On the Record: New classical albums in May 2023
This month, Tim Mead’s Beauteous Softness does what it says on the can, there’s new music from First Nations composers, and classics from Benjamin Grosvenor and the Brodskys.
This month, Tim Mead’s Beauteous Softness does what it says on the can, there’s new music from First Nations composers, and classics from Benjamin Grosvenor and the Brodskys.
Benjamin Grosvenor: an old head on young fingers.
Benjamin Grosvenor's all-Liszt program reveals hidden gems and knocks it out of the park.
The pianist tells Clive Paget about his new Liszt album, Limelight's Recording of the Month in April.
British star brings clarity and artistry to two well-loved masterpieces.
Hurtling to fame after winning the BBC Young Musician Competition at 10, the English pianist talks about giving up on music, crafting a program after Rubinstein and his love of Ravel.
David Robertson introduces his fifth season with Ax, Freire, Grosvenor, Mutter, Capuçon and Batiashvili among the headliners.
The expression “homage” is somewhat overused. The homage here is to earlier composers and, less specifically (and, in this case, convincingly), genres. Busoni’s treatment of JS Bach’s famous Chaconne for solo violin is here played very emphatically and majestically by Grosvenor. There’s no question as to his artistry or interpretative imagination but I found the experience wearing.Mendelssohn’s tribute to Bach sees vibrant preludes with kaleidoscopic embellishments and grand fugues with admirable ebb and flow, not to mention, architecture. I’ve always found Franck’s Prélude, Chorale and Fugue rather academic but Grosvenor maintains both the seemingly endless tendril-like legato (and rubato) effectively. I found the homage concept less cogent in the Chopin and Liszt component, but the music more engaging. The notoriously tricky Barcarolle is beautifully brought off with just the right swinging rubato. No one will ever replace Dinu Lipatti, but that’s no reflection on Grosvenor. In Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli, from the Italian component of his Years of Pilgrimmage, he, similarly in Gondoliera, captures the innocence of a gondolier serenading his beloved. For me, the best came with the download bonus of the six-movement Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. (He orchestrated only four). Grosvenor takes the Prélude at breakneck speed…
A dazzling display of pianism by a bright, young British talent.
Superstar tenor’s Lehár brings down the house as well as the underwear at the famous Last Night.
Pianists old and new, great singers and a dollop of disco set to rock South Australia next year.
Meet the young pianists, instrumentalists, singers and conductors taking classical music into the future.