Paul Riley
Recent articles by Paul Riley
La Nativité du Seigneur: a guide to Messiaen's Christmas organ cycle and its best recordings
In his nine-movement depiction of the birth of Christ, La Nativité du Seigneur, Messiaen produced one of the 20th century’s great organ works, says Paul Riley
End of My Days
A Lionel Tertis Celebration
Take 3 (Patricia Kopatchinskaja)
CPE Bach: The Hamburg Symphonies
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Rachmaninov Reflections
Handel: Messiah
Byrd: Keyboard Works
JS Bach • James MacMillan - Motets etc
Warlock: Maltworms & Milkmaids
Nadine Benjamin, Ben McAteer; BBC Singers; BBC Concert Orchestra/David Hill (EM Records)
Parry: Prometheus Unbound; Blest Pair of Sirens
Festival Chorus; London Mozart Players/William Vann (Chandos)
Stephen Hough - Mirabilis
London Choral Sinfonia/Michael Waldron (Orchid Classics)
Michael Praetorius: composer, organist, theorist, Renaissance man extraordinaire
Best known for a moment of festive perfection, the music of the German composer Michael Praetorius was, explains Paul Riley, shaped by the Lutheran era in which he lived
L'Invitation au voyage
Dmitry Smirnov (violin); Kammer-orchester Basel/Heinz Holliger (Prospero Classical)
Glazunov • Saint-Saëns: Violin Concertos
Rudolf Koelman (violin); Sinfonietta Schaffhausen/Paul K Haug (Challenge Classics)
An Invitation at the Schumanns
Samuel Hasselhorn (baritone), Jorge González Buajasan (piano); Trio Dichter (Harmonia Mundi)
Buxtehude, the Danish composer who inspired Bach
Dieterich Buxtehude was a composer so original that JS Bach felt compelled to walk hundreds of miles just to hear him at work. Paul Riley salutes one of choral and organ music’s early geniuses
Heinrich Schütz: Was he the most important German composer before Bach?
While Schütz is best known today for his choral masterpiece The Christmas Story, he also played a vital role in shaping German music with a little help from abroad, says Paul Riley
R Schumann: Complete Organ Works
Tom Winpenny (organ) (Naxos)
Forbidden Fruit
Benjamin Appl (baritone), James Baillieu (piano) (Alpha Classics)
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Beczala/Gerhaher/Huber)
Piotr Beczala (tenor), Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Gerold Huber (piano) (Sony Classical)
Stanford: Requiem
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), James Way (tenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone); University of Birmingham Voices; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)