Record Review Podcast

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

Jeremy Summerly chooses his favourite version of Monteverdi's Vespers.

Iain Burnside chooses his favourite recording of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

Nigel Simeone chooses his favourite version of Brahms' 3rd Symphony.

David Owen Norris chooses his favourite version of Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony.

Elin Manahan Thomas's recommendation for the ultimate recording of Britten's War Requiem.

Nigel Simeone's ultimate recommendation for Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly.

Joseph McHardy chooses his favourite recording of Handel's Concerti Grossi, Op. 6.

Katy Hamilton's ultimate recommendation for Schubert's Symphony no.9.

Simon Heighes chooses his favourite recording of Haydn's Symphony No 100 in G Major ‘Military’

Ben Gernon chooses his favourite recording of the complete ballet of Ravel's Mother Goose

Anna Lapwood chooses her favourite recording of Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony

Gillian Moore chooses her favourite version of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale

Lucy Parham chooses her favourite version of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, 'Les Adieux'

Roger Parker chooses his favourite recording of Mozart's String Quintet No.3 in C

Laura Tunbridge chooses her favourite recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto

Nicholas Kenyon chooses his favourite recording of Bach's four Orchestral Suites

Jeremy Summerly chooses his favourite recording of Haydn's The Creation.

Pianist Allyson Devenish picks the ultimate version of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise.

Sarah Lenton chooses her favourite version of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty.

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Stravinsky's ballet The Fairy's Kiss

Tom Service chooses his favourite recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor

Kate Molleson chooses her favourite recording of Béla Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin

Flora Willson chooses her favourite recording of the piano version of Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin

William Mival chooses his favourite recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

Katy Hamilton chooses her favourite recording of Dvořák's 'New World' Symphony

Simon Heighes chooses his favourite recording of JS Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor.

Pianist Iain Burnside chooses the ultimate recording of Schubert’s Impromptus, D935

Natasha Loges chooses her favourite version of Brahms's Clarinet Trio

Richard Wigmore chooses his favourite recording of Beethoven's Symphony No 8 in F.

Nigel Simeone discusses his favourite recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite version of Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op.47

Gillian Moore's personal recommendation for Mahler's epic 'Symphony of a Thousand'

Roger Parker chooses his favourite recording of Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D major

Jonathan Cross with a personal recommendation for Stravinsky's second ballet Petrushka,

A survey of William Byrd with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor.

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Poulenc's Piano Concerto.

Roger Parker's recommendation for the ultimate recording of Puccini's opera Tosca.

Kate Molleson chooses her favourite recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

Composer John Rutter's recommendation of a recording of Brahms's A German Requiem

Nigel Simeone chooses his favourite recording of Smetana's The Bartered Bride

Flora Willson chooses her favourite recording of Mahler's Rückert-Lieder

Mark Lowther nominates the best recording of Sibelius's sixth symphony

Simon Heighes chooses his favourite recording of Handel's Coronation Anthems

Sarah Devonald chooses her favourite recording of Schubert Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, D. 485.When he wrote his fifth symphony at the age of 19, Schubert was working unhappily as an assistant teacher in his father's school. But he was nevertheless on a compositional roll with songs, chamber music and four other symphonies to his name, all of which were performed by amateur and professional musicians made up from family and friends.This genial, small-scale group gave the 1816 premiere of the symphony in the home of Otto Hatwig, violinist in Vienna's Burgtheater orchestra. And the jolly music seems to echo that cheerful ensemble, Schubert picking up from the classical models of 25 years earlier, seemingly oblivious to Beethoven's decade-plus of ground-breaking musical developments that were soon to become so influential.

Erik Levi chooses his favourite recording of Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No 1 'Kreutzer Sonata'Composed in only nine days in 1923, Janáček's compact, emotionally supercharged String Quartet No 1 takes its title from Leo Tolstoy’s 1889 novella where a wife and her violinist lover play Beethoven’s 'Kreutzer' Sonata together before the jealous husband murders his adulterous wife. Janáček's music roils with the conflicted passions of tormented love, desire and jealously of Tolstoy's story. But there was emotional turmoil in Janáček's life, too. Long-fed up with his wife, in 1915 Janáček had fallen deeply in love with Kamila Stösslová who, happily married and 40 years his junior, made sure that Janáček's love remained unrequited. And if that was unfortunate for Janáček, it was surely lucky for us as he poured his feelings for Stösslová into music which blazes with a truly exceptional emotional intensity.

Kate Kennedy chooses her favourite recording of Britten's Peter GrimesThe opera Peter Grimes is set in a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Britten's home of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on England's east coast. It is a drama about outsiders and oppression. As Britten himself said, it was "a subject very close to my heart – the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual". The score is full of great orchestral descriptions of the Suffolk coast and highly dramatic confrontations.

Hannah French has been listening to recordings - old and new - of Handel's Water Music, whittling them down until she can herald the ultimate version to buy, download or stream.

Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite recording of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

Building a Library: Kenneth Hamilton chooses his favourite recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor.Frédéric Chopin composed this glorious concerto in 1829 when he was 20 and before he had finished his formal education. It was first performed in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist. It was actually the first of his two piano concertos to be written. Like all Chopin's works, it is full of haunting melodies and thrilling piano writing. The nocturnal middle movement in particular is a golden moment, inspired by Chopin's romantic idolization of Konstancja Gładkowska.