Strauss, R Intermezzo

Anny Felbermayer | Christa Ludwig | Ferry Gruber | Georges Prêtre | Hanny Steffek | Hermann Prey | Joseph Keilberth | Lisa della Casa | Vienna State Opera Chorus | Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Intermezzo is an anarchic comedy of the 1920s, with an intentionally prosaic scenario set at dance halls and card games,...

Reviewed by Mike Ashman in issue: 13/2008

BUSONI Doktor Faust

Bavarian State Opera Chorus | Bavarian State Opera Orchestra | Catherine Naglestad | John Daszak | Tomás Netopil | Wolfgang Koch

The 1920s and ’30s were not kind to composers – all of Berg, Busoni, Elgar and Puccini were struck down...

Reviewed by Mike Ashman in issue: 11/2013

Mahler Lieder

Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra | Brigitte Fassbaender | Riccardo Chailly

I cannot imagine why Decca have taken five years to issue these fascinating performances. As in all her interpretations, Fassbaender...

Reviewed by Alan Blyth in issue: 4/1994

Cecilia Bartoli - Live in Italy

Cecilia Bartoli | Jean-Yves Thibaudet | Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca

It is harvest time with Bartoli now. Never has her art been richer and more abundant in its yield, and...

Reviewed in issue 11/1998

Mozart Mitridate Re di Ponto

The 14-year-old Mozart’s first attempt at an opera seria has fared extremely well on disc during the last dozen years:...

Reviewed by David Vickers in issue: 6/2010

Bach Keyboard Concertos Nos. 1, 2 and 4

Academy of St Martin in the Fields | Murray Perahia

Soloist-conducted piano concertos can sometimes mean compromise, even chaos…but not in this case. Indeed, the playing of the Academy of...

Reviewed in issue 5/2001

Brahms Romanzen, Op.33

Annette Prey | Helmut Deutsch | Hermann Prey

Brahm's Magelone Lieder have, with a few exceptions, never been among his most popular, perhaps because they relate too closely...

Reviewed by John Warrack in issue: 7/1985

JS BACH Goldberg Variations

Beatrice Rana

Beatrice Rana has been making waves since her teens, notably at the 2013 Van Cliburn competition, where she won Silver...

Reviewed by Harriet Smith in issue: 04/2017

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in Carnegie Hall

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf | George Reeves

How many singers have ever undertaken a recital of this length and variety, and executed it with such consummate mastery?...

Reviewed by Alan Blyth in issue: 2/1989

BEETHOVEN Complete Piano Music (Martino Tirimo)

To the best of my knowledge, Martino Tirimo is the fourth pianist to have recorded Beethoven’s complete solo piano music,...

Reviewed by Jed Distler in issue: 12/2019