Gramophone Editor’s Choice: June 2022 | The best new classical recordings
Friday, May 13, 2022
Featuring new recordings of Handel's La Resurrezione, Beethoven's piano concertos, Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata No 1 and much more
Recording of the month
Handel La Resurrezione
Sols; The English Concert / Harry Bicket
Linn
Handel’s operatic Easter oratorio gets a beautifully elegant reading from Harry Bicket, who leads an excellent English Concert and a superb all-British set of soloists in this truly wonderful recording.
Read more: Handel's message for the modern world
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 3
Kristian Bezuidenhout fp Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado
Harmonia Mundi
Kristian Bezuidenhout completes his super set of the Beethoven concertos with this joyously spirited pairing of Nos 1 and 3.
Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Alexandre Kantorow pf Tapiola Sinfonietta / Jean-Jacques Kantorow
BIS
Another concerto set completion, and one that reveals exactly why Alexandre Kantorow graces this issue’s cover.
Read more: Inside Brahms’s Piano Sonata No 2 with Alexandre Kantorow
Weill Symphony No 2. Shostakovich Symphony No 5
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Lahav Shani
Warner Classics
A fabulous opportunity to hear Kurt Weill’s Second Symphony from young conductor Lahav Shani, partnered with a dramatic reading of Shostakovich Symphony No 5.
Read more: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony – a deep dive into the best recordings
Schnittke. Shostakovich. Silvestrov ‘Outcast’
Matangi Quartet
Matangi
‘A genuinely remarkable disc,’ writes Ivan Moody of the Matangi Quartet’s recording, their playing revealing a powerful and vivid sense of focus in a well-chosen programme.
Beethoven. Brahms. Mozart ‘Variations’
Simon Trpčeski pf
Linn
Three masters of variation form – Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart – are explored, and very clearly enjoyed, by pianist Simon Trpčeski on this delightful album.
Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No 1. Moments musicaux
Steven Osborne pf
Hyperion
Where today would one turn ‘for more idiomatic, more intelligent, or more beautiful Rachmaninov-playing’ asks Patrick Rucker after hearing Steven Osborne’s new release?
Read more: Top 10 Sergei Rachmaninov recordings
‘An Old Belief’
The Sixteen / Harry Christophers
Coro
A hugely varied programme musically and powerfully united thematically, this album shows the impeccable approach to interpretation Harry Christophers and The Sixteen bring to everything they perform.
‘A Room of Mirrors’
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Zachary Wilder tens Ensemble I Gemelli
Gemelli Factory
From the opening number, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, fellow tenor Zachary Wilder, and Ensemble I Gemelli have us gripped with irresistible music-making.
‘Rivales’
Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau sops Le Concert de la Loge / Julien Chauvin
Alpha
Two of today’s finest sopranos, Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau, reveal their complete mastery of bringing this sort of repertoire to compelling theatrical life.
DVD/blu-ray
Beethoven Fidelio
Sols incl Lise Davidsen; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano
Opus Arte
‘A musically excellent Fidelio married to a thought-provoking, challenging production,’ concludes Hugo Shirley of Beethoven’s opera, the cast here led by Lise Davidsen.
Read more: Lise Davidsen interview – ‘I really miss people coughing, I really miss people making that sound!’
Reissue/archive
Fauré. d’Indy Piano Works
Marguerite Long pf
APR
In this month’s Replay, Rob Cowan recommends this superbly transferred APR collection of recordings by the legendary pianist and teacher Maguerite Long, an authoritative two-disc set of her complete recordings of Fauré and d’Indy.
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