Archive
The complete Open Letters Monthly Archive.
John Blow has forever lived in the shadow of Henry Purcell, his former student. His musical response to the Purcell's death was partly competitive – others were also producing Purcell laments – but also discernably personal.
Read MoreThe present album brings together the super-mezzo Cecilia Bartoli and cellist Sol Gabetta. It is as good as it gets, until you realize that you can get too much of a good thing.
Read MoreSome records grab you by the ears, others take longer to impress. It is in no sense to Krystian Zimerman’s discredit that his first attempt at late Schubert took three spins on my deck before I grasped the originality of his interpretation.
Read MoreThe need for a new-gen recording of Berlioz’s epic opera Les Troyens is pressing. A new release aims for the crown and hits its mark.
Read MoreThis first album of George Martin's orchestral music and film scores, elegantly played by Craig Leon’s Berlin’s Music Ensemble, gives us an opportunity to see what might have been going on behind George’s determinedly bland musical façade.
Read MoreThe five Divertimentos that make up the bulk of this release date from the 1930s to 1950s and, rooted in folk dances, are determinedly upbeat. You’d never know that Hitler and Stalin were banging at the door.
Read MoreDaniil Trifonov thinks nothing of coming on stage with one wrist in a bandage, no explanation offered, or of asking the audience not to applaud at any time through a 90-minute recital, so it would be absurd to expect him to release a conventional Chopin album.
Read MoreNoa Wildschut first appeared on Dutch television at six years old and at the Concertgebouw a year later. She's 16 now, old enough to take a bit of criticism and interesting enough to warrant adult consideration.
Read MoreScriabin, as he so often does, takes us to the brink only to skitter away on some frivolity. But there is much to enjoy here, so long as you don’t expect too much.
Read MoreThe instant appeal of this recording is that it contains not just two well-known Haydn concertos but three extra pieces that complement and contextualize them. The second benefit is the performance.
Read MoreFour releases, arriving in timely fashion for the upcoming New Year, explore the shushed-up sounds of creative Jewish femininity.
Read MoreNone of the music on this gripping compilation will be familiar to anyone alive, but much of it is essential listening.
Read MoreA vintage piano helps Alexei Lyubimov redeem C.P.E. Bach's late keyboard music from mediocrity, adding pastel colours to the sound picture, along with a hint of unpredictability that can almost be Cageian.
Read MoreIt has been five years since Hans Werner Henze left us, and it is once again a pleasure to encounter these otherworldly pieces, rich in references to a forgotten age and its leisurely pace.
Read MoreMarc-André Hamelin plays a piece, tainted by controversy, that Morton Feldman wrote as an act of homage to Bunita Marcus, who accused him of theft and sexual abuse.
Read MoreA new release from Opera Rara usually consists of some bel canto work that has languished forgotten in a vault since its premiere 160 years ago. This package, though, is different: a pair of debut releases by two fast-rising singers, soprano and tenor, mingling well-known arias with the fairly obscure.
Read MoreDaniel Barenboim's new recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius is the best-sounding on record. But is it the best-played?
Read MoreMahler's 5th Symphony has no shortage of fine interpretations. Two new recordings join them: one great and the other among the greatest of all time.
Read MoreWilliam Walton is very much an on-off composer. What’s remarkable about this recording is that the performance transcends his shortcomings.
Read MoreTogether, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and his wife Julia Varady make the love in Schumann’s songs seem somehow less hopeless, and the hope in Mendelssohn less forlorn.
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