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This month
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LATEST CD & DVD REVIEWS
Monday December 19th

We wish our readers a very happy Christmas and New Year

160 reviews completed so far this month

Benjamin BRITTEN Violin Concerto Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony 4 Wanda Wilkomirska (violin) Warsaw PO/Witold Rowicki rec. live, 1967 ORCHESTRAL CONCERT CDs [JW] Hair-shirt production values from this company ensure that terrific concerts such as this have a continuing and richly deserved afterlife. 

Joan BRUDIEU Missa Defunctorum, Madrigals Exaudi Nos/Joan Grimalt rec. 2010 COLUMNA MÚSICA [Byz] Brudieu's Mass: one of the finest of its time and place. 

Paul DUKAS Ariane Et Barbe-Bleue Deborah Polaski (soprano) Kwangchul Youn (bass) Slovak PCh, VIenna RSO/Bertrand De Billy rec. live, 2006 BRILLIANT CLASSICS [KE] Sombre but with moments of great orchestral and vocal virtuosity. 

Gustav HOLST The Hymn of Jesus, The Perfect Fool, Egdon Heath BBC Ch, London PO, BBC SO/Sir Adrian Boult rec. 1961 HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFER [RB] Sturdy, well measured, well judged performances where a sense of rooted and dedicated rightness allows the music to emerge naturally. 

Bruno MADERNA  Piano Concerto, Concertos for Two Pianos, Quadrivium Aldo Orvieto, Fausto Bongelli (pianos) Gruppo 40.6; Fondazione Arena di Verona O/Carlo Miotto rec. 2010 NAXOS  [RB] Those Roundhouse concerts come to unruly life again. 

RECORDING OF THE MONTH Gustav MAHLER Symphony 2 Kathleen Battle, Christa Ludwig, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Vienna PO/James Levine rec. live, 1989 ORFEO [DM] Surely one of the great Resurrections of our time. 

Piotr MOSS Meditation and Psalm, Voyage, Cinq tableaux de Caspar David Friedrich Grażyna Strzeszewska, Anna Sikorzak-Olek (harps) Polish Radio Ch in Cracow/Polish Ntl RSO in Katowice/Michał Klauza rec. 2009/10 DUX [JW] Moss wants to convey mood, and feeling, and he does these things very well indeed. 

Mario PILATI   & Achille LONGO Piano Quintets Circo Artistico, Aldo Ciccolini (piano) rec. 2009 NAXOS  [RB] Another pair of provocative discoveries. 

Giacinto SCELSI Collection - Vol. 4: Early piano works Donna Amato (piano) rec. 2002 STRADIVARIUS [RB] Intriguing. Adventurers really do not need to be all that hardy to enjoy this collection. 

Codex Chantilly Vol. II Ensemble Tetraktys/Kees Boeke rec. 2010 ETCETERA [GH] The singing is elegant and the instrumental work delicate and neat. The overall production is colourful, easy to grasp and smartly presented. 

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NEW and RECENT ARTICLES

 

Our Christmas reviews

December Download Roundup #2 by Brian Wilson

Bob Briggs - Musicweb reviewer (1954 - 2011) - A tribute

John S. Bridge A Manchester Musician by Stuart Scott

Musicweb International Recordings of the Year 2011

Masterwork Index: Debussy's La Mer

Robin Milford: A biography and a List of Works by Peter Hunter

BOOK REVIEW
The John Ireland Companion - edited by Lewis Foreman

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Maurice Chevalier Louise - 1927-1958 RETROSPECTIVE RTR 4188 £7 postage paid

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Of interest to all lovers of English music: Gustav Holst's The Coming of Christ, Two Psalms, Nunc Dimmitis & I love my love conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton. Available for £12 post-free from Musicweb. Click here.

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MUSICWEB Special Offer

We had great success with selling the Haydn Symphonies as mp3 files put onto CD (see review). This time we offer the complete organ works of J.S.Bach played by Kevin Bowyer on 8CDs containing 320 kbps mp3 files and a complete set of notes as a pdf file. You can buy these through MusicWeb for just £23 post-free here. Reviews by Brian Wilson and Kirk McElhearn
Same Price: Complete Haydn Symphonies on mp3 CDs review

NOTE: These sets cannot be played on a normal CD player. You will need one of the following: a computer; a portable MP3 device (like an iPod, but not limited to iPods) a DVD player; the latest generation of in-car disc players.

 

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