Lebrecht Weekly – Mahler: 5th symphony (Bis/BR Klassik)
If you go out and buy the Minnesota Orchestra’s Bis recording of Mahler’s fifth symphony, rest assured that you need never buy another. It’s resoundingly…
Browsing: Lebrecht Weekly
Lebrecht Weekly – Walton: Violin concerto, Hindemith variations (Hyperion)
Any new recording of the Walton concerto will always be measured against Jascha Heifetz, who commissioned the work in 1935, edited the solo part and…
Lebrecht Weekly – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Julia Varady: Romantic duets (Hänssler Profil)
I spent a morning with the great baritone in his Berlin home a couple of years before he died. Fischer-Dieskau was in morose mood. His…
Lebrecht Weekly – Shostakovich, Martinu: Second cello concertos (Bis)
The second concerto for cello by Dmitri Shostakovich is the least ingratiating of the six he wrote, two for each major instrument. Opening with a…
Lebrecht Weekly – Ben-Haim: Concerto Grosso 1, Symphony No. 2 (NDR)
In May 1933, the composer Paul Frankenburger left Munich for Tel-Aviv, where he Hebraised his surname and became teacher of the first generation of…
Lebrecht Weekly – Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli: Sonate da Camera, 1-6 (Delphian)
Never heard of Carbonelli? Don’t feel too bad about it. The Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot writes that he ‘has remained unknown, even to specialists’. Listen…
Lebrecht Weekly – Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli: Sonate da Camera, 1-6 (Delphian)
Never heard of Carbonelli? Don’t feel too bad about it. The Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot writes that he “has remained unknown, even to specialists.” Listen…
Lebrecht Weekly – Georgy Sviridov: Russia Cast Adrift (Delos)
The texts of this song cycle were written by Sergei Yesenin between 1914 and 1920, a period of world war, revolution and civil war. Yesenin…
Lebrecht Weekly – Ravel/De Falla: Piano Concertos (Hyperion)
Never forget that Maurice Ravel was more Basque than French. His rhythms and harmonies belong to the borderlands. He is happiest with the smell of…
Lebrecht Weekly – Dmitri Shostakovich: First Symphony (Pentatone)
Great recordings are easy to review. Likewise bad ones. About 99.5 percent of all releases fall somewhere in between. Of these, four in five quickly…
