Album Review
Schumann/Mahler: Symphonies 1&2 (Naxos)
Schumann cannot be ignored
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sixth Symphony (Hyperion/ICA Classics)
As shattering as any work of its era
Gustav Mahler: 5th symphony (Pentatone)
Its ethos in Mahler remains inimitable
Franz Schubert: String quintet/Quartettsatz (Chandos)
Intimations of life’s fragility
Jean Sibelius: Orchestral songs (LAWO)
The themes are cruel and cold
John Adams: Slonimsky’s Earbox (Alpha)
Among his best work
Nico Muhly: Stranger (AVIE)
This new album of three works offers quiet empathy more than overwhelming emotion
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the end of time (OUR)
Messiaen’s quartet, first performed in a freezing barracks in 1941, is a thing of great beauty
Ferdinand Ries: Piano Trio and Sextets (Hyperion)
Ludwig van Beethoven’s former secretary and pupil was no forgettable curiosity
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 7 & 9 (Hallé)
VW will never catch on beyond Anglophiles — ask not the reason why