Latest News: Classical, Recording of the Week
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Recording of the Week,
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project 11th February 2008
The latest product of the Chinese-American cellist’s East-meets-West project includes music by Bloch, Lou Harrison, Prokofiev and Mongolian composer Byambasuren Sharav.
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Recording of the Week,
Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel 4th February 2008
In response to its frequent use in television and film, Chris ponders the Estonian composer’s 1978 composition ‘mirror/s in the mirror’ and alights upon a favourite recording.
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Recording of the Week,
Undeservedly neglected music - John Marsh and Juan de Araujo 28th January 2008
Ex Cathedra explore the rich legacy of a sixteenth-century Spanish composer who spent much of his career in South America, whilst the London Mozart Players focus on the music of an English lawyer who was also one of the most prolific English composers of the eighteenth century.
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Recording of the Week,
Francis Xavier and Jordi Savall 7th January 2008
The viol player, conductor and musicologist pays homage to the sixteenth-century saint and Catholic missionary, who was a co-founder of the Jesuit Order.
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Recording of the Week,
The forgotten Maria 12th November 2007
Cecilia Bartoli explores the legacy of the nineteenth-century Spanish mezzo Maria Malibran, who created the title-role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and was particularly associated with the heroines of Rossini.
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Recording of the Week,
Bach B minor Mass from Suzuki 29th October 2007
Part-way through his cycle of the complete sacred cantatas, the Japanese conductor and Bach Collegium Japan pause to tackle one of the composer’s large-scale choral masterpieces.
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Recording of the Week,
New Mahler 8 from Pierre Boulez 22nd October 2007
A ‘challenging and enlightening’ account of the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. with the Staatskapelle Berlin and soloists including Erin Wall, Johan Botha and Robert Holl.
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Recording of the Week,
Mozart - Don Giovanni from René Jacobs 1st October 2007
The final instalment of the Belgian conductor’s ‘refreshing and intelligent’ Mozart-Da Ponte cycle has Chris questioning his preconceptions about the eponymous libertine, sung here by 27-year-old Johannes Weisser.
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Recording of the Week,
Natalie Clein and the Elgar Cello Concerto 24th September 2007
The 1994 BBC Young Musician of the Year records the concerto which propelled her to victory with Vernon Handley and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Recording of the Week,
Joshua Bell 17th September 2007
Following his recent performance at the Last night of the Proms, the American violinist gives the world premiere recording of John Corigliano’s ‘Red Violin’ Concerto, composed for the 1998 film of the same name.
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Recording of the Week,
Kate Royal 3rd September 2007
The English soprano’s debut album on EMI includes songs by Strauss, Rodrigo, Granados and Canteloube, plus extracts from works by Ravel, Stravinsky and Debussy.
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Recording of the Week,
Exciting new baroque rediscovery - Conti's David 20th August 2007
Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco record the Italian baroque composer’s ‘azione sacra’ (which predates Handel’s Saul by 15 years), with contralto Marjana Mijanovic as the eponymous hero and Furio Zanasi as Goliath.
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Recording of the Week,
Haydn - the most underrated great composer 30th July 2007
An ‘uplifting, overwhelming, charming and comforting’ account of Haydn’s most popular oratorio, sung in a new English adaptation, with soloists including Miah Persson and Mark Padmore.
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Recording of the Week,
Elin Manahan Thomas 9th July 2007
The young Welsh soprano’s debut solo album, Eternal Light, features music by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Arne, Pergolesi and Hildegard von Bingen.
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Recording of the Week,
Padmore and Bostridge sing Handel 11th June 2007
Two leading English tenors tackle opera and oratorio arias, including Jupiter’s ‘Where’er you walk’ from Semele, Jephtha’s ‘Waft her, angels’, and Samson’s ‘Total eclipse’.
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Recording of the Week,
Elgar's Enigma Variations 4th June 2007
Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra mark the 150th anniversary of the English composer’s birth with a marvellous new live recording of his tribute to ‘my friends pictured within’.
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Recording of the Week,
Debussy's new champion 14th May 2007
The French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet begins a new Debussy cycle with arresting performances of the Préludes and Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon.
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Recording of the Week,
Schütz's Legacy 7th May 2007
Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent performed the German baroque master’s ‘Opus ultimum’, a series of eleven motets for double choir setting Psalm 119.
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Recording of the Week,
Harpsichord or Piano? 26th March 2007
In the wake of French pianist Alexandre Tharaud’s superb recent album of Couperin, Tic Toc Choc, Chris considers the implications of performing baroque keyboard music on a modern piano.
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Recording of the Week,
Strauss's Four Last Songs 19th March 2007
A new recording of Strauss’s late reflections on mortality from EMI’s new signing, Swedish dramatic soprano Nina Stemme, stands comparison with the very best.
