The best new classical albums: Editor's Choice, September 2020

Friday, August 14, 2020

Featuring new releases from Dame Sarah Connolly, Osmo Vänskä, Paul Lewis, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev and more

You can enjoy excerpts from the August issue's Editor's Choice albums via Apple Music below. To listen to complete tracks and albums subscribe to Apple Music, which is free for the first three months.

Recording of the month

MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde

Dame Sarah Connolly mez Robert Dean Smith bar Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski

Pentatone

At its finest – as it is here – Das Lied von der Erde is a work of profound poignancy; two superb soloists, and a conductor who beautifully shapes this performance, make it an unmissable release.

Read the Gramophone review


MAHLER Symphony No 7

Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä

BIS

More Mahler this month: a brilliant and detailed traversal of the composer’s Seventh Symphony from Osmo Vänskä which more than warrants a place on this page – a very fine recording.

Read the Gramophone review


PICKARD The Gardener of Aleppo

Nash Ensemble / Martyn Brabbins

BIS

Covering 30 years of composer John Pickard’s career, these well-chosen works convey his concerns with emotion and events; the Nash Ensemble understand his sound world intimately.

Read the Gramophone review


BEETHOVEN Bagatelles

Paul Lewis pf

Harmonia Mundi

Paul Lewis is a pianist whose relationship with Beethoven’s music has brought us many albums of richly absorbing playing, and in the composer’s anniversary year, his Bagatelles enhance that fine catalogue.

Read the Gramophone review


JOHAN SMITH Guitar Works

Johan Smith gtr

Naxos

With competition prizes to his credit, Johan Smith is clearly a guitarist to follow, one with, as this mixed recital reveals, a compelling sense of touch and musicality.

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FINNISSY Pious Anthems & Voluntaries

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge / Andrew Nethsingha

Signum

All praise to St John’s and their conductor Andrew Nethsingha for commissioning these works, and then recording them for posterity with such skill and devotion.

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POTT At First Light

Commotio / Matthew Berry

Naxos

Francis Pott offers a moving addition to modern music – ‘a semi-secular Requiem’ as he puts it, one of thought-provoking depth, performed with compassion by Commotio and Matthew Berry.

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‘HERE WE ARE’

The Hermes Experiment

Delphian

This fabulous young chamber ensemble – comprising harp, clarinet, soprano and double bass – have really caught the imagination with their commitment to commissioning and their infectious and brilliant performances.

Read the Gramophone review


HANDEL Semele

Sols; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner

SDG

This masterpiece – more opera than oratorio – justifies all advocacy, and certainly gets it here in a thrilling performance by John Eliot Gardiner and a fabulous line-up of soloists.

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HANDEL Arias

Avery Amereau contr Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra / Nicholas McGegan

Philharmonia Baroque

Avery Amereau brings dramatic personality to her richly coloured contralto voice in a recital of Handel arias ranging from the theatrical to the more meditative.

Read the Gramophone review


DVD/BLU RAY

WAGNER Tannhäuser

Sols; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra / Valery Gergiev

DG

Few –if any – young singers have recently earned such excited attention as soprano Lise Davidsen. Here she is in a major Wagner role from the composer’s spiritual home.


REISSUE/ARCHIVE

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphonies Nos 4 & 5, etc

NBC Symphony Orchestra / Leopold Stokowski

Pristine Audio

‘One of the most impressive historical Stokowski sets yet to be released,’ writes Replay author Rob Cowan; featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, it’s another Pristine triumph.

To read the reviews of these and many other new releases and reissues, subscribe to Gramophone magazine

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