MAHLER
Symphony No. 4 Laura Claycomb (soprano) / San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ AVIE SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Feb/2010 ] "one to rank alongside the blistering performance of the Sixth" BBC Music Magazine 5 Star |
SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No 5 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ Avie / San Francisco Symphony / Keeping Score / CD - released 20/Mar/2010 ] This companion concert recording for Keeping Score: Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, as seen on PBS, was recorded live in Davies Symphony Hall in November 2007. |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 5 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ AVIE SACD / SACD - released 1/Jun/2007 ] "It always seems to be damning with faint praise when I find myself making the caveat that those who are collecting a particular cycle of Mahler symphonies can buy a current instalment with confidence." (MusicWeb October 2006) |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 6 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ AVIE SACD / 2 SACD - released 1/Jun/2007 ] "This a Mahler Sixth Symphony with contemporary resonance superbly played and recorded. It competes with the best." (MusicWeb May 2002) |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 7 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ AVIE SACD / SACD - released 1/Jun/2007 ] "This Mahler 7th would be my current recommendation to anyone. The standard of playing and recording is superb throughout, it has the terrific advantage of being on a single disc" (MusicWeb Jan 2006) |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 9 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas [ AVIE SACD / SACD - released 1/Jun/2007 ] "I've heard many far more impassioned, expressive versions of this symphony, but also quite a few with less going for them. This isn't my preferred approach to the Ninth, but I can see where Tilson Thomas is coming from." (MusicWeb August 2005) |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Unknown Britten Sandrine Piau (soprano) Michael Collins (clarinet) Rolf Hind (piano) / Northern Sinfonia, Thomas Zehetmair [ NMC / CD - released 20/Sep/2009 ] Recording of the Month (Gramophone Awards Issue 2009) - "All the performances are superb. Sandrine Piau's stylish and imaginative interpretation of Les illuminations is one of the best soprano versions on disc, in fact." |
ROB KEELEY
Rob Keeley: Orchestral Music Sarah Desbruslais (flute) Michael Sluman, James Turnbull (oboes) Patrick Flanaghan (cor anglais) / Málaga Philharmonic & Liepāja Symphony Orchestra [ Toccata / CD - released 5/Jun/2020 ] Rob Keeley - born in south Wales in 1960 but immersed in London musical life since boyhood - embraces a wide range of influences. Stravinsky's angular melodies and Tippett's buoyant rhythms can be heard in the spiky but bucolic Second Symphony. |
LENNOX BERKELEY
Chamber works for wind, strings & piano Sarah Francis (oboe) Judith Fitton (flute) Michael Dussek (piano) / Tagore String Trio [ Regis Records / CD - released 7/Jul/2012 ] "Sarah Francis forms an idiomatic and communicative partnership with pianist Michael Dussek...a desirable collection, engineered with striking fidelity" (Gramophone) |
OLIVIER MESSIAEN
Messiaen: Les Offrandes Oubliées Sarah Leonard (soprano), ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michael Gielen (conductor) [ Orfeo / CD - released 16/Jul/2022 ] The fifth instalment in Orfeo's Michael Gielen / ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra series. What makes Olivier Messiaen's œuvre so special is largely his ability to coalesce various influences, inspirations and convictions into a wholly individual... |
PACHELBEL
Complete Organ Works - Vol. I Michael Belotti, James David Christie, Jürgen Essl, Christian Schmitt (organ) [ CPO SACD / 5 Hybrid SACD - released 16/Aug/2014 ] "I have generally admired the way Pachelbel's music is played here. The four organists are excellent interpreters who know how to bring out the qualities of his various works." (Recording of the Month MusicWeb July 2014) |
MARK GREY
Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio Scott Hendricks (baritone) / The Phoenix Symphony and Chorus / Michael Christie [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 1/Apr/2009 ] The Phoenix Symphony enjoys a long history of premièring new works that bridge gaps between Western art music and Native cultures. Hailed as 'a master', Mark Grey 'is a composer as well as a sound engineer, and what he is up to has far-reaching... |
Sharon Shannon / Frankie Gavin / Michael McGoldrick / Jim Murray
Tunes [ Compass Records / CD - released 12/Apr/2005 ] This Sharon Shannon album features collaborations with her talented friends, Frankie Gavin, Michael McGoldrick and Jim Murray. |
MAHLER
Symphony No. 10 F sharp Major (performing version by Deryck Cooke) Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freibu / Michael Gielen (conductor) [ Hanssler / CD - released 24/Mar/2006 ] "I can enthusiastically recommend this disc to any Mahlerite who still needs to be convinced about the viability of this score." (Fanfare Magazine) |
NIGEL WESTLAKE
Shadow Dances - music for guitar Slava Grigoryan (guitar) with Michael Kieran Harvey (piano), Leonard Grigoryan (guitar), Saffire & Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. [ ABC Classics / CD - released 15/Feb/2016 ] Internationally renowned guitarist Slava Grigoryan plays the music of Australian composer Nigel Westlake on this new album. Grigoryan is a long-time champion of Westlake's music, and in this CD he showcases pieces such as Antarctica, with the... |
SCHUBERT
Symphonies Nos. 8 'Unfinished' & 9 'Great' Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Failoni Orchestra, Michael Halász [ NAXOS / CD - released 20/Nov/2012 ] Schubert's last two symphonies are ambitious in scale and brimming with striking ideas, though only two movements of the Symphony No. 8 were finished and the score rediscovered and first performed 43 years after the composer's death. The 'Great' C... |
TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker (The) / Swan Lake / Sleeping Beauty Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Michael Halasz / Ondrej Lenard [ Naxos / CD - released 15/May/2001 ] The music of Tchaikovsky, in spite of the reservations of contemporaries at home and abroad, must seem to us both essentially Russian and firmly in the West European tradition. |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Symphonies.5 & 8 / Rosamunde - Ballet Music Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Halász [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Feb/1988 ] Vienna has always claimed Franz Schubert as its own. Of his immediate predecessors, Haydn came from the village of Rohrau, Mozart came to the city from provincial Salzburg, while Beethoven travelled there from his native Bonn. |
JOSEF STRAUSS
Edition Vol. 4 (incls Vereins-Lieder, Waltzer, & Jockey-Polka) Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice / Michael Dittrich(conductor) [ Marco Polo / CD - released 16/Aug/2006 ] On 21 August 1858 the long-awaited Crown Prince was born, after two daughters, to the imperial couple Elisabeth and Franz Josef von Habsburg-Lothringen. He was named Rudolph, after the founder of the house of Habsburg. Elisabeth had gone into... |