EDWARD ELGAR
Elgar: Starlight Express, Op. 78 Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone) & Simon Callow (narrator) / Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis [ Chandos SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 1/Nov/2012 ] "Davis secures absolutely first-rate results from the Scottish CO. Elin Manahan Thomas's light and slivery soprano could hardly be more suited to the parts of the Laugher and Jane-Anne, while Roderick Williams is in glorious voice throughout."... |
ARTHUR SULLIVAN
Sullivan: The Beauty Stone (complete opera) Elin Manahan Thomas, Toby Spence, Rebecca Evans, Alan Opie, Stephen Gadd, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Richard Suart / BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Rory [ Chandos Classics / 2 CD - released 15/Nov/2013 ] "It has never been recorded by professional singers before, and Rory Macdonald seems to have prepared with academic scrupulousness...it's very strongly cast, too, but there's no sense of an important rediscovery here." (Guardian) |
EDGARD VARESE
Orchestral Works Vol 2 (Incls 'Ameriques' & 'Ionisation') Elizabeth Watts (soprano) Maria Grochowska (flute) Thomas Bloch (Ondes MArtenot) / Polish National Orchestra / Christopher Lyndon-Gee [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Jun/2008 ] "An excellent disc, which serves as a welcome introduction to the work of this largely under-valued composer. Varèse's music divulges a creative genius who was undoubtedly a long way ahead of his time, and one can only listen in awe at his work. The... |
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 / Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Emanuel Ax (piano) / San Francisco Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas [ San Francisco Symphony / Hybrid SACD - released 23/Aug/2011 ] "This pairing is a sure-fire winner - two of Beethoven's most venerated works, performed by musicians of acute sensibility and enviable faculties of interpretation...We expect the impossible from fresh recordings of the Fifth Symphony nowadays...but... |
BARTOK / BEETHOVEN / MOZART / SHOSTAKOVICH / HAYDN / etc
The Emerson String Quartet: Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Emerson String Quartet, with Carol Wincenc (flute), Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Thomas Hampson (baritone) & Menahem Pressler (piano) [ Deutsche Grammophon / 52 CD Box Set - released 10/Sep/2019 ] This 52 CD collection charts the New York-based ensemble's musical breadth, encompassing virtually all of the important repertoire for their formation, and features complete cycles by Shostakovich, Beethoven and Bartók; plus String Quartets by Haydn,... |
J.S. BACH
Wedding Cantata, Hunt Cantata & Ich habe genug Emma Kirkby (soprano) David Thomas, Jennifer Smith / The Parley of Instruments [ Hyperion Dyad / 2 CD - released 1/Jan/2001 ] 'Still by far the best version. The stronger sense of occasion is boosted by Peter Holman's inspired topping and tailing with sinfonias' (International Record Review) |
SAINT-SAENS / STEPHEN GOSS / FRANCK
Piano Concertos Emmanuel Despax (piano) / Orpheus Sinfonia, Thomas Carroll [ Signum / CD - released 25/Nov/2013 ] Emmanuel Despax is a rising star on the UK and international piano scene, who has performed at the Wigmore and Cadogan Halls in London and with orchestras including the CBSO. His debut concerto recording, with the Orpheus Sinfonia under Thomas... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Beethoven English Chamber Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers, London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas, with Éva Marton (soprano) [ Sony Classical Masters / 6 CD Box Set - released 13/Mar/2020 ] "Ormandy's reading generates excitement through exact accentuation as well as vibrant instrumental color and striking ensemble balances. You'd expect to hear the piano clearly at the start of the first-movement development section, but it makes a... |
ANTONIO de CABEZON
Tientos Y Glosados Ensemble Accentus / Thomas Wimmer [ Naxos Early Music / CD - released 29/Dec/2007 ] 1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die (Pre 1700) - "The recorded sound is good and warm, and generous to the (already heavy) instrumental playing." - Alison Bullock International Record Review October 2001 |
R. STRAUSS
Elektra & Ariadne auf Naxos (Final Scenes) Erna Schlüter / Ljuba Welitsch / Maria Cebotari / Karl Friedrich / Margaret Field-Hyde / Royal Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra / Sir Thomas Beecham [ Naxos Historical Great Opera Recordings / CD - released 1/Aug/2011 ] For the recording of Elektra, Beecham was fortunate to be to able call upon the renowned interpreters of Strauss's music Erna Schlüter, Ljuba Welitsch and Paul Schöffler, who were appearing with the Vienna State Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent... |
MICHAEL JARRELL
Mais Les Images Restent Ernesto Molinari, Thomas Demenga, Marino Formenti, Peter Rundel, WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln [ Aeon / CD - released 24/Nov/2017 ] Michael Jarrell claims for himself the status of a craftsman. Well aware that mastery of his art is acquired in the long term, he has often felt the need to return to the same object, considered from a different angle, when he judges that he now... |
ALESSANDRO ROLLA
Rolla: Duets for violin & viola Isabelle Faust (violin) Thomas Riebl (viola) [ Glossa Cabinet / CD - released 20/Jul/2016 ] With this 2002 recording originally issued on the Swiss Pan Classics label, violinist Isabelle Faust and violist Thomas Riebl acquaint us with a composer of great distinction, Alessandro Rolla, who would have been otherwise completely forgotten if... |
ALUN HODDINOTT
Dives & Lazarus / Sinfonia Fidei / etc Felicity Palmer (sop) Thomas Allen (baritone) Csaba Erdelyi (viola) Moray Welsh (cello) / Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / David Atherto [ Lyrita / CD - released 12/Apr/2007 ] "Nocturnes and Cadenzas is an ideal work to try if you want to know if Hoddinott is for you: its three nocturnes are finely coloured and quite characteristic, and the linking cadenzas have both clear structural function and expressive weight." Gramophone |
NED ROREM
Chamber Music with Flute Fenwick Smith (flute), David Leisner (guitar), Ronald Thomas (cello), Mihae Lee (piano), Ann Hobson Pilot (harp) [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Nov/2011 ] Covering much of the composer's career, these pieces range from the early Mountain Song which captures the spirit of a rural Kentucky folksong, to the meditative and spectacular Four Prayers. |
MARTINU
Chamber Music with Flute Fenwick Smith (flute) / Sally Pinkas (piano) / John Ferrillo (oboe) / Thomas Martin (clarinet) / Richard Ranti and Suzanne Nelson (bassoons) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Oct/2010 ] "The disc is the idea of the outstanding Boston-based flautist, Fenwick Smith, the recordings, some dating back to 2002 being the product of the excellent American performers involved." (David's Review Corner) |
PERGOLESI
Stabat Mater / Salve Regina in F minor Florilegium with Elin Manahan Thomas (sop) & Robin Blaze (counter-tenor) [ Channel Classics SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/May/2010 ] "This new Pergolesi Stabat Mater excels in the clarity of Florilegium's strings" (Choral & Song Recording of the Month BBC Music July 2010) |
Food (Iain Ballamy & Thomas Strønen)
Mercurial Balm [ ECM / CD - released 5/Nov/2012 ] |
J. S. BACH
Bach (J.S.): Sonates & Solo Pour La Flute Traversiere Francois Lazarevitch (traverse flute) / Les Musiciens De Saint-Julien, Thomas Dunford [ Alpha / CD - released 1/Jun/2014 ] As director of Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Francois Lazarevitch has enabled us to discover numerous treasures stemming from dance and folk music. For the first time on Alpha, he has recorded a solo album, devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach's Flute... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Sonates & solo pour la flûte traversière François Lazarevitch; Lucile Boulanger; Thomas Dunford; Jean Rondeau [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 23/Aug/2019 ] Following the Alpha label's successful Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink collections (a total of fifty-six reissues), which brought the pearls from the Baroque catalogue back into the spotlight, there are now fourteen new titles offering a chance to... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Three Or One Fred Thomas (piano), Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Lucy Railton (violoncello) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 3/Dec/2021 ] Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias - 24 pieces in all - transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by... |