May 2012

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

DEBUSSY. SZYMANOWSKI Debussy Pour le piano. Estampes. L'isle joyeuse Szymanowski Prelude and Fugue. Piano Sonata No 1, Op 8 Rafał Blechacz pf DG 477 9548GH

Recording of the Month ‘He has little inclination to bathe the passagework in an impressionistic haze as many do, choosing to emphasise the virtuosity of the writing’

FOR THE REVIEW BY JEREMY NICHOLAS, TURN TO PAGE 72

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

DVOŘAK Cello Concerto. The Water Goblin. In Nature’s Realm Zuill Bailey vc Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra / Jun Märkl Telarc TEL32927 02 ‘This wonderfully spontaneous new version tends to sweep the board…there is both electricity and warmth in the air’

REVIEW ON PAGE 77

4 GRAMOPHONE MAY 2012

FALLA El sombrero de tres picos. Noches en los jardines de España. Homenajes Jean-E lam Bavouzet pf BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Juanjo Mena Chandos CHAN10694 ‘Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s performance casts its own spell, sultry and scintillating as required’

REVIEW ON PAGE 79

SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Alexander Melnikov pf Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Teodor Currentzis Harmonia Mundi HMC90 2014 ‘The Second Concerto’s slow movement…to call this breathtaking would be an understatement’

REVIEW ON PAGE 83

BEETHOVEN Piano Trios Nos 1 & 7, ‘Archduke’ Peter Cropper vn Moray Welsh vc Martin Roscoe pf Sonimage SON11102 ‘Martin Roscoe leads his partners in an interpretation of rarefied transcendence that exalts the whole work’

REVIEW ON PAGE 89

MEDTNER Arabesques. Dithyrambs. Elegies, etc Hamish Milne pf Hyperion CDA67851/2 ‘No pianist has done more for Medtner’s reputation than Hamish Milne…he tells you that a still neglected and misunderstood composer demands to be heard’

REVIEW ON PAGE 98

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