Howard Assembly Room, LeedsAlbert Herring might be the most under-appreciated of Benjamin Britten's operas . Often dismissed as a parochial skit at the expense of a village idiot, the perceived slightness of the piece may ...
Delitiae Musicae/Longhini (Naxos, three CDs)Gesualdo's fifth and sixth books of madrigals were published in 1611, printed in his castle in the village near Naples that carries his family name. The composer died two years ...
Alessandro Deljavan (Piano Classics)In just two years, Piano Classics has established itself as an important resource, not only for its recordings of neglected portions of the 19th- and 20th-century piano repertoire, but ...
Hallé/Elder (Hallé)The second disc in Mark Elder's Sibelius cycle pairs what is still the most popular of the symphonies with two of the most concise and musically ambiguous of all the tone poems. Pohjola's ...
Widmann/Frankfurt RSO/Pomarico (ECM)In the 1970s Morton Feldman composed a collection of pieces for one or more performers with orchestra to which he gave purely descriptive titles. The series of single-movement works ...
Chiminelli/Turchetta/Divertimento Ensemble/Gorli (Stradivarius)Born in 1962, Stefano Gervasoni studied in his teens with Luigi Nono and then, it seems, with a whole series of other leading European composers, including ...
Royal Festival Hall, LondonAs well as writing about Verdi, and presenting a documentary to celebrate his bicentenary, Rolando Villazón is on a 15-date European tour in which he sings arias by the composer, ...
St Donat's Arts Centre/Hoddinott Hall, CardiffThematic strands abound in this year's Vale of Glamorgan festival, some of which are updates of familiar territory. On the opening night, virtuoso accordionist Raimondas ...
Richard Jones's production of Verdi's great comic opera made its debut at the festival in 2009 and was recorded the same year. We will be streaming this recording here on the Guardian from 1.30pm on Friday 21 June and it will be ...
Richard Jones's production of Falstaff was new to Glyndebourne in 2009 and recorded live at the festival that same year. In this podcast, Peggy Reynolds introduces Verdi's glorious opera