No one ever needs to convince me of Kurt Weill’s importance in the great scheme of music. Not just in the world of musical theatre where I have long been an advocate of his American work –…

What a delicious surprise this has turned out to be. I’ll wager only a tiny minority of true Ravel aficionados will know only one or two if any of these early opuses – all of them written…

Sonically speaking, this streamed offering from San Diego is right up there with the best we have – yes, even the much-lauded Chandos/Storgards account which was my Critics Choice a couple of years back. The young Venezuelan…

There’s a great deal to admire here. Some individual new thinking, too. In some ways the Tenth is the most classically cast of all Shostakovich’s symphonies – and to honour that it must feel organic. Sokhiev’s opening…

‘The Guv’nor’ of movie music is quick to acknowledge those who have inspired him – composers and performers alike – and these two new releases are as much a tribute to the creative impulses of his two…

‘A Gathering of Friends’ celebrates three decades of friendship between Williams and Yo-Yo Ma and features a radical revision of the Cello Concerto first conceived after their initial meeting through the Boston Pops Orchestra. For this new…

Shostakovich’s well-developed sense of irony is so intrinsically wrapped up with his love of popular music – especially that which the Soviet establishment regarded as ‘trivial’ or better yet ‘subversive’ – that it’s sometimes hard to discern…

Florence Price is fast becoming the flag-bearer for a whole new generation of female African-American composers. And she is also a wonderful example of how quality will out if champions like Yannick Nézet-Séguin (his terrific disc of…

An eye (and ear) catching coupling. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is front and centre of the core repertoire these days – though not always in performances as good as this one – but we rarely hear Kurt Weill’s…