Eric Alexander Quartet
Prime Time (CD + DVD) [ 2 CD/DVD ] |
NAPRAVNIK / BLUMENFELD
Works for Piano and Orchestra Evgeny Soifertis (piano) / BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Titov, conductor [ Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos Vol 37 / CD - released 10/Aug/2005 ] 'The Concerto Symphonique is a perky, extrovert piano concerto, full of nifty passage-work, if light on musical substance, and The Fantaisie Russe, full of Lisztian flourishes and apparently much admired by Tchaikovsky, is based on three Russian folk... |
GEORGE ENESCU
Enescu: Piano Quintet in D major / Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major, Op. 11 (arr. piano & string quintet) Fine Arts Quartet, Alexander Bickard (double bass), Gisele Witkowski & Fabio Witkowski (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Aug/2023 ] It was in Paris just before the end of the 19th century that George Enescu began to compose prolifically, but it is only in recent years that a number of these scores have emerged. The Piano Quintet in D major is one such work, lost for decades, but... |
Erno DOHNANYI
Dohnanyi: Symphony No. 2 & Two Songs Florida State University Symphony Orchestera, Alexander Jiménez [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Jun/2014 ] Dohnányi's powerful Symphony No. 2 was composed toward the end of the Second World War but its large canvas reflects not so much his wartime experience as his own artistic credo as a Romantic composer. Of the symphony and its philosophy he wrote:... |
BELLINI
La Sonnambula (complete opera recorded in 1992) Francesco Ellero d' Artegna / Alexander Papadjiakou / Raul Gimenez / Netherlands Radio Choir / Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra / Alberto Zedda [ Naxos Opera Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Aug/2007 ] "The singing is of amazingly high quality.. Orgonasova is simply wonderful - vibrant, girlish, fluid, singing off the text and with no problem with the role's sometimes outlandish upper reaches....I can't imagine a finer current exponent of the role.... |
ANTOINE & MAX BOHRER
Bohrer: Grande symphonie militaire Friedemann Eichhorn (violin) Alexander Hülshoff (cello) / Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicolás Pasquet [ Naxos / CD - released 16/Feb/2024 ] The Bohrer family produced a succession of distinguished musicians of whom the brothers Antoine, a violinist who studied with Rodolphe Kreutzer in Paris, and cellist Max were the most eminent. |
PROKOFIEV
Complete Music For Violin (Includes Violin sonatas & Cinq Malodies, Op. 35b) Frank Peter Zimmerman (violin), Alexander Lonquich (piano) / Berliner Philharmoniker under Lorin Maazel / Philharmonia Orchestra under Mariss Jansons [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 28/Mar/2006 ] Prokofiev did not play the violin himself. Nevertheless he composed a substantial amount of varied works for this instrument: orchestral and chamber music. |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Symphonies, Vol 10: Symphony No. 14 in G minor, Op. 135 Gal James (soprano), Alexander Vinogradov (baritone) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Apr/2014 ] At its première in June 1969 Shostakovich described his Symphony No. 14, in effect a symphonic song cycle, as 'a fight for the liberation of humanity... a great protest against death, a reminder to live one's life honestly, decently, nobly...'... |
THEA MUSGRAVE
Concerto for Orchestra / Clarinet Concerto / Horn Concerto / Monologue / Excursions Gervase de Peyer (clarinet) Barry Tuckwell (horn) Thea Musgrave, Malcolm Williamson (pianos) / London Symphony / Scottish National / Alexander Gibson, [ Lyrita / CD - released 1/Aug/2007 ] Like many composers of her generation in Britain - the generation that first began to attract notice in the middle 1950s - Thea Musgrave came of age musically in that 'rite of passage' which involved acknowledging the primary importance of Bartók and... |
LEOS JANACEK
Janacek: Jenufa (complete opera recorded in 1989) Glyndebourne Opera / Anja Silja, Roberta Alexander, Philip Langridge / Andrew Davis (cond) [ Kultur / Channel 4 DVD / DVD - released 28/Dec/2001 ] "State-of-the-art filming of a state-of-the-art production, cunningly cast and passionately played and conducted...hugely recommended." - International Record Review Dec 2001 |
EBERHARD
Piano Concerto 'Shadow Of The Swan' Halida Dinova (Piano) / St Petersburg Cappella Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Tchernoushenko [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 1/Sep/2010 ] St. Petersburg Cappella Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Tchernoushenko |
ERNEST BLOCH
Concerto symphonique in B minor / Scherzo fantasque / Hiver-Printemps Halida Dinova (piano) / Symphony Orchestra of the State Academic Cappella of St Petersburg; Alexander Tchernushenk [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 7/Jul/2003 ] This is an important collection of Bloch's rarely recorded music for piano and orchestra. |
VERDI / BELLINI / GOUNOD / MASSANET
Operatic Arias for Bass Hao Jiang Tian (Bass), Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Rahbari (Conductor) [ Naxos / CD - released 9/May/2006 ] A veteran of the world's most prominent opera stages, Tian has established a particularly close relationship with New York's Metropolitan Opera, where he has appeared every season since 1991. |
HANDEL
Judas MacCabeus (recorded in 1971) Heather Harper, Helen Watts, Alexander Young, John Shirley-Quirk / Wandsworth School Boys Choir / English Chamber Orchestra / Johannes Somary [ ALTO / 2 CD - released 1/Jun/2009 ] "The solo singing is excellent with Alexander Young a ringing tenor, and Helen Watts singing the opening aria in Act III exquisitely. Very good recording... the effect is wholly natural - and a sense of commitment throughout from all departments." -... |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Isolation Songbook Helen Charlston (mezzo-soprano), Michael Craddock (baritone) / Alexander Soares (piano) [ DELPHIAN / CD - released 26/Mar/2021 ] The feeling which many of us experienced in spring 2020 as, country by country, the world went into lockdown - a sense of life gone into standstill - was especially acute for musicians, deprived suddenly of both their livelihoods and the human... |
JOHANN STRAUSS 11
Jabuka (Das Apfelfest) (Complete operetta) Helmut Josef Etti, Alexander Eschig, Veronika Groiss, Max Sahliger / European Johann Strauss Orchestra / Christian Pollack [ Naxos Opera / 2 CD - released 1/Dec/2007 ] With its strikingly fresh and original melodies, great ensembles and some of the finest choruses Strauss ever wrote, Jabuka was a huge success at its première in Vienna in October 1894. |
GLINKA / RUBINSTEIN / GLAZUNOV / KOSENKO / GLIERE / CUI
Russian Romantics Hideko Udagawa (violin) & Alexander Panfilov (piano) [ Northern Flowers: St. Petersburg Musical Archive / CD - released 15/May/2018 ] [2nd] "a natural inheritor of Scriabinesque exoticism, Szymanowski brings out the best in Scriabin's most imaginative interpreters, which is why Gergiev proves such a convincing interpreter … excellent playing from the LSO" [4th] |
ROBERT SCHUMANN / JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms & Schumann - Chamber Music with piano Hrachya Avanesyan (violin) Boris Brovtsyn (violin), Alexander Chaushian (cello), Diemut Poppen (viola), Yevgeny Sudbin (piano) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 29/Dec/2017 ] "Each of the movements has tempi that is lively but never rushed, brought forth in a crystal clear recording. The slow movements really linger and break the heart." Nicholas Butler |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Sonatas for fortepiano & violin - Vol.2 Isabelle Faust (violin) Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 7/Feb/2020 ] "True spontaneity is elusive in the recording studio. Faust and Melnikov give the illusion, at least, that they are responding to and recreating the music on the spot. Roll on Vol 3." Gramophone Editor's Choice March 2020 |