GRAMOPHONE: Michael Tilson Thomas – A Personal Tribute
Like many avid record collectors my first awareness of Michael Tilson Thomas were the Deutsche Grammophon recordings which arrived in the wake of his appointment as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the age of…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Sibelius Violin Concerto/Lemminkäinen Suite – Ava Bahari, Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra/Rouvali
Hugely impressed by Ava Bahari here. She is truly a storyteller. There is untold generosity and cleanness to the playing and the best way I can express what sets apart her reading of this oft-performed piece is…
GRAMOPHONE Review: ‘Pájaros Mágicos’ Stravinsky The Firebird Suite · Villa-Lobos Uirapuru – Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Dudamel
Two mythical birds – the one immortalised by Villa-Lobos – Uirapuru – an endangered species in our musical universe. All kudos to Dudamel for realising the songful connections with it and Stravinsky’s Firebird and rejoicing in them…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet – Los Angeles Philharmonic/Dudamel
This wonderful score is such a good fit for Dudamel’s sleek Los Angeleans. There is what I would call a tinge of Americana about Prokofiev’s big lyric melodies in this of all his pieces and within a…
GRAMOPHONE Podcast: KLAUS TENNSTEDT at 100: Edward Seckerson recalls a great conductor
A centenary conversation celebrating a great conductor and an outstanding Mahlerian The conductor Klaus Tennstedt was born on June 6, 1926. After his arrival from East Germany to the West, he held chief conductor posts with the NDR Symphony…
SOME OTHER TIME: Leonard Bernstein – In Words & Music with Kim Criswell and Edward Seckerson
Writer, Broadcaster and Presenter EDWARD SECKERSON was one of the last journalists to interview the legendary Leonard Bernstein less than a year before he died in 1990. A passionate, some might say fanatical, advocate of Bernstein’s exceptional talents as…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 7 – Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Järvi
There have been a couple of stand-out recordings of Mahler’s ‘rogue’ Seventh in recent times – none more illuminating or hard to beat than Rattle’s Bavarian RSO account – but after Paavo Järvi’s brilliant rendering of the…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Cello Concertos 1 & 2 – Alexander Kniazev, Yokohama Sinfonietta/Yamada
Shostakovich’s two cello concertos plainly share the same musical DNA – but it’s almost as if the Second (which I am delighted to see becoming more and more core repertoire and a work of choice among leading…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 1 – Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Järvi
I do believe this is one of the best – perhaps even the best – account of Mahler’s precocious First Symphony that I’ve heard on disc since the celebrated Bernstein/Concertgebouw version. Paavo Järvi and his Zurich orchestra…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Walton Cello Concerto, Symphony No. 1, Scarpino – Jonathan Aasgaard, Sinfonia of London/Wilson
A whiplash Scapino, ducking and diving with impunity, sets the tone of this marvellous disc. As so often with John Wilson’s work it’s the precision, the clarity, and the keenest articulation that defines it. The level of…
