FRANZ SCHUBERT
Matthias Goerne Schubert Edition Volume 9: Winterreise Matthias Goerne (baritone) Christoph Eschenbach (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Nov/2014 ] "If you're looking for a modern baritone version in digital sound, then you really can't beat this most recent one. Whatever your view on comparisons, this remains a brilliant disc, and a fitting culmination to Goerne's HM Schubert cycle." MusicWeb |
SCHUBERT
Matthias Goerne Schubert Edition 8: Wanderers Nachtlied Matthias Goerne (baritone) Helmut Deutsch, Eric Schneider (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD - released 20/Feb/2014 ] "With his velvety, 'covered' timbre, and innate seriousness of manner, Goerne has never been a natural bringer of jollity...Yet if we accept that lightness and charm are not within Goerne's orbit, his singing is always scrupulous...At his finest, her |
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schumann: Liederkreis op.24 / Kernerlieder Matthias Goerne & Leif-Ove Andsnes [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 19/Apr/2019 ] "Both works here suit these artists' musical sensibility and Goerne's scrupulous articulation of the texts." Sunday Times |
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL & FRIENDS
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mr Handel's Dinner: Music for the Handel opera intermissions Maurice Steger (recorder) and Ensemble La Cetra [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 26/Apr/2019 ] "Steger is brilliant when the music is lively. Into his fleetness he mixes zest, charm and impish humour, making you wonder how such artfulness, at such speed and with such nutty dexterity, is humanly possible." BBC Music |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schubert: The Last Quartets Melos Quartett [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD Box Set - released 2/Jul/1995 ] |
FRANCIS POULENC
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Poulenc: Stabat Mater / Salve Regina / Litanies a la vierge Michèle Lagrange (soprano), Choeur & Orchestre national de Lyon, Serge Baudo [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 21/Jul/2017 ] "Baudo leads French forces in a highly idiomatic performance" ClassicalNet |
FRANCIS POULENC
Poulenc: Stabat Mater / Salve Regina / Litanies a la vierge Michèle Lagrange (soprano), Choeur & Orchestre national de Lyon, Serge Baudo [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 21/Jul/2017 ] Poulenc's Stabat Mater, which he described as a 'requiem without despair', was written in 1950 following the death of Christian Bérard, a leading figure of 1940s Paris who designed the sets for Cocteau's films and plays. |
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schumann: The Complete Symphonies Münchner Philharmoniker, Pablo Heras-Casado [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD - released 2/Sep/2022 ] "He plants his personality upon each symphony not via interpretative extremes but through the simple expedient of ensuring they are heard as clearly and plainly as possible." - Gramophone |
HEINRICH SCHUTZ
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schutz: Symphoniae Sacrae III Musica Fiata / Kammerchor Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD Box Set - released 1/Nov/1989 ] Recorded At - Evangelische Kirche, Gönningen, 1989 |
JOHN BLOW
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Blow: Venus & Adonis Nancy Argenta (sop), Lynne Dawson (sop), Stephen Varcoe (bass) / London Baroque, Charles Medlam [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 29/Sep/1992 ] First performed before the court at Oxford in 1681, Venus and Adonis was presented as a "masque for the entertainment of the King" (Charles II). Like Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, it is in fact a true opera. |
HENRY PURCELL / GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Purcell: Dioclesian / Handel: Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 6, "Il duello amoroso" HWV 82 Nancy Argenta (soprano) Michael Chance (counter-tenor) / Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Mar/1994 ] Recorded: January 1993, Maria Minor, Utrecht |
RACHMANINOV
Etudes-Tableaux Op.33 & 39 Nicholas Angelich (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 25/Jul/2014 ] "Angelich is particularly impressive is and very much alive to the varied moods of these works. He never overstates and avoids heaviness. These sessions were excellently recorded back in 1994; shame that are not given the studio location." (MusicWeb |
CESAR FRANCK
César Franck: Préludes, Fugues & Chorals Nikolai Lugansky (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 6/Mar/2020 ] Given the paucity of César Franck's piano music on disc, Nikolai Lugansky's focus on this composer is to be commended. In his third release for harmonia mundi, the Russian pianist reveals an organ master strongly attached to the musical forms... |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Debussy: Suite bergamasque , works for solo piano Nikolai Lugansky (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 26/Oct/2018 ] "The plethora of colour this radical music contains is vibrantly illuminated in Lugansky's clear-sighted approach." Sunday Times |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Nine German Arias / Music for the Royal Fireworks Nuria Rial (soprano), Austrian Baroque Company, Michael Oman (recorder & director) [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / Sony / CD - released 4/Jan/2010 ] Soprano Nuria Rial performs Georg Friedrich Handel's stunningly beautiful but rarely recorded German Arias, accompanied by the Austrian Baroque Company. Handel's Deutsche Arien of 1724-7 stands relatively alone in the context of his Italian operas... |
BRUMEL / WHITE / VICTORIA / DOVE etc
DESIRES - A song of song Collection Ora Singers, Suzi Digby [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 8/Mar/2019 ] The wealth of compositions using the sensuous and highly charged texts of the Song of Songs is incredibly vast and rich. In the course of compiling this recording I re-discovered music that I have known for years, was introduced to pieces I didn't... |
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 'Winter Dreams' / The Tempest Orchestra Of St. Luke's, Pablo Heras-Casado [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Dec/2016 ] "...Heras-Casado has me wondering about a new wave of Tchaikovsky performance: shunning hysteria and crocodile tears, painting pictures, telling stories." Gramophone Recordingof the Month Feb 2017 |
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
Bacchanale: Saint-Saëns et la Méditerranée Orchestre Divertimento, Zahia Ziouani [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 19/May/2023 ] Passionate about travel, Saint-Saëns was strongly influenced by the cultural diversity he encountered in North Africa. As one immersed in these twin cultures herself, Zahia Ziouani is able to shed new light on the composer's travel-inspired works... |
MANUEL DE FALLA
De Falla: El sombrero de tres picos / El amor brujo Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Pablo Heras-Casado - Marina Heredia, cantaora [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 29/Nov/2019 ] "Rhythms are wonderfully precise, textures very sensuous throughout, the latter helped immeasurably by the vivid, immediate recording." Editor's Choice Gramophone December 2019 |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
French Troubadour Songs Paul Hillier (voice) / Andrew Lawrence-King (harp) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 30/Jul/2005 ] Discover the rich legacy of songs by the French troubadours - medieval bards who excelled in the art of courtly love. Sung in medieval French, this program brilliantly captures the magical fusion of poetry and melody in love songs noted for their... |