‘an impressive debut that leaves one wanting to hear more from this confident and imaginative musician’
Category: CD review
Schubert’s Winterreise: Love, Loss, and Hans Zender’s Modern Twist
If anything, Zender’s Winterreise is even bleaker than Schubert’s with its strong Expressionist flavour and rich sonic associations with contemporary repertoire and instrumentation.
Retrospecstive 2025: Adrian Ainsworth’s albums of the year
Putting this list together seems to take me a little longer each January, but I firmly believe that – my ‘winning’ approach to organisation aside – it’s simply because I’m privileged to discover so much more great music every year. Without any further delay, then, here are the (20)25 releases I’m keen to bring to…
‘Opus 109’ – Vikingur Olafsson
Olfasson brings a fresh perspective to well-known repertoire through thoughtful programming, finding intriguing connections and shining a new light on the familiar
Flowers We Are – Kurtág & Couperin
Yehuda Inbar, piano This new album from Israeli pianist Yehuda Inbar, released ahead of György Kurtág’s 100th birthday in February 2026, brings together music written over 200 years apart – a selection of pieces from different Ordres by Couperin and from various books of Játékok (‘Games’) by Kurtág, which juxtaposed and intertwined, reveal unexpected musical…
Small Treasures – Sarah Beth Briggs, piano
In her latest release, British pianist Sarah Beth Briggs celebrates the notion that “small is beautiful” in a selection of piano miniatures, including two of the greatest sets of miniatures ever written – Robert Schumann’s Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) and Brahms’s 4 Klavierstucke op. 119. These are interspersed with less familiar works by Clara Schumann and…
Odd Sympathies
Matthew Schellhorn, piano This new release from British pianist Matthew Schellhorn draws together an interesting and eclectic selection of piano pieces. As a long-standing champion of contemporary composers through commissions and premières, Schellhorn brings new music to a wider audience. The pieces on this new album all are by living composers, including Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Michael…
Songs to remember: Mary Bevan & Joseph Middleton, ‘Elegy’
‘Elegy’ is a heartfelt, thoughtfully-programmed recital disc that – aside from being a beautiful listen – also shows us something of art’s quieter powers: that living inside music, allowing it to respond to you as much as the reverse, can summon its healing qualities. Bevan began to assemble this collection of songs following the death…
Palimpsest – a compelling debut album which demonstrates how music evolves
Palimpsest Rob Hao, piano Palimpsest – a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing. – something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form ‘Classical music lends itself naturally to this layered form of creation as past and present, or composers…
Rock of ages: Matt Howden / Keith Howden, ‘Language for Stone’
This latest collaboration between violinist and songwriter Matt Howden and his poet and artist father Keith – their third – is an extraordinary achievement: in its sonic ambition, its storytelling, its joy in language, its historical reach. A concept album, for sure: but precise, brisk, intricate and forthright. ‘Language for Stone’ began as a record…
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