Our Choices The

BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Oliver Condy Editor

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields and its director, the America virtuoso Joshua Bell, dropped in to Bristol’s Colston Hall in late January for a terrific performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Bell as soloist. The highlight of the evening, however, was this wonderful orchestra’s spirited, Haydn-esque Beethoven Symphony No. 2 which Bell conducted from the leader’s chair with flair and poise.

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

Sunday mornings for me these days largely consist of standing on a muddy pitch in the rain, taking in the various thrills and spills of Under 10s rugby matches. I don’t suppose it was this exact scene that inspired Honegger to write his Rugby in 1928 but, as it hares around energetically here and there, there’s undeniably something about this scattily enthusiastic tone poem that reflects all levels of the game. Rebecca Franks Reviews editor

I have a soft spot for Bruch’s Violin Concerto, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been enamoured of his Scottish Fantasy. Until, that is, I heard the violinist Ning Feng playing it with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Ning’s pure, heartfelt playing made this rhapsodic piece feel like less of a meandering Highland ramble and more like a joyful Burns night celebration Alice Pearson Cover CD editor Ah, César Franck. Wasn’t he just a stuffy old Parisian organist? Possibly, but his Piano Quintet reveals the raw passion he felt for his pupil, the flame-haired composer Augusta Holmes (right) – much to his wife’s disgust. The driving rhythms and tender melodies are pierced with dramatic outbursts to leave us exhausted but satisfied. Neil Mckim Production editor

In the title work of the Tetraktis Ensemble’s Ionisation disc, featuring innovative percussion works from the 20th century, we hear Varèse influenced by the bustle of Paris as a siren wails above restless rhythms. In Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood, meanwhile, five pairs of claves build momentum, creating a mesmerising effect.

Freya Parr Editorial assistant With a flautist sister fresh into music college, I am being bombarded with flute tunes being sent into my inbox, plus requests for my opinion. Sharon Bezaly playing François Borne’s Fantasie Brillante on Themes from Bizet’s Carmen is a new favourite. It is spectacularly feisty one moment, then reflective and calm another, and Bezaly’s tone is crystal clear.