Review: Portraits de la Folie (Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Ensemble Amarillis)
D’Oustrac and Gaillard make all kinds of madness seem vicariously pleasurable.
Michael Quinn is a former theatre director and BBC Radio Drama producer who writes about classical music, opera and theatre. A former Deputy Editor of Gramophone, he is obituaries editor for The Stage, booklet editor for SOMM Recordings, and programming consultant to Northern Ireland’s newest arts centre, The Portico of Ards.
D’Oustrac and Gaillard make all kinds of madness seem vicariously pleasurable.
Lang’s take on Beethoven benefits from strong singing and playing.
Bavouzet puts Beethoven’s peers under the microscope to revealing effect.
Sokolov’s live Beethoven and Brahms is something of a curate’s egg.
Quietly dazzling performances light up Feldman’s introspective minor masterpiece.
Alard’s Bach survey gets into its stride with Weimar period wonders.
Brilliant, blazing Beethoven from Hough and Lintu’s finessed Finns.
The Thomas Adès-Kirill Gerstein partnership goes from strength to strength.
Han Chen delights in surface detail but misses Thomas Adès’ darker depths.
Leonard Bernstein’s eclectic Mass sounds more contemporary than ever but remains a challenge.
Philip Sawyers’ Fourth Symphony finds an eloquent champion in Kenneth Woods.
Exquisite piano miniatures from a perfect partnership of composer and pianist.
Musical twins: Ólafsson spectacularly reunites Rameau and Debussy.