Strauss: Four Last Songs; Tod und Verklärung; Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, Brewer/ Atlanta Symphony/ Runnicles

Christine Brewer’s many admirers have been waiting for ages for her to commit her famous interpretation of Strauss’s Four Last Songs to disc. Now that we finally have it, it turns out to be problematic on a number of counts. … Continue reading →

Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito, Gens/ Kasarova/ Castronovo/ Bavarian Radio Chorus/ Munich Radio O/ Steinberg

(RCA, two CDs)

Mahler: Symphony No 2, ‘Resurrection’, Milne/ Remmert/ Hungarian Radio Choir/ Budapest Festival O/ Fischer

(Channel Classics, two CDs)

Liszt: Sonata in B minor; Grandes Études de Paganini, Lazaridis

George-Emmanuel Lazaridis’s recording of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor is a riveting if divided affair. Its strengths and weaknesses derive from a ruminative quality in the Greek pianist’s interpretation, which frequently gives the impression that the entire performance is an … Continue reading →

Janacek: String Quartet No 2; Haas: String Quartet No 2, Pavel Haas Quartet/ Currie

The Pavel Haas Quartet takes its name from the eponymous Czech-Jewish composer and pupil of Janacek, who became a prominent interwar modernist before being murdered by the Nazis in 1944. That Haas’s compressed style owed much to his teacher’s is … Continue reading →

Gluck: Aristeo; Bauci e Filemone, Andersen/ Lenormand/ Hallenberg/ Staveland/ Les Talens Lyriques/ Rousset

(Ambroisie, two CDs)

Respighi: Il Tramonto; String Quartet in D Minor; Quartetto Dorico, Doufexis/ New Hellenic Quartet

This disc gathers together Ottorino Respighi’s main works for string quartet, a medium with which he was reputedly uncomfortable, though his achievement in the genre was by no means negligible. The structurally conventional Quartet in D Minor (1909) is a … Continue reading →

Waxman: Joshua, Hallenberg/ Gilfry/ Schell/ Prague Philharmonic Choir/ Prague Phil/ Sedares

Franz Waxman’s reputation as Hollywood’s greatest composer has always deflected attention from the works he wrote for the concert hall, of which Joshua, dating from 1959, is among the most important. The trigger was the death of Waxman’s wife two … Continue reading →

Malher, Berg, Zemlinsky, Wolf, Strauss: Lieder, Damrau/ Lademann

German soprano Diana Damrau is best known for her flamboyant performances of opera’s most exacting coloratura roles. This disc, however, a recital of post-Romantic songs recorded live in Salzburg last year, proves to be a more meditative affair than her … Continue reading →

Rossini: Matilde di Shabran, Massis/ Florez/ Orquesta Sinfonica di Galicia/ Frizza

(Decca, two CDs)

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos 8 ‘Pathétique’, 29 ‘Hammerklavier’ and 19, Guy

The centrepiece of François-Frédéric Guy’s new Beethoven disc is the monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, a work with which Guy, like many pianists, is seemingly obsessed – “The centre of gravity round which my career is structured,” is how he describes it. … Continue reading →

Rossini: Torvaldo e Dorliska, Cigna/ Rhys-Evans/ Bianchini/ Czech Chamber Soloists Brno/ De Marchi

(Naxos, two CDs)

Wagner: Götterdämmerung (complete); Tristan und Isolde: Act I, Flagstad/ Svanholm/ Norwegian State Opera Chorus et al

(Walhall, four CDs)

Strauss: Lieder, Kaufmann/ Deutsch

(Harmonia Mundi)

Mozart: Symphonies Nos 40 and 41 Jupiter, Manchester Camerata/ Boyd

Under its music director Douglas Boyd, the Manchester Camerata has become a force to be reckoned with over the last few years, though this new disc won’t be to everyone’s taste. Boyd’s way with Mozart is on the severe side, … Continue reading →