Editor's Choice: December 2022 | The best new classical recordings
Monday, December 5, 2022
Editor Martin Cullingford chooses the best albums from the December 2022 issue of Gramophone
Recording of the month
Beethoven Symphony No 3, ‘Eroica’ (transcr Liszt) Mozart Piano Concerto No 20, K466 (transcr Alkan)
Paul Wee pf
BIS
Pianist Paul Wee proves himself a master of these treacherously demanding transcriptions, sweeping aside the technical challenges to present these great works with consummate musicianship.
Brahms Symphony No 1 Dvořák Symphony No 6
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša
Tudor
A superb chance to hear Covent Garden’s next Music Director in Brahms and Dvořák, with a particularly fine recording of the latter’s Symphony No 6.
Mahler Symphony No 9
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
BR-Klassik
Sir Simon Rattle brings to Mahler’s Ninth the sense of occasion, unique in the hearing and fresh in the discovery, that all great performances of this music should convey.
Beethoven. Franck. Schumann Violin Sonatas
Renaud Capuçon vn Martha Argerich pf
DG
A record of a poignant occasion for two of today’s finest artists, captured together in an evening of wonderful music-making.
Shostakovich. Walton String Quartets
Albion Quartet
Signum
I was instantly stuck by the sheer vividness – both the compellingly committed playing and the immediacy of sound – of this superb chamber album from the Albion Quartet.
‘A Golden Cello Decade’
Steven Isserlis vc Connie Shih pf
Hyperion
Any programme by cellist Steven Isserlis is always chosen, prepared and ultimately performed with devotion; joined here by pianist Connie Shih, this is another wonderful album.
Chaminade ‘Piano Music, Vol 2’
Mark Viner pf
Piano Classics
Wonderful music, performed with charm, affection and, when required, fabulous virtuosity, by pianist Mark Viner; a superb follow up to his equally impressive first volume of Chaminade.
Montgeroult Études
Clare Hammond pf
BIS
The splendid music of this fascinating French composer, in many ways ahead of its time, deserves to be far better known – and receives gloriously eloquent advocacy from pianist Clare Hammond.
Cristo Missa Salve regina. Motets
Cupertinos / Luís Toscana
Hyperion
Gramophone Early Music Award-winners in 2019, Luís Toscano’s Cupertinos offer us a beautiful recording of Marian works by Renaissance Portuguese composer Pedro de Cristo.
‘Roma travestita’
Bruno de Sá counterten Il Pomo d’Oro / Francesco Corti
Erato
Sopranist Bruno de Sá demonstrates his brilliance of voice in a programme of 18th-century music written for castrato, with marvellous support from Il Pomo d’Oro.
DVD/blu-ray
‘Bach and Expression’
Daniel Moult, Martin Schmeding orgs
Fugue State Films
Another triumph from Fugue State Films, in this case a highly engaging documentary presented by Daniel Moult which invites us to think afresh about Bach’s organ music.
Reissue/archive
Schubert Complete Piano Sonatas
Elisabeth Leonskaja pf
Warner Classics
Elisabeth Leonskaja’s Schubert, writes Rob Cowan in this month’s box-set round-up, of which this set is a standout highlight, should provide ‘a lifetime’s worth of musical nourishment’ – in superb sound too.
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