Editor's Choice: April 2025 | The best new classical recordings
Friday, March 21, 2025
This month we feature outstanding new accounts of Puccini's Tosca, Weinberg's The Passenger, Machaut's. songs, Walton's Violin Concerto and much more
Recording of the month
Puccini Tosca
Sols; Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Daniel Harding (DG)
A triumphant Tosca from DG featuring a superb Eleonora Buratto in the lead and tenor Jonathan Tetelman as Cavaradossi; Daniel Harding conducts the score with real drama.
Liszt. Rachmaninov ‘Dies irae’
Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra / Dmitry Masleev pf (Aparté)
Events saw Dmitry Masleev conduct from the piano, and the result is full of rapport, and some spectacular music-making.
Walton Violin Concerto, etc
Charlie Lovell-Jones vn Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Chandos)
A brilliant start to a series of Walton orchestral works under John Wilson – each will offer a concerto, and Charlie Lovell-Jones delivers that for violin in great style.
JS Bach. Britten. Shaw. Telemann Solo Viola Works
Timothy Ridout va (Harmonia Mundi)
Music for solo viola from a young player of great virtuosity and compelling tone – recent cover artist Timothy Ridout’s journey through the centuries is one of remarkable beauty.
Machaut ‘A Lover’s Death’
The Orlando Consort (Hyperion)
After 11 installments the Orlando Consort’s recording of Machaut’s complete songs ends as impeccably as it began; the composer could not have asked for better advocacy from a modern ensemble.
Schumann ‘Twilight’
Ian Bostridge ten Saskia Giorgini pf (Pentatone)
The intelligence and poetic reflection that tenor Ian Bostridge always brings to everything he sings is perfectly paired with a pianist, Saskia Giorgini, of equally searching musicality.
Fatma Said Lieder
Fatma Said sop et al (Warner Classics)
Lied was Fatma Said’s first love, and the affection and insight she brings to her hand-picked song selection – wonderfully performed with equally hand-picked collaborators, both instrumentalists and singers – is a real joy.
‘George’
Sonya Yoncheva sop Olga Zado pf (Naïve)
This is a fascinating project: Sonya Yoncheva both singing and reciting poetry with equal elegance and passion, as she explores the life and world of the prolific 19th-century writer George Sand.
Bizet Djamileh
Sols; Les Siècles / François‑Xavier Roth (Bru Zane)
Bru Zane, an organisation known for the impeccable standards of both performance and presentation, and a huge line-up of artists, celebrates Bizet via his opera Djamileh, songs, and so much more.
Weinberg The Passenger
Sols; Teatro Real, Madrid / Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (DG)
David Pountney’s production of Weinberg’s harrowing opera about Auschwitz has established it as a work of enormous significance, something this audio recording reinforces.
Video of the month
London International Festival of Early Music
A film to stream this month, and it’s of artistic director and recorder player Erik Bosgraaf and filoBarocco exploring the Polish folk-dances Telemann discovered.
Reissue/archive
‘Heifetz Live Recordings’
Jascha Heifetz vn (Biddulph)
‘A gift of a disc,’ writes Rob Cowan in Replay of this selection from the Biddulph label of live performances by the great violinist Jascha Heifetz – the repertoire ranges from Bach and Mozart to Edward MacDowell and Fritz Kreisler.
