Donizetti L'elisir d'amore

Angela Gheorghiu | Elena Dan | Evelino Pidò | Lyon Opera Chorus | Lyon Opera Orchestra | Roberto Alagna | Roberto Scaltriti | Simone Alaimo

The bicentenary of Donizetti’s birth has been virtually overlooked this year in favour of the Schubert, Brahms and Mendelssohn commemorations,...

Reviewed by Alan Blyth in issue: 13/1997

Simpson String Quartets 2 & 5

DelmÉ Qt

Apologies for the sense of deja-lu, but here is yet another splendidly invigorating Robert Simpson issue. Like the July coupling...

Reviewed in issue 10/1990

D. Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas

Every so often a major pianist reclaims Scarlatti for the piano with an outstanding recording – Andras Schiff on Decca...

Reviewed by Stephen Plaistow in issue: 3/1996

Münchner Philharmoniker 125 Years

This anniversary set gets off to a solid start with a weighty, plain-spoken 1953 Eroica and a pastorally accented 1956...

Reviewed by Peter Quantrill in issue: 01/2019

HANDEL Rodelinda (Cummings)

Anna Dennis | Christopher Lowrey | Franziska Gottwald | Göttingen Festival Orchestra | Julien Van Mellaerts | Laurence Cummings | Owen Willetts | Thomas Cooley

Perhaps it was the superficial similarity to Fidelio – a virtuous wife unwavering in heroic devotion to her husband –...

Reviewed by Richard Wigmore in issue: 08/2022

SHOSTAKOVICH Complete String Quartets (Quatuor Danel)

Danel Quartet

The Shostakovich quartets have moved from the periphery to the centre of the repertoire without too much in the way...

Reviewed by David Gutman in issue: 05/2024

Schumann Piano Concerto & Piano Quintet

Augustin Dumay | Chamber Orchestra of Europe | Claudio Abbado | Gérard Causse | Jian Wang | Maria João Pires | Renaud Capuçon

It makes an unusual and apt coupling to have the Schumann Piano Concerto alongside the most powerful of his chamber...

Reviewed by Edward Greenfield in issue: 7/2000

Schumann Piano Works

Maurizio Pollini

Like Arrau, Pollini oddly uses the first of the two editions of this work published by Schumann in his lifetime—a...

Reviewed by Joan Chissell in issue: 9/1984

Mozart & Schumann: Chamber Works

Antony Pay | Ian Brown | Roger Chase

Some things have inevitably changed since these recordings were first issued: The English Concert now plays with rather more freedom,...

Reviewed by John Duarte in issue: 9/1986

Barbara Bonney - When I Dream

Antonio Pappano | Barbara Bonney

It’s odd that Dichterliebe seems to be an exception to the apparent rule that women may sing ‘men’s songs’ (Winterreise‚...

Reviewed in issue 5/2002