Record Review Podcast

Richard Wigmore chooses his favourite recording of Joseph Haydn's Harmoniemesse in B flat.In 1802, when Haydn completed the Harmoniemesse (having, as he put it, "toiled wearily and laboriously"), the 70-year-old was acknowledged as Europe's greatest living composer. The mass setting, Haydn's last major completed work, never gained the same popularity as his two late oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. But it has long been recognised as one of Haydn's supreme achievements into which, despite old age and failing health, he poured a lifetime of experience to create music both fresh and inspiring. The orchestra is the largest Haydn used for any of his six masses and its name comes from its large section of wind ('harmonie') instruments.

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

Elin Manahan-Thomas's chooses her favourite recording of Schumann's song-cycle Myrthen.The 26 songs that Schumann published under the title Myrthen (Myrtles) were all composed in 1840, the year in which great songs flowed out of him in a great flood of inspiration. He gave a beautifully bound edition of the Myrthen songs to his bride Clara on the eve of their wedding that year. This cycle contains some of Schumann's most popular songs such as Der Nussbaum and Die Lotosblume. And some of the greatest Lieder singers from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to Christian Gerhaher have recorded their interpretations of many of these great songs.

Simon Heighes with his pick of recordings of Mozart's sparkling and tuneful Symphony no.31 in D, nicknamed the "Paris" Symphony.

Continuing Radio 3's Vaughan Williams Today season, marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, Kate Kennedy chooses her favourite recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.In Vaughan Williams' modal and folk music-inflected The Lark Ascending a solo violin takes flight above the orchestra evoking for many the very essence of an idealised English countryside. But this popular work, written on the eve of the First World War, has perhaps inevitably become freighted with nostalgia for both a lost generation and a rural way of life which was soon to vanish forever.

Bach's St Matthew Passion is one of the most profound and popular choral works with many diverse interpretations of record to choose from, and Joseph McHardy joins Andrew McGregor to recommend his favourite.

Roger Parker recommends a recording of Brahms Double Concerto in A minor.The Double Concerto was Brahms' last orchestral work, composed in 1887. It was written partly as a gesture of reconciliation towards his friend the violinist, Joachim. The old friends had fallen out over Joachim's divorce. The concerto has been praised for its "vast and sweeping humour". It needs two brilliant and well matched soloists.

Nigel Simeone with his pick of recordings of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus.Strauss's sparkling operetta premiered in 1874 and has been delighting audiences and listeners ever since. It has been fortunate on record, and Nigel discusses with Andrew a huge range of performances and styles.

Allyson Devenish chooses her favourite recording of Schubert's Piano Trio No 1 in B flat, D.898Schubert began composing this masterpiece in 1827, the year before his death, at the same time as working on his famous song cycle Die Winterreise. It was a period in his life of illness and melancholy. But this work is brimming with lyricism and life force. Robert Schumann said of it: “One glance at Schubert's Trio in Bb and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.” The work has attracted all the great performers of chamber music, from Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals to the Beaux Arts Trio to the best musicians of today.

Tom Service chooses his favourite recording of William Walton's Symphony No 1 in B flat minor.In 1932, with the spectacular success of Belshazzar's Feast behind him, Walton began his Symphony No 1. But, always a slow worker, the symphony took him two painful years to complete – painful because what lay behind most of the Symphony was the emotional upheaval that came with the end of a relationship. The result was the greatest English symphony of its time, its darkly menacing first movement bursting with seemingly elemental power, is followed by a bitter scherzo marked Presto 'con malizia' ('with malice'), a melancholic slow movement and a joyful major key finale.

Elin Manahan Thomas compares recordings of Beethoven's Missa solemnis and chooses her favourite.Beethoven's setting of the Solemn Mass is one of the monuments of choral music. Written between 1819 and 1823, it is widely thought of as one of Beethoven's towering achievements. It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria, one of Beethoven's most generous patrons as well as pupil and friend. The copy given to Rudolf was inscribed with the phrase: "From the heart – may it return to the heart!"

Edward Seckerson compares recordings of Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony in E minor and chooses his favourite. Today, Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony is one of the composer's most popular works. Rachmaninov composed it in Dresden, during a period of retirement from concert activities, and conducted its premiere in Saint Petersburg in January 1908, to great critical acclaim. In his 2nd symphony, Rachmaninov introduces a single motto at the beginning that appears and evolves in each of the four movements, a compositional idea that can also be seen in Tchaikovsky, who was a great early influence on him. The symphony is a large-scale work lasting an hour that begins with dark, brooding melodic lines and ends in a triumphant scherzo finale.

Roger Parker chooses his favourite recordings of Haydn's operas.Joseph Haydn is possibly one of the greatest composers who wrote operas which are hardly known. He wrote 17 of them, and opera occupied a great deal of his composing life. During the 1770s and 1780s, Haydn ran an opera company for his employer, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. They put on up to 150 performances per year. Haydn's operas are not often performed today, but they contain some great music, which Roger explores.

Flora Willson chooses her favourite recording of Debussy's La mer.Debussy composed La mer between 1903 and 1905. It is a brilliant and exciting orchestral showpiece that conjures up the many moods of the sea. Debussy corrected proofs of the score while on holiday at the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne on the English Channel coast. He described Eastbourne to his publisher, Durand, as "a charming peaceful spot: the sea unfurls itself with an utterly British correctness".

Anna Lapwood compares recordings of Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes and picks a favourite.When Peter Grimes premiered in 1945 it immediately put Britten, uniquely among his compatriots, in the first rank of the world's opera composers. As well as the consummate solo vocal and choral writing, the orchestra, too, plays a vital role in Britten's dark drama of alienation and hypocrisy in a small Suffolk fishing community. Several purely orchestral episodes sometimes punctuate, sometimes push forward the narrative and four of these were published separately as the Sea Interludes. Much performed and recorded, Britten's dazzling orchestration vividly conjures up Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and a Storm.

Jonathan Cross compares recordings of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in 3 Movements and picks a favourite.The first movement of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements began life as a piano concerto. And in a failed bid to join the ranks of well-paid movie composers in Hollywood where Stravinsky now lived, the second movement, with its prominent harp part, was originally conceived to accompany a vision of the Virgin Mary in the 1943 film Song of Bernadette. Stravinsky's genius was to add a third movement, related to the first, and so create a cohesive, satisfying and brilliant whole despite the disparate origins of its first two parts. He completed the Symphony in 1945 and, despite a deeply felt sense of exile, loss and nostalgia, it's perhaps some of the most American-sounding of Stravinsky's music, capped by a resplendent final chord, straight out of Hollywood.

Nigel Simeone joins Hannah to discuss a wide variety of recorded performances of Janacek's opera Jenufa.Completed in 1902 Jenufa was Janacek's first great masterpiece. It is a tragic tale of small-minded village attitudes, infanticide and redemption. But as with all Janacek, the music is totally life-enhancing without being in the least sentimental. At the heart of the story is the strong but complicated relationship between Jenufa and her mother: they share some of the most heart-breaking music in the opera.

Mark Lowther joins Andrew to discuss a huge range of recorded performances of the Fourth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was born 150 years ago this autumn. First performed in 1935, its austerity and directness seem to presage the looming horror of World War II.

Laura Tunbridge recommends her favourite recording of Beethoven's String Quartet in F, Op 18 No 1.In Vienna at the end of the 18th century, Beethoven was in his late 20s, the supreme keyboard composer-improviser of his day. With dogged determination and a degree of circumspection he began picking off various genres over which the shadows of the late Mozart and the very much alive Haydn loomed large. With piano sonatas, piano trios and string trios under his belt, it took two laborious years to complete the Op 18 set of six string quartets. The first of the set was intended to make a big impression. Its imposing scale and wide expressive range are typical of the young Beethoven, including a restless dynamic energy and a tragic slow movement inspired, he said, by the tomb scene of Romeo and Juliet.

Allyson Devenish compares recordings of Chopin's Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor and chooses her favourite.Chopin's final piano sonata was composed in 1844 and dedicated to Countess Émilie de Perthuis. It is a work of immense complexity, both technically and musically, and comprises four movements. The sonata opens with heavy chords in B minor, but journeys through a Scherzo and dream-like Nocturne, before ending in a dazzling Finale, which starts in B minor but ends triumphantly in a B major Coda.