering [RMo]

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Schubert & Hummel: Piano Quintets (Somm)

A ‘Trout’ to challenge classic versions, exhibiting a welcome sense of forward drive, paired with a Hummel novelty [RMo]

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Pristine Audio)

A classic recording, with a great conductor and stellar singers, gets the Pristine treatment [RMo]

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]

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Chausson: Le roi Arthus (Erato)

Heavily derivative of its Wagnerian models, Chausson’s sole opera intermittently impresses but is overlong and somehow remains unmemorable [RMo]

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Mendelssohn: Overtures (Deutsche Grammophon)

A generously filled recording which has deservedly become a classic [RMo]

Milhaud LeBoeufsurleToit Chandos

Milhaud: Le Boeuf sur le toit, La Création du Monde (Chandos)

A highly desirable compilation of the some of the best music of its type and era, undemanding but wholly entertaining [RMo]

charpentier messe versailles

Charpentier: Choral music (Château de Versailles)

A carefully devised programme enabling us to understand how Italian polychoral works so heavily influenced Charpentier’s expansive, insistent idiom [RMo]

Mahler: Symphonies 7 & 9 (Chandos)

A re-issue of highly individual, grand and emphatic, even quirky, renderings of two great Mahler symphonies in excellent sound [RMo]

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Berlioz: Le carnaval romain, Symphonie fantastique (Pentatone)

Finally, a Symphonie fantastique to rival the vintage versions in superb, vivid, beautifully balanced digital sound [RMo]

Mozart Brahms NI6463

Brahms: Double Concerto & Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante (Nimbus)

A delightful disc, offering an intriguing twist on the Mozart and a grand, virtuosic account of the Brahms, in superb sound [RMo]

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Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Pristine Audio)

Once again, Pristine breathes new life into an imperishable classic of the gramophone [RMo]

Vidimus Gloriam Eius (Hymnus)

A joyous traditional Christmas service, beautifully sung [RMo]

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Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Harmonia Mundi)

The beauty of Fink’s singing and the sonorities of the period band are the main attractions here; other elements are more ordinary [RMo]

Ravel & Fauré: String Quartets (Brilliant Classics)

An interesting pairing, somewhat let down by edgy sound engineering and excessive lingering in the Ravel [RMo]

Castor Alpha 1148

Rameau: Castor et Pollux (Alpha Classics)

An accomplished and stylistically faithful account of Rameau’s third opera [RMo]

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Mahler: Symphony 2 (Hallé)

A fine, grand performance, beautifully engineered but slightly let down by the vocal soloists [RMo]

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Saint-Saëns: L’Ancêtre (Bru Zane)

A fine, dramatic late opera by Saint-Saëns, melodically elusive but highly atmospheric and beautifully performed [RMo]

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ (Brilliant Classics)

Interpretatively cohesive and consistent but rather driven and unvaried [RMo]