Wilhelm Kempff’s credentials as an organist and composer lend a naturalness and flexibility to these performances of some of Bach’s best known Preludes and Fugues. There is also the very forward-looking, almost improvisatory piece of program music – the ‘Capriccio’ and a wonderful performance of the great ‘D major Toccata and Fugue’.
There are few Ravel orchestral compilations – at any price – that could hold a candle to this one. And most of the Mehta material appears on CD for the first time. A wilder ‘La Valse’, a more erotic ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ with its orgiastic finale you’d be hard-pressed to find! And what a magical finale […]
As a leading Mozartean, Karl Böhm turns out exquisite and warm performances of three of Mozart’s most popular serenades – all collected on a single CD. The three distinguished wind soloists in the ‘Posthorn’ add immeasurably to its pleasure.
Stephen Kovacevich’s accounts of the Bartók piano concertos have long set the benchmark by which others are measured. In their gravity, exploration of colour and explosion of fury they are unmatched and the partnership with Davis is febrile and energetic.
An idiomatic recording of Strauss’ Fledermaus boasts a stellar cast, in a warmly recorded account of this work.
From the magical fairy-tale world of Red Riding Hood in Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’, through the langurous haze of an afternoon in Debussy’s ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’, to the scintillating Spanish rhythms of ‘Rapsodie Espagnole’ and the black-and-white of both ‘En blanc et noir’ as well as the Stravinsky Sonata, this legendary piano duo partnership delivers […]
Long unavailable, these classic 1960s recordings of a trio of Bach cantatas have been restored to circulation, now at super-budget price. Here’s what two Amazon.com ‘surfer’s had to say about these recordings: ‘I have every reason in the world to be grateful for having encountered this wonderful CD over ten years ago now when I […]
Among the many recordings of the complete Mozart Violin Concertos, this one, with the late Iona Brown directing the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields from the violin, has lain dormant for far too long.
Joshua Rifkin is a musical polymath – a Bach scholar and a Ragtime specialist. His performances of Ragtime are gentle and inviting and in this wonderful recording of Rags and Tangos (made in 1990 for Decca) he treats us to a Scott Joplin-free exploration of music from this genre.
For many years, the ground was thick with misconceptions about Anton Bruckner – that he was a sort of idiot savant, that he composed nothing of merit until he reached middle age and that he was to be spoken of in the same breath as Gustav Mahler. None of these fables, and others, could be […]
For too long absent from the catalogue, Dohnanyi’s pair of recordings coupling Stravinsky and Bartok present him and the Vienna Philharmonic at their scintillating, dramatic best. Here is one of the most exciting accounts of ‘Petrushka’ ever to be committed to disc and the sordid tale of ‘The Miraculous Mandarin’ is sharply etched in this […]
For too long absent from the catalogue, Dohnanyi’s pair of recordings coupling Stravinsky and Bartok present him and the Vienna Philharmonic at their scintillating, dramatic best. ‘The Firebird’ is luxuriously done, the final apotheosis most moving and the lesser known ‘Two Portraits’ of Bartok are showpieces of instrumental colour, timbre and contrast.
