wed 09/07/2025

Classical CDs

Classical CDs Weekly, Sean Hickey, Lang Lang, Piers Lane

Sean Hickey: Cello Concerto, Clarinet Concerto Dimitry Kouzov (cello), Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet), St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Lande (Delos)Sean Hickey’s 2007 Cello Concerto solves the problem of balancing soloist...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Feldman, French Piano Concertos, Andreas Ottensamer

 Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, Françaix: Piano Concertos Florian Uhlig (piano), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern/Pablo González (Hänssler Classic)I salivated when I read the tracklisting on this immaculately produced disc. I...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Goossens, Mackintosh, Stravinsky

 Goossens: Orchestral works vol.2 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos)British conductor and composer Sir Eugene Goossens achieved major fame leading the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s. Previously he'd given the first...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Cage, Carter, Elgar

 Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 7 Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Joshua Bell (Sony)Nothing to shock here – no period timbres, no radical speeds and no indulgence. If you’re hoping for a sense of the epic, the self-consciously profound, you...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Scarlatti, Pink Floyd

 Britten: Cello Symphony, Cello Sonata and Cello Suites Alban Gerhardt, Steven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Manze (Hyperion)This is a brilliant anthology, wonderfully performed and beautifully recorded. Britten’s cello music...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Mompou, Shostakovich, Stravinsky

 Volodos plays Mompou Arcadi Volodos (piano) (Sony)This is excellent, and a brilliant introduction to an under-appreciated composer. Frederic Mompou spent most of his long life in Barcelona, dying there aged 94 in 1987. The piano pieces...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Smetana, Gidon Kremer

 Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1 and 3 Leif Ove Andsnes/Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Sony)The best recent cycle of Beethoven piano concertos is Howard Shelley’s, recorded by Chandos with the Orchestra of Opera North.  This first volume of Leif...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Morton Feldman, Nielsen

 Beethoven: Symphonies nos 5 & 7 Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner (SDG)John Eliot Gardiner’s set of period-instrument Beethoven symphonies was a bestseller in the early 1990s. Technically brilliant, immaculately...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Haydn, Gabriel Prokofiev

 Beethoven for All: Symphonies 1-9 West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (Decca)The back story behind this ensemble is an inspiring one – an orchestra founded by Edward Said to enable Arabic and Israeli musicians to perform together....

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Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Bruckner, Poulenc, Shostakovich

 Bruckner: Symphony No 9 (with Finale completed by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca) Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle(EMI)Anton Bruckner’s last symphony is near perfect in its three-movement form. The realisation that the Finale was left...

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Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Stephen Hough, Joby Talbot, Schoenberg

This week we've a glittering, shimmering ballet score with an aquatic theme, and a brilliant British pianist shows off his compositional skills. Plus, in a week where we all need cheering up, 20th-century music's scariest genius shows that he...

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