December 2011

Informed by our unrivalled panel of critics, we choose the month’s must-hear recordings hoice

SCHUMANN String Quartets, Op 41 Doric String Quartet Chandos CHAN10692

Recording of the Month ‘They play up Schumann’s unique combination of whimsy and fervour … These are performances to make you fall in love with the music all over again’

FOR THE FULL REVIEW BY HARRIET SMITH, TURN TO PAGE 54

Hear every Gramophone Choice recording, including Recording of the Month, through the online Gramophone Player at gramophone.co.uk

IRELAND Piano Concerto, etc Lenehan pf RLPO / Wilson Naxos 8 572598 ‘Its bright finale has an indelible main theme you won’t be able to get out of your head once the work concludes… John Lenehan is again at his finest here.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 61

SAARIAHO ‘D'om le vrai sens’, etc Kriikku cl Komsi sop Finnish Radio SO / Oramo Ondine ODE1173 2 ‘Cast in interlinked movements, the concerto explores the five senses as depicted in the medieval tapestry series, The Lady and the Unicorn.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 64

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STRAVINSKY The Firebird Les Siècles / Roth Musicales Actes Sud ASM06 ‘The Firebird was the sensation of 1910. It is played here with a difference. The intention is for it to sound as it did to those first, dazzled Paris audiences.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 66

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS. MCEWEN Works for Viola and Orchestra Power va BBC NOW / Brabbins Hyperion CDA67839 ‘Power’s playing is wonderfully varied, at times delicate and poetical, at others broad, passionate and generous.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 67

PURCELL Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts Retrospect Trio Linn CKD374 ‘These performances of brief movements convey rhetorical suggestions of speaking intimately, unforced breathing, and listening attentively.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 73

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GIULIANI Guitar Works Eduardo Fernández gtr Oehms Classics OC401 ‘Fernández delights in the simplicity and virtuosity of Giuliani’s music while bringing a vast dynamic and tonal palette to bear on its more subtle aspects of coloration.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 77

HERMANN Moby Dick Danish National Choir and Symphony Orchestra / Michael Schønwandt Chandos CHSA5095 ‘This performance is full of excitement… In surround sound it is simply stunning with vivid singing and playing, all of the highest order.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 86

‘IN THE BEGINNING’ Merton College Choir, Oxford / Phillips, Nicholas Delphian DCD34072 ‘This choir are fully responsive to the different styles of 16th- and 17thcentury polyphonic compositions and the rich chordal textures of 20th- and 21stcentury pieces.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 91

‘LAMENTAZIONE’ Les Arts Florissants / Paul Agnew Virgin Classics 070907 2 ‘Leo’s Miserere (1739) is sung with the boldness, authority, lamentation and soft compassion that the composer variously demands… a masterly and valuable recording’

REVIEW ON PAGE 92

DVD WAGNER Tannhäuser Royal Danish Opera Decca CATNO ‘Copenhagen’s experienced bevy positively feast on the vocal and acting opportunities offered by Holten’s Ibsenesque ground production.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 103

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Reissue EILEEN JOYCE The Complete Parlophone & Columbia Solo Recordings, 1933 45 APR APR7502 ‘Not for nothing was Joyce chosen to play Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto for the soundtrack of Brief Encounter.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 80

Number of composers named Bach this issue – 7 Number of Tave(r)ners –2 Number of Johnsons – 1

ORCHESTRAL

Latest Liverpool Shostakovich; Concerti by Philip Glass; Stravinsky on period instruments; Gergiev’s Mariinsky Tchaikovsky on DVD

CHAMBER

Lavista’s string quartets surveyed; Purcell sonatas from Retrospect; Fauré’s complete chamber creations for piano and strings

INSTRUMENTAL

Beethoven sonatas from Gieseking; exploring Georg Böhm’s organ works; Rachmaninov and Chopin from ‘One to Watch’ pianist

VOCAL

Pinnock returns to disc with Bach; Hermann’s Moby Dick in New York and Copenhagen; Tenebrae sing Parry’s Songs of Farewell

OPERA

Korngold’s Die tote Stadt in Venice and Frankfurt; new royal opera from Copenhagen’s Royal Opera; Mozart live from the Met

BOOKS

Exploring avant-garde music in Larry Austin’s literary symposium; Stravinsky in words and pictures

REPLAY

Boxed-up collection from Steinberg’s Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; violinists Rabin, Suk and Temianka revived

THE SPECIALIST’S GUIDE TO…

Jed Distler explores the varied and significant discography of American pianist Paul Jacobs

THE GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION

Jeremy Dibble rummages through the available recordings of Finzi’s Dies Natalis and names the recording he believes is best

GRAMOPHONE DECEMBER 2011 5