Editor's Choice: December 2022 | The best new classical recordings

Monday, December 5, 2022

Editor Martin Cullingford chooses the best albums from the December 2022 issue of Gramophone

Recording of the month

Beethoven Symphony No 3, ‘Eroica’ (transcr Liszt) Mozart Piano Concerto No 20, K466 (transcr Alkan)

Paul Wee pf 

BIS 

Pianist Paul Wee proves himself a master of these treacherously demanding transcriptions, sweeping aside the technical challenges to present these great works with consummate musicianship.

Read the Gramophone review


Brahms Symphony No 1 Dvořák Symphony No 6 

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša 

Tudor 

A superb chance to hear Covent Garden’s next Music Director in Brahms and Dvořák, with a particularly fine recording of the latter’s Symphony No 6. 

Read the Gramophone review


Mahler Symphony No 9 

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle 

BR-Klassik 

Sir Simon Rattle brings to Mahler’s Ninth the sense of occasion, unique in the hearing and fresh in the discovery, that all great performances of this music should convey. 

Read the Gramophone review


Beethoven. Franck. Schumann Violin Sonatas 

Renaud Capuçon vn Martha Argerich pf 

DG 

A record of a poignant occasion for two of today’s finest artists, captured together in an evening of wonderful music-making.

Read the Gramophone review


Shostakovich. Walton String Quartets 

Albion Quartet 

Signum 

I was instantly stuck by the sheer vividness – both the compellingly committed playing and the immediacy of sound – of this superb chamber album from the Albion Quartet. 

Read the Gramophone review


‘A Golden Cello Decade’

Steven Isserlis vc Connie Shih pf 

Hyperion 

Any programme by cellist Steven Isserlis is always chosen, prepared and ultimately performed with devotion; joined here by pianist Connie Shih, this is another wonderful album.

Read the Gramophone review


Chaminade ‘Piano Music, Vol 2’ 

Mark Viner pf 

Piano Classics 

Wonderful music, performed with charm, affection and, when required, fabulous virtuosity, by pianist Mark Viner; a superb follow up to his equally impressive first volume of Chaminade.

Read the Gramophone review


Montgeroult Études 

Clare Hammond pf 

BIS 

The splendid music of this fascinating French composer, in many ways ahead of its time, deserves to be far better known – and receives gloriously eloquent advocacy from pianist Clare Hammond. 

Read the Gramophone review


Cristo Missa Salve regina. Motets 

Cupertinos / Luís Toscana 

Hyperion 

Gramophone Early Music Award-winners in 2019, Luís Toscano’s Cupertinos offer us a beautiful recording of Marian works by Renaissance Portuguese composer Pedro de Cristo. 

Read the Gramophone review


‘Roma travestita’ 

Bruno de Sá counterten Il Pomo d’Oro / Francesco Corti 

Erato 

Sopranist Bruno de Sá demonstrates his brilliance of voice in a programme of 18th-century music written for castrato, with marvellous support from Il Pomo d’Oro. 

Read the Gramophone review


DVD/blu-ray

‘Bach and Expression’ 

Daniel Moult, Martin Schmeding orgs 

Fugue State Films 

Another triumph from Fugue State Films, in this case a highly engaging documentary presented by Daniel Moult which invites us to think afresh about Bach’s organ music.   

Read the Gramophone review


Reissue/archive

Schubert Complete Piano Sonatas 

Elisabeth Leonskaja pf 

Warner Classics 

Elisabeth Leonskaja’s Schubert, writes Rob Cowan in this month’s box-set round-up, of which this set is a standout highlight, should provide ‘a lifetime’s worth of musical nourishment’ – in superb sound too.


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