Given that Felix Mendelssohn was one of the greatest pianists of his age, it is surprising that his writing for his own instrument has not stood the test of time, unlike his large-scale orchestral and choral works. The sonatas are not seen as breaking new ground and it’s only the sets of Lieder ohne Worte that have held their own on record and in the concert hall. His 20th-century reputation is for Victorian sentimentality and lack of depth, so his music feels ripe for reassessment. This appealing selection of early pieces – a sonata, some “characteristic pieces”, a capriccio and the lovely first book of Songs Without Words – reveals a young composer following in the footsteps of Clementi, Hummel and Weber while still paying homage to the great J.S. Bach. There’s plenty to delight here. The madcap Capriccio in F-Sharp Minor, Op 5 is all scurrying figurations and galumphing leaps with a cleverly interpolated fugue in the middle. The seven Charakterstücke are a revelation: crafted, varied and imaginative genre pieces foreshadowing Schumann. The only disappointment is the pretty but rather rambling sonata. Howard Shelley’s approach is accomplished and respectful, with plenty of insights. Given that so much of…

  Eton College was founded by King Henry VI in 1443 and within 50 years had amassed a unique body of English choral music collected together in what is known today as the Eton Choirbook. Given the collection’s focus on devotion to the Blessed Virgin, its survival of the Henrician Reformation of the 1530s is a minor miracle. The Sixteen made a recommendable recorded foray into this repertoire back in the 1990s, but the choir of Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral has two special claims to authenticity: first, as a group with an unbroken tradition of daily choral services and second, and most importantly, the inclusion of 14 boy sopranos amongst 33 exclusively male voices. Boys’ voices are less common in recordings of the Eton pieces, probably because of the discipline required to tackle unaccompanied works on this scale. Of the five pieces here, four involve over 15 minutes of complex polyphony and one, Lambe’s titanic O Maria plena gracia, weighs in at over 20 minutes – an intonational endurance test, as any singer will tell you. That these singers carry all before them is a tribute to their conductor Stephen Darlington, who directs his substantial forces with flair and a…

Piotr Beczała is as near perfect a guide in Richard Tauber's repertoire as you could hope for.

The Festival that reaches well beyond “the sea itself” launches in style. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Richard Jones’ lively ‘retro pageant’ take on Britten’s notorious flop proves anything but “Boriana”. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

York Bowen (1884-1961) is probably the most important forgotten British composer to be “rediscovered” in recent years. The cause has been taken up by labels like Hyperion, Dutton and Chandos, with outstanding champions in Stephen Hough, Sir Andrew Davis and Lawrence Power. This latest Hyperion exploration of the complete works for violin and piano has fallen to violinist Chloë Hanslip and the current doyen of Bowen pianists, Danny Driver, whose revealing survey of the piano sonatas won plaudits all round in 2010. The major works here are the late Violin Sonata and the Suite for Violin and Piano, but there are a host of smaller occasional works ranging from the substantial Phantasie, a Cobbett commission in 1911, down to tasty soupçons like the Kreisleresque Bolero and the winsome Allegretto. Bowen was a proficient violist as well as a prodigious concert pianist, rendering these works highly “playable”. He was also a master of the dividing line between serious and light, with a gift for a memorable idea that imbues even the slightest work with charm and spirit. Driver and Hanslip turn out to be a match made in heaven and respond to Bowen’s idiom with grace, taste and sensitivity. Recognising that…

The life, or more accurately death, of Walt Disney could’ve done with some help from a mouse and a duck. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

At the age of 82, Richard Bonynge could be forgiven if he sat back on his laurels rather than heading off for the recording studio yet again. But that is most emphatically not what he seems to be up to at the moment, with a steady stream of recent recordings. He and his late wife Dame Joan Sutherland explored Victorian song throughout their long recital careers, and Bonynge persuaded Decca to let him produce a complete recording of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl back in 1991. Of late, however, he has turned his mind to some of the period’s lesser-known composers with a fascinating complete recording of William Wallace’s opera Lurline. Wallace is represented on the new CD, along with Balfe, Benedict and MacFarren, but composers like John Barnett, Edward Loder and Arthur Goring Thomas are each represented in the current catalogue by just one piece each – and that’s the overture on this CD. It’s delightful fare. The composers here were nothing if not craftsmen and the works have a great deal of colour, energy and imagination. If one or two of them feel a touch overlong, that is a minor quibble when there is so much enjoyable music here…

Why, oh why, aren’t Peter Philips and his music better known? As a committed English Catholic he spent his working life abroad. His first sojourn abroad was to Rome, where he fell under the spell of the Italian madrigal, but he soon settled in the Low Countries, working for the Archduke Albert in Brussels. In 1622 Henry Peacham wrote that Philips was “one of the greatest masters of Musicke in Europe”, and everything so far committed to disc from his melodious and engaging oeuvre supports that claim. The present disc explores his eight-part motets, written for two choirs and intended to celebrate major feast days of the Church year. The musical language avoids the harmonic extremes of a Gesualdo or even a Monteverdi, but Philips shows his Italianate leanings with colourful effects illustrating text. Changes of speed and metre abound, and there is much passing of phrases from one chorus to the other. Rupert Gough and his excellent Royal Holloway choir have been recorded in the warmly resonant acoustic of St Alban’s Church, Holborn, and these lively, committed performances have great bloom. Sackbuts and cornetts enhance the richness of some of the motets, adding additional lustre to what is a……

Melbourne-born Russell McGregor returns to Oz after 20 years to show us how the Viennese really do Strauss. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Hardy bathers brave freezing River Derwent during Dark MOFO Festival. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Age cannot wither this old possum in an evening of razor sharp wit plus some classical music on the side. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in