Britten Billy Budd

Daniel Harding | Gidon Saks | Ian Bostridge | Jonathan Lemalu | London Symphony Chorus | London Symphony Orchestra | Nathan Gunn | Neal Davies

Let us leave comparisons till the morning. They may make a difference, but tonight (writing after a continuous and deeply...

Reviewed by John Steane in issue: 11/2008

Wallace Lurline

Fiona Janes | Keith Lewis | Richard Bonynge | Sally Silver | Victorian Opera Chorus | Victorian Opera Orchestra

You have to hand it Naxos: at a time when it might seem there can be no more unrecorded operas...

Reviewed by Richard Fairman in issue: 8/2010

Weber Piano Sonatas

Hamish Milne | Martin Jones

Martin Jones's pairing of Weber's first two sonatas makes a welcome return to the catalogue, even if these are performances...

Reviewed by John Warrack in issue: 9/1992

Jackson Not No Faceless Angel

Polyphony | Stephen Layton

There are many striking features of this ravishing disc, beautifully and imaginatively performed by Stephen Layton and Polyphony. One is...

Reviewed by Jeremy Dibble in issue: 13/2009

Walton Belshazzar's Feast; Crown Imperial; Orb and Sceptre

Christopher Purves | English Northern Philharmonia | Huddersfield Choral Society | Laudibus | Leeds Philharmonic Chorus | Paul Daniel | Simon Lindley

It was the Huddersfield Choral Society who made the ground-breaking first recording of Belshazzar’s Feast in 1943 at the height...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 6/2004

Mozart Symphonies 25 & 39

Riccardo Muti | Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

The very opening of the slow introduction to No. 39 makes it abundantly clear that Muti has no thought of...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 10/1998

Messiaen Catalogue d'oiseaux

Haakon Austbø

Messiaen was very proud of how pictorial his Catalogue d’oiseaux is, of how it illustrates not only the songs of...

Reviewed by Michael Oliver in issue: 2/1998

Handel Brockes-passion

Barthold Hinrich Brockes was a prolific poet of the early-German Enlightenment. From a literary standpoint Brockes's most important and, indeed,...

Reviewed by Nicholas Anderson in issue: 12/1986

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

Birgit Remmert | Hans-Peter Blochwitz | Musique Oblique Ensemble | Philippe Herreweghe

This is a surprise, and a pleasant one. In 1920 Schoenberg began a chamber version of the work but left...

Reviewed by Alan Blyth in issue: 12/1994

Brussels 5557

English Mass-music of the mid-15th century is in short supply owing to the loss of manuscript sources. The two survivors...

Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 3/2000