The Guardian 22 March 2025

The Masque of Alfred - apart of course from its finale "Rule Britannia" - has in the 1990s reached CD. Just two years ago a version was issued with the BBC Music Magazine and now we have this more complete account (though there were several variants in Arne's own day) from Nicholas McGegan, an experienced exponent of 18th Century music, recorded in America and using mainly American performers. And very welcome is it. If offers 76 minutes of music, 25 minutes more than the BBC CD and if the OAE's playing on the latter under Nicholas Kraemer often seems rather superior, the Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra are fully equal to Arne's demands which include often atmospheric parts for oboes, horns and flute as well as the basic strings. McGegan uses only four solo singers against the BBC's six.

Completed in 1877, Brahms’s remarkable and impressive Symphony No. 1 was the result of a fourteen-year gestation period and established the composer as the leading German symphonist of his generation. This inaugural issue in a major new cycle on Naxos brings together the internationally acclaimed London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop, fêted by The Guardian as “…well on her way to becoming one of the best Brahms interpreters”.

One of the most revolutionary bands in the history of heavy music, Orphaned Land are an unstoppable force. Formed in Israel in 1991, these self-proclaimed ‘Oriental metal’ artisans have spent the last 26 years working tirelessly to use their creative endeavours as a means to spread a positive and peaceful message. Over the course of five conceptually deep and musically ingenious albums, the band have been true to their word, uniting fans across the Middle East and beyond, regardless of nation, face or faith.
It seems safe to say that Orphaned Land are far from the average metal band. In 2018 they will once again prove the uplifting and unifying power of their extraordinary music. Several years in the making, Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs marks another high watermark for Kobi and his band mates…