STEPHAN ELMAS
Elmas: Piano Concertos Howard Shelley (piano), Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra / Howard Shelley [ Hyperion Great Romantic Piano Concertos Vol 82 / CD - released 8/Jan/2021 ] If the warmly Romantic bloom on these concertos suggests the spirit of an earlier generation-both works date from the 1880s-the music of Stéphan Elmas retains its own distinctive voice, a voice heard to best advantage in Howard Shelley's persuasive... |
YORK BOWEN
Bowen: Fragments from Hans Andersen & Studies Nicolas Namoradze (piano) [ Hyperion / CD - released 8/Jan/2021 ] "Superbly recorded and performed with such distinction, this release must be an early Awards nominee." Gramophone Editor's Choice January 2021 |
GUILLAUME de MACHAUT
Machaut: The Lion of nobility The Orlando Consort [ Hyperion / CD - released 8/Jan/2021 ] "The Orlando Consort bear Machaut's virtuoso writing lightly and keep the text clearly in the foreground." Gramophone Editor's Choice January 2021. |
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5 / Scenes adapted from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Emily Portman (folk voice), Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone), etc / BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins [ Hyperion / CD - released 30/Oct/2020 ] Vaughan Williams's incidental music for The Pilgrim's Progress has seldom been heard in its original guise since the 1906 premiere; yet further reason to acquire an outstanding interpretation of the composer's Symphony No 5. |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Sacred Treasures of Christmas The London Oratory Schola Cantorum / Charles Cole [ Hyperion / CD - released 30/Oct/2020 ] A celebration of Christmas from the Nativity through to Candlemas, in music from across sixteenth-century Europe: Renaissance polyphony at its finest. |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Sacred Treasures of Spain The London Oratory Schola Cantorum / Charles Cole (cond) [ Hyperion / CD - released 30/Oct/2020 ] Music to illustrate the Golden Age: a selection of motets from sixteenth-century Spain culminating in Alonso Lobo's great funerary ode for Philip II, Versa est in luctum. |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Goldberg Variations Pavel Kolesnikov (piano) [ Hyperion / CD - released 30/Oct/2020 ] 'Intense, emotional and pure' is how Pavel Kolesnikov describes the experience of making this recording, the fruits of a collaboration between the pianist and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. |
JOHN TAVENER
Tavener: No longer mourn for me & other works for cello Steven Isserlis (cello) / Philharmonia Orchestra, Trinity Boys Choir, Omer Meir Wellber [ Hyperion / CD - released 30/Oct/2020 ] "Steven Isserlis has understood how to draw out the vocal quality in both those pieces and adapt it superbly for the eight cellos." Gramophone Editor's Choice November 2020 |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Variations Angela Hewitt (piano) [ Hyperion / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] "No qualifications are required for Angela Hewitt's new Beethoven album..Hewitt's touch is remarkably nimble and poetic" The Times |
JOHANN BAPTIST CRAMER
Cramer: Piano Concertos Nos 1, 3 & 6 Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players / Howard Shelley [ Hyperion / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] "the immaculate playing here is alert and personable in a way that transcends contentious issues of style." BBC Music |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: The Complete Songs, Vol. 10 - Sophie Rennert Sophie Rennert (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano), Lawrence Power (viola) [ Hyperion / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] 'Sophie Rennert's voice is magnificently burnished, full and deep … the songs with viola form the centrepiece of the disc, and one could hardly hope for a finer exponent of the obbligato part than Lawrence Power' (MusicWeb) |
JAAKKO MANTYJARVI
Mäntyjärvi: Choral Music Trinity College Choir Cambridge / Stephen Layton [ Hyperion / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] "The Finn Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's choral palette ranges from ethereal to hardhitting, deliciously eerie to radiantly joyful. It is all immaculately and excitingly presented here." BBC Music Five Stars |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Alban Gerhardt, WDR Sinfonieorchester / Jukka-Pekka Saraste [ Hyperion / CD - released 28/Aug/2020 ] International Classical Music Awards 2021 Winner - Solo Instrumental Winner - Concerto |
DUARTE LOBO
Duarte Lobo: Masses, Responsories & motets Almeno Gonçalves (tenor), Cupertinos, Luís Toscano [ Hyperion / CD - released 28/Aug/2020 ] No fewer than three important first recordings of works by Duarte Lobo feature on an album which is set to enhance Cupertinos' burgeoning reputation. This is music with which they feel a natural kinship, as these intense, idiomatic performances attest. |
FRANZ LISZT / SIGISMOND THALBERG
Liszt & Thalberg: Opera transcriptions & fantasies Marc-André Hamelin (piano) [ Hyperion / CD - released 28/Aug/2020 ] "The execution is so incredibly neat and well ordered, and yet sounds completely spontaneous, like an inspired improvisation…This is a master pianist at the height of his powers" Gramophone Editor's Choice Oct 2020 |
FREDERIC D'ERLANGER / THOMAS DUNHILL
Dunhill & Erlanger: Piano Quintets Piers Lane (piano), Goldner String Quartet [ Hyperion / CD - released 28/Aug/2020 ] As companionable, healthy and English as the South Downs on a sunny day' was an early verdict on Thomas Dunhill's Piano Quintet, one which could equally well apply to both works on this attractive programme. |
JOHANNES de CLEVE
Cleve: Missa Rex Babylonis & Other Works Cinquecento [ Hyperion / CD - released 26/Jun/2020 ] "Of all their recordings devoted to 'minor masters', this strikes me as one of the finest" Gramophone Editor's Choice August 2020 |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Musique? Modern and electro-acoustic works for harpsichord Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) [ Hyperion / CD - released 26/Jun/2020 ] Under Mahan Esfahani's hands-and occasionally fists-the harpsichord is transmogrified into an elemental force, by turns supported or menaced by an astonishing arsenal of electronics. Concerned listeners please note: no harpsichords were harmed in the... |
EDMUND RUBBRA / SIR ARNOLD BAX / SIR ARTHUR BLISS
Rubbra / Bax / Bliss: The Romantic Piano Concerto Piers Lane (piano), The Orchestra Now, Leon Botstein (conductor) [ Hyperion / CD - released 26/Jun/2020 ] Two very different takes on the romantic piano concerto, both equally successful. The Bliss - written in 1939 for the World's Fair in New York - is extrovert, exuberant and virtuosic, the Rubbra a profound reflection on, and continuation of, the... |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Alina Ibragimova (violin), State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia 'Evgeny Svetlanov', Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) [ Hyperion / CD - released 5/Jun/2020 ] Recording of the Month BBC Music Magazine July 2020 |