An orchestral odyssey

Music is a serious business. Whether it’s love, death, heartbreak, loneliness, power, conflict, destruction, sin, faith, hope, despair… you name it, every weighty subject and state of mind has been ta

Berlin Philharmonic/Kirill Petrenko Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR250561 56 mins Kirill Petrenko’s early career stint at the Meiningen Court Theatre, a place indelibly associated with Brahms, laid the f

Lidy Blijdorp; Tobias Borsboom Channel Classics CCS47726 65:29 mins Using the recording genre creatively is an art in itself. What can it offer that perhaps a live concert cannot? I think it allows mo

Yunchan Lim (piano) Decca 4871517 77 mins That Yunchan Lim is a remarkable pianist is self-evident in everything he plays. But let’s hope he doesn’t pay too much heed to the hype his singular talent a

Ubiquitous pre-concert routines feature furtive programme reading and, for the truly organised, ordering interval refreshments. Activities do not usually include brushing one’s teeth and changing into

Le Concert des Nations; La Capella Nacional de Catalunya/Jordi Savall Alia Vox AVSA9965 66:27 mins Jordi Savall’s recording of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor is not just another attempt to tidy up an