French chamber works

Anne Queffélec | Guy Deplus | Jean-Claude Montac

It is a curious coincidence that Poulenc and Saint-Saens each wrote two sonatas for wind instruments at the extreme end...

Reviewed by Lionel Salter in issue: 10/1986

Byrd Consort Songs

Concordia | Robin Blaze

Robin Blaze and Concordia reveal an area of Byrd’s output less familiar to the general public than his sacred music....

Reviewed by mberry in issue: 8/2004

Vivaldi Cello Sonatas

Florilegium Ensemble | Pieter Wispelwey

The cellist, Pieter Wispelwey and his continuo group, Florilegium, have made a judicious choice of six cello sonatas from nine...

Reviewed by Nicholas Anderson in issue: 11/1994

Italian Songs, Vol 3: Verdi

Dennis O'Neill | Ingrid Surgenor

The first volume in this series (9/97) was devoted to songs by Bellini, and it was much praised, both for...

Reviewed in issue 4/1998

Grieg and Tchaikovsky: String Works

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

The amazing precision and point of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, working without a conductor, is here directed to two favourite...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 2/1988

Amor de Lonh - The Distant Love of the Troubadours

The title notwithstanding, sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental rub shoulders here. Instrumental accompaniment in high-style grant chant songs is...

Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 8/1998

Respighi Orchestral Works

Hugh Wolff | Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The Third Suite of Ancient Airs and Dances, for strings only, is very often coupled with either or both of...

Reviewed by Michael Oliver in issue: 1/1995

Vaughan Williams Orchestral Works

Kenneth Broadway | Ralph Markham | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | Yehudi Menuhin

It is encouraging that Sir Yehudi Menuhin is venturing into symphonic VW territory. Like most musicians who have made their...

Reviewed in issue 1/1989

Britten Complete Songs, Vol 1

A complete survey of Britten’s songs is like taking an aerial view of the composer’s entire creative life. Under the...

Reviewed by Richard Fairman in issue: 9/2011

Jerusalem Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe, 1764

Chanticleer | Chanticleer Sinfonia | Joseph Jennings

Curious as it may seem, eighteenth-century opera-loving Mexicans used, apparently, to attend the austere Night Office of Matins on the...

Reviewed by mberry in issue: 5/1998