Orchestral & Symphonic

It should come as no surprise that an instrument with the horn's peculiar sound potential and it's attractive combination with two such devices as the violin and the piano has seduced classical composers such as Brahms or Ligeti. In this context, it is...

It seems serendipitous that LaGaylia Frazier and Jan Lundgren would meet. Seven years after their first introduction, the pair reunited to "make some real music," as LaGaylia says Jan put it. Until It's Time is the outcome. The soul singer and the jazz...

It is the successful combination of the low, chest baritone and high, head soprano registers that has come to characteristically define the rare and unique contralto singing voice at it's finest. This register combination results in a natural, three...

'It is simply a badge of historical injustice that oboists must wear.' Such was the lament of Leon Goosens, echoing the commonly-held view that the nineteenth century was a time of crisis in the history of the oboe. Like a snowball effect, the id?e re?ue...

It is rare to be able to say that a performance forces one to listen to a work anew, but this is exactly what Alsop' reading achieves. Excellently recorded... this is a superb issue all round.1. I. Allegro Maestoso 2. II. Poco Adagio 3. III. Scherzo:...

It is often forgotten that Cherubini, best remembered today for his Requiem and opera Medee, was held in the highest regard by his contemporaries, including Beethoven who considered him to be the greatest living composer of all.1. Largo - Allegro 2...

It is hard to envisage a more enticing prospect: Shostakovich's densely woven String Quartet No.2 and his deceptively backward-looking Piano Quintet, performed by the stellar Takcs Quartet and Marc-Andr? Hamelin, generously notated by David Fanning, and...

It is difficult to imagine a more touching sound than the gentle voice of a cello accompanied by the sweet tones of a Spanish guitar. In fact, for Nicole Pe?a Comas and Damien Lancelle, these two instruments sound so amorous together that they require an...

It is a little known fact that Bizet's Symphony No. 1, now regarded as a minor masterpiece, was closely modelled on his teacher Gounod's Symphony No. 1, only rediscovered in the 1950s and still unaccountably neglected.1. Allegro Molto 2. Allegretto...

It had been always said that our knowledge of Bruno Walter's performing art is based upon the recordings the conductor realized in the US at the end of a long career. Many are indeed quite incredible, but to find the power typical of this conductor it is...

It goes without saying that almost all serious organists regard Johann Sebastian Bach's magnificent works as the foundation of their musical art. Performed on any decent instrument dating from Bach's time forward, the composer's genius and compositional...

Istvan Kertesz's early death from a swimming accident in 1973 meant that he performed very little in Salzburg. In the previous decade he quickly established himself as a first-class conductor of the younger generation with a large repertoire ranging from...