recommended classical sacds

[ BIS / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Friday, 20 January, 2012

"I hadn't come across these singers before: they are quite wonderful...The luscious 'Amen', ravishingly sung, is worth the price of the disc." EDITOR'S CHOICE - GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE FEB 2012

Having focused on music from their home country before, the Norwegian Soloists' Choir here present a German programme, featuring two of the most influential composers...

[ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Sunday, 1 January, 2012

Shostakovich wrote two cello concertos for his great friend Mstislav Rostropovich.

Cello Concerto No. 1 was written in 1959, a difficult year for the composer. His second marriage was failing, and he was suffering from a debility in his right hand that hampered his ability to write, and to play the piano. His personal circumstances could not help but to colour...

[ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Monday, 12 December, 2011

Bernard Haitink is internationally renowned for his interpretations of Bruckner and is widely recognised as the world's leading Bruckner conductor. Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, 'Romantic', conjures up visions of mediaeval knights, huntsmen and enchanted woodland, particularly through the prominent use of the horn in the work. One of his most popular pieces, it...

[ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Thursday, 20 October, 2011

"Almost all the players who perform here seem stirred enough by the music's pathos and power to rise to the occasion...[to give] an intense, sweeping account of the work. I have no complaints, and for anyone who doesn't want the final degree of penetrating lyricism and anguish which you find in the very finest readings...this may prove an ideal version." BBC...

[ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Monday, 12 December, 2011

"O'Regan's 62-minute work is in a slow-moving, pared-back style, mock-ancient you might say, but not ethnically specific. It's almost ritualistically purposeful in its concentration on narrative, as it shifts between monodic delivery and a range of soft choral dissonances...The performance under Paul Hillier is first-rate" (Irish Times)

"Led by Paul Hillier,...

[ Melba Recordings SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Monday, 12 December, 2011

French maestro Guillaume Tourniaire, rapidly establishing himself as one of the most exciting and satisfying musical voices among the new generation of conductors, continues his series of recordings on Melba with ballet music from Saint-Saëns' neglected operas, imbuing this lost music with great energy, love and lifeforce. The music is played by Orchestra Victoria.

This...