ANTONIO VIVALDI
Vivaldi: Nos 4 saisons [Four Seasons] Camille & Julie Berthollet (violin, cello, voice, piano) / String Ensemble of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse [ Warner Classics / CD - released 24/Jan/2020 ] "We are so excited and thrilled to finally reveal this project, which we have been imagining and developing for months... «Nos 4 saisons», our four seasons! We heard The Four Seasons for the first time before we even knew how to talk, and the sound... |
SIR LENNOX BERKELEY
Berkeley: Piano Concerto,Op. 29 in B flat major / Berkeley, Michael-Gethsemane Fragment; Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila, Op. 27 Catherine Wyn-Rogers (contralto) Celia Craig (cor anglais) Howard Shelley (piano) / BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Richard Hickox [ Chandos Berkeley Edition Vol 5 / CD - released 6/Dec/2004 ] "This eloquent father-and-son series restores the scintillating concerto." Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (February 2005) |
GUSTAV HOLST / RICHARD STRAUSS
Holst: Planets / R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra CBSO Youth Chorus & National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Edward Gardner [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 30/Jan/2017 ] For its very first album on Chandos, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain devotes its characteristic energy and musical mastery to an explosive programme that transcends daily life and earthly experience. It is helped by the enthusiastic,... |
GUSTAV HOLST / RICHARD STRAUSS
Holst: The Planets / Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (LP) CBSO Youth Chorus, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Edward Gardner [ Chandos LP / LP - released 24/Feb/2017 ] "Edward Gardner's driven, finely balanced conducting ensures this is one for collectors as well as supporters." The Guardian, 10th February 2017 **** |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Idomeneo (complete opera) Christian Elsner / Kristina Hammarström / Henriette Bonde-Hansen / Raffaella Milanesi / Danish National Choir / Danish Radio Sinfonietta Adam Fischer [ DACAPO SACD / 4 Hybrid SACD - released 6/Dec/2010 ] fleet-footed orchestral playing and strong, characterful soloists...Elsner captures the conflict raging within the Lear-like Idomeneo and demonstrates some fiendish coloratura...Fischer understands this opera deeply and presents it as a convincing... |
PYOTR Il'yich TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom Op 41 The National Academic Choir of the Ukraine 'Dumka' / Yevhen Savchur [ Brilliant Classics Musica Sacra / CD - released 1/Sep/2009 ] After their successful recording of Rachmaninov' s Vespers the Dumka Choir made a new recording of Tchaikovsky's masterwork the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, in which he captures the spirit of the Russ. |
GUSTAV HOLST
Holst: The Planets, Op.32 / The Mystic Trumpeter (with Matthews - Pluto: The Renewer) Claire Rutter (soprano) / Royal Scottish National Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones [ Naxos / CD - released 5/Jun/2002 ] "an expansive, richly recorded performance" (Sunday Telegraph) |
LAVAILLAT
La Petite Danseuse De Degas (from The Opéra Garnier, Paris 2010) BLU-RAY Clairemarie Osta / Dorothée Gilbert / Mathieu Ganio / Corps De Ballet & Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Paris / Koen Kessels [ ArtHaus Musik Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 8/Aug/2011 ] "An inspired and visually ravishing creation. This ballet deserves to go from success to success." (recording of the Month MusicWeb Aug 2011) |
DARIUS MILHAUD
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Milhaud: Le Carnaval d'Aix / Le boeuf sur le toit / la creation du monde / Concertos Claude Helffer (piano) Frederique Cambreling (harp) / Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon [ Warner Classics Erato / 2 CD - released 16/Nov/1998 ] Distinctively French, yet cosmopolitan in his personal and artistic horizons, Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was adventurous, prominent, and prolific. A pupil of Dukas and d'Indy, he became a member of Les Six and a distinguished teacher in the USA and... |
JOHANNES BRAHMS / W. A. MOZART
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 / Mozart: Piano Concerto No 23 Clifford Curzon (piano) / National Symphony Orchestra, Boyd Neel, Enrique Jorda [ Dutton Concert Classics / CD - released 20/Mar/1998 ] "I found myself listening spellbound to Curzon's playing. This is the Curzon who, at the age of 39, was only now emerging into the full light of an international career after a long and inspiring apprenticeship with such a teacher as Arthur Schnabel" |
CARL DAVIS
Last Train to Tomorrow Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Carl Davis [ Carl Davis Collection / Launch Music / CD - released 20/Nov/2014 ] LAST TRAIN TO TOMORROW tells the story, in words and music, of the 10,000 children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia who were put on the Kindertransport rescue trains to Liverpool Street station, London and made it to safety. It tells the... |
JEAN SIBELIUS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 Op 63 / The tempest: Suite No. 1 The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam [ Chandos / CD - released 1/Nov/1991 ] Recorded 2-3 November 1990 |
FRIEDRICH KUHLAU
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Kuhlau: Overtures Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michael Schonwandt [ Chandos / CD - released 20/Aug/2012 ] Kuhlau was born on 11 September 1786 just south of Lüneburg in the Uelzen district of Lower Saxony (Germany). At the age of seven, he lost his right eye when he slipped on ice and fell. His father, grandfather, and uncle were military oboists. Even... |
LUIGI DALLAPICCOLA
Dallapiccola: Il Prigioniero Anna Maria Chiuri, Michael Nagy, Stephan Rugamer, Adam Riis / Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 10/Jul/2020 ] GRAMOPHONE Award Nomination 2021 - Opera |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: TheComplete Symphonies, Ovetures, Haydn Variations, Violin Concerto, Requiem & Alto Rhapsody David Oistrakh, Christa Ludwig, Elizabeth Schwarkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion, Otto [ Warner Classics / 6 CD Box Set - released 23/Aug/2024 ] Klemperer and Brahms had much in common, which may go some way to explaining the empathy with which Klemperer conducts the works of the composer. Richard Osborne says 'no detail was insignificant, yet none was allowed to subvert the larger whole'. |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande (complete opera) Mireille Delunsch, Gerard Theruel, Armand Arapian, Gabriel Bacquier / Lille National Orchestra & Nord-Pas-de-Calais Chorus, Jean-Claude Casadesus [ Naxos / 3 CD Box Set - released 26/Jul/1999 ] "An outstanding bargain" Penguin Guide |
ENRIQUE GRANADOS
Granados: María del Carmen (complete opera) Diana Veronese, Jesus Suaste, Larisa Kostyuk / Wexford Festival Opera Chorus, Belarussian National Philharmonic, Bragado-Darman [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 28/Sep/2016 ] María del Carmen was Enrique Granados' first great operatic success and the stage work he held in highest regard. It was received with great acclaim at its première in 1898, admired for its refined and brilliant orchestral writing and for its... |
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina (complete opera recorded in 1978) Dimiter Petrov, Todor Kostov, Nicola Ghiuselev / Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Atanas Margaritov [ Brilliant Classics Opera Collection / 3 CD Box Set - released 11/Sep/2011 ] Khovanschina occupied the composer during 1872, as Boris was being 'adjusted' to suit the theatre authorities ahead of the premier. |
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
Saint-Saens: Violin Concertos No. 3 / Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso / etc Dong-Suk Kang (violin) / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit [ Naxos / CD - released 7/Sep/2007 ] "more than just convincingly shaped; it is downright poetic... Why pay more and get less when this excellent Naxos offering is available at low cost?" - American Record Guide |
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina (complete opera recorded in 1969) Drago Starc, Dušan Popović, Miroslav Čangalović, Melanija Bugarinović / Belgrade National Opera Chorus, Kreshimir Baranovich [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 3 CD Box Set - released 20/Aug/2018 ] A first release on CD for the first recording in stereo (and entirely complete) of Mussorgsky's tragic chronicle of faith, rebellion and repression in 17th-century Russia. |