Latest News: Classical
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Announcement,
New Streaming Service Features! 20th November 2023
Read on to find out about our new streaming service features, including curated playlists, pre-release content and a recently played albums section!
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Presto Music Classical Podcast,
Episode 44: Take me to your Lieder - Schubert in English with Roderick Williams, Rowan Pierce and Christopher Glynn 18th November 2023
Baritone, soprano and pianist offer their perspectives on the latest instalment in Signum Classics's series, which features Jeremy Sams's translations of Schubert Lieder.
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Recording of the Week,
Saint-Saëns symphonic poems from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles 17th November 2023
A selection of Saint-Saëns's luscious orchestral pieces - familiar and less-known, and including a real treasure from the very dawn of the cinematic era - get the Les Siècles treatment, leaping off the page thanks to intelligent and sensitive performances on period instruments.
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New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 17th November 2023 17th November 2023
Satie and Cage from Bertrand Chamayou, South American guitar music from Sean Shibe, Grażyna Bacewicz's Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 from Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Carolyn Sampson's hundredth recording...
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Interview,
The King's Singers on Wonderland 16th November 2023
Patrick Dunachie and Jonathan Howard talk about the King's Singers' new album - including an unexpected change of direction for Joe Hisaishi and some revealing observations about the group's members...!
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Favourites,
Gifts for... Opera-Lovers 15th November 2023In the first of our festive gift guides, we've selected some perfect presents for the opera-lover in your life, from the latest complete recordings and recital-albums to the best recent books about opera.
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Box Set Deep-Dive,
Rob Cowan on Artur Rodziński 14th November 2023
Our new guest-contributor explores the Polish-American conductor's complete Columbia recordings with the Cleveland Orchestra - including a 'driven and impassioned' Shostakovich Five, and the world premiere recording of the Berg Violin Concerto.
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Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - November 2023 13th November 2023
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by a 'polished and beautifully-presented' recording of Offenbach's La princesse de Trébizonde on Opera Rara, conducted by Paul Daniel and starring Anne-Catherine Gillet, Virginie Verrez and Josh Lovell.
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Recording of the Week,
Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mutter's Virtuosi 10th November 2023
The violinist and her ensemble of virtuoso string players present a dazzingly eclectic programme of works by Vivaldi, Bach, Bologne, and André Previn.
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New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 10th November 2023 10th November 2023
Brahms concertos from Simon Trpčeski, a Norwegian Christmas album from Lise Davidsen, Arvo Pärt's Littlemore Tractus and more from Tõnu Kaljuste in Tallinn, and the beginning of a Beethoven cycle from the Doric Quartet.
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Interview,
Maxim Emelyanychev on Mozart 9th November 2023
In the wake of the second instalment of his Mozart symphonies series with Il Pomo d'Oro, the Russian conductor and harpsichordist recounts how he fell under the composer's spell aged four - and was thrown in at the deep end to conduct the Overture to Le nozze di Figaro just eight years later...
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Obituary,
Ryland Davies (1943-2023) 8th November 2023
The Welsh light lyric tenor, a superb Mozart singer who later enjoyed a rich and varied career in character-roles, has died aged 80.
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Interview,
Robert Hollingworth on Benevoli's multi-choir magnificence 7th November 2023
The director of I Fagiolini talks about his new album, featuring a four-choir work of unparalleled Baroque splendour by the seventeenth-century Italian composer Orazio Benevoli.
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Early Music Round-up,
Early Music Round-Up - Autumn 2023 6th November 2023
Magnificent French Baroque funerary works from Le Concert d'Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm, a cornucopia of culinary song from The Playfords, a fond look back at the final decades of the viola da gamba's heyday from André Lislevand, dark penitential Venetian choral music from Odhecaton and Paolo da Col, and more.
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Recording of the Week,
Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé from Sinfonia of London and John Wilson 3rd November 2023
The conductor's new edition of the score incorporates hundreds of tiny amendments which Ravel made to the orchestral parts in rehearsal - and the resulting recording reveals a wealth of fine detail as well as a keen sense of the bigger picture.
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Obituary,
Yuri Temirkanov (1938-2023) 3rd November 2023
The Russian conductor, known for his interpretations of orchestral repertoire by his compatriots as well as for his flair for Verdi's music, has died aged 84.
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New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 3rd November 2023 3rd November 2023
Debussy from Steven Osborne, Bach from Frank Peter Zimmermann, Mozart from Maxim Emelyanychev & Il Pomo d'Oro, and the world premiere recording of Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio.
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Presto Chart,
The Presto Chart - October 2023 1st November 2023
Our 25 best-selling titles across all formats for September, with Víkingur Ólafsson's 'serious, sincere and authentic' account of Bach's Goldberg Variations leading by a country mile (and racing to the top of the overall 2023 chart to date...).
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Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - October 2023 1st November 2023
A terrific debut recital centring on female experiences from British-Australian soprano Samantha Crawford with pianist Lana Bode, forgotten Baroque gems from Philippe Jaroussky at the very top of his game, and a rich and strange new chamber-work from Thomas Adès.
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Box Set Selections,
Boxed Set Selections - October 2023 31st October 2023
This month's heavyweights include Jessye Norman's complete studio recitals on Philips, Deutsche Grammophon & Decca, Victoria de los Ángeles's collected Warner recordings, and Bruckner cycles from Christian Thielemann in Vienna & Andris Nelsons in Leipzig.
