Classical Recordings

If you’re reading Fanfare ’s piano reviews, chances are you already have a strong opinion about the immensely talented (and immensely controversial) superstar Lang Lang. But...

So, here we are at Volume 10 of Hobson’s gargantuan project to record Chopin’s complete piano works. No little gems here, though, just two masterworks separated...

Some of Constantinides’s music has previously come my way via Fanfare : the Sixth Symphony plus other orchestral works in Fanfare 32:1 and a disc of...

I suspect that composer Dinos Constantinides, with more than 250 compositions to his credit, and 60 recordings of them to date, is well known enough to...

One of the great joys I get from being a Fanfare contributor is the opportunity to herald lesser known artists and orchestras through positive reviews in...

Arcangelo Corelli composed very little compared to the outputs of his contemporaries, but that little echoed through the generations. His four books of trio sonatas blurred...

Given the inexact and often-times prejudicial nature of classical music criticism, Elliott Carter (1908-2012) and John Corigliano (b. 1938) are typically placed in opposing stylistic camps—that...

There is little that bugs me more than when booklet notes begin by invidious comparisons. Such is the case with this disc, where the opening paragraphs...

There is no doubt that François Couperin was the Mr. Harpsichord of his day, publishing some 27 “orders” or sets of suites (each suite therein comprising...

In 1726 Couperin addressed his audience in the preface to Les Nations with a story that has since become famous. Referring to La Pucelle , he...

The back of the jewel box on this rerelease informs us that the album “contributed considerably to making known the music of Jean Cras” when it...

It is true that during the age of castrati, virtually all of the singers had some predilection for musical composition. One can define this dabbling as...

Michael Daugherty, the liner notes tell us, has won a Grammy and is one of the most commissioned, performed, and recorded composers “in the American music...

Violinist Stephan Schardt and pianist Philipp Vogler present works for solo violin (the Suite, op. 43) and for violin and piano (the rest) by Ferdinand David,...

Pelléas et Mélisande is unique, but that is hardly a reason for a stage director to seek out a form of presentation that is in itself...

With the “Historically Informed Performance” movement having penetrated the 20th century, I suppose it was inevitable that Debussy’s orchestral music would eventually come to its attention....

These are good performances but not great ones. Cellist Klinger has an exceptional technique, and he knows his music, but his playing in these French/Belgian works...

There is some truth in the saying that Fauré paints in shades of gray, and if this is indeed the case, the singing of Henk Neven...

This album, with selections chosen by author and musicologist Jean-Michel Nectoux, was intended to accompany an exhibition entitled “Debussy, Music and the Arts” at Paris’s Musée...

Listening to this disc was a startling and unpleasant experience. From the very first notes, Wallfisch’s cello tone is so raspy, thin, edgy, even scratchy-sounding, that...

Even 17 years after his death, it is difficult to pin down Edison Denisov’s esthetic aims and his place in musical history. He was certainly an...

Christophe Rousset has drawn from all four books of Duphly’s published harpsichord works (1744, 1748, 1756, and 1768) for this two-disc set. His versions are fleet,...

Last year at this time (received just before Christmas but not to appear until several months into the year), I reviewed the first disc of Neapolitan...

On only one previous occasion have I had the opportunity to review an album by the Vogler Quartet, and that was back in 2005 in performances...

I asked to review this set because the conductor is István Kertész, who was one of the conductors I admired highly in my youth, but I...

This quite wonderful CD, bringing us the best Dvořák Third in a long time and a fine Sixth, speaks to me with something of a backstory....

The conductor Karl Muck told Gregor Piatigorsky that he was the most “scratchless” cellist he had ever heard. Zuill Bailey is a “scratchless” cellist. His tone...

The reason to acquire this disc is not necessarily for the music of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, but rather to experience the brilliant playing of the...

If taste in music-making can pass from one generation to another, that certainly seems to have happened with conductor Michael Stern. Yo-Yo Ma said of the...

Algernon Blackwood was, among the many occupations in which he engaged during an unusually full life, an acclaimed writer of stories and novels of the supernatural....

This somewhat out-there album, titled Music from Source, Volume II, is a splendid Middle Eastern-jazz fusion session in the same vein as Rabih Abou-Khalil’s wonderful albums....

How has it come to pass that such an interesting and original composer as Maurice Emmanuel (1862-1938) has been virtually forgotten? Could it be that he...

We are once more in debt to Martin Anderson’s Toccata Classics. Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) is represented a number of times in the Fanfare Archive, and ArkivMusic...

In 1888 Gabriel Fauré composed an unorthodox, modestly scored, five-movement Requiem. After expanding it to seven movements and tinkering with the score he submitted it for...

I tell you, some of these modern trios strike the strangest poses. On the front cover of this CD, cellist Ida Mercer is standing barefoot, hands...

The light yet well-crafted music of Jean Françaix is extremely popular but not well thought of by the majority of critics and academics. I’ve long loved...

This past year was the centenary of Jean Françaix’s birth, but most of the musical tributes, such as they were, didn’t begin showing up at the...

With Françaix’s 100th birthday in 2012, Wergo reissued much of the composer’s backlog they’ve let collect in their vaults—roughly a third of it, last seen on...

Fuga Libera presents prize-winning (Paganini and Sarasate competitions, among others) violinist Yu-Chien Tseng (playing a 1732 Guarneri) and pianist Inga Dzektser in a program of violin...

The circumstance of Franck’s birth in Liège—December 10, 1822—affords a pretext for this program mingling the well worn, the rare, and the recondite in performances by...

If Naxos has taken notice of Eduard Franck (1817–1893), a composer heretofore championed virtually exclusively by just two labels, Audite and Fermate, can a major revival...

This recording, made by three of the most accomplished chamber musicians of our time, hopes to make a case for the music of Eduard Franck (1817-1893),...

Another disc of music by yet another youngish (b. 1969) composer, Peter Fribbins, whose music is described in the note as “refreshingly memorable, passionate and direct....

The track listing for this CD gives the timing of each movement as “#:##,” which may seem like a mistake or an omission until you read...

The music of Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990) is not too well known and this opera—of which this is the world premiere recording—not at all. Reading...

If the wishes of Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) had been followed, this recording would have never been released since he mandated that after his death his complete...

Available directly from the artist at brian@briangroder.com This is a fascinating and highly creative jazz CD, but like so many of its classical brethren nowadays there...

Available directly from the artist at brian@briangroder.com You may wonder why there are two names occupying the composer’s position in the headnote above. The reason is...

The swiftness with which Handel turned out his op. 6 collection of 12 concerti grossi—roughly the month of October 1739—is sometimes considered with an emotion bordering...

This is somewhat of an oddity for Brilliant Classics, a brand-new recording of hitherto unpublished and unrecorded music. Three of these cantatas are by Handel, the...