Latest News: Classical, Warner Classics (label)
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Recording of the Week,
Music from principal woodwind players of the Berlin Philharmonic 16th March 2015Katherine enjoys solo albums from not one but three of the Berlin Philharmonic's finest wind players.
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Recording of the Week,
French Opera Arias from Bryan Hymel and Piotr Beczala 23rd February 2015Katherine enjoys a double-whammy of new releases from two young star tenors - Bryan Hymel and Piotr Beczala.
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Interview,
A road-trip with the Aurora Orchestra 13th February 2015David talks to the Orchestra's conductor Nicholas Collon about their innovative new American-inspired album.
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Recording of the Week,
Cole Porter in Hollywood 6th October 2014Katherine listens to the John Wilson Orchestra's sparkling new collection of Cole Porter songs for the big screen.
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Recording of the Week,
Alison Balsom performs trumpet music inspired by Paris 8th September 2014Katherine listens to trumpeter Alison Balsom's new disc of works and arrangements with a jazzy, Parisian flavour.
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Recording of the Week,
Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello sing Love Duets 5th May 2014Katherine listens to the new CD of operatic love duets from husband-and-wife duo Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello.
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Recording of the Week,
20th-Century Wind Quintets from Les Vents Français 27th January 2014Emmanuel Pahud and company are on ‘beautifully burnished’ form in a 2-CD album of music by Paul Taffanel, Ligeti, Milhaud, Ibert, Ravel, Jolivet, Zemlinsky and more.
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Recording of the Week,
Rachmaninov from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker 26th August 2013The Berliners afford luxurious treatment to the choral symphony The Bells (with soloists Luba Orgonášová and Mikhail Petrenko), whilst Rattle’s spacious approach to the Symphonic Dances pays huge dividends.
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Recording of the Week,
Dame Janet Baker celebrates her eightieth birthday 19th August 2013Curated to mark the great English mezzo's birthday, this 20-disc set from EMI includes classic recordings of music by Berlioz, Elgar, Mahler and Schubert as well as previously-unreleased material including Monteverdi and Scarlatti with Raymond Leppard.
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Recording of the Week,
100th anniversary of the première of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring 27th May 2013The centenary of one of the most controversial premieres in musical history is marked by a new recording from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and a mammoth Collector’s Edition comprising 38 recordings dating from 1946 to 2010.
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Recording of the Week,
Ian Bostridge sings Britten songs 29th April 2013The tenor brings formidable musical intelligence to the Michelangelo Sonnets, Who are these children?, Winter Words and the Hölderlin Fragments (with Antonio Pappano), and is joined by guitarist Xuefei Yang for Songs from the Chinese.
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Recording of the Week,
Pappano conducts Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle 22nd April 2013So theatrical that you can practically smell the greasepaint, Rossini’s ‘old man’s folly’ receives luxury treatment from the conductor and his Roman orchestra, with Marina Rebeka, Sara Mingardo, Francesco Meli and Alex Esposito making up a full-blooded operatic solo quartet.
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Recording of the Week,
Alison Balsom: Sound The Trumpet 8th October 2012In her first solo album to be performed exclusively on the natural trumpet, Balsom joins The English Concert and Trevor Pinnock for a programme of music celebrating real or mythic monarchs by Handel and Purcell, including excerpts from The Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne.
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Recording of the Week,
Carmen from Berlin with Kaufmann and Kožená 20th August 2012The light-voiced Czech mezzo and heavyweight German tenor are an appropriately chalk-and-cheese pairing as the free-spirited gypsy and her obsessive soldier lover, with Kožená’s husband Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance which emphasises the score’s opéra comique pedigree.
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Recording of the Week,
Bruckner Symphonies from Rattle and Barenboim 28th May 2012Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin in the Seventh Symphony, whilst Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker tackle the Ninth.
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Recording of the Week,
Kathleen Ferrier 23rd April 2012On the centenary of Ferrier’s birth, Katherine pays to tribute to the great Lancashire contralto and explores her legacy on disc via two comprehensive commemorative sets from Decca and EMI, which includes folksongs, Bach and Mahler.
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Recording of the Week,
Alison Balsom 6th February 2012The British trumpeter’s new album Seraph takes its title from a new concertino composed for her by James MacMillan in 2010, and also includes music by Arutiunian, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Takemitsu.
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Recording of the Week,
Fritz Kreisler 2nd January 2012Chris enjoys two tributes to the violin virtuoso and composer Fritz Kreisler, who died fifty years ago this month: a 10-CD vintage collection entitled The Charming Maverick and Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, in which his own recordings sit alongside accounts of his music by an array of great modern violinists.
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Recording of the Week,
Bruckner and Mahler from Haitink and Pappano 14th November 2011Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, whilst Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia tackle Mahler’s Sixth in their first-ever recording of the composer’s music together.
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Recording of the Week,
Brahms/Schoenberg from Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker 8th August 2011Rattle conducts Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, plus the Chamber Symphony No. 1 and Accompanying Music to a Cinematographic Scene.