No direction from directors
Music directors who fail to provide any direction in times of crisis
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem (DG)
Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem covers a gamut of moods, from pity to passion
Eighth Blackbird and Navarra String Quartet
I’m not giving up trying to persuade younger people to listen to new composers
Malcolm Arnold: The Dancing Master (Resonus)
The BBC thought Malcolm Arnold’s opera was not serious enough and a bit bawdy
Wagner, restless provocateur
Wagner’s sexual ambiguity spoke to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Mann, says Norman Lebrecht
Franz Schmidt: 4th symphony (Berliner Philharmoniker recordings)
This is music that is going nowhere
Leo Weiner: Divertimentos (Naxos)
Music from the Hungarian educator who shaped the sound of the modern American orchestra
Nostalgia – The Sea of Memories (Accent)
A marvellous blend of early Baroque and Mediterranean traditional songs
Valentin Silvestrov: 7th symphony (Naxos)
Silvestrov writes almost as if Mahler is speaking to us from beyond the grave
John Williams in Vienna (DG)
Zero stars for the vacuous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra