Claims to create ‘a new and fresh perspective’ in the pre-release publicity for this St Matthew Passion are bold. We are led to expect ‘raging choirs, intimate chorales and emotionally…
Category: Recordings
Rewarding performances from Philippe Herreweghe in three of J.S. Bach’s choral works
Every freshly minted disc from Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale Gent prompts a rapturous fanfare. We take for granted the quality of each recording venture from this 74-year-old Belgian, but how…
Lucile Richardot – a class act in Berio To Sing
This recent disc of Luciano Berio’s vocal music showcases the talents of the French mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot and the vocal and instrumental ensemble Le Cris de Paris. It begins with…
The music of celebrated American organist/choirmaster Gerre Hancock
This recent recording from New York’s Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is an affectionate tribute to the work of Dr. Gerre Hancock (1934-2012). The Texas-born musician was a…
Rossini’s Maometto II, in its Full Original Naples Version, Comes to Life Thanks to Flexible Young Singers at the “Rossini in Wildbad” Festival
I have written with enthusiasm about numerous recordings from the Rossini festival that is held each summer – well, except 2020 – in Wildbad (in Germany’s Black Forest region). One…
Handelian Pyrotechnics from William Towers
‘Pyrotechnics’, noun (plural): a public show of fireworks; a show of great skill, especially by a musician or someone giving a speech. William Towers’ recent recording of Handel arias, with…
Hérold’s Le pré aux clercs (1832), a Missing Link between Rossini and Offenbach, Done to Perfection
Good rule of thumb: if one or two arias from a forgotten opera have continued to be performed and recorded, and the overture as well, then the whole work is…
Gounod’s Early Mastery in Opera and Sacred Music: World-premiere recordings of scenes and choral works
This is the sixth volume in the “Prix de Rome” series of CD sets produced by the admirable Center for French Romantic Music, a research organization located in the Palazzetto…
Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, impressively shaped by Susanna Mälkki
According to Oscar Wilde’s 1891 essay The Decay of Lying, ‘Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life’. While this is not the occasion to argue with that proposition,…
First class performances from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
This new disc is the second volume of Evening Canticles from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge under Andrew Nethsingha. It presents nine settings of the Magnificat and Nunc…