Contents

German countertenor. One of his very finest recitals (his best, according to David Vickers review), a survey of German Baroque cantatas, is available again in the Harmonia Mundi Gold series. It's a beautifully balanced selection sung with superb technique and ease of delivery. Arguably, one might...

TRACK 1 THE REAL VAUGHAN WILLIAMS To complementthis issue's Vaughan Williams celebration, James Jolly talks to conductor Richard Hickox about 'vW's symphonies and introduces excerpts from his recordings.

Perhaps it is predictable that any Berlioz recording by Cohn Davis is something special, but that does not lessen its impact. This Ceilini is filled with a sense of life at its most vigorous and Berlioz fans will not be disappointed. For me, there's one caveat though. Gregory Kunde in the title...

First, this, and I mean that as the highest compliment. For those who like the shock of those sudden Mahlerian tempo changes and jolting shifts of mood, this will be for you. Jonathan Noft is a conductor the standard of whose recent recordings far outstrips his fame. At this rate, his wider...

What a surprise, and what a performance! A famous evening in the theatre has unexpectedly surfaced on CD. It captures not only Leontyne Price's youthful, rending Bess and William Warfield's grizzled Porgy; the whole enterprise flies with a sense of great drama caught on the wing. And for a touch...

Admirers of the Beaux Ares Trio may be distraught at the news that Menahem Pressler is to disband the group he founded. Yet he here serves notice, one hopes, of a slew of fascinating projects to follow. There is much of the art that conceals art in these simply lovely, gentle yet probing...

In a way, this is the perfect complement to Matthias Goerne's recent Schubert disc - dominated as it was by a sombre, melancholy mood. Honey-voiced Christoph Prégardien is clearly an optimist in this Schône MüIIerin. There is a sense of challenges to be overcome rather than crushing...