EDVARD GRIEG
Grieg: Bergliot / Symphonic Dances / etc Juni Dahr (reader) Mari Eriksmoen (soprano) Astrid Nordstad (mezzo) / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 23/Feb/2024 ] "What [Grieg] does with folk material is so enchanting that, in this beautiful incarnation with the Bergen players delivering so freshly and responding so well to Gardner's rhythmic drive in the livelier sequences, you'll be compelled throughout" BBC |
MOZART / PUCCINI / GOUNOD / DVORAK / etc
Silver Voice: Opera Arias played by Flute and Orchestra Katherine Bryan (flute) / Orchestra of Opera North, Bramwell Tovey [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Jan/2018 ] With her first Chandos recording, the scintillating flautist Katherine Bryan explores the relationship between her instrument and the human voice by providing a new take on some of the world's most famous opera arias, from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro... |
RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - The Mines of Sulphur (Complete Opera) Kristopher Irmiter (bass-baritone) Beth Clayton (mezzo-soprano) Brandon Jovanovich (tenor) James Maddalena (baritone) / Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra [ Chandos SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 1/Jun/2005 ] Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's Gothic opera The Mines of Sulphur is reminiscent of suspense thrillers from Edgar Allan Poe to Alfred Hitchcock. Love, longing, and dark as well as light comedy abound in this macabre tale of greed and retribution set in... |
WALKER / Lili BOULANGER / PRICE / BRITTEN / DEBUSSY / FAURE / TAKEMITSU / etc
Path to the Moon Laura van der Heijden (cello) Jâms Coleman (piano) [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 15/Mar/2024 ] "[Walker's Cello Sonata] a tautly argued piece that's a real discovery, persuasively played here...also a performance of Britten's Sonata that vividly captures its sense of dialogue and a many-coloured one of the 1915 Sonata by Debussy." Guardian |
JEAN SIBELIUS
Sibelius: Luonnotar / Tapiola / Pelléas och Mélisande / etc Lise Davidsen (soprano) / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 2/Jul/2021 ] "… The performance of Tapiola is in fact one of the most searching and dramatic it has been accorded, finding every nuance of the composer's remarkable orchestration" CDChoice |
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Symphony No 2 'London' [Original Version] (with Butterworth - Banks of Green Willow) London Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Mar/2003 ] 'Hickox and the LSO respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW's admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos' sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone... |
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music Louis Lortie (piano), Sarah Jeffrey (oboe), Teng Li (viola), Toronto Symphony Orchestra [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Jul/2018 ] With this celebratory release completing his fourteen-year tenure as Music Director of the TSO, Peter Oundjian conducts an exquisite Vaughan Williams programme, supported by an all-Canadian cast of star soloists. |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Acis and Galatea (complete opera) Lucy Crowe / Benjamin Hulett / Alan Clayton / Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn [ Chandos Chaconne SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 10/Mar/2019 ] "Lucy Crowe as Galatea excels especially in turning words, and word-pictures, into sound…This is, altogether, a benchmark that will be hard to beat." BBC Music Magazine Awards 2019 Winner - Opera |
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica / Four Last Songs / Concerto for Two Pianos & Orchestra Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Louis Lortie, Hélène Mercier (pianos), Roderick Williams (baritone) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 2/Feb/2018 ] "This would be my present first choice ... The Bergen players are especially effective, the huge orchestration never cluttered or opaque in SACD spaciousness ..." BBC Music magazine - Christmas 2017 |
LUKAS FOSS
Griffelkin (Opera in Three Acts Libretto by Alastair Reid) Marion Dry (contralto) ; Kendra Colton (soprano) Elizabeth Keusch (soprano) Yeghishe Manucharyan (tenor) / Members of Boston Children's Opera and gues [ Chandos SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 26/May/2003 ] On Hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD) format, presented in full 5.1 surround sound! PLAYABLE ON ANY CD SYSTEM |
MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn in Birmingham - Volume 3 [Incls Symphony No. 2 'Lobgesang''] Mary Bevan (soprano I), Sophie Bevan (soprano II) & Benjamin Hulett (tenor) / City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Feb/2015 ] "The playing of the CBSO is of the highest quality, and the perfectly balanced and blended sound of the wind sections is something very special. It is all so well rendered by the engineers; they have successfully preserved the feeling of spaciousness |
MERCADANTE / BELLINI / RICCI / ROSSINI / DONIZETTI / VIARDOT
Casta Diva - Operatic Arias transcribed for trumpet Matilda Lloyd (trumpet) / Britten Sinfonia, Rumon Gamba [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 28/Apr/2023 ] "The flawless tone, purity of line and dynamic subtlety she coaxes from her instrument are shown off to particularly impressive effect in Arban's set of variations from Norma...Overall, this is immensely assured and really great fun." BBC |
TANSMAN
Symphonies, Volume 2: Symphonic Testaments Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / Oleg Caetani [ Chandos SACD / SACD - released 28/Sep/2007 ] This is the second disc in a complete survey of Tansman's symphonies and includes the world premiere recording of Symphonies Nos 7 and 9. |
ALEXANDRE TANSMAN
Symphony Nos 4, 5 & 6 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / Oleg Caetani [ Chandos SACD / SACD - released 10/Aug/2007 ] 'These fine performances do more that merely champion a neglected cause, revealing as they do a composer who, for all his diverse stylistic leanings, forged music of strength and integrity.' The Telegraph |
CHARLES IVES
Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 [Symphonies 1 & 2] Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis [ CHANDOS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 2/Mar/2015 ] An amateur genius of avant-garde composing, who experimented with groundbreaking techniques years ahead of their time, Ives started out with more conventional works - as shown by the two early symphonies recorded here. |
CHARLES IVES
Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 [Central Park in the Dark, etc] Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis [ CHANDOS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 10/Jan/2016 ] In this second volume, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Sir Andrew Davis play some of the most characteristic pieces of Charles Ives, an insurance salesman by trade and one of the most precociously original of all American... |
EUGENE GOOSSENS
Orchestral Works Volume 2 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Mar/2013 ] "Chandos's rich sound is up to the usual high standards and outshines Goossens's own 1922 recording of Tam O'Shanter" Gramophone Magazine, May 2013 |
JANACEK
Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (Incls Violin Concerto 'Pilgrimage of the Soul') Melina Mandozzi (violin) James Ehnes (violin) Susanna Andersson (soprano) / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/May/2015 ] "James Ehnes is the plush-toned soloist, but it is the intense and gritty playing of the Bergeners, and Gardner's evident empathy with Janacek, that make this music so compelling and dramatic." (Sunday Times) |
BELA BARTOK
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle Michelle De Young (mezzo); John Relyea (bass); Pál Mácsai (actor); Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; Edward Gardner (conductor) [ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 30/Aug/2019 ] Following outstanding reviews for his interpretation of Duke Bluebeard around the world, notably at the Paris Opéra and then in Philadelphia and New York with Michelle DeYoung, John Relyea stars in the first studio SACD Surround Sound recording of... |
TOMAS LUIS de VICTORIA
Nordic Voices Sing Victoria Nordic Voices [ Chandos Chaconne SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 30/Jul/2017 ] "This Chandos SACD deserves the closest attention and headphones to register the full impact, in terms of both separation and integration, of this exquisite group." (AudAud.com) |