GRAMOPHONE Review: Russian Spectacular (Balakirev, Borodin & Mussorgsky) – Singapore Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Shui
Surely here was an opportunity to stray a little from the well-trodden path and offer perhaps Mussorgsky’s startling original version of Night on the Bare Mountain instead of Rimsky-Korsakov’s popular sanitisation? And given the hugely imaginative title…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – July 2021
Some artists leave a legacy which far transcends the excellence of their work. We remember their performances as surely as we remember the stages of our own lives and development. We remember where we were, how we…
BBC Radio 3 Record Review Podcast: Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms
Music journalist Edward Seckerson reveals his must-have recording of Bernstein’s choral masterpiece, the Chichester Psalms. Leonard Bernstein’s exuberant Chichester Psalms was one of the composer’s many strong connections with the UK, commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bartók Duke Bluebeard’s Castle – Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Mälkki
Out of the darkness, a voice (Géza Szilvay), a whispered invitation to enter the darkest recesses of Duke Bluebeard’s mind. That spoken introduction to Bartok’s operatic masterpiece – quiet and confidential – invokes solitude and nothing but…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No.11 ‘The Year 1905’ – SWR Symphony Orchestra/Inbal
You would expect a seasoned Mahlerian like Eliahu Inbal to offer an emotive response to this extraordinary symphony – but I really hadn’t anticipated quite how powerfully he and his young orchestra (the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ – Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra/Fischer
As Adam Fischer’s Dusseldorf Mahler cycle has evolved a clearer picture has emerged of his choices and priorities. He’s a very sympathetic and clear-headed Mahlerian whose nose for beauty and atmosphere (clearly led by very personal convictions)…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – June 2021
LSO Live have billed their new Simon Rattle recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony as ‘the complete version’. Doesn’t that go without saying these days? Surely no reputable conductor performing the piece now would countenance anything less? But…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bartók Orchestral Works, Vol 2 – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Dausgaard
Listening to Bartók’s chilling ‘pantomime grotesque’ The Miraculous Mandarin – complete – in a performance as good as this one you do ask yourself why anyone would programme the Suite any more. There is the small matter…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 – London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle
The London Symphony Orchestra have a kind of ownership on this piece. The era of Andre Previn and his and their championship of it was one of the defining moments in a period of change – not…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – May 2021
Each Sunday morning whilst awaiting the BBC’s news round-up from Andrew Marr (an erstwhile editor of mine) I generally catch the end of Gary Lineker and his pundits reviewing the week’s football. Now I’m no expert on…
