The opera world in Mozart’s day recycled successful plots and characters much as the worlds of film and Broadway theater do today. In October 1785, in Vienna, Antonio Salieri had…
Category: Recordings
Das Rosenband: Inga Kalna presents Strauss alongside some Latvian gems
It’s probably fair to say that Latvian composers don’t feature greatly on even the most avid classical music aficionado’s radar. When I reflect, only the names of Ēriks Ešenvalds and…
I wonder as I wander: an assured debut from James Newby and Joseph Middleton
Recorded only five years since his graduation from Trinity Laban, this is an excellent debut CD from the not-yet-thirty-year-old James Newby, already with a string of prizes including the prestigious Kathleen…
Purcell Royal Odes: music for royalty superbly fashioned by The King’s Consort
Robert King has been addressing the music of Henry Purcell for over thirty years, and his ground-breaking anthology of odes and welcome songs begun in 1988 brought fresh insights to…
A unique Das Lied from Karajan and a highly charged Salzburg Fifth
Herbert von Karajan started conducting Mahler in 1955 when he performed Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Those performances were given in the United States – Chicago and New York – and…
A formidable new Mahler Fourth from Jakub Hrůša and Anna Lucia Richter
Jakub Hrůša has some impeccable credentials as a Mahler conductor. I described a gripping Resurrection in February 2020 with the Philharmonia Orchestra as one from the Golden Age; one that…
Pygmalion: Bach Motets
Issued last September but only recently brushing my radar, Pygmalion’s alpha-plus Bach disc is a revelation. Raphaël Pichon, founder of the specialist Baroque ensemble in 2006, has had a rewarding…
Cimarosa’s The Impresario in Distress Gets Its First Modern Recording
The Italian phrase in angustie means something like “in distress,” “in a tight bind,” or “under pressure from all sides.” Angustie derives from the Latin “angustus”—narrow—and is related to the…
Auber’s Siren Enchants Anew, in a Long-Needed First Recording
Auber’s comic operas – once a mainstay of theaters throughout Europe, the Americas, and perhaps beyond – are slowly making their way back into the lives of music lovers through…