Colin Clarke

Mozart

The Mozart Concerto you really should know ...

Picking a Mozart Piano Concerto to feature isn't an easy task, especially if one is out to explore, so most of Nos. 20-27 are off-limits.  I was bowled over with the Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat, K 449 many years ago, when a then-young Maurizio Pollini

Vivaldi

Vivaldi Con Amore

Bracing Vivaldi from Tafelmusik and Elisa Citterio (violin)

Chamber

The Sheer Joy of the Chiaroscuro Quartet's Haydn

A reminder of the magnificence of Haydn Quartets here: music of joy and solace in unquiet times. The Chiaroscuro Quartet is an international group, comprising Alina Ibragimatova (Russia) and Pablo Hernán Benedi (Spain) on violins, Emilie Hörnlund (Sweden) on viola and Claire Thirion (France) on cello. The state-of-the-art SACD sound

Piano

Víkingur Ólafsson in Debussy and Rameau

Although far from the first pianist to take the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1684-1764) to the piano (Gilels, Sokolov, Hewitt ...) the idea of presenting a whole disc of Debussy alternating with Rameau seems typical of the roving, inquisitive mind of Deutsche Grammophon artist Víkingur Ólafsson. The disc seems particularly relevant

Early Music

The other Orpheus: Stefano Landi's "La Morte d'Orfeo"

The further adventures of Orpheus ...

Chamber

Charles Villiers Stanford's String Quartets

Superb performances of music that deserves far wider currency

Piano

Tempo e Tempi: Beethoven meets Carter meets Mumford

2020 is Beethoven year, after all: pianist Pina Napolitano reminds us of his greatness

Bruckner

A Maestro's Farewell: Haitink's Bruckner 7

As farewells to the stage go, the series of concerts given by the VPO under Bernard Haitink last Summer takes some beating.

Opera

Opera Rara releases Puccini's Le Willis

No lover of Italian opera should be without this

Choral

After Silence: VOCES8

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music (Aldous Huxley)

Medieval

Medieval Music, Jazz, Contemporary Classical, but no kitchen sink: "The Red Book of Ossory"

Every now and again a disc comes along and redefines what can be done with cross-genre projects ...

Tchaikovsky

Claudio Abbado and a Little Russian ...

The so-called "Little Russian" was my introduction to Tchaikovsky's earlier symphonies, in the incandescent performance we recommend today

Chamber

Brahms Cello Sonatas in fresh new performances

Two young artists deliver Brahms of freshness and enthusiasm

Bach

Murray Perahia in Bach: The French Suites

The recent reappearance of Murray Perahia on records has been a source of deep joy. His exquisitely sculpted Bach is infinitely touching.

Early Music

The Suspended Harp of Babel

Timeless music from Estonia; gorgeous performances of the radiant compositions of Cyrillus Kreek

Chamber

Death and the Maiden: The Fitzwilliam Quartet and Schubert

Superbly fresh, period-informed performances of two well-loved Schubert masterpieces

Baroque

Masaaki Suzuki and Bach's St Matthew Passion

Some works can consume an artist. One thinks of Furtwängler's Beethoven Ninths (plural). And while the recording industry usually isn't in a position these days to support re-recordings by artists of works they have previously put down for posterity (unlike, say, in the Karajan/DG era)

Opera

Finding a way into modern music: Henze's "Tristan" and "Der Prinz von Homburg"

In a World of dumbing down, of easy-on-the-ear accessibility, Henze offers a middle way, a way into complexity without overwhelm

Choral

Finding Harmony: The King's Singers travel the World

Healing the World is ambitious, but maybe what is needed right now. The idea of this disc, released in January 2020, is to bring people together. Here we have music that spans around 800 years with a special focus on music composed under oppression or musical reactions to events from

Orchestral

East meets West: The Music of Airat Ichmouratov

What do you get when a Tartarstan-born, Kazan-raised composer-kletzmer clarinettist-conductor meets the eclectic life of North America?

Vocal

Pergolesi's beautiful Stabat Mater from Christophe Rousset

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in F minor is one of the glories of the Baroque period. Fact.

Elgar

Internationalist Elgar: Barenboim and Garanca's Sea Pictures

Daniel Barenboim and Elīna Garanča in simply beautiful performances of Elgar

Orchestral

Discovering Schumann, and more ...

Hear Schumann's Cello Concerto in a new light; explore the music of Alfredo Piatti.

A Russian in Spain: Rachmaninov from Valladolid

Rachmaninov's glorious Second Symphony perfectly paired with a glowering "Isle of the Dead"

After Dido: Purcell's King Arthur

There's a kind of multiple resonance to the title of this post: while Henry Purcell's music for King Arthur (1691) does indeed come after his most famous work, Dido and Aeneas (1680), there's also another aspect: what does one listen to after Dido? Where