Classical CDs | The Arts Desk

Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Saint-Saëns, Danish National Vocal Ensemble

Goodbye to Berlin: Sir Simon Rattle revisits Mahler 6

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY Rattle's Mahler, Saint-Saëns from Utah and a capella singing from Denmark

Romantic orchestral music and Danish songs

Mahler: Symphony No 6 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)

Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Feldman, Langgaard

French piano music, Danish symphonies and extreme minimalism from an American master

Et la lune descend – piano music by Claude Debussy Olga Stezhko (Palermo Classica)

Classical CDs Weekly: Adventures in Sound, Tora Augestad, Ashley Fripp

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY Adventures in Sound, Tora Augestad, Ashley Fripp

Post-war modernism and songs for soprano and orchestra, plus an enterprising piano recital

Adventures In Sound (él records)

Classical CDs Weekly: Couperin, Dutilleux, Rossini

Petits pois and cornichons from pianist Stefan Irmer

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY Couperin orchestrated, symphonic Dutilleux and Rossini for piano

French orchestral music plus an Italian master, sinning in old age

Couperin: Les Nations Réunies & autres sonades La Simphonie du Marais/Hugo Reyne (Musiques à la Chabotterie)

Classical CDs Weekly: Mia Brentano, Wim Henderickx, Saint-Saëns

Unsentimental nostalgia from Wim Henderickx

Flemish and German contemporary music, plus three French piano concertos

Mia Brentano’s Hidden Sea – 20 Songs for 2 Pianos Benyamin Nuss & Max Nyberg (pianos) (Mons Records)

Classical CDs Weekly: Joe Cutler, Elgar, Septura

Good timing from Birmingham's Joe Cutler

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY Joe Cutler's football-jazz, Elder's Elgar and Septura's brilliant brass

Anvils, football, bears and trumpets feature in this week's all-British selection

Joe Cutler: Elsewhereness (NMC)

Classical CDs Weekly: Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Bernstein in Paris

All smiles: Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY Big box sets of Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Bernstein in Paris

Three big box sets: romantic symphonies, Soviet string quartets and an American conductor visits Paris

Mendelssohn: Symphonies 1-5, Overtures, A Midsummer Night’s Dream London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Eliot Gardiner (LSO Live)

Best of 2018: Classical CDs

Bernstein: self-effacing as an accompanist

BEST OF 2018: CLASSICAL CDS A Kazan Shostakovich, Messiaen's birds, Bernstein the pianist

From the year's favourites: a Kazan Shostakovich, Messiaen's birds, Bernstein the pianist

Record shops may be thin on the ground, but CDs are still very much with us. No sensible soul would ever rate listening to a recording over experiencing music live. But if, like me, time, money and geography limit one’s opportunities to nip out to concerts, a well-produced CD can plug the gap very nicely. I’m still a fan of the physical product over the download: removing shrink wrap and flicking through sleeve notes are one of life's minor pleasures, and several releases in this list score highly in terms of aesthetics as well as music making.

Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Strauss, La Symphonie de Poche, Temple Church Choir

Symphonic sturm und drang, downsized French music and a wide ranging choral compilation

Beethoven: Symphony No 3, Strauss: Horn Concerto No 1 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck, William Caballero (horn) (Reference Recordings)

Classical CDs Weekly: Christmas, part 2

Christmas, Appalachian style, from Jeannette Sorrell's Apollo's Fire

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY: CHRISTMAS, PART 2 Seasonal sounds from the Appalachians, Germany, Cambridge and Japan

Six more seasonal discs, covering celebrations from Tokyo to rural Virginia

Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain Apollo’s Fire/Jeannette Sorrell (Avie)

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