GRAMOPHONE Review: Burnished Gold – Robyn Allegra Parton/Simon Lepper
It is refreshing to encounter a singer – Robyn Allegra Parton – whose gifts of curation are it would seem fully equal to her musicianship. You might argue that the album’s artwork is a sprinkling of gold-leaf…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 9 – Minnesota Orchestra/Vanska
Vanska’s Mahler 9 arrives in the wake of Rattle’s recent Bayrischen Rundfunk recording – his third of the piece – and perhaps the quality most found wanting by comparison with Rattle is warmth. It’s true that this…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Rachmaninov Symphonies 2 & 3 / Isle of the Dead – Philadelphia Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin
As with the first instalment of Nézet-Séguin’s symphonic Rachmaninov there’s a very real sense here of this music coming home, of a sound, a style, an ethos, in playing it that somehow – subliminally – gets passed…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Britten & Bruch Violin Concertos – Kerson Leong, Philharmonia Orchestra/Hahn
Kerson Leong’s splendid account of the Bruch comes hot on the heals of Ryan Goosby’s no less committed reading with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. But there are notable differences in tone which might loosely be…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bartók Concerto For Orchestra, Four Orchestral Pieces – Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Canellakis
The curtain-raiser somewhat eclipses the main event in this instance. Why we don’t hear more of Bartok’s Four Orchestral Pieces I cannot imagine – their relative compactness belies a breadth and depth and drama that calls to…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bruch Violin Concerto No 1, Price Violin Concertos 1 & 2 – Randall Goosby, Philadelphia Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin
You can absolutely hear why Randall Goosby has been turning heads with his open-hearted and generous ‘school of Perlman’ delivery. There’s an honesty – and modesty – about his playing that stands him apart. It’s so refreshing…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Nielsen Violin Concerto, Symphony No 4 – James Ehnes, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Gardner
The liner notes remind us that this was the exact pairing of works that Carl Nielsen chose for his one and only London concert appearance. The critic of the day was not impressed with the Violin Concerto…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Stravinsky Firebird & The Rite of Spring – Orchestre de Paris/Mäkela
In taking these momentous scores back to their Parisian roots Klaus Mäkelä, as expected, engages his keen ears and sense of orchestral drama to hear and to project their startling innovation. This Rite is all about inner…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 2 – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Bychkov
The character of this reading – and it does not, alas, confound expectations – is clearly established at the outset: cellos and basses incisive but hardly seismic, the rhythms crisp, even clipped, the emerging funeral processional more…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphonies 8, 9 & 10 – Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Petrenko
Recorded during lockdown, this trio of Shostakovich symphonies chimes quite dramatically with the mood of that time and speaks volumes as to the composer’s shifting state of mind between the war years and the death of his…