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Mozart - String Quartets

Mozart's 'Dissonance' Quartet, so-called because of its harmonically-ambiguous slow...

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Berlioz - Requiem

An impressive SACD of a live performance...

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Shostakovich - Violin Concertos 1 & 2

Daniel Hope performs Shostakovich's two violin concertos with integrity and...

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Sallinen - The King Goes Forth to France

Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen calls this work 'a fairy tale for grown-ups' - it...

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Brahms - Piano Concerto no. 1

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic are fabulously responsive partners to...

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Zemlinsky - Lyrische Symphony op 18

An impressive recording of Zemlinsky's romantic masterpiece, based on a text by...

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Béla Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle

A superb English-language version of Bartók's brooding gothic opera, with fine...

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John Foulds - Dynamic Triptych

Warner Classics' second disc of music by the undeservingly neglected British...

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Rossini - Petite Messe Solenelle

Rossini's solemn mass, written towards the end of his life, is performed here in its...

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Beethoven - Symphony no. 9 (Choral)

...truly celebratory...

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Schubert - Death and the Maiden

It’s the first recording the Takacs has made for its new label Hyperion, and they...

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Debussy - The Complete Preludes

Strongly, indeed, urgently recommended

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Pavel Haas Quartet - Intimate Letters

This couldn’t be better.

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Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel - 40 Voices

...You’d have to have a cold heart not to be caught up in the performances.

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Janine Jansen - Concertos and Romance

...managed to make me listen to these concertos with something approaching fresh ears...

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Georg Friedrich Händel - Concerti Grossi Op. 3 / Sonata a 5

I can’t think of anything that would improve this package...

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Leoš Janáček - The Makropulos Case

It’s the only opera I know starring a diva who’s over 300 years old, and still...

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Frédéric Chopin - Sonata No.2

Sheer delight from end to end.

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Cantatas, Volume 22: Eisenach

...an unusual feeling of absorption, devotion and dedication...

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David Pyatt - British Horn Concertos

The recording is Lyrita at its best...

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Claude Debussy - La Mer, Preludes

Let’s hope it won’t be long before we can hear the second half of the series.

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Antonio Vivaldi - Amor Sacro

Buy it, and give the Four Seasons a break…

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Wolfgang Rihm - Volume 1

Volume one of this major post-war German composer's works given an emotional performance.

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Valentin Vasil'yevich Silvestrov - Symphony No. 6

It feels simple, yet it obviously isn’t; it’s profoundly beautiful, timeless, and...

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Heiner Goebbels - Landschaft mit entfernten Verwandten

A seductive, sometimes shocking and viscerally exciting musical experience.

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Leos Janácek - The Excursions Of Mr Broucek

This may not be the last recorded word on Broucek, but right now it sounds like a...

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Richard Strauss - An Alpine Symphony/Four Last Songs

...one of the finest Strauss recordings I've heard in ages.

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Robert Schumann - Symphony No. 1 and Overtures

It's as refreshing and stimulating as that icy plunge after a sauna

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Haydn - The Creation

...the recording captures the whole spectacle with apparent ease...

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Yuri Paterson-Olenich - Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No.1 & Etudes-Tableaux Op.39

There’s something inescapably Russian about how Paterson-Olenich plays.

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Frank Peter Zimmermann - Szymanowski: Violin Concertos 1 & 2; Britten: Violin...

His sweetness of tone and intense, unselfish musicality pay dividends.

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David Aaron Carpenter - Elgar & Schnittke Viola Concertos

Prepare to be disarmed by a remarkable debut.

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Benjamin Britten - Unknown Britten (feat: sop. Sandrine Piau, Northern...

Buy this for Les Illuminations, but savour it for so many new discoveries.

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Complete Works for Violin & Orchestra (feat: violinist...

Kopatchinskaja has something genuinely individual to say about this masterpiece.

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Arnold Schönberg - Gurrelieder (Philharmonia Orchestra, feat: cond. Esa-Pekka...

An exhilarating journey, from illicit love to redemption with plenty of colour and range.

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Simon Keenlyside & Malcolm Martineau - Songs By Schubert, Wolf, Fauré and Ravel

A successful document of the occasion.

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Sir Edward Elgar - Violin Concerto (feat. violin Nikolaj Znaider, cond. Sir...

What we hear is Znaider’s own heartfelt response to the Elgar.

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Georg Friedrich Händel - Italian Cantatas Volume 6 - Olinto pastore (feat....

Utterly charming, transcending the obvious limitations of the text.

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Jesu, meine Freude (Sette Voci, direction: Peter Kooij)

A disc of serious beauty from Peter Kooij’s ensemble Sette Voci.

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Gustav Mahler - Mahler - Lieder (baritone: Christian Gerhaher, piano: Gerold...

This could be the finest Mahler you’ll hear all year. Absolutely essential.

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Igor Stravinsky - Complete Music for Violin & Piano (feat violin: Anthony...

Two CDs for the price of one: an excellent souvenir of a canny composer.

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Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben & Der Rosenkavalier Suite (City of...

Young Latvian Nelsons conducts as though he believes in every bar.

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Monteverdi - Il Nerone, Ossia L’Incoronazione di Poppea (La Venexiana,...

A beautifully focused recording, regardless of who actually wrote it.

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Benjamin Britten - String Quartets 2 and 3 / Three Divertimenti (Elias String...

The Elias Quartet catches Britten’s powerful emotional undercurrents superbly.

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Works for Cello by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Britten - Various Artists

You’ll almost believe you’d bought a ticket, so brilliant is this live recording.

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (feat. violin:...

The recording is a peach, perfectly framing Faust’s superb musicianship.

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Artemis Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartets Op.18/3, Op.18/5 &...

Delivered with apparently effortless grace and effervescent athleticism.

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Franz Liszt - Harmonies du Soir (feat. Piano: Nelson Freire)

A Liszt recital that will linger in the memory long after the last notes.

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Hector Berlioz - Les nuits d'été / Harold en Italie (viola: Antoine Tamestit;...

An account of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy that’s sure to exceed expectations.

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Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15 (conductor: Bernard Haitink; Royal...

The focus is on its genuinely symphonic breadth, the deep shadows and pregnant pauses.

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