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S A V E £ 8 3 O N T H E C O M P L E T E S U B S C R I P T I O N Just £103* per year! Upgrade to the Gramophone Club for £103* and receive 13 print issues of Gramophone + Digital editions of each issue + Archive of every issue since 1923 + Database of 30,000 reviews + Exclusive events & offers Gramophone remains the world's most trusted classical music reviews magazine thanks to our panel of expert critics who review the most important and interesting new releases each issue. Subscribers can also access our unique and vast reviews database and digital archive collated from more than 92 years of superb classical music commentary. Review our subscription packages below to ind the offer to suit you. Gramophone print Gramophone subscription packages Gramophone print The Gramophone Club The Gramophone Digital Club Gramophone reviews Gramophone digital edition ClubClub Digital Club digital edition Print edition Digital edition Digital archive ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ Reviews database ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ Events & offers ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ /year* /year* /year /year /year To upgrade call ( ) and quote code GRM1015P when claiming this fantastic offer New subscribers visit magsubscriptions.com/gramophone Terms and conditions This price is available for overseas customers only. Visit magsubscriptions.com to ind out more. MA Business & Leisure Ltd uses a best-practice layered Privacy Policy to provide you with details about how we would like to use your personal information. To read the full privacy policy, please visit gramophone.co.uk/privacy-policy. Please ask if you have any questions, as submitting your personal information indicates your consent, for now, that we and our partners may contact you via post, phone, email, and SMS about products and services that may be of interest to you. You can opt out at any time by emailing subscriptions@markallengroup.com. *Postage and packaging not included

I M A G E S , A K G P H O T O S T O C K / A L A M Y I V E A R C H G L : C O V E R Founded in 1923 by Sir Compton Mackenzie and Christopher Stone as ‘an organ of candid opinion for the numerous possessors of gramophones’ In praise of sound and vision – and the organ In this space last month I wrote about how our annual Awards reflect changes and trends in recording. One trend I didn’t mention, though, was how contenders in the Opera category had, as James Jolly put it later in the issue, ‘almost completely migrated to DVD’. Our Opera winner this year, a Strauss Elektra from Aix-en-Provence, was a film, as were both of the runners-up: Wagner’s Parsifal from the New York Met and Britten’s Death in Venice from English National Opera. The past three years’ Opera winners have all been DVD releases. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. We not so long ago dropped our separate DVD section, as the integral role opera films increasingly played in the genre’s catalogue made it feel like an anachronism. And after all, opera composers conceived their works to be theatre pieces (and most were born before the notion of recording was even thought of anyway). But I hope that the future remains one in which both DVD and audio-only opera releases get to share our pages and the plaudits (and the label budgets). And so this month’s cover features reflect both sides of the story. On the one hand, we celebrate the excellent series of Mozart operas that René Jacobs and Harmonia Mundi have gifted to the CD catalogue in recent years, by focusing on the next (and concluding) release, Die Entführung aus dem Serail. On the other, I invited Mike Ashman to cast his expert eye as well as ear over trends and changes in Mozart operas on DVD, looking at how they had informed modern society’s understanding of those dramatic masterpieces. And of course last issue’s Recording of the Month was a thrilling studio Aida from Sir Antonio Pappano and Warner Classics. This year’s Awards have just been handed out, so it’s too early to speculate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if next year’s Opera shortlist wasn’t quite the clean sweep for DVDs that this one was. Turning now to this issue’s Recording of the Month, I thought it worth drawing readers’ attention to the fact that a solo organ disc occupies the slot: a brilliant Bach recital from Masaaki Suzuki. I’ve never understood why this most extraordinary of instruments, capable of mighty power and majestic serenity, is so often considered a niche interest. When expertly recorded it can be an impressive home listening experience too, one capable of immersing you in an architectural acoustic like no other, and, in the case of historic recitals, even a particular period. Suzuki began playing for church services aged 12. How can we make sure that others might follow in his footsteps, and that an appreciation of organ music is passed on to the next generation? I’m proud to attend a church in which it’s made clear that the service hasn’t ended until the voluntary has (coffee and biscuits resolutely aren’t served until the final note has died away), and that applies to the children too. Organ music deserves nothing less. But with church attendance declining, it’s vital to make sure the organ is as much a part of children’s musical experiences as its smaller and more mobile musical cousins. Recordings such as this one are a good place to start. martin.cullingford@markallengroup.com THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS ‘Having directed opera myself,’ writes MIKE ASHMAN, author of our Mozart operas on Šilm feature, ‘it’s an ‘Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante was one of my musical obsessions as a teenager,’ says our Collection exciting time to write about opera productions of Mozart which have developed in their daring and freedom in parallel to the new investigations of what his operas sounded like and which works should be revived.’ writer, RICHARDWIGMORE. ‘That magical Širst entry of the soloists, the desolate slow-movement cadenza – early loves too easily lose their lustre. Not here: even after a month’s near-total immersion, I still succumb to its beauty and power’. ‘It was a treat to travel to Versailles and learn about the background to the Palazzetto Bru Zane’s enterprising series of French opera recordings,’ says RICHARD LAWRENCE of his feature about the organisation. ‘And as a fan of out-of-the-way operas, I was thrilled to hear the completely unknown Uthal by Méhul.’ THE REVIEWERS Andrew Achenbach • Nalen Anthoni • Tim Ashley • Mike Ashman • Philip Clark • Alexandra Coghlan • Rob Cowan (consultant reviewer) • Jeremy Dibble • Peter Dickinson • Jed Distler • Duncan Druce Adrian Edwards • Richard Fairman • David Fallows • David Fanning • Fabrice Fitch • Jonathan Freeman-Attwood Caroline Gill • David Gutman • Christian Hoskins • Lindsay Kemp • Philip Kennicott • Richard Lawrence • Andrew Mellor • Ivan Moody • Bryce Morrison • Jeremy Nicholas • Christopher Nickol • GeoŠfrey Norris • Richard Osborne Stephen Plaistow • Mark Pullinger • Peter Quantrill • Guy Rickards • Malcolm Riley • Marc Rochester • Julie Anne Sadie • Edward Seckerson • Hugo Shirley • Pwyll ap Siôn • Harriet Smith • David Patrick Stearns • David Threasher David Vickers • John Warrack • Richard Whitehouse • Arnold Whittall • Richard Wigmore • William Yeoman gramophone.co.uk Gramophone, which has been serving the classical music world since 1923, is irst and foremost a monthly review magazine, delivered today in both print and digital formats. It boasts an eminent and knowledgeable panel of experts, which reviews the full range of classical music recordings. Its reviews are completely independent. In addition to reviews, its interviews and features help readers to explore in greater depth the recordings that the magazine covers, as well as o fer insight into the work of composers and performers. It is the magazine for the classical record collector, as well as for the enthusiast starting a voyage of discovery. GRAMOPHONE OCTOBER 2015 3

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