Best new classical albums – February 2017
Gramophone
Friday, January 27, 2017
The finest recordings from this month's reviews, chosen by Martin Cullingford
Recording of the month
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 1, ‘Winter Daydreams’. The Tempest
Orchestra of St Luke’s / Pablo Heras-Casado
(Harmonia Mundi)
Pablo Heras-Casado has emerged as a conductor of perceptive insight and great talent: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 1 is not a work usually associated with making a statement, but this is a fascinating listen.
Schubert String Quartet No 15, D887. Quartettsatz, D703
Doric Quartet
(Chandos)
The Doric Quartet continue to build their impressive catalogue on Chandos with a Schubert disc that well demonstrates the rapport that is this ensemble’s hallmark.
Gramophone's Audio Editor, Andrew Everard, writes: This striking recording by the Doric Quartet, made in Potton Hall, Dunwich by producer/engineer Jonathan Cooper, is as remarkable for the vivacity of the performances as it is for the wide-open sound, combining as it does an entirely realistic and intimate soundstage with excellent speed and drive. The high-resolution 96kHz-24bit release snaps everything into even crisper focus, and is all the more thrilling as a result.Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
C Simpson The Four Seasons
Sirius Viols
(Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
A recording of beautiful music – by 17th century English composer and violist Christopher Simpson – given delightful and fresh-feeling performances by Sirius Viols, full of character.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
Bloch. Ligeti. Dallapiccola Works for Solo Cello
Natalie Clein
(Hyperion)
A wonderful and compelling recording by Natalie Clein demonstrating the art of cello-playing at its most intimate – physical, lyrical and beautifully recorded.
Liszt Complete Hungarian Rhapsodies
Vincenzo Maltempo pf
(Piano Classics)
Already acclaimed in these pages for his performances of Alkan, the young pianist Vincenzo Maltempo offers exceptionally fine interpretations of these virtuoso masterpieces.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
‘Bach to the Future, Vol 2’
Fenella Humphreys vn
(Champs Hill Records)
This is part two of an ambitious mission to expand the solo violin repertoire with some beguiling new works from British composers, in this case Sally Beamish, Peter Maxwell Davies and Adrian Sutton.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
‘Encores after Beethoven’
András Schiff pf
(ECM New Series)
Another recording – serious, engaging and thoughtful throughout – which firmly lays to rest the reputation of the ‘encore’ as a genre of lightweight and light-hearted lollipops.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
Schumann Dichterliebe, etc
Mauro Peter ten Helmut Deutsch pf
(Sony Classical)
This tenor-and-pianist partnership follow their 2015 Schubert success with a Schumann recital of strongly communicative power and personality.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
‘All Who Wander’
Jamie Barton mez Brian Zeger pf
(Delos)
A significant debut recording from the winner of 2013’s Cardiff Singer of the World, and one which whets appetites for what may lie ahead from this wonderful voice and impressive talent.
Read the review | Download album from Qobuz
Mascagni Guglielmo Ratcliff
Sols; Wexford Festival Opera / Francesco Cilluffo
(RTÉ Lyric FM)
‘An essential discovery’, says our reviewer Mark Pullinger of this revelatory gem from the Wexford Festival, sung and played with real conviction and class.
DVD/blu-ray
Elgar. Ligeti. Stravinsky. Wagner
Sol Gabetta vc Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
(EuroArts)
Two releases offer us Sol Gabetta’s Elgar Cello Concerto with Rattle this month, and both are highly recommended – a Sony CD and this Euroarts DVD.
Reissue/archive
Diamond. Harris. Hill Symphonies
Boston SO / Koussevitzky
(Pristine Audio)
Koussevitzky conducting the premiere of Harris’s Symphony No 5: ‘an important release’, writes Rob Cowan.
