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TCHAIKOVSKY The Enchantress (Uryupin)
The Enchantress (1887) is among Tchaikovsky’s least‑known, least-performed mature operas, yet it was the one he considered his finest. Set...
Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 06/2024
PUTS The Hours (Nézet-Séguin)
So far, The Hours has polarised opera audiences. For some, it’s an enveloping fusion of intricate dramaturgy and symphonic orchestration....
Reviewed by David Patrick Stearns in issue: 06/2024
PUCCINI Manon Lescaut (Villaume)
The Davide Livermore production is the primary appeal of this Manon Lescaut DVD: dramaturgical problems are successfully addressed in an...
Reviewed by David Patrick Stearns in issue: 06/2024
Golda Schultz: Mozart, You Drive Me Crazy!
La povera ragazza, è pazza, amici miei. ‘The poor girl, my friends, has lost her mind’, confides Don Giovanni to...
Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 06/2024
CHARPENTIER David et Jonathas (Schneebeli)
Having rejoiced in March at the first top-class interpretation of David et Jonathas to emerge in donkey’s years, just a...
Reviewed by David Vickers in issue: 06/2024
ADAMS The Girls of the Golden West (Adams)
The opera repertoire would be considerably diminished if composers had abandoned their ‘problem children’ at the first sign of trouble....
Reviewed by Thomas May in issue: 06/2024
‘Wonder Women’
The booklet notes open with declamatory words by Maddalena Casulana, the 16th-century composer, lutenist and singer: ‘I wish … to...
Reviewed by Mark Seow in issue: 06/2024
Invocazioni Mariane
‘Porpora, rival of Handel, mentor of Haydn, is worth exploring’ is how I ended my review of the DVD of...
Reviewed by Richard Lawrence in issue: 06/2024
Schütz - A German in Venice
Not to suggest that Schütz needs saving from obscurity, nor to imply that he’s a ‘minor master’ (don’t you just...
Reviewed by Edward Breen in issue: 06/2024
Feast of the Swan: A Renaissance Brotherhood At Table
Cappella Pratensis here show an almost Trumpian need to push the boundaries and see how far they can get away...
Reviewed by David Fallows in issue: 06/2024
La Belle Dame
Rarities galore on what is an uncommonly enterprising compendium, and at least one surprise: the first of the five movements...
Reviewed by Andrew Achenbach in issue: 06/2024
TELEMANN Ino and Late Works
These pieces are Telemann’s last known compositions. They show him to have been extraordinarily inventive into his 80s, knowledgeable about...
Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 06/2024
TELEMANN Cantatas (Schneider; Koch)
‘Wherever Bach went, Telemann was there before him.’ If not completely true, Reinhard Goebel’s remark is on the right track....
Reviewed by Lindsay Kemp in issue: 06/2024
SCHÜTZ Da Pacem (Pierlot)
Though there is nothing wrong with presenting complete sets of Schütz’s monumental publications or large single works, it can be...
Reviewed by David Vickers in issue: 06/2024
RUTTER Visions
John Rutter’s Visions dates from 2016 and received almost immediately an authoritative recording by the original performers – the Temple...
Reviewed by Malcolm Riley in issue: 06/2024
REGER 'Melancholy'
No genre (other than opera) is without its substantial contribution from Reger, and his music for choir is correspondingly extensive....
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse in issue: 06/2024
PADOVANO Missa A la dolc' ombra. Missa Domine a lingua dolosa
A tale of two Masses, one based on a madrigal, the other on a motet. Cinquecento’s latest release, coupling Annibale...
Reviewed by Edward Breen in issue: 06/2024
OCKEGHEM Complete Songs Vol 2
This completes Blue Heron’s two-disc set of Ockeghem’s complete songs (1/20), coming just four years after the parallel collection from...
Reviewed by David Fallows in issue: 06/2024
LA HÈLE Missa Praeter rerum seriem
George de La Hèle (1547‑86) was one of a last wave of composers from the Low Countries to occupy a...
Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 06/2024
KOZLOVZKI Requiem (Graf)
Józef Kozłowski (or Osip Kozlovsky, 1757-1831) was born in Warsaw but gravitated to St Petersburg, where he became music master...
Reviewed by David Threasher in issue: 06/2024
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