BYRON ADAMS / SAMUEL BARBER / DAVID CONTE
B Adams - Midsummer Music / Barber - Violin Concerto / D Conte - Sinfonietta Jack Liebeck (violin), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Poll [ Orchid / CD - due 16/May/2025 ] This new album from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Michael Poll, shines a spotlight on three remarkable 20th-century American composers. |
BYRON ADAMS / SAMUEL BARBER / DAVID CONTE
Chopin - A Portrait of Chopin: Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (arr. for piano & string quartet) Jack Liebeck (violin), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Poll [ Orchid / CD - due 16/May/2025 ] Pianist Lara Melda and the acclaimed Carducci Quartet present A Portrait of Chopin, a striking reimagining of Chopin's First and Second Piano Concerti, arranged for piano and string quartet. The project offers an intimate perspective on these... |
OLIVER DAVIS
Davis: Life Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Julian Kershaw (conductor) [ Signum / CD - due 9/May/2025 ] The latest installment from composer Oliver Davis, an album inspired by his work Life Cycle for violin and strings, with all the works that followed playing on the theme of life. Featuring works for violin, piano, strings, harp and orchestra, Davis... |
BIZET / MASSENET / ROSSINI / BELLINI
Aigul Akhmetshina - Aigul Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Rustioni; with Freddie De Tommaso (tenor), Elisabeth Boudreault (soprano), Kezia Bien [ Decca / CD - released 16/Aug/2024 ] "She has a superb voice, no question, warm and even in tone, admirably agile, with a full, effortless top, and a tangy lower register...It all adds up to a fine recital, and a most auspicious debut." Gramophone September 2024 Editor's Choice |
OLIVER DAVIS
Davis: Blue Beth & Flo (Pianos / Piano Four Hands), Grace Davidson and Julia Doyle (sopranos), Joshua Davidson (treble), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ Signum / CD - released 6/Oct/2023 ] This is Oliver Davis' first album dedicated to the piano, and specifically two pianists, Dutch piano duo Beth & Flo. The album features this dynamic duo playing four hands piano and also on two pianos with full orchestra. The song cycle 'Siren Songs'... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Rondo, WoO 6 Boris Giltburg (piano) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Nov/2019 ] "Here's a very promising start to what I assume will be a new Beethoven piano concerto cycle...Fine playing, fine conducting, fine engineering-in short, a really fine release generally." ClassicsToday |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos 3 & 4 Boris Giltburg (piano) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Feb/2023 ] For 19th-century audiences Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 was the most loved of all his piano concertos, a work in which the balancing of high drama, tenderness, lyricism and humour is most pronounced and in which a coda resolves inner tensions... |
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / etc Boris Giltburg (piano) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko [ Naxos / CD - released 17/Dec/2016 ] "Much of the credit for this belongs to Vasily Petrenko as well, who continues his series of top-notch Shostakovich recordings for Naxos." 10 / 10 ClassicsToday Jan 2017 |
ALEXANDER BORODIN
Essential Borodin (Includes Symphonies 1-3 & In the Steppes of Central Asia) Borodin Quartet / Nicolai Ghiaurov / London Symphony Orchestra / Suisse Romande Orchestra / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / etc [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 2/Jun/2004 ] "Ashkenazy's (1st) many delights come richly, thanks not only to the quality of the RPO playing but also to the warm (1992) digital recording." (Penguin Guide) |
DANNY ELFMAN
Danny Elfman: Percussion Concerto / Wunderkammer Colin Currie (percussion) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta [ Sony Classical / CD - released 17/May/2024 ] " After 115-plus movies Elfman can't help but make pictures of sound and the fabulous engineering here certainly makes them pop." Gramophone |