#NowSpinning Glazunov Symphony No.3 with Tadaaki Otaka in Wales! This is an excellent version of a Symphony that does need careful handling. Anything less than top notch conducting can make it seem bland and directionless. Here there is sparkle and purpose.

#NowSpinning next up in the Rattle CBSO years is the first ever recording of Sibelius 1 I ever heard. I have not heard this cycle for many years, so it will be interesting to compare it with the Berlin set. I’ll do them side by side.

Herbert Howells’s String Quartet No.3 is gracing this morning’s dog walk. It’s a gorgeously lyrical piece with many passages of astounding beauty. But there is a more searching, introspective side to the music, too.

This is the Dvořák 8 that I truly believe sums up what is gorgeous, thrilling, heartwarming and inspiring work it is. It’s never managed to be my favourite Dvořák Symphony, but this may be my favourite Dvořák Disc. Surely that underlines Honeck’s genius.

#NowSpinning a Scheherazade that sways towards sensuousness rather than drama. And that’s just fine by me. There is plenty of room for many different approaches to this work.

#NowSpinning Debussy La Mer with Pierre Boulez on CBS. This one is with the New Philharmonia. I do love his DG recording from Cleveland, but this one is also translucent and sympathetic. It’s nothing like as ‘observed’ as I expected.

#NowSpinning Rattle’s CBSO Mahler 6. Not a recording I really warmed to when first hearing it about 20 years ago! But it’s next up on the Rattle CBSO years box. Let’s see how it sits now.

#NowSpinning Bruckner 4 with Sinopoli in Dresden. I haven’t decided what I think of the interpretation quite yet, but the orchestra sounds totally magnificent! It’s worth hearing for that at least.

A fascinating Brahms 2. The orchestra sounds somehow lean and yet full, which brings an abundance of freshness despite very slow tempi in the first movement. The rest is less spacious, but still patient and light. Something nicely different!

#NowSpinning the first disc of one of my all-time favourite movie scores. Horner’s music is often derivative and this is also true of Willow, but he nonetheless captures a great deal of magic here.

#NowSpinning Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 with Guido Cantelli in Milan. This is very exciting. Lots of imaginative touches, but also moving nicely.

#NowSpinning Franck’s D Minor Symphony in Paray’s mono recording from Detroit. I think this was recorded around 6 years before his stereo remake, but the sound is good. And there’s also plenty of bite in the playing.

#NowSpinning Paul Paray in Detroit with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. I’ve never heard this performance but I really like the freshness. The opening moves very nicely indeed.

This was my first ever Rachmaninoff disc and I still love it as much as any! The thrusting power of the Concertgebouw is fully unleashed by Ashkenazy, who digs into the dark heart of this glowering music.

#NowSpinning A Dvořák 7 that’s currently thrilling my little sockies off. This is rather more overtly passionate than their 8th, with the orchestra finding and flaunting the darkness in the writing. Kreizberg really has the measure of this work.

#NowSpinning Jenůfa, with Bohemia Gregor and team. No human could have possibly produced music of this amazing quality. It’s CLEARLY AI.

#NowSpinning Delius Brigg Fair with Hickox in Bournemouth. This magical work really doesn’t seem to come up much in discussion. For lovers of folk song, it’s a real beauty, though I know some struggle with Delius’s wandering tonalities.

#NowSpinning Arnold Bax Symphony No.1 with David Lloyd-Jones and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A stormy, windswept wonder.

Another new addition to the boxes library. Ivan Moravec ‘Portrait’ on 11 discs. It’s only about half of his Supraphon legacy, so I’ve already added his Chopin Nocturnes!

#NowSpinning Abbado's Vienna Beethoven 5. I found 4 disappointing, but there seems to be more engagement in this Fifth. The actual sound and playing are magnificent, which helps of course.

#NowSpinning Abbado’s Vienna take on Beethoven 4. The first movement starts really well, but the energy sags and it kind of hangs fire. Let’s hope things improve.

#NowSpinning Abbado’s Vienna Eroica. I actually loved No.2. This is a degree more relaxed, and the sound is utterly resplendent.

#NowSpinning Abbado’s Vienna take on Beethoven Symphony No.2. I have never actually heard this cycle, having only really investigated the Berlin set. So, let’s see. It has its detractors, but I’ll listen for myself.

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!!!!!!

#NowSpinning Beethoven’s Op.2 No.2 Sonata with Paul Lewis. Such a lovely, perky first movement. Elegant, witty and lyrical, both as a work and as a performance, at least to my ears.

Five favourite works from Jean Sibelius. I am not claiming they are ‘best’, thy are just the ones I reach for most. And for good measure a favourite recording of each. What would your choices be?

This Cunning Little Vixen is surely in the ‘rather marvellous’ category for me. Neumann’s handling of the orchestra is playful but also touching. And the main vocal performances capture the strangeness as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

#NowSpinning Leif Segerstam’s Chandos recoding of Sibelius’s second Scènes Historiques suite. Well he’s certainly tearing into the opening ‘Chase’, bringing to mind Lemminkäinen’s Return.

I do love this electrifying Brahms 2. The speedy end feels daring and triumphant.

#NowSpinning A recording of Ravel’s La Valse from 1941, with Pierre Monteux in San Francisco. Lots of his, but wow there is a marvellous energy here.

#NowSpinning this AMAZING account of the Brahms/Schoenberg concoction. One of those occasions where the Vienna Philharmonic is persuaded to really deliver. This is extraordinary!

#NowSpinning Donald Johanos with Copland’s Rodeo. I’m not normally one to fuss about whether or not an orchestra is playing music from its ho country, but I genuinely feel it made a difference here! The Dallas Symphony Orchestra just feels every note. Toe tapping stuff!

#NowSpinning Debussy Estampes with Livia Rev. Such fluidity in her approach. A thoroughly songful and beautiful account.

New addition to the box set collection, because I have no filter! The Friedrich Gulda Edition on 85 discs. This looks to be a phenomenal set and I can’t wait to jump in!

Kicking off today’s listening with two classic Nielsen discs. This is still my favourite Inextinguishable, despite amazing competition. Fire, ice, passion. And Bernstein’s disc is intrepid and inspiring.

New arrival! Sir Adrian Boult The Stereo Recordings 1956 - 1978. There are some personal favourite Vaughan Williams, Holst and Elgar performances in this box. And what a beautiful thing it is. 79 discs.

#NowSpinning A late night walk to clear the head. Not sure if Peter Grimes is the right companion, but here he is! For some reason I have not heard this performance before.

#NowSpinning Copland Music for a Great City. This work was commissioned by the LSO to celebrate its 60th season. Very amusing to see that the Evening Standard described it as a ‘knock-off of West Side Story’. I’m not sure their critic was listening.

#NowSpinning Abbado’s 1995 Amsterdam Mahler Festival Mahler 5, with the Berlin Philharmonic. In the two years between Abbado’s live DG recording and this version, the interpretation darkened somewhat. The opening march is emotionally leaden.

Coming out on March 27. BRING IT ON!!

All in all it’s just another…

#NowSpinning Hindemith The Four Temperaments, with Salonen, Ax and a sumptuous-sounding LA Philharmonic. I keep forgetting to return to this box. Such an interesting conductor.

#NowSpinning Gil Shaham, the LSO and Previn with Barber’s magnificent Violin Concerto. I do love this heart-on-sleeve performance, though it never degenerates into note spinning nor too much sentimentality.

#NowSpinning the first of a run of Strauss discs in the big Karajan DG box. Lots of elegance and lots of fun here.

#NowSpinning this thrilling disc of Offenbach Overtures. Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic let their hair down for some real fun and the result is sparkling and uplifting.

#Nowspinning Karajan’s Bruckner 2. The earl digital recording is rather dry-sounding, which doesn’t help when I generally find Karajan much less convincing in early Bruckner and when the work isn’t my favourite from this composer’s output!

#NowSpinning more Tchaikovsky from Alpesh Chauhan. I would be interested to hear what others think of this series of discs?

Angela Hewitt Complete Bach Recordings on 27 discs, now added to the box set collection. I have not heard any of these recordings and will use the set as a springboard for learning more about the music itself.

#NowSpinning Suk’s Asrael Symphony, with Jiří Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic. This is the first of his two with this orchestra and I think it’s vastly superior to the remake. Gorgeously atmospheric sonics and deeply moving conducting make this a tremendous experience.

#NowSpinning Copland’s Suite from Billy the Kid, with John Wilson in the Wild West (of Manchester). This is a fine series of Copland discs. Just the kind of thing to find Wilson at his formidable best.