The Hallé brilliantly negotiate Elgar’s sunny peaks and lengthen shadows.

Richly textured contemporary works from Bulgarian-born Brit.

In a nail-bitingly close contest, an independent label carries off the top prize.

Clive Paget caught up with the personable British baritone to unpack his enviable reputation as a singer and orchestrator.

More is more in these tasteful orchestrations of English song favourites.

This month, Roderick Williams gussies up English songs, Ravel and Arnold receive ardent advocacy, and a trio of suppressed Jessye Norman recordings sees the light of day.

Vaughan Williams’ 150th tops and tails this month’s new classical albums, plus the latest from the Danish String Quartet, a classic Bryn Terfel recital and a heartfelt new Traviata.

Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé deliver a characterful, colourful tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Norman Lebrecht suggests that the Berlin Phil's decision to bypass the record industry by establishing their own label is the reason. Not so, says Gramophone.

Elder and the Halle travel inspirationally between Heaven and Hell.

A tribute to a legend, and a solo debut of rare drama and scope.

Chimes and gentle winds open A Celestial Map of the Sky – the title track on this disc by British-American composer Tarik O’Regan – before the Hallé, led by Sir Mark Elder, is joined by the choir. The luminous opening soon gives way to powerful, driving intensity, O’Regan setting extracts of poetic texts (by Walt Whitman, Mahmood Jamal and more) that reflect his response to a pair of woodcuts – star charts – by Albrecht Dürer. Haunting vocal meditations are entwined with a glittering, astral score. Jamie Philips conducts the Hallé in the remaining works. O’Regan takes the Adagio of JS Bach’s third Violin Sonata (BWV 1005) as his jumping off point in Latent Manifest. Solo violin is joined by harp and percussion, O’Regan extrapolating Bach’s quadruple-stops into a whorl of vivid orchestral colour and sizzling rhythms. Both Raï and Chaâbi (which was commissioned for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2012 tour) derive from O’Regan’s memories of childhood visits to relatives in Algeria and Morocco. Raï is full of fierce strings, rhythmic drumming and bright momentum from the Hallé, while shifting string textures in Chaâbi create a reflective mood. The finale is Fragments from Heart of Darkness, a dramatic… Continue reading…