Classical Music CDs, DVDs

Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Mark Wigglesworth conductor, Michael Dauth violin, Roger Benedict viola, Steve Davislim tenor.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending; Flos Campi; On Wenlock Edge
Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

. . . the mix is certainly tempting .. Nino Rota's timeless movie themes interpreted by an elite international jazz quintet featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet, John Surman on reeds, Boris Kozlov on bass and Clarence Penn on drums . . . The group's jazz energies make the biggest difference in the engine-room, with the superb Kozlov and Penn applying circus-music strutting, 1950s Miles Davis swing-groove hipness, brooding drama and New Orleans funeral-march rhythms as needed. Douglas's brassy, slewing lines whirl across "La Strada-Tema" and he and Surman then switch into 50s Miles Davies mode over Penn's rimshots with the saxophonist probably delivering his most straight-ahead recording in decades. "La Strada Processione" is a Carla Bley-style dirge; "The Godfather Love Theme" is exquisitely played by Galliano against only a bass commentary; Surman sounds Sidney Bechet-like on "La Notti di Cabiria"; and "Giuglietta Degli Spiriti" is gurgly free-improv that turns into a Latin dance. They are beautiful themes, and this set prioritises their sympathetic rendition.
Record Review / John Fordham, The Guardian (London) / 03. November 2011

Andreas Scholl follows up his much-praised Purcell collection, ‘O Solitude’ (4782262), with a project perfectly matched to his artistry and musical heritage. Andreas Scholl first sang the music of J. S. Bach as a boy chorister. Now the leading countertenor of our time returns to his musical roots with his own selection of arias from Bach’s cantatas - including one of the best-loved of all Bach’s vocal works, “Ich habe genug”.

Ji-Min Park (Rodolfo), José Carbó (Marcello), David Parkin (Colline), Shane Lowrencev (Schaunard), Takesha Meshé Kizart (Mimi), Taryn Fiebig (Musetta), John Bolton Wood (Benoit), Adrian Tamburini (Alcindoro), Benjamin Rasheed (Parpignol), Malcolm Ede (Customs Sergeant), Clifford Plumpton (Customs Officer)Opera Australia Chorus, Michael Black (Chorus Master), Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Huy-Nguyen Bui (Associate Concertmaster), Shao-Chia Lü (Conductor), Gale Edwards (Director)

A must-have for choral-aficionados everywhere that sees perhaps the world’s finest a cappella ensemble The King’s Singers join forces with The Concordia Choir – one of the USA’s best collegiate groups – to perform works by world-class choral composers Eric Whitacre, Bob Chilcott and Morten Lauridsen.

Performed by the brilliant Tenebrae Choir under conductor Nigel Short, and featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, A Tender Light showcases the mastery of this Welsh composer whose music is being considered as the new sound of British choral composition.

“Mealor's settings of religious texts, notably a lengthy "Stabat Mater", along with his uplifting take on Byron's "She Walks in Beauty", [are] delivered with Tenebrae's precision and almost luminous grace.”(The Independent)

This unusual coupling of the violin concertos by Aram Khachaturian and Samuel Barber, entitled Two Souls, is tailor-made for Mikhail Simonyan’s exciting DG debut. Born in Novosibirsk, Simonyan has mixed Russian and Armenian parentage, but spent his formative years in the US. Simonyan's close rapport with Kristjan Järvi and his first collaboration with one of the world’s best orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, produce an extraordinarily fresh reading of the two concertos.