Classical Explorer (Page 25)

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Ravel: Cantates pour le Prix de Rome

Ravel: Cantates pour le Prix de Rome

This is an urgent recommendationfor all who love Ravel or French Impressionism; a rousing call to all Francophiles

News Item: From Afar, Víkingur Oláfsson's most personal disc yet

News Item: From Afar, Víkingur Oláfsson's most personal disc yet

Any release by Víkingur Oláfsson is a cause for celebration. Here on Classical Explorer, we have already covered three releases by the Icelandis pianist: Refllections, a disc of Debussy and Rameau, and a disc of Mozart and his Contemporaries. On release day, Friday October 7, it will be a pleasure

Verdi's Attila: a triumph at Covent Garden

Verdi's Attila: a triumph at Covent Garden

Verdi Atilla (concert performance). Soloists; Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House,Covent Garden / Spreanza Scappucci. Royal Opera House, London, 19.07.2022 Atilla – Ildar Abdrazakov Uldino – Egor Zhuravskii Odabella – Maria José Siri Ezio – Simon Keenlyside Foresto – Stefan Pop Leone – Alexander Köpeczi Lighting Direction – Matt Mulberry Verdi’s “lyric

A brace of Haydn Piano Trio discs: Chandos & Naxos

A brace of Haydn Piano Trio discs: Chandos & Naxos

Not a single overlap, but two new discs of Haydn PIano Trios, both with much to recommend them. Haydn's Piano Trios mark a couple of transitions in music history - from harpsichord to pianoforte, and the emergence of what we now know as sonata-allegro form. The Naxos disc

Two Responses to Verdi's Otello

Two Responses to Verdi's Otello

The recent revival of Keith Warner’s Otello at Covent Garden occasioned a look around the DVDs/Blurays available, and a lighting upon Steven Langridge’s production of Otello; remember one of our first posts on Classical Explorer was Otello, also: Pappano on Sony, with Jonas Kaufmann in the title

Stefan Herheim's Meistersinger from Salzburg

Stefan Herheim's Meistersinger from Salzburg

Herheim is never going to please everyone, but he never fails to stimulate!

Testament: Beethoven and Brett

Testament: Beethoven and Brett

Lucky indeed the person who comes to Beethoven’s Second Symphony in this performance; the Dean, too, is magnificent

Bonus News Item: Tête à Tête announces their 2022 Opera Festival

Bonus News Item: Tête à Tête announces their 2022 Opera Festival

Tête à Tête has announced an exciting programme for their 2022 Opera Festival, which will run from 15 August to 11 September 2022. This year's Festival is rooted in the theme of burgeoning with life, sprouting everything from mythology, history and hysteria to extraterrestrial chaos and the human

Louis Lortie's Chopin on Chandos: Volume 7

Louis Lortie's Chopin on Chandos: Volume 7

A brilliant disc in each and every way

Taneyev Chamber Music on Naxos

Taneyev Chamber Music on Naxos

Borni n 1856, Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev is one of those composers one is more likely to emcounter in history books or referenced in booklet notes than to actaually hear the music. Mikhail Pletnev released a significant DG recording of John of Damascus (coupled with Rachmaninov's The Bells) and

Trionfo Romano: A 1686 Roman Festival in honour of Louis XIV

Trionfo Romano: A 1686 Roman Festival in honour of Louis XIV

A superb idea, fully in the exploratory vein that characterises the Chateau de Versailles Spéctacles label

Live From Vienna: phil Blech Wien and Olivier Latry

Live From Vienna: phil Blech Wien and Olivier Latry

In April 2019, the brass ensemble phil Blech Wien joined forces with internationally renowned Olivier Latry to present an extraordinary programme chosen to bring the tradition of Viennese sound to a wider appreciation through the merging of two sound worlds. After a hugely successful first performance in the sold-out Kulturpalast

A Telemann Intermezzo: Pimpinone

A Telemann Intermezzo: Pimpinone

This is a disc that could easily slip between the cracks, but as pure Baroque entertainment goes, it takes some beating

Songs of Love, Life and Death: Matthias Goerne sings Berg, Schumann, Shostakovich & Brahms

Songs of Love, Life and Death: Matthias Goerne sings Berg, Schumann, Shostakovich & Brahms

Goerne and Trifonov offer a disc that takes a while to recover from, such is its intensity

Francesco Piemontesi plays Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel

Francesco Piemontesi plays Schoenberg, Messiaen & Ravel

As disc programming goes, this is spectacular

Opera in Song @ Holland Park: Roderick Williams' Winter Journey

Opera in Song @ Holland Park: Roderick Williams' Winter Journey

Schubert Winterreise (sung in English (transl. Jeremy Sams) Roderick Williams (baritone); Ella O’Neill (piano). Opera Holland Park, London 1.7.2022 There is little doubt that Jeremy Sams’ translations of Schubert into English are little works of art in themselves: Sir John Tomlinson sang Sams’ translation of Schwanengesang at

Alessandro Scarlatti: the revelations of his keyboard works

Alessandro Scarlatti: the revelations of his keyboard works

A fine end to what is obviously a very significant series, not least for our appreciation of the music of Scarlatti père

Il Tenore: Freddie De Tommaso returns

Il Tenore: Freddie De Tommaso returns

this is a fine disc that reveals De Tommaso as spectacular in his core repertoire

Thoughts about the Piano: Claudia Chan's fascinating programme

Thoughts about the Piano: Claudia Chan's fascinating programme

Buy this disc for Chan's performance of Xenakis' Evryali alone, then go on to peel away the other discoveries ....

Gloriously sophisticated Beethoven from the Chiaroscuro Quartet

Gloriously sophisticated Beethoven from the Chiaroscuro Quartet

Here on Classical Explorer, we previously met the Chiaroscuro Quartet in Quartets by Haydn: his Op. 76, to be specific, Nos. 1-3 and Nos. 4-6. Now, they embark on the gretest cycle of them all: the Beethoven Quartets. This new disc completes their Op. 18 traversal, offering the final three

Une journée particulière: Mozart Maximum at La Seine Musicale, Paris

Une journée particulière: Mozart Maximum at La Seine Musicale, Paris

The “Festival Mozart Maximum” is underway in Paris. This was the first of three performances on consecutive nights of a remarkable interpretation of one particular day in Mozart's life: November 12, 1791. With a libretto adapted from the writings of H. C. Robbins Landon, David Lescot's

REPOST Music is like H20: Eliasson Symphonies & Trombone Concerto on BIS

REPOST Music is like H20: Eliasson Symphonies & Trombone Concerto on BIS

A superb introduction to the music of Anders Elisasson. This is profound, often beautiful, music

Concert Review: A South American Journey

Concert Review: A South American Journey

Teresa Carreño – Serenade for Strings Leo Brouwer – Canciones Remotas Villa-Lobos – Guitar Concerto, W501 Ginastera – Concerto for Strings, Op.33 Pre-concert event: Villa-Lobos (arr. Harry Baker) – Bachianas brasileiras No.2 (excerpt) Students from the Bobby Moore Academy (In the absence of Bath Festival Orchestra recordings, I have inserted some alternative performances

Phrases: Héloïse Werner's stunning debut on Delphian

Phrases: Héloïse Werner's stunning debut on Delphian

Released today, Phrases is the remarkable Héloïse Werner’s debut disc. A launch concert at the Wigmore Hall recently (which included some but not all of the disc repertoiree) was itself an event, including some pieces not on the album. The backbone of the disc is a selection of Récitations

Requiem pour Louis XVI: Martini

Requiem pour Louis XVI: Martini

It seems pretty much everything Niquet touches turns to gold ...