POULENC Dialogues des Carmélites

Anja Silja | Annamaria Popescu | Barbara Dever | Christopher Robertson | Dagmar Schellenberger | Danilo Serraiocco | Ernesto Panariello | Francesco Musinu | Gordon Gietz | Gregory Bonfatti

Modern production-hater and musical conservative Riccardo Muti must have thought he was in seventh heaven when he discovered a staging...

Reviewed by Mike Ashman in issue: 11/2011

Alfred Brendel - On Music: Three Lectures

What a strange affair. Recorded on successive days at the Schüttkasten, Salzburg, in September 2010, the pianist gives a series...

Reviewed by Jeremy Nicholas in issue: 13/2011

BRAHMS Piano Sonata No 3 FRANCK Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Sunwook Kim

It is a rare thing indeed for a young pianist, fresh from a victory at one of the world’s major...

Reviewed by Patrick Rucker in issue: 04/2016

RACHMANINOV Symphony No 2

Mariss Jansons | Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam (members of)

This is the third time Mariss Jansons has committed Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony to commercial disc, following earlier versions with the...

Reviewed by David Gutman in issue: 08/2016

KNUSSEN Symphonies Nos 2&3. Trumpets. Ophelia Dances

Alexandra Wood | BBC Symphony Orchestra | BCMG | Claire Booth | Edward Pillinger | Elaine Barry | Huw Watkins | Ian Mitchell | Leila Josefowicz | Linda Hirst

The recordings on the first of these CDs, reissued to mark Oliver Knussen’s 60th birthday, go back to the early...

Reviewed by Arnold Whittall in issue: 01/2013

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Early and Late Works

Guy Johnston | Martin Yates | Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Given the conspicuous success of John Wilson’s world premiere recording of the imposing Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (6/10), it...

Reviewed by Andrew Achenbach in issue: 01/2013

BYSTRÖM Picnic at Hanging Rock. A Walk After Dark. Invisible Cities

Daniel Blendulf | Ellen Nisbeth | Malmö Symphony Orchestra

I first encountered Britta Byström’s music on Phono Suecia’s fascinating CD (‘Persuasion’, from her 2004 orchestral piece after Jane Austen)...

Reviewed by Guy Rickards in issue: 03/2015

READ THOMAS Music for Strings

Christopher Janwong McKiggan | Jack Delaney | Jan Krzywicki | Juilliard School Student Orchestra | Julian Hersh | Laura Jackson | Leah Gastler | Marc Rovetti | Network for New Music | Scott Kluksdahl

The association between Augusta Read Thomas and Nimbus reaches a fourth volume devoted largely to her music for strings. The...

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse in issue: 03/2015

WAGNER Das Rheingold

Alexei Markov | Andrei Popov | Ekaterina Gubanova | Ekaterina Sergeeva | Evgeny Nikitin | Irina Vasilieva | Mariinsky Orchestra | Mikhail Petrenko | Nikolai Putilin | René Pape

Like the first instalment of the Mariinsky Ring (Die Walküre, 5/13), this recording of Das Rheingold is the result of...

Reviewed by Arnold Whittall in issue: 11/2013

BORGSTRØM Works for Violin and Piano

Helge Kjekshus | Jonas Båtstrand

Like other Norwegian Romantics with ears open to modern trends – Grieg and Ibsen come immediately to mind – Hjalmar...

Reviewed by Mike Ashman in issue: 06/2015