Our Choices
The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Charlotte Smith Editor
I’m ashamed to say that before this month I had failed to familiarise myself fully with the very fine playing of the late Rinat Ibragimov, former principal double bassist of the London Symphony Orchestra. The LSO has shared several videos of him as soloist on Youtube, all of them featuring impeccably warm, fluid and uninhibited playing. His interpretation of Bach’s Third Cello Suite is a joy – a kaleidoscope of shading and tonal colours. Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
It was 25 years ago this month that, within three days of starting as editorial assistant of Classic CD magazine, I was packed off to Paris to interview the flautist Emmanuel Pahud. My first ever interviewee proved an absolute gent and the disc I was there to ask him about – Mozart’s Flute Concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic – is still one of my favourites. There’s no room for sludgy sentimentality here, as nippy tempos
and a light touch throughout give everything a wonderful springlike feel.
Alice Pearson Cover CD editor
As February marked the 230th anniversary of Rossini’s birth – he was born on the 29th! – I’ve been enjoying listening to his Petite messe solennelle, in an intimate recording by Ottavio Dantone and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Written some time after his operas, the work was prompted by a friend’s death and, although still joyous and energetic, it also shows another side of the composer’s character with its dark undertones and sense of sorrow. Michael Beek Reviews editor I’ve become a little bit obsessed with Brett Mitchell’s (pictured right) Youtube channel. The American conductor, and artistic director of the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon, is also a very fine composer, arranger and pianist. It’s the latter two talents he shares most with us subscribers, and for a John Williams fan like me, it’s also a bounty of brilliant solo piano interpretations of my favourite film music. Freya Parr Digital editor, staff writer While any Oscar nomination is undoubtedly a good thing, I believe there was a mix-up at this year’s Academy Awards and Jonny Greenwood was nominated for the wrong film. Sure, The Power of the Dog is great, but how did Spencer go without so much as an honourable mention? Blending free jazz within Baroque structures and instrumentation, it perfectly mirrors the on-screen action with Diana’s desperate attempts to live as a free spirit within rigid structures.