Our Choices
The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Oliver Condy Editor
Back in February, Nicolas Namoradze, the winner of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, gave his Wigmore Hall prize recital – and a terrific programme it was, too. Alongside a Bach sinfonia and the Partita No. 6, the Georgian pianist pulled some York Bowen out of the hat. Each of the 20th-century English composer’s piano etudes are dazzling, inventive affairs, combining a stout Englishness with rich dashes of Debussian colour.
Jeremy Pound Deputy editor
How to pass a weekend ruined by Storm
Dennis? Sulk? Or seize the moment with some Dennis-inspired listening? I went for the latter, sharing the company of Mozart’s Horn Concertos played by Dennis Brain, Schubert symphonies conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, Bellini sung by Dennis O’neill and, in an adventurous delve into an esoteric corner of itunes, Dennis
Eberhard’s Prometheus Wept. Hmmm. I think I know how Prometheus felt. Rebecca Franks Managing editor One idle evening at home recently, I was rambling around on Apple Music when I stumbled across a piece new to me that I was instantly addicted to. The violin concerto 1001 Nights in the Harem is Fazil Say’s (below) answer to Rimsky-korsakov’s Scheherazade. He spins a compelling tale across four movements bursting with atmosphere and colour, blending Turkish and Western classical instruments. Patricia Kopatchinskaja has made a superb recording of it. Michael Beek Reviews editor If you’ve wondered what happens if you cross Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ with Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue, then wonder no longer. The High Horse – The Best of Worst Vol. 1 is my new obsession. Mezzo Stephanie Szanto and pianist Simon Bucher’s classical reimagining of pop songs is surprisingly compelling. Their sophisticated genre-bending pastiche is at once ironic and humorous. Bring on Vol. 2!
Freya Parr Editorial assistant
After hearing my colleague Rebecca Franks wax lyrical about the didgeridoo player William Barton for months on end, I decided to revisit my Australian roots and give his 2014 album Birdsong at Dusk a listen. I’ve not been able to drag myself away from it since. The blend of contemporary orchestral writing with the hum of improvised didgeridoo drones is compelling, and it has a perfect driving beat to get you through any 3pm Monday slump.