Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
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Recording of the Week,
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich cycle with Symphonies 6 & 7 22nd February 2019Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich series with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with thrillingly detailed accounts of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies.
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Recording of the Week,
Paul Lewis plays early Schubert and Weber 15th February 2019The British pianist radiates sympathy and imagination in two piano sonatas from the 1810s by young composers who both died before their fortieth birthdays.
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Recording of the Week,
Kirill Karabits conducts the world premiere of Liszt's Sardanapalo 8th February 2019Reconstructed by the musicologist David Trippett, the single completed act of Liszt's abandoned opera on a subject by Byron reveals what the composer's son-in-law Wagner described as 'the claw of a lion'.
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Recording of the Week,
Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen perform cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky 1st February 2019The cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky are given expressive performances by Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen, alongside Prokofiev's Ballade and a handful of shorter works.
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Recording of the Week,
Maurizio Pollini performs late piano works by Chopin 25th January 2019The Italian pianist revisits works by Chopin including the Third Piano Sonata, the Berceuse, and the two Nocturnes, op. 55, alongside his first recording of the three Mazurkas, op. 56.
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Recording of the Week,
Berlioz from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles 18th January 2019Tabea Zimmermann and Stéphane Degout are the soloists in period-instrument performances of Harold en Italie & Les nuits d'été.
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Recording of the Week,
Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch from Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch 11th January 2019The German tenor, soprano and pianist have a ball with Wolf's 46 miniatures on love, loss and fickleness, recorded live in concert in Essen last year.
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Recording of the Week,
Orchestral Works by George Antheil 4th January 2019The BBC Philharmonic and John Storgårds present the second volume in Chandos's survey of the orchestral works of American composer, George Antheil.
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Recording of the Week,
George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence 28th December 2018The British composer's third opera, based on the downfall of Edward II and starring French baritone Stéphane Degout as the conflicted monarch, has a compact, claustrophobic beauty.
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Recording of the Week,
Presto Personal Favourites from 2018 21st December 2018Bach, Schubert, Finzi, Liszt and Saint-Saëns feature among the editorial team's individual picks of the year.
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Recording of the Week,
Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov from Vasily Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic 14th December 2018The Russian conductor presides over sparkling, taut accounts of two avian fairy-tales: the complete ballet music for The Firebird and the suite from the posthumously-premiered opera Le Coq d’Or.
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Recording of the Week,
François-Xavier Roth conducts orchestral works by Debussy 7th December 2018James listens to a captivating account of three orchestral works by Debussy from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles, performed on authentic instruments.
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Recording of the Week,
100 Years of Nine Lessons & Carols from King's 30th November 2018David enjoys a retrospective recording from the choir of King's College, looking back on a century of festive music-making and forward to a new era.
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Recording of the Week,
Vivaldi from Cecilia Bartoli and Ensemble Matheus 23rd November 2018Nearly twenty years after her landmark album devoted to the operas of the 'Red Priest', the Italian mezzo is as dazzling as ever in arias from works including Orlando furioso, Il Giustino and Ottone in Villa.
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Recording of the Week,
Late Debussy sonatas from Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov and friends 16th November 2018Harmonia Mundi's ten-album series commemorating the centenary of Debussy's death continues with the Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, and Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.
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Recording of the Week,
John Wilson conducts Copland's Third Symphony and Connotations 9th November 2018Chandos's superb survey of the American composer's orchestral music with the BBC Philharmonic continues to raise the roof as the Fanfare for the Common Man returns transformed.
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Recording of the Week,
Teodor Currentzis conducts Mahler's Sixth Symphony 2nd November 2018Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna present an impassioned, highly dramatic account of Mahler's Sixth Symphony.
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Recording of the Week,
Requiem: The Pity of War from Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano 26th October 2018The tenor and pianist join forces for a programme of Butterworth, Rudi Stephan, Kurt Weill and Mahler to commemorate the centenary of Armistice Day next month.
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Recording of the Week,
Jiří Bělohlávek conducts Martinů's What Men Live By 19th October 2018The world premiere recording of a 1952 'pastoral opera' based on Tolstoy, captured three years before the Czech conductor's death in 2017.
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Recording of the Week,
Daniil Trifonov brings freshness and clarity to Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos 12th October 2018Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov brings his customary thoughtfulness and virtuosity to an impressive new account of one of the most familiar of all piano concertos.