Music reviews

Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Concertos Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano) Die Kölner Akademie Michael Alexander Willens (conductor)BIS RecordsThese are fleet performances of Mendelssohn’s super-exciting, exuberant piano concertos....

Mahler, Symphony 2 "Resurrection" Minnesota Orchestra Osmo Vänskä (conductor)Sasha CookeRuby HughesMinnesota ChoraleBIS RecordsWhen you hear the lower strings opening the symphony so fiercely and...

This has been a great year for classical music and I've found it really hard to select only 5 releases. Many of my favourite...

Philip Glass, Symphony 11Bruckner Orchester LinzDennis Russell Davies (conductor)Orange Mountain MusicPhilip Glass, the non-minimalist composerIn my review for the Ólafsson album of the Philip...

Music Reviews:Philip Glass, Piano Works (selection) Víkingur Ólafsson (pianist) Deutsche GrammophonBach, Solo Piano Works (selection) Víkingur Ólafsson (pianist) Deutsche Grammophon  Philip Glass I have listened to a lot of different recordings of the...

Review: Mahler, Symphony 6 "Tragic" MusicAeterna Teodor Currentzis (conductor) Sony ClassicalThis is not just another Mahler 6th. And this is no easy thing to say considering that the competition...

Rachmaninov, Piano Concertos 2 & 4 Daniil Trifonov (piano) The Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor) Deutsche Grammophon, October 2018 When a piece of music is among your favourite works of...

Is the Stenhammar 2nd symphony a great work? Listen to Lindberg’s account and you will realise that it is. And why shouldn’t it be?...

This is Brahms as it should be. Bold, grand, shamelessly romantic. Of course, Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin have given us first-rate symphony cycles...

First the good news: This Shostakovich album by Nelsons is better recorded than the previous releases in this set (symphonies 5, 8, 9 and...