• Mozart: Symphony No. 40

    Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Herbert Blomstedt BR Klassik · 900196 · 1 hour 42 minutes There’s something almost defiant about a conductor in his mid-nineties tackling Mozart’s final symphonic trilogy with this much vitality, and Blomstedt doesn’t treat these as museum pieces to be handled gently. The Bavarian Radio orchestra plays with a lightness and clarity that lets you […]

    MOZART | 26.08.03

  • Edvard Grieg

    Lise Davidsen (soprano), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Decca · 4852254 · 79 minutes Grieg’s songs rarely get the star treatment his piano music and orchestral works enjoy, which makes this pairing feel like a genuine gift. Davidsen’s voice is built for the biggest Wagnerian stages, but she scales it down here with real tenderness, finding all the intimacy and […]

    GRIEG | 26.08.03

  • Harmonia Mundi New Releases

    Cédric Tiberghien (piano) Harmonia Mundi · HMM90243738 · 2 hours 16 minutes Beethoven’s variation sets get treated as filler far too often, but Cédric Tiberghien clearly disagrees, and pairing them with Ligeti’s Musica ricercata is a genuinely sharp move — both composers obsessing over how far a tiny cell of material can be pushed before it snaps. Two hours […]

    HARMONIA MUNDI | 26.08.03

  • Sony New Releases

    The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Paavo Järvi Sony · 19958444992 · 60 minutes There’s something almost mischievous about early Schubert, and No. 5 in particular has this lightness that can trick you into thinking it’s slight — it isn’t, it’s just young and unguarded. Järvi and the Bremen players seem to get that completely, playing with the kind of chamber-sized […]

    SONY | 26.08.03

  • Saint-Saëns: Piano Trios

    Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Isang Enders (cello), Wu Qian (piano), Sitkovetsky Trio BIS · BIS2219 · 60 minutes Ravel wrote his trio in the summer of 1914 with war closing in around him, and somehow that tension seeps into the music without ever curdling its beauty — there’s a restlessness under all that shimmer. The Sitkovetsky Trio catch this brilliantly, […]

    PIANO TRIOS | 26.08.03

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