Our Choices

The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites

Oliver Condy Editor

At the end of February, I headed to Catherine Ennis’s organ recital at the Royal Festival Hall where she gave a rare – and very welcome – airing to the whole of Vierne’s Symphony

No. 1, with its famous Marseillaise-inspired final movement. The recital also marked the launch of the Society of Women Organists, with its aim of improving the gender balance of Britain’s currently very male-heavy organ scene. A worthwhile cause indeed!

Jeremy Pound Deputy editor

The eclectic programme of Ensemble Esperanza’s new Western Moods disc initially had me raising a quizzical eyebrow – with composers ranging from Victor Herbert in the

19th century to the likes of Barber, Gershwin, Duke Ellington (right), Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, it’s a real melting pot of a line-up. But actually, it works really rather well and, with soprano and tenor sax occasionally joining in the fun, is all played with both gusto and grace by this vibrant young string orchestra.

Rebecca Franks Managing editor

I’ve been enjoying two albums showcasing contemporary British composers, skipping between their two distinctive soundworlds. I loved Elsewhere by Edmund Finnis from his album The Air, Turning performed by Elois-fleur Thom (on NMC Records). And the title work of Cheryl Frances-hoad’s new disc, Magic Lantern Tales (Champs Hill Records), is a song-cycle, setting poems by Ian Mcmillan that explore World War I, sensitively performed by tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Sholto Kynoch.

Michael Beek Reviews editor

I’m always up for a bit of musical boundarybreaking, so it was fun to sit at the feet of cellist Laura van der Heijden, and have violinist Daniel Pioro and saxophonist Amy Dickson wander by whilst playing their instruments. Sitting on the floor at the recent ‘Mixtape’ concert at St George’s Bristol certainly offered an immersive vantage point and it was a memorable night, despite the inevitable dead leg.

Freya Parr Editorial assistant

It’s been a while since I dusted off the old flute, so the pressure was on when I was asked to play in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute this month. Lots of flute, not a whole lot of magic. It took place in a dingy, frozen underground nightclub venue, so it took a lot of toe-tapping to the Queen of the Night aria to get the feeling back in my limbs in time to play.