Editor's Choice – May 2025: this month's outstanding classical recordings
Thursday, April 17, 2025
From Lise Davidsen’s rare Senta to rediscovered Boult and radiant Ravel, these are the recordings that define this month’s listening
Recording of the Month
WAGNER Der fliegende Holländer
Lise Davidsen, Gerald Finley; Chorus & Orchestra of Norwegian Opera / Edward Gardner
Label: Decca
Lise Davidsen’s brilliant career continues with a Senta from the Flying Dutchman of real radiance; Gerald Finley and conductor Edward Gardner are both equally magnificent.
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, TCHAIKOVSKY, TCHEREPNIN Orchestral Works
NDR Radiophilharmonie / Stanislav Kochanovsky
Label: Harmonia Mundi
A beautifully crafted debut from Stanislav Kochanovsky which draws on his deep affinity with Russian repertoire.
‘Colouring Book’
George Xiaoyuan Fu pf
Label: Platoon
George Xiaoyuan Fu’s Debussy Études are full of, appropriately, colour, the pianist exploring them with individuality. The modern works – including his own Passacaglia on a Theme by Radiohead – perfectly complete the album.
RAVEL Complete Songs
Various singers; Malcolm Martineau pf
Label: Signum
Anniversary Ravel, this time the complete songs, from a team of singers handpicked by Malcolm Martineau who journey through the composer’s captivating sound world with style and elegance.
BRAHMS Piano Quartets Nos 2 & 3
Krystian Zimerman pf Maria Nowak vn Katarzyna Budnik va Yuya Okamoto vc
Label: DG
Chamber music-making of the highest order from four players who collectively offer drama, poignancy and beauty in two of Brahms’s piano quartets.
JS BACH Mass in B minor
Pygmalion / Raphaël Pichon
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Further confirming him as a Bach conductor of deeply reflective sincerity, Raphaël Pichon follows his Award-winning St Matthew Passion with the B minor Mass.
TIPPETT New Year
Sols; BBC Scottish Symphony / Martyn Brabbins
Label: NMC
New Year, Michael Tippett’s operatic swansong, received this superb revival last year under Martyn Brabbins, which the ever-vital NMC now offers to the widest possible audience.
RAVEL Complete Works for Solo Piano
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet pf
Label: Chandos
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has recorded Ravel’s music before, but the composer’s 150th anniversary is an ideal time to share the expressive insight gained from many further years living with it. A superb set.
LISZT Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
Leif Ove Andsnes pf Norwegian Soloists’ Choir / Grete Pedersen
Label: Sony Classical
An intensely reflective atmosphere surrounds this performance of Liszt’s astonishing meditation on the Stations of the Cross from Leif Ove Andsnes and colleagues.
VERDI Simon Boccanegra (1857 version)
Sols; Hallé Orchestra / Sir Mark Elder
Label: Opera Rara
We delved into the background of Verdi’s original 1857 score for Simon Boccanegra last month, and the resulting recording from Opera Rara is every bit as compelling as hoped.
DVD/Blu-ray
BRUCKNER Symphony No 9
Bamberg Symphony / Herbert Blomstedt
Label: Accentus
‘Noble and life-affirming’, writes Richard Osborne of Blomstedt Bruckner Ninth, recorded on the conductor’s 97th birthday.
Reissue / Archive
‘Boult’s Elgar – The Forgotten Recordings’
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Adrian Boult
Label: Somm
Somm are to be congratulated on this issue presenting some superb performances of the music of Elgar from a conductor, Sir Adrian Boult, who understood his works so well.
