New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-up - 28th April 2017
Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series reaches volume 71 with concertos by Czerny played by Howard Shelley, while Johann Strauss II's connections to St. Petersburg are explored by Neeme Järvi. Mikko Franck conducts dramas by Debussy and Ravel and their fellow Frenchman Louis Fremaux's tenure with the CBSO is celebrated with a new box set on Warner Classics.
The Romantic Piano Concerto Volume 71 - Czerny
Howard Shelley (piano & conductor), Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Active in every genre other than opera, Czerny is now remembered largely for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Which makes Howard Shelley’s advocacy of the three virtuoso works for piano and orchestra recorded here, two of them for the first time, all the more welcome: this is music which cannot fail to appeal.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Cheerful marches and dances trace the career of Johann Strauss II as it manifested itself in his much acclaimed seasons in St Petersburg, at the ‘Russian summer’ concerts in the Vauxhall pavilion in Pavlovsk, where he appeared for eleven seasons (1856 – 65 and 1869), ten of them consecutively.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Debussy: L'Enfant Prodigue & Ravel: L'Enfant et les sortilèges
Chœur et Orchestre de Radio France, Mikko Franck
Recorded live in Paris, two contrasting music dramas on the theme of an errant child, performed by a starry line-up of francophone singers. Mikko Franck conducts Debussy’s L’Enfant prodigue, with Roberto Alagna, and Ravel’s L'Enfant et les sortilèges, with Nathalie Stutzmann and Sabine Devieilhe.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A Noble and Melancholy Instrument: Music for Horn and Piano
Alec Frank-Gemill (horn) & Alasdair Beatson (piano)
The nineteenth century saw huge developments in the design of both the horn and the piano. The present disc is a unique combination of recital and history lesson, with a young British team performing music from between 1800 and 1942 on no fewer than eight different historic instruments: four horns and four pianos.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jean Guyot was another of the composers of the post-Josquin generation active in the Low Countries in the mid-sixteenth century. Cinquecento has previously explored his secular music, but it was Guyot’s sacred music which was largely responsible for the high reputation he seemingly enjoyed in his lifetime.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This set assembles, for the first time, all the recordings that the French conductor Louis Frémaux made with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra during his tenure as its Principal Conductor (1969-1978). The vast majority of the set is devoted to French music, including music by Berlioz, Massenet, Bizet Saint-Saëns, Dukas, and many others.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (DVD)
Joan Sutherland (Lucrezia), Alfredo Kraus (Gennaro), Anne Howells (Maffio Orsini), Stafford Dean (Don Alfonso), Robin Leggate (Jacopo Liveretto), Jonathan Summers (Don Apostolo Gazella), Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Richard Bonynge
Joan Sutherland deftly captures the complexity of a powerful, vengeful woman. Richard Bonynge conducts a cast including Alfredo Kraus as Gennaro, in John Copley's production for The Royal Opera. This performance from 1980 is preserved in its original Standard Definition and 4:3 picture format.
Available Format: DVD Video
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
