GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 6 – MusicAeterna/Currentzis
Anyone who thrilled (as I did) to Teodor Currentzis’ Tchaikovsky Pathetique will find distinct parallels here. The impulse, the imperative, of this Mahler 6 is extraordinary – a headlong ride to the abyss with every rhythm and…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Broadway – Renée Fleming, BBC Concert Orchestra/Fisher
After her previous forays into jazz and inde-pop to say nothing of her recent stint on Broadway as Nettie Fowler in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel it was almost inevitable that a Broadway album would be forthcoming from…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bernstein Wonderful Town – Soloists, London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle
I’ve always been slightly puzzled as to why Simon Rattle (and subsequently Mark Elder) chose to anoint this particular show amongst Bernstein’s Broadway canon – not because I don’t love it as dearly as the others but…
GRAMOPHONE Review: There’s A Place For Us – Nadine Sierra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Spano
Why does everything nowadays have to be marketed with an angle, a message? There are no more recital discs, just albums. That’s a way of connecting the classical and pop worlds – I see that. But do…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 3 – Larsson, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker/Fischer
Eight unison horns dramatically announce Mahler’s pantheistic hymn to the natural world and if the opening bars of Adam Fischer’s refreshingly spontaneous account sounded a tad jaded to my ears it was almost certainly because I cannot…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Into The Fire – Joyce Di Donato/Brentano String Quartet (Live at Wigmore Hall)
As if anyone needed reminding that Joyce DiDonato is nothing if not an intuitive stage animal, each of her recital projects are now carefully conceived as pieces of theatre in themselves, song choices shrewdly weighed and tested…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bernstein Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety – Berlin Philharmonic/Zimerman Rattle
A few words of introduction from the man himself (Bernstein in conversation with Humphrey Burton) preface this performance of perhaps his finest concert work – and in case we were in any doubt of the inspiration behind…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Carousel – 2018 Broadway Cast Recording/Rodgers & Hammerstein
Carousel is arguably the most beautiful of all Broadway’s ‘Golden Age’ scores; Rodgers’ finest hour. Of that I, personally, am in no doubt. But like all the great Rodgers and Hammerstein shows it’s a totally integrated, cohesive,…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphonies 4 & 11 – Boston Symphony Orchestra/Nelsons
This Nelsons cycle started with a bang – namely the most electrifying recording of the Tenth Symphony we’ve had in almost half a century. The excellence continues. In dramatic contrast to Mikhail Pletnev’s intriguing but decidedly odd…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Richard Rodney Bennett Orchestral Works Vol. 2 – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Wilson
Volume Two of John Wilson’s “celebration” (for that’s what this series surely is) of Richard Rodney Bennett’s manifold gifts as a composer – and once more the choices rejoice in his creative shape shifting. The accomplished jazzer…