Recording of the Month

No 1

Schumann Szenen aus Goethes Faust

Sols; Bavarian RSO / Harding

(BR-Klassik)

‘A version of Faust one can really indulge in’

No 2

Grime Night Songs

Hallé / Sir Mark Elder, Jamie Phillips 

(NMC) 

‘A strong recommendation’

No 3

Vivaldi Concerti per flauto

Maurice Steger; I Barocchisti / Diego Fasolis 

(Harmonia Mundi)

‘It’s pure pleasure’

No 4

‘Visions Fugitives’

Camerata Nordica / Terje Tønnesen 

(BIS)

‘The playing of the Camerata Nordica is, in a word, sensational’

No 5

Haydn String Quartets, Op 20

Doric Quartet 

(Chandos) 

‘This is Vol 1. Hold your breath for the rest’

No 6

Langgaard String Quartets, Vol 3

Nightingale Quartet 

(Dacapo)

‘Their playing on this final volume lives up to the sky-high standards’

No 7

‘La fauvette Passerinette’

Peter Hill pf

(Delphian)

‘An outstanding recital disc’

No 8

Rameau Pièces de clavecin

Mahan Esfahani hpd 

(Hyperion)

‘Unfailing wit, affection, fluency and pacing’

No 9

Howells ‘When first thine eies unveil’

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir / Paul Spicer 

(Somm) 

‘Sung with control and tranquillity’

No 10

Hartmann Simplicius Simplicissimus

Soloists; Netherlands RPO / Markus Stenz 

(Challenge Classics) 

‘Hartmann’s opera is viscerally powerful’

DVD/blu-ray

Berg Lulu

Soloists; La Monnaie, Brussels / Paul Daniel 

(Bel Air Classiques) 

‘The way that the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan dominates Krzysztof Warlikowski’s nightmarish Brussels staging of Berg’s great unfinished masterpiece is remarkable’

Reissue/archive

Tavener Akhmatova Requiem

BBC SO / Gennadi Rozhdestvensky 

(NMC)

‘Tavener’s Akhmatova Requiemis a masterpiece’