LUTOSŁAWSKI Funeral Music BARTÓK Divertimento. Romanian Folk Dances

Dennis Russell Davies | Hungarian Radio Children's Choir | Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Juxtaposing Lutosławski’s Funeral Music in memory of Béla Bartók (1956-58) with the Hungarian’s Divertimento (1939) is apt beyond the textural...

Reviewed by Guy Rickards in issue: 09/2012

Bluebird - Music of Contemplation

Edward Higginbottom | New College Choir, Oxford

This famous choir now has a history (albeit a fairly recent one) of putting together programmes likely to have a...

Reviewed by John Steane in issue: 12/2000

The art of Itzhak Perlman

André Previn | Bruno Canino | Dov Seltzer | Israel Philharmonic Orchestra | Israel Zohar | Itzhak Perlman | Jim Hall | Lawrence Foster | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Lynn Harrell

Perlman's coupling of concertos by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ben Haim brings a heartfelt tribute to his Jewish background. These are live...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 5/1993

Le Jardin des Melodies - 16th Century French Dances & Songs

Ellen Hargis | Kings Noyse | Paul O'Dette

Sixteenth-century French ministrelsy was an oral tradition. Its practitioners’ stock in trade, carefully guarded by secrecy, consisted of tunes which...

Reviewed in issue 1/1998

Freddy Kempf plays Bach, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Stravinsky

The eccentricities and mannerisms typifying some of Freddy Kempf’s earlier solo recordings (Bach’s Fourth and Sixth Partitas, Chopin’s Four Ballades,...

Reviewed by Jed Distler in issue: 7/2011

The Sorcerer's Apprentice French Symphonic Poems

Michel Plasson | Toulouse Capitole Orchestra

This is a well-planned and interesting anthology that is partly let down by a comparatively ordinary performance of the most...

Reviewed by Ivan March in issue: 12/1996

Milhaud Vocal and Orchestral Works

Gennady Rozhdestvensky | Russian State Symphonic Cappella

A couple of first recordings here are useful in filling gaps in the discography of the compulsively productive Milhaud (who...

Reviewed by Lionel Salter in issue: 6/1996

Brailowsky plays Virtuoso Showpieces

Alexander Brailowsky | Boston Symphony Orchestra | Charles Munch

Brailowsky (1896-1976) invites a subdivided estimate, one which can leave the reader bewildered, devoid of a sense of clarity or...

Reviewed by Bryce Morrison in issue: 11/1996

British Symphonic Collection, Vol 3 - Bax

Douglas Bostock | Munich Symphony Orchestra

I just wish I could be more enthusiastic. Douglas Bostock’s unexpectedly brisk tempo for the Sixth Symphony’s arresting Moderato introduction...

Reviewed in issue 5/1999

Murray Perahia Anniversary Box Set

Anthony Halstead | Chamber Orchestra of Europe | Graham Sheen | Israel Philharmonic Orchestra | Martin Lovett | Murray Perahia | Neil Black | Norbert Brainin | Peter Pears | Peter Schidlof

Murray Perahia was 50 last year and 1997 also marked the 25th anniversary of his association with CBS Masterworks/Sony Classical....

Reviewed by Stephen Plaistow in issue: 4/1998