Record Review Podcast

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite version of Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op.47

Gillian Moore's personal recommendation for Mahler's epic 'Symphony of a Thousand'

Roger Parker chooses his favourite recording of Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D major

Jonathan Cross with a personal recommendation for Stravinsky's second ballet Petrushka,

A survey of William Byrd with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor.

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Poulenc's Piano Concerto.

Roger Parker's recommendation for the ultimate recording of Puccini's opera Tosca.

Kate Molleson chooses her favourite recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

Composer John Rutter's recommendation of a recording of Brahms's A German Requiem

Nigel Simeone chooses his favourite recording of Smetana's The Bartered Bride

Flora Willson chooses her favourite recording of Mahler's Rückert-Lieder

Mark Lowther nominates the best recording of Sibelius's sixth symphony

Simon Heighes chooses his favourite recording of Handel's Coronation Anthems

Sarah Devonald chooses her favourite recording of Schubert Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, D. 485. When he wrote his fifth symphony at the age of 19, Schubert was working unhappily as an assistant teacher in his father's school. But he was nevertheless on a compositional roll with songs, chamber music and four other symphonies to his name, all of which were performed by amateur and professional mu...

Erik Levi chooses his favourite recording of Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No 1 'Kreutzer Sonata' Composed in only nine days in 1923, Janáček's compact, emotionally supercharged String Quartet No 1 takes its title from Leo Tolstoy’s 1889 novella where a wife and her violinist lover play Beethoven’s 'Kreutzer' Sonata together before the jealous husband murders his adulterous wife. Janáček's music r...

Kate Kennedy chooses her favourite recording of Britten's Peter Grimes The opera Peter Grimes is set in a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Britten's home of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on England's east coast. It is a drama about outsiders and oppression. As Britten himself said, it was "a subject very close to my heart – the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicio...

Hannah French has been listening to recordings - old and new - of Handel's Water Music, whittling them down until she can herald the ultimate version to buy, download or stream.

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite recording of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

Building a Library: Kenneth Hamilton chooses his favourite recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor. Frédéric Chopin composed this glorious concerto in 1829 when he was 20 and before he had finished his formal education. It was first performed in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist. It was actually the first of his two piano concertos to be written. Like all Chopin's works, it is full...

David Owen Norris chooses his favourite recording of William Walton's Viola Concerto. It was conductor Sir Thomas Beecham's suggestion that Walton should write a viola concerto for the virtuoso Lionel Tertis. But things did not go according to plan when Tertis sent back the music by return of post saying it was 'too modern'. So the 1929 premiere was given by Paul Hindemith (who had been sent the c...

Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony with Gillian Moore Olivier Messiaen's only symphony was written for an orchestra of enormous forces. The title comes from two Sanskrit words. "Lîla" means play in the sense of the divine action upon the cosmos. It also means love. "Turanga" is the time that runs, like a galloping horse and that flows, like sand in an hourglass; it's both movement and rhythm. The mea...

Mozart's 'Dissonance' Quartet is the last of a set of six famously dedicated by Mozart to his 'very dear friend' Joseph Haydn. Soon after he arrived in Vienna in 1781, Mozart came to know Haydn's recently published Op. 33 set of innovatory string quartets which, said Haydn, had been composed in ‘a new and special way'. It was no idle boast. Not only more concentrated and sophisticated than any pre...

Beethoven's 23rd piano sonata is stormy and intense, so earned the nickname "Appassionata" or "Passionate". Pianist Iain Burnside has been listening to a wide range of recordings, old and new, to pick the ultimate version to buy, download or stream.

Purcell's magnum opus was written as a series of masques to be performed at the end of the acts of a special version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Arguably the greatest British composer before the 20th century, Purcell left us a tantalizing array of music for use in theatrical productions, which shows what an unsurpassed gift he had for matchings words and mood with music. Apart from...

Yshani Perinpanayagam chooses her favourite recording of Debussy's Images for Orchestra. Composed between 1906 and 1912, Images is Debussy’s final concert work for orchestra. Over its three sections it abundantly displays his customary sophistication and flair for orchestral sonorities and for painting pictures in sound. The first and last parts of the triptych are folk-inflected: the enigmatic Gi...