December 2011

Informed by our unrivalled panel of critics, we choose the month’s must-hear recordings hoice

SCHUMANN String Quartets, Op 41 Doric String Quartet Chandos CHAN10692

Recording of the Month ‘They play up Schumann’s unique combination of whimsy and fervour … These are performances to make you fall in love with the music all over again’

FOR THE FULL REVIEW BY HARRIET SMITH, TURN TO PAGE 54

Hear every Gramophone Choice recording, including Recording of the Month, through the online Gramophone Player at gramophone.co.uk

IRELAND Piano Concerto, etc Lenehan pf RLPO / Wilson Naxos 8 572598 ‘Its bright finale has an indelible main theme you won’t be able to get out of your head once the work concludes… John Lenehan is again at his finest here.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 61

SAARIAHO ‘D'om le vrai sens’, etc Kriikku cl Komsi sop Finnish Radio SO / Oramo Ondine ODE1173 2 ‘Cast in interlinked movements, the concerto explores the five senses as depicted in the medieval tapestry series, The Lady and the Unicorn.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 64

4 GRAMOPHONE DECEMBER 2011

STRAVINSKY The Firebird Les Siècles / Roth Musicales Actes Sud ASM06 ‘The Firebird was the sensation of 1910. It is played here with a difference. The intention is for it to sound as it did to those first, dazzled Paris audiences.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 66

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS. MCEWEN Works for Viola and Orchestra Power va BBC NOW / Brabbins Hyperion CDA67839 ‘Power’s playing is wonderfully varied, at times delicate and poetical, at others broad, passionate and generous.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 67

PURCELL Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts Retrospect Trio Linn CKD374 ‘These performances of brief movements convey rhetorical suggestions of speaking intimately, unforced breathing, and listening attentively.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 73

gramophone.co.uk