Search the Reviews Database
SOPER The Understanding of All Things
When the line ‘Here is a central source of musical emotion’ sounds like poetry, you’ve fallen under the spell of...
Reviewed by Laurence Vittes in issue: 05/2022
SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas, D850 & D960 (Anne-Marie McDermott)
In the opening measures of the D major Sonata, D850, Anne-Marie McDermott throws down the proverbial gauntlet with a power...
Reviewed by Jed Distler in issue: 05/2022
Confluence – Balkan Dances & Tango nuevo
The idea of bringing together Eastern European folk dances and tango nuevo is a sound one. Astor Piazzolla, tango nuevo’s...
Reviewed by Andrew Farach-Colton in issue: 05/2022
La captive du sérail
The 18th century saw a fashion for operas on oriental subjects, often concerning a European woman being rescued by her...
Reviewed by Richard Lawrence in issue: 05/2022
Benjamin Bernheim: Boulevard des Italiens
Paris’s beautiful Opéra-Comique is just a 10-minute stroll from the equally opulent Palais Garnier via the Boulevard des Italiens and...
Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 05/2022
ROUSSEL La Testament de La Tante Caroline (Corlay)
Aunt Caroline is dead, and the three nieces who shunned her during her career as a grande horizontale are suddenly...
Reviewed by Richard Bratby in issue: 05/2022
PUCCINI La bohème (Alapont)
In Irish National Opera’s short history the company has shown bags of vitality and innovation, and a little thing like...
Reviewed by Neil Fisher in issue: 05/2022
HANDEL Saul (Moulds)
With its unflinching portrayal of the Israelite king’s descent into madness and terrible final lucidity, Saul is arguably both the...
Reviewed by Richard Wigmore in issue: 05/2022
GIORDANO Siberia (Noseda)
Siberia was Giordano’s favourite of his own operas. First performed in 1903, it reflects the growing fin de siècle fascination...
Reviewed by Tim Ashley in issue: 05/2022
DURÓN Coronis (Dumestre)
If you fancy something off the operatic beaten track, take a wander back into the Spanish Golden Age. Coronis is...
Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 05/2022
Stella: Renaissance Gems and Their Reflections, Vol 3
After volumes focusing on Byrd and Tallis (3/16, 9/17), ORA and their music director Suzi Digby go international for the...
Reviewed by Alexandra Coghlan in issue: 05/2022
O Jerusalem! City of Three Faiths
Etymologists trace a late fourth-century transition from Jerusalem as the ‘city of peace’ to the ‘vision of peace’ (the term...
Reviewed by Edward Breen in issue: 05/2022
Mirabilia Musica: Echoes From Late Medieval Cracow
While Ukraine suffers from an unspeakably murderous invasion, it is good to remember that neighbouring Poland has a fairly rich...
Reviewed by David Fallows in issue: 05/2022
The Covid-19 Sessions
Looking back in years to come, historians will find a musical time-capsule in the releases of the current period: recordings...
Reviewed by Alexandra Coghlan in issue: 05/2022
WILBY An English Passion According to Saint Matthew
This is a truly important release, all premiere recordings of works composed between 2014 and 2019 by a master craftsman....
Reviewed by Malcolm Riley in issue: 05/2022
SCHÜTZ Historia Nativitatis. David et Salomon
Geoffroy Jourdain and Les Cris de Paris apply their communicative extroversion to Schütz’s settings of texts from the Psalms of...
Reviewed by David Vickers in issue: 05/2022
RACHMANINOV Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (Excerpts. Putniņš)
While Rachmaninov’s setting of the (Eucharistic) Liturgy is not as well known as his Vigil (the so-called Vespers) – with...
Reviewed by Ivan Moody in issue: 05/2022
MACONCHY; VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Songs, Vol 1 (James Geer)
A stimulating release, this, particularly valuable for its focus on the neglected song output of one of Vaughan Williams’s most...
Reviewed by Andrew Achenbach in issue: 05/2022
LIGETI; KODÁLY Lux Aeterna
The works presented here by Kodály are folk inspired, and culminate in a superb rendition of Mátra Pictures. Kodály’s work...
Reviewed by Ivan Moody in issue: 05/2022
FRANCK Complete Songs and Duets
Bru Zane’s first contribution to this year’s Franck bicentenary is this fine survey of his songs, a form with which,...
Reviewed by Tim Ashley in issue: 05/2022
Follow us
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £9.20 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £11.45 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.