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…
I don’t think anyone would argue with the assertion that this is one of the great theatre scores of the last half century. That Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens actually auditioned for it – three or fours…
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…
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…
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…
The great practitioners of Broadway and Hollywood – composers, arrangers, orchestrators – spawned catalogues of what might be considered more ‘legitimate’ music that the world rarely saw or heard. Broadway’s ‘Music Man’ Meredith Wilson’s symphonies, Hitchcock’s Bernard…
It’s been a staggering 30 years since I reviewed the original Nonesuch recording of this masterwork right here in Gramophone. This true story of the cave explorer Floyd Collins whose quest for the ultimate sand cavern –…
You might say that Joseph Swenson comes at this piece from the perspective of the start of the romantic era as opposed to the summation of the classical. The dynamic range is immediately wide, the hushed questioning…
A dream team in the making, I suspect. Capucon and Pappano may be collaborating here for the first time but it’s a meeting of musical minds and sensibilities for sure. The coupling of these concertos is nothing…
I’ve followed this beautiful uplifting show from its inception at the postage stamp Southwark Playhouse to its arrival in the West End and a well deserved Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Its scale is small, its…
