BBC Philharmonic Archive
SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concertos – Louis Lortie/ BBC Philharmonic/ Edward Gardner – Chandos
Louis Lortie and conductor Gardner present us dazzling intensely athletic accounts of the three Saint-Saëns concertos, brilliant and scintillating.
ALWYN : Film Music Vol. 4 – BBC Philharmonic / Rumon Gamba; Chandos
ALWYN : Film Music Vol 4 [contents below] – BBC Philharmonic / Rumon Gamba; Chandos 10930 reviewed as 24-96 flac download; TT: 77:33 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: A fine collection of Alwyn film music portraying lots of stiff upper lip from the 1940s and 1950s. William Alwyn (1905-1985) has been very well served over the years by Chandos. Included are a cycle of the symphonies with Richard Hickox at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra, sundry orchestral music, concertos, chamber works including the string quartets, and this, their fourth volume of music for the cinema. Alwyn contributed scores for around 70 films during his long career, though IMDB includes another 57 items written for documentaries, other shorts and television, and all between 1937 and 1963. A substantial 46 works date from 1939-1945, written for wartime productions of one sort or another. Some have survived in the public’s psyche; I guess the better-known ones include ‘The Winslow Boy’, ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’, ‘Odd Man Out’, ‘The Fallen Idol’, ‘The History of Mr Polly’, and two included in this new release, ‘The Master of Ballantrae’ and ‘The Ship that Died of Shame’. One of the last he composed was a score for […]
PIERNE: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 = BBC Philharmonic – Chandos
Pianist Bavouzet and conductor Mena revisit the music of Pierne with effective results. PIERNE: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 = Paysages franciscains, Op. 43; Les Cathedrales; Scherzo-Caprice, Op. 25; Poeme symphonique, Op. 37; Fantasie-Ballet, Op. 6; Nocturne en forme de valse, Op. 40, No. 2; Etude de concert, Op. 13 – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, p./ BBC Philharmonic/ Juanjo Mena – Chandos CHAN 10871, 72:58 (9/25/15) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: A celebrated pupil of Cesar Franck and Jules Massenet, Gabriel Pierne (1863-1937) established himself early, winning first prize for piano performance (1879) and later, in 1882, the coveted Prix de Rome. Pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, as a complement to his having recorded the Pierne Piano Concerto in c minor (CHAN 10633), decided to explore the Pierne oeuvre further with conductor Juanjo Mena, inscribing (17-19 July 2014) another series of works meant to expand our general familiarity with his legacy. Though immersed in his duties as conductor of the Colonne Orchestra, Pierne had found time for composition, having written an oratorio on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, even as the clouds of WW I had begun to form over Europe’s skies. The Paysages franciscains (1919) reflect much of the Debussy syntax, set […]
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concertos 1 – 5 – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, p./ BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda – Chandos (2 CDs)
As electric and athletic a set of Prokofiev piano concertos as you could wish, brilliantly performed and recorded.
MIKLÓS RÓZSA: Violin Concerto; Concerto for String Orchestra; Theme, Variations and Finale – Jennifer Pike, violin/ BBC Philharmonic/ Rumon Gamba – Chandos
These very fine works will remind you of Bartok and are worth your time.
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES: Symphony No. 3; Cross Lane Fair – BBC Philharmonic Orch. /Peter Maxwell Davies – Naxos
Important recordings of these idiomatic Davies masterpieces.
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES: Symphony No. 1; Mavis in Las Vegas – BBC Philharmonic/ Peter Maxwell Davies – Naxos
A retread from the Maxwell Davies series on Collins Classics—and worth hearing.
CASELLA: Symphony No. 2; Scarlattiana – Roscoe, p./ BBC Phil./ Noseda – Chandos CASELLA: Notte di maggio; Cello Con.; Scarlattiana – Soloists/ Orch. Sinfonia de Roma/ La Vecchia – Naxos
Thanks to Chandos and Naxos, Alfredo Casella has re-entered the lists of major 20th-century conservative composers.
YORK BOWEN: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 – BBC Philharmonic/Sir Andrew Davis – Chandos
Two early symphonies by the ‘English Rachmaninoff’ reveal his melodic and orchestral sophistication in magnificent performances, recorded in luminous sound.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
