The Critic's Chair for 19 May 2013

This week on The Critic's Chair, Peter Mechen reviews a blend of recordings of different genres, beginning with an Italian song recital from New Zealand soprano Anna Leese and her pianist countryman Stephen de Pledge. The latest disc from Naxos of Ferdinand Ries's piano concertos has pianist Christopher Hinterhuber supported by the NZSO and Uwe Grodd. Vincent D'Indy's familiar Symphony on a French Mountain Air is presented with a group of his lesser-known orchestral works by Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra that premiered two of Richard Strauss's most popular works now records them over a hundred years later, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard blow some fresh Nordic air through some of Wagner's most well-known orchestral pieces, besides accompanying the wonderful Nina Stemme in the Wesendonck Lieder.