Classical Guy https://classicalguy.com/ Reviews of Classical Music Recordings Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:21:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 Albinoni: Trattenimenti Armonici by Ensemble Barocco https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/albinoni-trattenimenti-armonici-by-ensemble-barocco/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/albinoni-trattenimenti-armonici-by-ensemble-barocco/#respond Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:44:59 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15928 ALBINONI Six Sonatas for Flute and Continuo Op. 6 Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Ensemble Barocco Padovano Sans Souci (Mario Folena (transverse flute), Carlo Zanardi (cello), Terrell Stone (theorbo, guitar), Aldo Fiorentin (harpsichord)) DYNAMIC DM8032 (65:11) Albinoni called himself a dilettante, and he meant it as a statement of social fact rather than artistic modesty. He was […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/albinoni-trattenimenti-armonici-by-ensemble-barocco/feed/ 0 Suppé: Missa Pro Defunctis in D Minor https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/suppe-missa-pro-defunctis-in-d-minor/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/suppe-missa-pro-defunctis-in-d-minor/#respond Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:15:01 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15897 Franz von SUPPÉ Requiem in D minor – Missa pro defunctis (1855) Franz von Suppé (1819-1895) Marie Fajtová (soprano); Franziska Gottwald (mezzo); Tomislav Mužek (tenor); Albert Pesendorfer (bass); Philharmonischer Chor München; Philharmonie Festiva/Gerd Schaller PROFIL EDITION PH12061 (74:23) Franz von Suppé occupies one of the more peculiar corners of the 19th-century repertoire — universally known, […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/suppe-missa-pro-defunctis-in-d-minor/feed/ 0 Saint-Saëns Chamber Music – Piano Quartet and Quintet by Naxos https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/saint-saens-chamber-music-piano-quartet-and-quintet-by-naxos/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/saint-saens-chamber-music-piano-quartet-and-quintet-by-naxos/#respond Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:33:53 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15890 SAINT-SAËNS Piano Quartet in B flat major; Piano Quintet in A minor; Barcarolle in F major Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Cristina Ortiz (piano), Fine Arts Quartet (Ralph Evans (violin 1), Efim Boico (violin 2), Nicolò Eugelmi (viola), Robert Cohen (cello)) NAXOS 8.572904 (71:12) Saint-Saëns remains one of classical music’s great misunderstood figures. The caricature — the […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/saint-saens-chamber-music-piano-quartet-and-quintet-by-naxos/feed/ 0 Handel and Purcell Baroque Trumpet Works by Balsom https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/handel-and-purcell-baroque-trumpet-works-by-balsom/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/handel-and-purcell-baroque-trumpet-works-by-balsom/#respond Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:05:12 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15922 Sound The Trumpet Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759) Amadigi di Gaula – Sento la gioia [4:36] Atalanta – overture [3:52] Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne – Eternal Source of Light Divine* [3:26] Suite in D HWV341 Water Piece [7:18] Oboe Concerto No.1 in B flat [7:28] Henry PURCELL (1659-1695) King Arthur – Suite [14:11] […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/04/handel-and-purcell-baroque-trumpet-works-by-balsom/feed/ 0 Ravel Rapsodie espagnole – Mona and Rica Bard https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/ravel-rapsodie-espagnole-mona-and-rica-bard/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/ravel-rapsodie-espagnole-mona-and-rica-bard/#respond Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:16:05 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15919 Pas de Deux – French Music for Piano Duo Darius MILHAUD (1892-1974) Scaramouche [9:09] Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937) Rapsodie espagnole [15:00] Georges BIZET (1838-1875) Jeux d’enfants, Op. 22 [21:15] Francis POULENC (1899-1963) Sonate pour deux pianos [22:29] Élégie (en accords alternés) [5:57] Mona and Rica Bard (piano(s)) rec. 25-28 November, 2011, Siemens-Villa, Berlin, Germany AUDITE 92.672 […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/ravel-rapsodie-espagnole-mona-and-rica-bard/feed/ 0 Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel by David John Pike https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/vaughan-williams-songs-of-travel-by-david-john-pike/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/vaughan-williams-songs-of-travel-by-david-john-pike/#respond Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:41:38 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15925 Whither must I wander? Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) Songs of travel [complete] [22.29] Five mystical songs (I got me flowers; Love bade me welcome; The call) [10.25] Silent noon [4.06]* Linden Lea [2.32]* Blackmwore by the Stour [2.03]* Gerald FINZI (1901-1956) Let us garlands bring [16.56]* Roger QUILTER (1877-1953) Three Shakespeare Songs, Op.6 [6.38] David […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/vaughan-williams-songs-of-travel-by-david-john-pike/feed/ 0 Albinoni Violin Sonatas by Rebinguet-Sudre https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/albinoni-violin-sonatas-by-rebinguet-sudre/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/albinoni-violin-sonatas-by-rebinguet-sudre/#respond Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:10:46 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15931 ALBINONI Sonates pour violon Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Guillaume Rebinguet-Sudre (violin), Claire Gratton (cello), Jean-Luc Ho (harpsichord) ENCELADE ECL 1102 (54:03) Albinoni has long suffered the indignity of being known primarily through a work he didn’t write. That Adagio — the one you hear at funerals and in elevator arrangements — was cobbled together in the […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/03/albinoni-violin-sonatas-by-rebinguet-sudre/feed/ 0 Mediterranean Crossroads – LArpeggiata and Pluhar https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/02/mediterranean-crossroads-larpeggiata-and-pluhar/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/02/mediterranean-crossroads-larpeggiata-and-pluhar/#respond Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:39:24 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15912 VIRGIN CLASSICS 464 5472 Rob Barnett  Performer details Full Tracklisting:- There is a moment in “Amygdalaki tsakisa” where the singing seems to lean into the music the way a sailor leans into wind — not fighting it, not surrendering, but finding the exact angle where resistance becomes propulsion. That’s the spirit animating this remarkable disc […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/02/mediterranean-crossroads-larpeggiata-and-pluhar/feed/ 0 Mödl Martha – Portrait of a Legend in Live Recordings https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/modl-martha-portrait-of-a-legend-in-live-recordings/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/modl-martha-portrait-of-a-legend-in-live-recordings/#respond Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:12:32 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15915 There are singers you know through their recordings, and then there are singers you know — the ones whose voices have burrowed so deep into your imagination that silence itself seems to carry their sound. Martha Mödl is the second kind, or should be. That most American listeners have never really encountered her is one […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/modl-martha-portrait-of-a-legend-in-live-recordings/feed/ 0 Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5 by Elder https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/vaughan-williams-symphony-no-5-by-elder/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/vaughan-williams-symphony-no-5-by-elder/#respond Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:16:56 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15910 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 5 in D / Symphony No. 8 in D minor Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Hallé Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder HALLÉ HLL CD 7533 (68:21) There is a moment near the end of the first movement of Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 5 in d — the blazing return of the second theme, drawn […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/06/01/vaughan-williams-symphony-no-5-by-elder/feed/ 0 Prokofiev Piano Works by Roger Woodward https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/29/prokofiev-piano-works-by-roger-woodward/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/29/prokofiev-piano-works-by-roger-woodward/#respond Fri, 29 May 2026 16:45:06 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15867 PROKOFIEV Works for Piano: 1908-1938 Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Roger Woodward, piano CELESTIAL HARMONIES 13292-2 (75:48) Prokofiev was twenty-one when he wrote the Sarcasmes, op. 17, and already contemptuous of anyone who expected him to behave. That contempt — gleeful, almost theatrical — is what Roger Woodward seems to relish most about this collection of piano […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/29/prokofiev-piano-works-by-roger-woodward/feed/ 0 Mendelssohn Songs Without Words by Brautigam https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/27/mendelssohn-songs-without-words-by-brautigam/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/27/mendelssohn-songs-without-words-by-brautigam/#respond Thu, 28 May 2026 01:54:32 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15865 MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY Songs Without Words (Ronald Brautigam) Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano BIS BIS-SACD-1982 (69:19) There is a peculiar trap waiting for anyone who ventures into Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words — forty-eight pieces across eight published books, plus a handful that never saw print in his lifetime, all of them brief, all of them ostensibly […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/27/mendelssohn-songs-without-words-by-brautigam/feed/ 0 Karabits Concertos for Orchestra – Bournemouth Symphony https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/25/karabits-concertos-for-orchestra-bournemouth-symphony/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/25/karabits-concertos-for-orchestra-bournemouth-symphony/#respond Tue, 26 May 2026 00:19:43 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15863 Ivan KARABITS (1945-2002) Concerto for Orchestra No.1 Musikalnoe prinosheniye Kievu (Musical Gift to Kiev) (1980-81)* [12:36] Concerto for Orchestra No.2 (1986)*[17:05] Concerto for Orchestra No.3 Holosinnya (Lamentations) (1989)* [16:19] Valentin SILVESTROV (b.1937) Elegie (2002) [6:20] Abschiedsserenade (2003) [7:06] Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Kirill Karabits rec. The Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, UK, 14-15 June 2010. *World Première Recordings NAXOS […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/25/karabits-concertos-for-orchestra-bournemouth-symphony/feed/ 0 Handel Giulio Cesare by Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/23/handel-giulio-cesare-by-alan-curtis-and-il-complesso-barocco/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/23/handel-giulio-cesare-by-alan-curtis-and-il-complesso-barocco/#respond Sat, 23 May 2026 09:05:12 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15861 HANDEL Giulio Cesare (1724) George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Karina Gauvin, Romina Basso, Emöke Baráth, Filippo Mineccia, Johannes Weisser, Milena Sorti, Gianluca Buratto, Il Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis NAÏVE OP30536 (221:00) There is a moment in the second act of Giulio Cesare — Handel wrote it in 1724, at the absolute height of his London […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/23/handel-giulio-cesare-by-alan-curtis-and-il-complesso-barocco/feed/ 0 Françaix: The Wit and Craft of a French Master https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/21/francaix-the-wit-and-craft-of-a-french-master/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/21/francaix-the-wit-and-craft-of-a-french-master/#respond Fri, 22 May 2026 02:42:34 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15859 Jean FRANÇAIX (1912-1997) 100th anniversary set Jean Françaix (1912-1997) see contents and artists list at end of review WERGO WER 6956 2 (73:28 + 79:32 + 74:43) Jean Françaix lived to be 85, and the astonishing thing is that he never once lost his nerve. Other composers of his generation either grew severe with age […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/21/francaix-the-wit-and-craft-of-a-french-master/feed/ 0 Bach Partita in D Minor – Violin Solo Works https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/19/bach-partita-in-d-minor-violin-solo-works/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/19/bach-partita-in-d-minor-violin-solo-works/#respond Wed, 20 May 2026 00:29:47 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15857 Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Partita in D minor for solo violin BWV 1004 [25:22] Chorales: St John Passion: Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein [2:09] Christ lag in Todesbanden [1:19] Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt [1:22] St Matthew Passion: Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden [1:23] Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924) Requiem [36:38] Gordan Nikolitch (violin); Grace Davidson […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/19/bach-partita-in-d-minor-violin-solo-works/feed/ 0 Erlebach: Surviving Works – A Rediscovery Worth Mourning https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/17/erlebach-surviving-works-a-rediscovery-worth-mourning/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/17/erlebach-surviving-works-a-rediscovery-worth-mourning/#respond Sun, 17 May 2026 18:21:02 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15855 Süße Freundschaft, edles Band Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714) Miriam Feuersinger (soprano), Franz Vitzthum (counter-tenor), Capricornus Consort Basel/Peter Barczi CHRISTOPHORUS CHR 77366 (64:53) The fire that swept through the Rudolstadt court library in 1735 is one of those calamities that music history keeps inflicting on us, like the losses of Vivaldi’s manuscripts or the destruction wrought […]

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]]> https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/17/erlebach-surviving-works-a-rediscovery-worth-mourning/feed/ 0 Elgar Violin Concerto – Soul and Mystery Explored https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/16/elgar-violin-concerto-soul-and-mystery-explored/ https://classicalguy.com/2026/05/16/elgar-violin-concerto-soul-and-mystery-explored/#respond Sun, 17 May 2026 00:05:24 +0000 https://classicalguy.com/?p=15853 ELGAR Violin Concerto in B minor Op.61 Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Catherine Manoukian (violin), Staatskapelle Weimar/Stefan Solyom BERLIN CLASSICS 0300429BC (57:30) There is a Spanish epigraph at the head of Elgar’s Violin Concerto — “Aquí está encerrada el alma de …” — and the blank that follows those five words has generated more biographical speculation than […]

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