CONTENTS
GRAMOPHONE is published by MA Business & Leisure Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. gramophone.co.uk email gramophone@markallengroup.com or subscriptions@markallengroup.com Volume 93 Number 11 27 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 Hugo Shirley / 020 7501 6367 ONLINE CONTENT EDITOR James McCarthy / 020 7501 6366 SUB-EDITOR David Threasher / 020 7501 6370 ART DIRECTOR Dinah Lone / 020 7501 6689 PICTURE EDITOR Sunita Sharma-Gibson / 020 7501 6369 AUDIO EDITOR Andrew Everard EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Libby McPhee LIBRARIAN Richard Farr THANKS TO Hannah Nepil, Marija �uric´ Speare and Charlotte Gardner EDITOR-IN-CHIEF James Jolly
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The Awards issue of Gramophone is on sale from September 18; the October issue will be on sale from October 15 (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 £62-£103. Printed in England by Wyndeham Heron. © 2015, MA Business & Leisure Limited. All rights reserved North American edition (ISSN 0017-310X): Gramophone, USPS 881080, is published monthly with an additional issue in September by MA Business and Leisure Limited, 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 Business and Leisure Ltd, Jesses Farm, Snow Hill, Dinton, Wiltshire SP3 5HN, UK. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
The 12 most highly recommended recordings of the month
7
FOR THE RECORD
The latest classical music news
10
RECORDING OF THE MONTH 46 A triumphant Aida from Pappano, Kaufmann & co
ORCHESTRAL
48
Rattle’s new Berlin Sibelius cycle; Staier’s Bach concertos; Rachmaninov Thirds from Järvi and Gergiev; Ticciati’s SCO Haydn; Alsop’s ‘Kaddish’
CHAMBER
70
Ornstein from Hamelin and the Pacifica; a new set of Beethoven string trios; British clarinet quintets; Saint-Saëns chamber works from Rome
INSTRUMENTAL
84
Higham’s Bach; gripping Ginastera; accordian ‘Tangos and Fandangos’; Scherbakov’s Beethoven; Lars Vogt in the Goldbergs; Silvestrov piano sonatas
VOCAL
94
Rattle’s LSO Paradies und die Peri; the latest Tallis from The Cardinall’s Musick; Bostridge’s Brahms; Soile Isokoski in French orchestral songs
REISSUES
104
A magnificent birthday present for Itzhak Perlman from Warner; more Fricsay gems from DG; a vintage Heritage trio; Hickox classics on Chandos
OPERA
108
Tsar’s Bride in Berlin; Kaufmann’s ‘Nessun dorma’; Gerhaher’s Mozart; Solti’s Proms Götterdämmerung
REPLAY
118
Classic German opera recordings; Heifetz encores; Martinon’s DG legacy; Shafran and Voicu
BOOKS
120
David Patrick Stearns rediscovers an unusual American maestro; Edward Breen on a bracing and provocative essay collection from Andrew Parrott
GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION 126 David Gutman sifts through the available recordings of Vaughan Williams’s evocative The Lark Ascending
INTRODUCTION
13
RECORDING OF THE YEAR 14 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 16 ARTIST OF THE YEAR 20 YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR 23 LABEL OF THE YEAR 25 THE CATEGORY WINNERS 27
THE MUSICIAN & THE SCORE 68 James Jolly explores the score of Schumann’s Dichterliebe with British tenor James Gilchrist
ICONS
Geraint Lewis surveys Stephen Kovacevich’s remarkable career in the recording studio
82
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS 92 Richard Whitehouse appraises Oliver Knussen’s modest, yet highly influential, musical output
CLASSICS RECONSIDERED 122 Herbert von Karajan’s 1978 recording of Strauss’s Salome, starring Hildegard Behrens, is re-evaluated by Tim Ashley and Mike Ashman
THE SPECIALIST’S GUIDE 124 Andrew Mellor recommends 10 great works by Carl Nielsen that go beyond the symphonies
PLAYLISTS
132
Katherine Bryan on virtuoso flute music; Jed Distler on bird-inspired works; Marios Papadopoulos on keyboard-directed concertos
PERFORMANCES & EVENTS 135 The best classical music concerts worldwide
HIGH FIDELITY
Reviews of Onkyo’s A-9010(UK) amplifier and Oppo’s closed-back PM-3 headphones
137
LETTERS & OBITUARIES 146 NEW RELEASES 149 REVIEWS INDEX 152 MY MUSIC 154 Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta on how he grew to love classical music through dance
4 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2015
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