Stravinsky Orchestral Works

Berlin Deutsche Oper Chorus | Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra | CBC Symphony Orchestra | Columbia Symphony Orchestra | English Bach Festival Chorus | Herbert von Karajan | Igor Stravinsky | Leonard Bernstein | London Symphony Orchestra | Toronto Festival Singers

The only problems with Stravinsky's own account of the Symphony of Psalms are the rather dated recording (a bit dense...

Reviewed by Michael Oliver in issue: 12/1988

Rachmaninov Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 4

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra | Nikolai Lugansky | Sakari Oramo

Nikolai Lugansky and Sakari Oramo conclude their Rachmaninov cycle with the Second and Fourth Concertos, generally matching the proficient (though...

Reviewed by Jed Distler in issue: 11/2005

Menotti (The) Telephone; Poulenc (La) Voix humaine

Anne Sofie von Otter | Bejun Mehta | Carole Farley | Charlotte Hellekant | José Serebrier | Russell Smythe | Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Menotti’s 1947 curtain-raiser about the girl who can’t be torn away from the telephone makes an ideal opera for television....

Reviewed by Patrick O'Connor in issue: 8/2006

Rachmaninov Aleko

Aleko is the first of Rachmaninov’s three short operas and the most formulaic in its layout – hardly surprising, given...

Reviewed by David Fanning in issue: 5/2010

Berlioz Cantates du Prix de Rome

Béatrice Uria-Monzon | Choeur Régional Nord, Pas de Calais | Daniel Galvez Vallejo | Jean-Claude Casadesus | Lille National Orchestra | Michèle Lagrange

Musical competition juries have frequently – and not always without cause – been accused of bias, skulduggery or incompetence; but...

Reviewed by Lionel Salter in issue: 9/1996

Stockhausen Gruppen & Kurtàg Stele etc

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra | Claudio Abbado | Friedrich Goldman | Jürgen Ruck | Marcus Creed

Experiencing Stockhausen’s Gruppen in the concert-hall – or on television, as in Channel 4’s film of the 1996 CBSO performance...

Reviewed by Arnold Whittall in issue: 3/1997

Myaskovsky Symphonies Nos 24 and 25

Dmitry Yablonsky | Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

The Myaskovsky revival continues with this welcome pairing: both scores are eminently accessible, a bonus for less committed listeners, while...

Reviewed by David Gutman in issue: 10/2003

Schubert Trout Quintet

Alban Berg Qt | Alban Berg Quartet | Elisabeth Leonskaja | Georg Hörtnagel

One could call this Trout pointless and leave it at that. But it seems a damned cheek to dismiss artists...

Reviewed in issue 11/1986

Alchemist

If I understand Philip Pickett correctly—and a little essay about the background to this record is all we get by...

Reviewed in issue 10/1989

Albéniz Orchestral Works

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos | Spanish National Orchestra

Despite going, at the age of 30, to study with Dukas and d’Indy, Albeniz was ill at ease in writing...

Reviewed by Lionel Salter in issue: 10/1998