RACHMANINOV Symphony No 2. Piano Concerto No 2 (Kirill Gerstein)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra | Kirill Gerstein | Kirill Petrenko

For such a starry orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic has a pretty threadbare Rachmaninov catalogue. Their only symphony cycle was with...

Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 04/2024

BRUCKNER Symphonies Nos 1 - 9 (Complete)

Daniel Barenboim | Staatskapelle Dresden

This download-only release from Peral brings together the various instalments of Daniel Barenboim’s third Bruckner cycle in a single format...

Reviewed by Christian Hoskins in issue: 06/2016

Renée Fleming: Greatest Moments at the Met

Alan Opie | Andrew Davis | Bruno Campanella | Cecilia Bartoli | Christoph Eschenbach | Dmitri Hvorostovsky | Heidi Grant Murphy | James Conlon | James Levine | Jesús López-Cobos

Renée Fleming’s artistic stature hasn’t kept pace with her superstardom – isn’t that so often the case? – and this...

Reviewed by David Patrick Stearns in issue: 03/2023

FAURÉ Complete Music for Solo Piano (Lucas Debargue)

Lucas Debargue is an artist who likes to go his own way, as witness his terrifically characterful Scarlatti sonatas (11/19),...

Reviewed by Harriet Smith in issue: 04/2024

ORFF Gisei. WEINGARTNER Die Dorfschule

Berlin Deutsche Oper Chorus | Berlin Deutsche Oper Orchestra | Burkhard Ulrich | Clemens Bieber | Das Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin | Elena Zhidkova | Fionnuala McCarthy | Hulkar Sabirova | Jacques Lacombe | Jana Kurucova

Though released separately, these two one-act rarities formed a double-bill in concert performances at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper in 2012, and...

Reviewed by Tim Ashley in issue: 04/2016

North Texas Wind Symphony : Discoveries. Inventions. Mackey

Eugene Migliaro Corporon | North Texas Wind Symphony | Shintaro Fukumoto | Showa Wind Symphony

The American concert band has a sound distinctively its own and a virtuosity that has attracted mainstream composers since the...

Reviewed by Guy Rickards in issue: 04/2017

SCHUMANN Scenes from Goethe's Faust

Alastair Miles | Andrew Staples | Bernarda Fink | Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks | Christian Gerhaher | Christiane Karg | Daniel Harding | Kurt Rydl | Mari Eriksmoen | Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Since Benjamin Britten broke a lance for it in 1973, Scenes from Goethe’s Faust has not suffered from the choral-society...

Reviewed by Peter Quantrill in issue: 12/2014

British Violin Sonatas (Little; Howick)

Clare Howick | Piers Lane | Simon Callaghan | Tasmin Little

The rich repertoire of the British 20th-century violin sonata, surely one of the richest national repertoires of its era, bears...

Reviewed by Jeremy Dibble in issue: 06/2020

The Essential Domingo

(Roger) Wagner Chorale | Adriana Morelli | Bavarian State Opera Chorus | Bavarian State Orchestra | Carlo Maria Giulini | Carlos Kleiber | Claudio Abbado | Herbert von Karajan | Ileana Cotrubas | Karl-Heinz Loges

No doubt such titles are not meant to be taken seriously, but I find some difficulty in accepting the idea...

Reviewed in issue 9/1989

MacMillan From Ayrshire; Mendelssohn Violin Concerto; Mozart Adagio K216

Academy of St Martin in the Fields | James MacMillan | Nicola Benedetti

This second offering from Nicola Benedetti, BBC Young Musician 2004, is centred, like her first disc (DG, 6/05), on a...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 6/2006