Music to my ears

shouting forever into the receiver Anne Denholm (harp), Louise McMonagle (cello), Jonathan Morton (violin) et al NMC NMC D285 61:56 mins Tackling social themes and reckoning with history is part of wh

Works by Dobrinka Tabakova, Shirley J Thompson et al Black Oak Ensemble Cédille CDR90000237 69:59 mins Black Oak Ensemble is a string trio on a mission. The ensemble is hungry to expand the repertoire

Piano Concerto No. 3 Yunchan Lim (piano); Forth Worth Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop Decca STNS30217 (digital) 41:40 mins At just north of 40 minutes, Decca’s release of Yunchan Lim’s prize-winning pe

Kafka Fragments Susan Narucki (soprano), Curtis Macomber (violin) Avie AV2760 54:30 mins In the July issue we praised pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s inspired performance of György Kurtág’s Játékok mi

‘I’ve never been a particularly esoteric person,’ Nicola Benedetti tells me as we sit down to talk following the press launch of her third Edinburgh Festival. And yet, as she explains the theme of thi

Works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Weinberg Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello), Martin Helmchen (piano) Alpha Classics ALPHA827 147:28 mins (2CD) The only thing ‘amis