New Classical Reviews, February 2020

Chamber music played a prominent role in the past month's choices, and of course, Beethoven loomed large in that arena. Quatuor Ébène is performing and recording all of Beethoven's quartets in various locations around the world, beginning with Vienna. The Brodsky Quartet took on the composer's complex late quartets, while the Fine Arts Quartet recorded several rarely heard pieces by Beethoven. Among other chamber music recent releases are the Dante Quartet's third volume of music by Charles Villiers Stanford, and the Leonore Piano Trio playing the music of Henry Litolff, who is primarily remembered now as a publisher. Other highlights of the month were an opera, Sukanya, by Ravi Shankar, and an oratorio, Sanctuary Road, about the Underground Railroad, by Paul Moravec.

Acies Quartett - Glenn Gould, Friedrich Gulda: The String Quartet
Louise Alder, Joseph Middleton - Lines Written During a Sleepless Night: The Russian Collection
Miles Anderson, Astræa Ensemble - Astraea
Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado, Freiburger Barockorchester - Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 "Emperor"
Claudio Bohórquez, Péter Nagy - Schumann: Poetica
Fabrice Bollon, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg - Magnard: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2
Brodsky Quartet - Beethoven: Late String Quartets
Han Chen - Anton Rubinstein: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2; Three Serenades
Chineke! Orchestra - Spark Catchers
Michael Collins, Michael McHale - The Lyrical Clarinet, Vol. 3
Johan Dalene, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Blendulf - Tchaikovsky, Barber: Violin Concertos
Dante Quartet - Charles Villiers Stanford: String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 & 6
Joyce DiDonato, Franco Fagioli, Maxim Emelyanychev - Handel: Agrippina
Elsa Dreisig - Morgen: Strauss, Rachmaninov, Duparc
Mark Elder, Hallé Orchestra - Sibelius: Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 6
Fine Arts Quartet - Beethoven: Fugues and Rarities for String Quartet
Bernhard Forck, Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin - Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 6 (7-12)
Gianluigi Gelmetti - Rossini: Zelmira
Ola Gjeilo - Night
Hauser - Classic
Jenö Jandó - Franz Liszt: Historical Hungarian Portraits
Mariss Jansons, Daniil Trifonov, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Burleske
Sheku Kanneh-Mason - Elgar
Kirill Karabits, Staatskapelle Weimar - Franz Liszt: Dante Symphony; Tasso Lamento e Trionfo; Künstlerfestzug
The King's Singers - Finding Harmony
Leonore Piano Trio - Litolff: Piano Trios
Xenia Löffler, Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Oboe Concertos; Symphonies Wq. 180 & 181
Laquita Mitchell, Kent Tritle - Paul Moravec: Sanctuary Road
David Murphy, London Philharmonic Orchestra - Ravi Shankar: Sukanya
Andris Nelsons, Wiener Philharmoniker - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Andris Nelsons, Wiener Philharmoniker - New Year's Concert 2020
Steven Osborne - Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 & 8
Phantasm - Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Consort I
Piotr Plawner, Gerardo Vila, Bern Chamber Orchestra, Philippe Bach - Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2 'American Four Seasons'; Violin Sonata
Quartetto Adorno, Alessandro Carbonare- Zemlinsky: Quartet No. 3 Op. 19; Brahms: Quintet Op. 115
Quatuor Ébène - Beethoven Around the World: Vienna
Andrew Rangell - Bach: English Suites, BWV 806-811
Andreas Scholl, Tamar Halperin - Twilight People
Leif Segerstam - Beethoven: König Stephan; Leonor Prohaska (Excerpts); Opferlied; Germania
Gentlemen of St. John's College, Cambridge, St. John's Voices, Graham Walker - William Mathias: Choral Music
Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony - Charles Ives: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
Vox Luminis, A Nocte Temporis - Charpentier: Orphée aux Enfers
Yuja Wang, Elsa Dreisig, Ekaterina Gubanova, Daniel Behle - The Peace Concert Versailles
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Chamber Players - Beethoven: String Quintets Op. 29 and 104; Fugue Op. 137
John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - Escales: French Orchestral Works