Classical Recordings

Francisco António de Almeida (c.1702-c.1755) is said to have been the first composer to write an Italian opera performed in Portugal (which must be one of...

A search of the Fanfare Archive yields few reviews of recordings of music of Eyvind Alnæs (1872-1932). In 35:1 Peter Burwasser favorably reviewed an earlier Toccata...

Though he trained at the Amsterdam Conservatory under J. B. de Pauw (organ), and Bernard Zweers (composition), Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981) was more influenced by César Franck,...

This latest installment in Dutton’s invaluable—and seemingly exhaustive—survey of Richard Arnell’s large catalogue opens with two works from his precociously prolific early-20s and closes with two...

“Oompa Loompa, do-ba-dee-doo, I’ve got a pointless opera for you. Oompa Loompa, do-ba-dee-dee, I suppose the real reason was the fee...” Look, it’s not as though...

Algernon Ashton, (1859-1937) was a British-born composer who was educated in Germany. When his father died in 1863, his mother moved the family to Leipzig where...

This is a well-programmed disc that manages to convey some of the excellence, power, and diversity of Polish chamber music. The Lasoń Ensemble presents the first...

In keeping with my New Year’s resolution to review more operas, as long as they come from the Classical or early-Romantic periods, are not widely known,...

Two questions face the prospective buyer when considering a new recording of Bach’s motets, and neither is really easy to answer. The first question breaks down...

When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the first of his handful of motets, such church music had been a Bach family industry for over 100 years. Of...

Since reviewing Truls Mørk’s version of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites in 29:5, no fewer than six more accounts have crossed my desk. In chronological order, they...

This is Volume 5 of MDG’s series of Dutch Cello Sonatas. Doris Hochscheid and Frans van Ruth have earned kudos in previous Fanfare s for their...

Downsizing is difficult. These days, a lot of otherwise “big orchestra” musicians are performing smaller-scale Beethoven than was common in decades past. Whether they really think...

The performances on this CD make for very satisfying listening, but do not quite scale the heights revealed to us in Beethoven’s music by such legendary...

When reviewing pianist Martin Roscoe’s Volume 2 of a projected complete Beethoven sonata cycle, I mentioned that there were, by my count (and I may have...

Issued as a BBC disc, this music was recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on June 18, 1975. Richter came back to London the next...

The March of the Beethoven Sonatas continues apace. This disc, which is Volume 2 in a projected series of nine, will mark at least (to my...

This is the fifth volume in Timothy Ehlen’s ongoing survey of Beethoven’s sonata cycle. While I have not heard volumes 1 through 4, I see that...

I specifically asked to review this release after receiving Mari Kodama’s previous album of Beethoven’s last three sonatas and giving it a warm welcome in 36:2....

This disc, entitled “Beethoven Arrangements for Viola and Piano” on the spine, and “Beethoven by Arrangement, Volume I” on the cover, is the project of violist...

In 1927, the British Columbia recording company marked the Beethoven centennial by issuing the first electrical recordings of his nine symphonies. In another 14 years, these...

After reviewing Andrew Rose’s disappointing remasterings of Otto Klemperer’s Brahms symphonies for Pristine Audio, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Rose’s versions of the same...

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly 30 years since the appearance of the first recording of Beethoven’s symphonies on period instruments. One of...

This is a curious disc in that the Max Brod Trio’s performance of the early (op. 1/2) Trio is livelier—though not by a wide margin—than their...

Once again, we are presented a CD with absolutely no information on the performers. In this case I wanted to know who they were not because...

In her review of the CD version of this recording, Lynn René Bayley praised Slatkin for his experience, but ended up damning his Fantastique for its...

Wilhelm Voigt was a thief and a forger. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate....

Nowhere on the CD box or in the liner notes does it say who arranged these pieces by Claude Bolling for three strings (violin and cello...

Here is a lovely and smart debut recital album from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native, Matthew Graybil, a graduate of Juilliard where he earned his master’s degree studying...

Two anecdotes: First, when Georg Solti recorded his Brahms symphony cycle with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he searched the orchestra’s archives and discovered that he was...

Like many other orchestras setting up their own record labels, the Vienna Symphony is keen to mix new and old. The label was launched with a...

I yield to no one in my admiration for Andrew Rose of Pristine Audio for his skill as a remastering engineer. He has brought to life...

I could almost write this review by copying and pasting word for word the review I wrote of Skrowaczewski’s Brahms First exactly one year ago in...

Historically, the present recordings are very important. Max Fiedler, born in 1859, is one of only two conductors who knew Brahms to live to record his...

After listening to this disc twice through and then sampling sections of it, I’m still at a bit of a loss as to how to rationalize...

It was a whim that led me to request this CD for review. I had never even heard of Walter Braunfels, after all. Moments after beginning...

We have a couple of Brian rarities here, with the Symphony No. 13 receiving what is claimed as its world premiere on records, and the

This is a reissue, sans text, of the recording that originally came out on Teldec 17115 in 1998, which was apparently the second of three recordings...

Andris Nelsons is a young Latvian conductor unfamiliar to me, though his entries in the Fanfare Archive run from Haydn to Shostakovich. The son of two...

In December 2012, as I write this, Herbert Blomstedt’s complete live Leipzig Bruckner cycle is being released by Querstand in a nine-SACD boxed set, but there...

Herbert Blomstedt is an old hand when it comes to Bruckner, and in this repertoire experience counts for a lot. The Second Symphony is full of...

Every successive performance, broadcast, and now recording from the BBCSO under its new chief conductor further vindicate the orchestra’s decision to welcome home Scotland’s prodigal son....

Although without doubt a uniquely important composer, Alan Bush (1900-1995) has always been a difficult figure to situate within the general context of English music. He...

Alan Bush (1900-1995) was groomed in the 1920s for a major concert pianist career, studying with Matthay, Schnabel, and Moiseiwitsch. He decided to pursue composition, however,...

Before Philip Cave gave us two discs of Philippe Rogier ( Fanfare 24:1 and 34:6; a third disc has not been sent for review), he made...

This is the fifth release in Naxos’s series, with conductor La Vecchia and the Rome Symphony Orchestra, of Alfredo Casella’s orchestral works. Those who have collected...

This is the fifth release in Naxos’s Alfredo Casella series with these performers. Earlier releases were devoted to the three symphonies, and to some of his...

Saint-Saëns is a composer surely familiar to every classical record collector, but it can’t be said that either of his two string quartets is over-recorded. Alexis...

Did you ever hear a CD where you wanted to throttle both the composer and the performer? Yes, I know that sounds pretty severe, but then...

The music on this disc is played on two Pleyel pianos, one from 1843 and the other, a so-called pianino from 1834, which seems to be...