Record Review Podcast

Beethoven's 23rd piano sonata is stormy and intense, so earned the nickname "Appassionata" or "Passionate". Pianist Iain Burnside has been listening to a wide range of recordings, old and new, to pick the ultimate version to buy, download or stream.

Purcell's magnum opus was written as a series of masques to be performed at the end of the acts of a special version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Arguably the greatest British composer before the 20th century, Purcell left us a tantalizing array of music for use in theatrical productions, which shows what an unsurpassed gift he had for matchings words and mood with music. Apart from the small-scale masterpiece, Dido and Aeneas, none of these pieces quite hangs together as a satisfying work of music theatre. The Fairy Queen is the closest we have to that. Written in a hybrid form of spoken drama and masque, it is notoriously difficult to bring off on the stage. But it is ideal for home listening. Nicholas Kenyon sifts through a strong field of some of the greatest names in baroque performance.

Yshani Perinpanayagam chooses her favourite recording of Debussy's Images for Orchestra.

Composed between 1906 and 1912, Images is Debussy’s final concert work for orchestra. Over its three sections it abundantly displays his customary sophistication and flair for orchestral sonorities and for painting pictures in sound. The first and last parts of the triptych are folk-inflected: the enigmatic Gigues quotes 'The Keel Row' from Northumberland and two French folk tunes feature in Rondes de printemps. The middle (and most often performed) section, Ibéria, is itself a triptych. Even though Debussy famously spent no more than an afternoon in Spain, Ibéria's three movements conjure up the sights, sounds and smells of Spain so evocatively that even his Spanish contemporaries were impressed.

Emily MacGregor chooses her favourite recording of Shostakovich's String Quartet No 8 in C minor.

Written at white heat in just three days, Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet is also his most personal - indeed, it opens with a form of the composer's own initials. Emily has been listening to recordings from throughout the quartet's life - from its first performers to young ensembles of the present day.

Ben Gernon chooses his favourite recording of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2.

This concerto is full of glorious melodies and deserves a place in everyone's collection. Prokofiev was on a concert tour when he wrote the piece and later wrote, "the number of places in which I wrote the Concerto shows the kind of nomadic concert tour life I led then. The main theme of the 1st movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the 2nd movement at Voronezh, the orchestration was finished in Baku and the premiere was given in Madrid." The concerto is more conventional than Prokofiev's early experimental works and its romantic heart has made it a perennial favourite.

Lucy Parham chooses her favourite recording of Rachmaninov's 24 piano preludes.

Rachmaninov's 24 piano preludes in all the 24 major and minor keys are a glorious treasure trove of different pianistic styles from lyrical to barn-storming. He wrote and published them at different times, and didn't regard them as a unified set. Unlike the keyboard preludes of Bach and Chopin they are not organized according to their keys either. But for a feast of piano playing, they are an essential thing for your library. And some of the titans of the keyboard have recorded their interpretations, including the composer himself how recorded a selection of them.

Jeremy Sams chooses his favourite recording of Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor.

Ravel was living in the Basque country not far from the town where he was born when completed his Piano Trio in 1914, just after the outbreak of World War I, far away from the front line. But there are no grim premonitions in this music and its lush harmonic sound world, full of Basque dance patterns and playful rhythmic sleights of hand, is characterised by the sort of lavish instrumental textures so typical of this master orchestrator. And based on Classical structures (Ravel joked "I’ve written my trio. Now all I need are the themes."), including a haunting passacaglia as its emotional centre of gravity, the Trio is a deeply satisfying musical journey which needs outstanding musicians to meet its exacting demands.

Natasha Loges chooses her favourite recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 ('Elvira Madigan').

Perhaps the only piece of music to be named after a Swedish slack line dancer, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 gained its soubriquet after its remarkable slow movement was used as part of the soundtrack to the 1967 film Elvira Madigan. But circus acts or no, this concerto from 1785 is Mozart at the absolute height of his powers, the foremost pianist-composer of his day, breaking new ground with a series of concertos whose musical depth, virtuosity, inventiveness, woodwind writing and symphonic scale were all unprecedented.

There are literally hundreds of recordings of this great work, many made by the giants of 20th- and 21st-century piano-playing on modern pianos. But intriguingly, there is a much smaller, if growing number made by musicians who use instruments of the period, allowing us to hear the extraordinary range of colours and textures conjured up by Mozart and which he himself would have heard.

William Mival chooses his favourite recording of Richard Strauss's symphonic poem Don Juan.

In Strauss's Don Juan, the infamous libertine bursts onto the stage with a dazzling flourish. The following 16 minutes are no less compelling, the irresistible, swaggering Don superbly evoked through sumptuous and virtuosic orchestration, including tender violin and oboe solos and heroic, triumphant horn calls. Strauss, in his mid-20s, could already do it all! It's music that, even after 130 years, still keeps orchestras and conductors on very much on their mettle.

The pianist Joanna MacGregor's pick of the ultimate recording of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto in B flat minor, Op. 23

Tchaikovsky's famous piano concerto is one of the most popular concertos in the repertoire - full of swaggering great tunes and still, soulful melodies. And many of the piano titans of the past and present have recorded it. Joanna will cut a swathe through the available recordings and come up with a suggestion for your library. And there should be plenty of fireworks along the way.