ROCOCO VARIATIONS Works for Cello & Orchestra by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Artists: Gabriel Schwabe, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward




SYMPHONIES No. 3 & 4 by Paul Büttner

Artists, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Christopher Ward

Dirk Schauß
Online Merker, April 2026

Eine späte Wiederentdeckung spätromantischer Größe

Das Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin spielt unter der Leitung von Christopher Ward mit edlem, noblem Klang und großer Sensibilität. Ward erweist sich als idealer Anwalt dieser Musik: Er fühlt ihre spätromantische Wärme ebenso wie ihre strukturelle Klarheit und lässt beide Sinfonien mit Überzeugung und Liebe zum Detail erklingen. Die Aufnahme ist technisch hervorragend und macht Lust auf weitere Entdeckungen aus Büttners umfangreichem Schaffen.
Mit dieser CD leistet Capriccio einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Wiederentdeckung eines Komponisten, der es verdient, endlich wieder im Konzertsaal gehört zu werden. Paul Büttner war mehr als nur ein talentierter Handwerker — er war ein Idealist, dessen Musik von tiefer humanistischer Uberzeugung und schöpferischer Kraft zeugt. © 2026

A Late Rediscovery of Late Romantic Greatness

The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Christopher Ward, plays with a refined, elegant sound and great sensitivity. Ward proves himself an ideal advocate for this music: he feels its late-Romantic warmth as well as its structural clarity and conducts both symphonies with conviction and attention to detail. The recording is technically superb and whets the appetite for further discoveries from Büttner's extensive oeuvre.

With this CD, Capriccio makes an important contribution to the rediscovery of a composer who deserves to finally be heard in the concert hall again. Paul Büttner was more than just a talented craftsman—he was an idealist whose music testifies to profound humanistic conviction and creative power. © 2026





GOLDEN HORIZON Works for Horn and Orchestra by Richard Strauss

Artists: Christoph Eß, Sonja Gornik, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward
Release: 13.09.2024




AMERICANA Works for Orchestra by Alan Broadbent

Artists: Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward
Release: 14.03.2025




COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS Leo Blech

Artists: Sonja Gornik, Opernchor Aachen, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward
Release: 05.08.2022

★★★★★ The passionate Aachen musical forces turn these romantic sound pieces into a moving whole. Wow. I would love to hear more from the forgotten Blech. Maarten-Jan Dongelmans © 2022 de Gelderlander

Christopher Ward gives sensitive and exciting readings of this music. The orchestra and choir are in top form, and Sonja Gornik gives delightful performances of the songs. A truly wonderful album—don’t miss it. Nathan Faro © 2023 American Record Guide

Insgesamt haben wir es mit äußerst einfühlsamen Interpretationen zu tun. Gerade in den Werken mit Vokalbesetzung lässt Christopher Ward das Orchester singen und das große Potenzial der wunderbaren Melodien voll zum Tragen kommen... Die historische und emotionale Verbundenheit mit Leo Blech, der in Aachen geboren wurde, treibt das ganze Ensemble wiederholt zu engagierten Interpretationen. So entsteht am Ende eine stimmige und würdige Hommage an den Komponisten Leo Blech. Guy Engels © 2022 Pizzicato




ALPENKÖNIG UND MENSCHENFEIND Leo Blech

Artists: Ronan Collett, Sonja Gornik, Tilmann Unger, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward
Release: 02.09.2022

Musically, everything is first rate here, with the Sinfonieorchester Aachen (from Blech’s hometown) delivering a thoroughly idiomatic reading of this lively score under the baton of its British music director, Christopher Ward. Clive Paget © 2023 Opera News

The entire cast, under Ward’s careful direction, is refreshingly natural and idiomatic, as if they’ve been singing this worthy rarity their whole lives. Allan Altman © 2023 American Record Guide

Une absolue découverte... L’orchestre et le chœur de l’opéra d’Aix-la-Chapelle, servis par une magnifique prise de son, sont dirigés avec vigueur et poésie par Christopher Ward. Yvan Beauvard © 2022 Forum Opéra (France)




ELGAR – BRIDGE CELLO CONCERTOS

Artists: Gabriel Schwabe, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Christopher Ward
Release: 26.11.2021



★★★★★ A performance full of finely realised detail and lacking in bombast ensures these two great and contrasting British cello concertos shine. The performance by Gabriel Schwabe and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Christopher Ward is hugely impressive, full of finely realised detail, and lacking in bombast. And there is something refreshingly straightforward, too, about Schwabe’s approach to the Elgar cello concerto, a refusal to overstate its grandiose sense of tragedy, emphasising instead the tautness and economy of its construction, reinforced by the crisp alertness of the ORF orchestra. Andrew Clements © 2021 The Guardian

Wonderful readings of these masterpieces; Oration will be a stunning revelation for many. The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the English conductor Christopher Ward play superbly. Gwyn Parry-Jones © 2022 MusicWeb International

Nuanced playing in works that muse on the losses of the First World War...The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Ward are superbly responsive partners, and the clear recording creates a welcome transparency that enables fascinating inner instrumental detail to come to the fore. Joanne Talbot © 2022 The Strad

A glorious disc – one of the gems of Naxos’ extensive catalogue. Colin Clarke © 2021 Classical Explorer




AACHENER WALZER Tchaikovsky & Parfenov Orchestral Works

Artists: Ioana Cristina Goicea, André Parfenov, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward
Release: 12.11.2021

This album is the brainchild of British conductor Christopher Ward, 42, general music director of theatre and the symphony orchestra for the city of Aachen since 2018. ... Under Ward, orchestra’s tuning, intonation, crisp attacks, ensemble, and musicality are first-class. Gil French © 2022 Fanfare




ORCHESTRAL WORKS – VOL. 1 & 2 Hans Rott

Artists: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Christopher Ward
Release: 04.09.2020



Christopher Ward, der seine Rott-Edition mit dem Kölner Gürzenich-Orchester bewusst umfassend angelegt hat, kennt den Orchesterkomponisten und seine Eigenheiten wohl besser als die meisten seiner Kollegen. Ihm gelingt nicht nur eine dramaturgisch stringente, auf den Punkt konzentrierte Interpretation in vorzüglicher Orchestervorbereitung und fein ausgehörter Balance, sondern vor allem auch eine Interpretation, in der die „Einflüsse anderer“ organisch inkorporiert sind und nicht über Gebühr betont werden. Jürgen Schaarwächter © 2021 Das Orchester

Ward and his Köln players offer a deeply impressive performance. The Gürzenich- Orchester is steeped in repertoire of the Romantic period, and their sound, as captured by the Capriccio engineers, is opulent and fulsome, with impressive attention to detail. The winds demonstrate impressive unanimity of attack, articulation, and blend in the many passages of shifting colours. Strings play with precision and power... More impressive still is Ward’s firm grasp of the work’s overall structure and trajectory, which gives the performance an organic coherence. David A. McConnell © 2021 The Classic Review




ORCHESTRAL WORKS Franz Schreker

Artists: Valda Wilson (Sopran), Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Christopher Ward
Release: 09.11.2018



Throughout the entire program, conductor Christopher Ward revels in the music’s coloristic extravagance while always maintaining a firm, vital pulse, and the engineering is terrific. This disc is a clear winner. David Hurwitz © 2018 ClassicsToday.com

This new Capriccio recording provides a superb demonstration of the variety and substance of Schreker’s music during the early decades of the 20th century... Christopher Ward’s performances convey the drama and colour of Schreker’s earlier scores with tremendous panache. Christian Hoskins © 2019 gramophone.co.uk