A French Hammerklavier

Paul Dukas : Piano sonata in E flat minor, Abel Decaux : Clairs de lune.

Performer : Marc-Andre Hamelin piano.

Some have called Dukas's piano sonata a French Hammerklavier, which it certainly is in length but also in scope and the demands it places on the pianist.

Bach In Early Style

J.S.Bach : Actus Tragicus, cantatas BWV 4, 12, 106, 196.

Performers : Cantus Colln directed by Konrad Junghanel.

Both early and more mature Bach cantatas.

Concertos a la Mode

Prokofiev piano concertos nos 1 and 3 . Scriabin miniatures.

Performer Evgeny Kissin piano, Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Prok 3 seems the young firebrands go to concerto these days and this was recorded by Kissin back when he was in the young firebrand bracket.

British Pastoral ( English and Scottish )

BBC Music magazine free cover disc.

George Butterworth : The Banks of green Willow, A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody, Two English Idylls.

Hamish MacCunn : Land of the Mountain and Flood, The Ship o' the Fiend.

Performers : BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra variously conducted by Andrew Manze, Osmo Vanska and Martyn Brabbins  and BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Keith Lockhart.

Caught One More time

Van Morrison : Astral Weeks

Nothing else remotely like it really, despite numerous borrowings to be found in the work of others. Nostalgic in 1968, nostalgia that only grows with the passing years and becomes more powerful.

Agnostic Take On Faith

Vaughan Williams : Sancta Civitas and Dona nobis pacem

Performers : London Symphony Orchestra and chorus, Choristers of St Paul's cathedral, Yvonne Kenny soprano, Bryn Terfel baritone, Philip Langridge tenor. Conducted by Richard Hickox.

Chorus master Stephen Westrop, orchestra leader Vasko Vassilev.

Similarities to VW's opera on Pilgrims Progress which was long in gestation.

Later With Levit

Beethoven : The Late Sonatas

Performer : Igor Levit, piano.

Op 101, 106 ( Hammerklavier ), 109, 110, 111.

Massive early career confidence from Levit.

Deluxe Duo

Mendelssohn, Grieg, Hough cello sonatas.

Performers : Steven Isserlis cello, Stephen Hough piano

Strong advocacy for Grieg, Mendelssohn not in need of special pleading and Hough's sonata ( piano left hand only ) well worth hearing.

Viola To The Fore

Maxim Rysanov plays Martinu.

Rhapsody concerto for viola and orchestra, works for viola and violin and sonata for viola and piano.

Performers : Maxim Rysanov viola, BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiri Belohlavek, Alexander Sitkovetsky violin, Katya Apekisheva piano.

Fireworks

Mozart String Quartet no 15, Mendelssohn String Quartet No 2

Performers : Chiaroscuro Quartet

Quartet led by Alina Ibragimova as one of her many projects.

Mozart Live In London

Mozart Piano Sonatas Volume 3. Live at Wigmore Hall.

Performer : Christian Blackshaw piano.
Sonatas Nos 6, 12, 14, 16 and Fantasie in C Minor.

Very good current cycle of the sonatas on a concert grand.

Russia On The South Coast

Prokofiev symphonies nos 3 and 7

Performers ; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Karabits.

The BSO are a really fine outfit under Karabits ( if they were not before )

Nordic Pastoral

BBC music magazine free cover disc with familiar Grieg extracts from Peer Gynt suite and much less familiar fare with Stenhammar's 2nd symphony. Sweden's answer to Sibelius, Nielsen and Greig and very Sibelian in feel.

Performers : BBC Scottish SO conducted by Hannu Lintu.

Birthday Part Songs

BBC Music magazine free cover disc to celebrate Arvo Part's 75th birthday.

Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
Adam's Lament
The Beatitudes
Trivium
Summa
Which was the son of...

Performers; BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. Tallinn chamber Orchestra and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Kristjan Jarvi. BBC Singers conducted by Paul Brough. Iain Farrington organ.

All pieces that do not feature the BBC Singers are excellent.

Better To Travel Than To Arrive

The Beethoven Journey : Piano Concertos nos 2 and 4.

Performers : Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leif Ove Andsnes piano and director.

Ignoring the tedious "journey" aspect ( made even more tedious by the increasingly hysterical BBC Radio 3 proms coverage ) this is extremely fine playing of repertoire I am so familiar with but didn't actually have in my collection.

Soulful Wanderings

Janacek Orchestral works Volume 2

Pieces : Jealousy, Violin Concerto The Wandering of a Little Soul", The Ballad of Blanik, The Fiddler's Child, The Danube, Taras Bulba.

Performers : Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, Susanna Andersson soprano, James Ehnes violin, Melina Mandozzi violin.

Evolution Of A Form

Haydn piano sonatas nos 38, 39, 47, 59

Performer : Denis Kozhukhin piano.

Underrated and underappreciated section of Haydn's output, here put convincingly back into the spotlight. Showing the way onto Mozart and Beethoven and not completely alien from their worlds.

The "Other" Danish Symphonist

Niels Wilhelm Gade Symphonies Volume 3

Echoes of Ossian Op 1,
Andante, discarded first movement from symphony no 3.
Symphony No 3
Symphony No 6

Performers : Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Hogwood

Heir to Mendelssohn, predecessor of Nielsen, worthy of consideration in his own right.

Czech plays Czech

Smetana  String Quartets nos 1 and 2.

Performers : Pavel Haas Quartet.

About time I had one commercial recording by this prolific and consistently well reviewed quartet.

Mythically Fiery

Prometheus - The Myth In Music

Performers : Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado. Martha Argerich piano, Ingrid Ade-Jesemann and monika Bair-Ivenz sopranos, Susanne Otto alto, Peter Hall tenor, Ulrike Krumbiegel and Mathias Schadock speakers.

Beethoven, The Creatures of Prometheus. Liszt, Prometheus. Scriabin, The Poem of Fire. Nono, Prometeo.

Sonata For This, Sonata For That

Hindemith sonatas for piano and various instruments.

Performers : Alexander Melnikov piano, Teunis van der Zwart althorn, Alexander Rudin cello, Gerard Costes trombone, Isabelle Faust violin, Jeroen Berwaerts trumpet.

Varied and intriguing.

Not All Lugubrious

Franz Liszt : Works for Violin and Piano ( including Grand Duo Concertant and La Lugubre Gondola )

Performers : Ulf Wallin violin, Roland Pontinen piano.

Lesser known corner of Liszt's oeuvre.

Nothing Arch About It

Beethoven piano trios, op 70 no 2 and op 97 "Archduke"

Performers : Alexander Melnikov piano, Isabelle Faust violin, Jean-Guihen Queyras cello.

Melnikov uses a fortepiano on this recording. Refined and subtle playing.

Generation Next

First worthwhile BBC Music magazine free cover cd for a few months with recitals by Radio 3 current New Generation artists.

Beethoven, piano sonata no 18 : Zhang Zuo piano.

Britten, Lachrymae ( Reflections on a song by John Dowland ) : Lise Berthaud viola, Francois Pinel piano

Shostakovich, cello sonata in d minor : Narek Hakhnazaryan cello, Katya Apekisheva piano

The Other Sviatoslav

BBC Music magazine cover disk of a live recital from May 1969 at the Festival Hall.

Beethoven : Piano sonata No 11 in B flat, Op22
Schumann : Etudes symphoniques
Chopin : Nocturne in F, Op 15, no 1
Debussy : Cloches a travers la feuilles

Performer : Sviatoslav Richter, piano

Ib And Tib again

Szymanowski : The complete music for violin and piano.

Performers : Alina Ibragimova violin, Cedric Tiberghien piano.

Seasonal Variations

Tchaikovsky ; Les Saisons, Six Morceaux.

Performer : Pavel Kolesnikov, piano.

Debut recording of a career worth following.

Romantic As Ever

Rachmaninov : Symphony No 2 , Dances from Aleko.

Performers : Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko

Into The French Salon

Guillaume Lekeu : Violin Sonata
Ravel : Violin Sonatas 1 & 2, Tzigane, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure

Performers : Alina Ibragimova violin, Cedric Tiberghien piano

One For The Library

Dvorak string quartet op 96, American and string quintet op 97.

Performers : Keller Quartet augmented in the quintet by Anna Deeva viola.

BBC Radio 3 building a library selection.

Touched By War

Flowers of the Field. Loosely themed on WW1.

Butterworth : A Shropshire Lad - Rhapsody for Orchestra
Finzi : Requiem da Camera
Gurney : The Trumpet
Vaughan Williams : An Oxford Elegy

Performers : London Mozart Players, City of London Choir , conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton.
Roderick Williams baritone, Jeremy Irons narrator.

Elemental

Jean - Fery Rebel : Les Elemens - simphonie nouvelle

Andre Cardinal Destouches : Les Elemens - opera ballet

Performers : The Academy Of Ancient Music directed by Christopher Hogwood harpsichord

A Chip Off The Old Prok

Prokofiev Violin Sonatas 1 and 2 and Five Melodies.

Performers : Alina Ibragimova violin, Steven Osborne piano.

Peerless chamber music making.