CONTENTS
Volume 95 Number 11 53 EDITORIAL Phone 020 7738 5454 Fax 020 7733 2325 email gramophone@markallengroup.com EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Martin Cullingford DEPUTY EDITOR Sarah Kirkup / 020 7501 6365 REVIEWS EDITOR Tim Parry / 020 7501 6367 ONLINE CONTENT EDITOR James McCarthy / 020 7501 6366 SUB-EDITOR David Threasher / 020 7501 6370 SUB-EDITOR Marija �uric´ Speare ART DIRECTOR Dinah Lone / 020 7501 6689 PICTURE EDITOR Sunita Sharma-Gibson / 020 7501 6369 AUDIO EDITOR Andrew Everard EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Libby McPhee THANKS TO Hannah Nepil and Charlotte Gardner EDITOR-IN-CHIEF James Jolly
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GRAMOPHONE is published by MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. gramophone.co.uk email gramophone@markallengroup.com or subscriptions@markallengroup.com ISSN 0017-310X.
The Awards issue of Gramophone is on sale from September 14; the October issue will be on sale from October 11 (both UK). Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of statements in this magazine but we cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers’ errors, or an advertiser not completing his contract. Regarding concert listings, all information is correct at the time of going to press. Letters to the editor requiring a personal reply should be accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. We have made every effort to secure permission to use copyright material. Where material has been used inadvertently or we have been unable to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made in a future issue. UK subscription rate £64. Printed in England by Southernprint. North American edition (ISSN 0017-310X): Gramophone, USPS 881080, is published monthly with an additional issue in September by MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. The US annual subscription price is $89. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named Air Business, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to Gramophone, Worldnet Shipping Inc. (see above). Subscription records are maintained at MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, Unit A Buildings 1-5, Dinton Business Park, Catherine Ford Road, Dinton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 5HZ, UK. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent.
© MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, 2017. All rights reserved. No part of the Gramophone may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishing Director. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editor or Gramophone. Advertisements in the journal do not imply endorsement of the products or services advertised.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
The 12 most highly recommended recordings of the month
7
FOR THE RECORD
The latest classical music news
8
RECORDING OF THE MONTH 54 Steven Isserlis’s superb second recording of Haydn’s cello concertos, this time for Hyperion and with some inspired couplings, gloriously justifies the decision to revisit these masterworks
ORCHESTRAL
56
The complete Beethoven symphonies from Blomstedt; a Chisholm sequel; Isabelle Faust plays Mendelssohn; a pair of Prokofiev violin concertos; Bychkov’s Czech Manfred
CHAMBER
Lim and Lim play Beethoven and Mozart; Arcangelo’s Buxtehude; Tye from Phantasm
74
INSTRUMENTAL
88
Janina Fialkowska’s Chopin; Michel Dalberto plays Fauré; fearless Godowsky from Emanule Delucchi
VOCAL
100
Robin Ticciati’s Debussy and Fauré; Mozart’s Requiem with dancing horses; a Hollywood Verdi Requiem; Baroque cantatas from Gdan´sk
REISSUES
33 CDs of live recordings by Günter Wand
114
OPERA
116
Thomas Hyde’s The Man Stephen Ward; a Strauss rarity; DG’s Lohengrin and Parsifal on DVD
JAZZ & WORLD MUSIC
127
Reviews from our sister titles Jazzwise and Songlines
REPLAY
130
Karl Böhm’s early years; Brahms from Bruno Walter; Otmar Suitner conducts Mozart
BOOKS
132
Britten Studies; the writings of Christian Wolff
GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION 138 Hugo Shirley surveys the recordings of Eine Alpensinfonie and recommends a top version
NEW RELEASES
REVIEWS INDEX
158
160
INTRODUCTION
15
RECORDING OF THE YEAR 16 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 18 ARTIST OF THE YEAR 20 LABEL OF THE YEAR 22 YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR 25 ANNIVERSARY AWARD 27 SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT 28 THE CATEGORY WINNERS 31
THE MUSICIAN & THE SCORE 72 Sir John Eliot Gardiner discusses Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, his still neglected Symphony No 2
ICONS
Richard Osborne pays tribute to the Italian conductor and composer Victor de Sabata
86
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS 98 Paul Griffiths profiles the prolific Mark-Anthony Turnage
CLASSICS RECONSIDERED 134 Two critics compare notes on Sir Georg Solti’s 1971 recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’
THE SPECIALIST’S GUIDE 136 Celebrating the unique qualities of the contralto
PERFORMANCES & EVENTS 144 The best live music on radio and online
HIGH FIDELITY
147
Our monthly offering of audio news and reviews
LETTERS & OBITUARIES 156 Ashkenazy’s generosity; Elgar’s genius; Walton’s hasty retreat
MY MUSIC
162
BBC Radio 4’s Today presenter Nick Robinson on the importance of music in his life
4 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
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