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Symphony No. 15 (conductor: Bernard Haitink; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) Dmitri Shostakovich 305o40
The focus is on its genuinely symphonic breadth, the deep shadows and pregnant pauses.
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Les nuits d'été / Harold en Italie (viola: Antoine Tamestit; mezzo-soprano: Anne Sofie von Otter; Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble; Marc Minkowski) Hector Berlioz 4k2q4u
An of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy that’s sure to exceed expectations.
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Harmonies du Soir (feat. Piano: Nelson Freire) Franz Liszt 2b2w
A Liszt recital that will linger in the memory long after the last notes.
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Delivered with apparently effortless grace and effervescent athleticism.
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Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (feat. violin: Isabelle Faust) Johann Sebastian Bach 302zm
The recording is a peach, perfectly framing Faust’s superb musicianship.
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Various Artists Works for Cello by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Britten 4i2x43
You’ll almost believe you’d bought a ticket, so brilliant is this live recording.
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String Quartets 2 and 3 / Three Divertimenti (Elias String Quartet) Benjamin Britten 1u5a3j
The Elias Quartet catches Britten’s powerful emotional undercurrents superbly.
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Il Nerone, Ossia L’Incoronazione di Poppea (La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina) Monteverdi 6463h
A beautifully focused recording, regardless of who actually wrote it.
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Young Latvian Nelsons conducts as though he believes in every bar.
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Two CDs for the price of one: an excellent souvenir of a canny composer.
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Mahler - Lieder (baritone: Christian Gerhaher, piano: Gerold Huber) Gustav Mahler 594z12
This could be the finest Mahler you’ll hear all year. Absolutely essential.
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Jesu, meine Freude (Sette Voci, direction: Peter Kooij) Johann Sebastian Bach 2h2ri
A disc of serious beauty from Peter Kooij’s ensemble Sette Voci.
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Italian Cantatas Volume 6 - Olinto pastore (feat. cond. Fabio Bonizzoni, orch. La Risonanza) Georg Friedrich Händel 396z3t
Utterly charming, transcending the obvious limitations of the text.
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Violin Concerto (feat. violin Nikolaj Znaider, cond. Sir Colin Davis, orch. Staatskapelle Dresden) Sir Edward Elgar 34686p
What we hear is Znaider’s own heartfelt response to the Elgar.
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A successful document of the occasion.
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Gurrelieder (Philharmonia Orchestra, feat: cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen) Arnold Schönberg 3b3ba
An exhilarating journey, from illicit love to redemption with plenty of colour and range.
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Kopatchinskaja has something genuinely individual to say about this masterpiece.
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Unknown Britten (feat: sop. Sandrine Piau, Northern Sinfonia, cond. Thomas Zehetmair) Benjamin Britten 3p2he
Buy this for Les Illuminations, but savour it for so many new discoveries.
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Prepare to be disarmed by a remarkable debut.
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Szymanowski: Violin Concertos 1 & 2; Britten: Violin Concerto Frank Peter Zimmermann k145n
His sweetness of tone and intense, unselfish musicality pay dividends.
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There’s something inescapably Russian about how Paterson-Olenich plays.
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The Creation Haydn 4j5a5c
...the recording captures the whole spectacle with apparent ease...
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Symphony No. 1 and Overtures Robert Schumann 2r96s
It's as refreshing and stimulating as that icy plunge after a sauna
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An Alpine Symphony/Four Last Songs Richard Strauss 2y615r
...one of the finest Strauss recordings I've heard in ages.
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The Excursions Of Mr Broucek Leos Janácek 1s293w
This may not be the last recorded word on Broucek, but right now it sounds like a...
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Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten Heiner Goebbels 46w4t
A seductive, sometimes shocking and viscerally exciting musical experience.
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Symphony No. 6 Valentin Vasil'yevich Silvestrov hp2d
It feels simple, yet it obviously isn’t; it’s profoundly beautiful, timeless, and...
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Volume 1 Wolfgang Rihm 211y4a
Volume one of this major post-war German composer's works given an emotional performance.
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Amor Sacro Antonio Vivaldi 5hez
Buy it, and give the Four Seasons a break…
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La Mer, Preludes Claude Debussy 1r5t63
Let’s hope it won’t be long before we can hear the second half of the series.
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British Horn Concertos David Pyatt 6h493i
The recording is Lyrita at its best...
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Cantatas, Volume 22: Eisenach Johann Sebastian Bach 6a4k3s
...an unusual feeling of absorption, devotion and dedication...
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Sonata No.2 Frédéric Chopin 364q2z
Sheer delight from end to end.
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The Makropulos Case Leoš Janáček 3e12d
It’s the only opera I know starring a diva who’s over 300 years old, and still...
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Concerti Grossi Op. 3 / Sonata a 5 Georg Friedrich Händel 393l6e
I can’t think of anything that would improve this package...
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Concertos and Romance Janine Jansen 556y3k
...managed to make me listen to these concertos with something approaching fresh ears...
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...You’d have to have a cold heart not to be caught up in the performances.
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Intimate Letters Pavel Haas Quartet 683x21
This couldn’t be better.
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The Complete Preludes Debussy 1435p
Strongly, indeed, urgently recommended
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Death and the Maiden Schubert 1c2666
It’s the first recording the Takacs has made for its new label Hyperion, and they...
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Symphony no. 9 (Choral) Beethoven 1l273p
...truly celebratory...
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Petite Messe Solenelle Rossini 273427
Rossini's solemn mass, written towards the end of his life, is performed here in its...
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Dynamic Triptych John Foulds 6r565y
Warner Classics' second disc of music by the undeservingly neglected British...
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Bluebeard's Castle Béla Bartók 91z3z
A superb English-language version of Bartók's brooding gothic opera, with fine...
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Lyrische Symphony op 18 Zemlinsky 233g2h
An impressive recording of Zemlinsky's romantic masterpiece, based on a text by...
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Piano Concerto no. 1 Brahms l185x
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic are fabulously responsive partners to...
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The King Goes Forth to Sallinen b4xi
Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen calls this work 'a fairy tale for grown-ups' - it...
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Daniel Hope performs Shostakovich's two violin concertos with integrity and...
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Requiem Berlioz 3j433u
An impressive SACD of a live performance...
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String Quartets Mozart 71586x
Mozart's 'Dissonance' Quartet, so-called because of its harmonically-ambiguous slow...
