Stephen Rosenholtz

Blend imaginative yet learned interpretation, profound sensitivity and poetry, and personal charisma, and you have here one of the finest accounts of Brahms’s late piano works on record, one that stands head and shoulders above most contenders in an ever-growing catalogue…Hough reveals each miniature as a compact piece of theatre, putting an array of timbres and varied accentuation at its service.

The Boston Early Music Festival has recorded George Frideric Handel’s very first opera, Almira, Queen of Castile, with a superlatively sumptuous ensemble. For its previous recordings of Baroque operas this successful ensemble has won prizes such as the Grammy, the German Record Critics Annual Prize, and the Echo Klassik. The Hungarian soprano Emõke Baráth sings the role of Almira with a choice ensemble of singers, all of whom have performed in the world’s most renowned concert halls and opera houses. Handel’s Almira is based on a freely invented plot featuring fine entertainment in the form of love and marriage schemes among the nobility, infidelity and mistaken identities, and a happy ending brought about by a court servant’s negotiations. This work was presented at the Hamburg Opera House in 1705 about twenty times and with great success.

‘Some of the finest operatic arias ever written’ is Stephen Hough’s brilliant characterization of the Nocturnes, one which holds the key to his intensely lyrical interpretations of these most perfect of bel canto masterworks.

Grainger’s mastery of choral textures shines out of this wide-ranging collection of folk-song arrangements, each highly individual and memorable. Plus his friend Grieg’s finely scored religious settings. Superior performances by Stephen Layton and Polyphony.

This release brings together ALL of Morton Feldman’s compositions for cello and piano, including unpublished works and a first recording.

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, is one of the world’s best-known choral groups. Founded in the 15th century, it ranks among the oldest of its kind, and, while originally created for singing the daily services in the college chapel, now enjoys an international tour schedule that has seen it perform all over Europe and beyond. Every Christmas Eve, millions of people tune in to watch the choir’s A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s – a service which has been continuously broadcast since 1928.