New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-up - 10th March 2017
Highlights this week include Sir John Eliot Gardiner's return to Bach's St. Matthew Passion, The Sixteen's recording of James Macmillan's new setting of the Stabat Mater and Benjamin Appl's debut album for Sony. Daniel Barenboim marks his association with the music of Pierre Boulez with a selection of live recordings on DG, and some of Glyndebourne's most acclaimed recent Handel productions are collected in DVD and Blu-ray box sets.
Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244
James Gilchrist (Evangelist), Stephan Loges (Jesus), English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
A new live recording from Sir John Eliot Gardiner of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, recorded in Pisa Cathedral during the Anima Mundi Festival as part of the Monteverdi Choir’s 2016 tour. This performance was given on 22nd September, and was the closing performance of the tour.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rumon Gamba launches a project to bring neglected symphonic poems by British composers to wider attention. This first volume presents some of the most individual, yet rarely heard, tone poems written in the early twentieth century, by composers ranging from Vaughan Williams and William Alwyn to Balfour Gardiner and Granville Bantock.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A former chorister of the famous Regensburger Domspatzen, baritone Benjamin Appl is one of the most interesting artists of the new generation, with a great voice, charming personality and magnetic stage presence. This debut album with Sony Classical presents songs from different countries related to the theme of “Heimat” (homeland).
Available Format: CD
Borodin: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No. 2
Goldner String Quartet, Julian Smiles (cello), Piers Lane (piano)
Russia in the nineteenth century had little need for chamber music - no Parisian-style competitive quartetting here. But out of this very isolation came a small, but nonetheless mighty, handful of works: those by Borodin are among the finest. Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet revel in what they find.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hommage à Boulez celebrates the association between Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez, featuring a selection of Boulez's most iconic works in live recordings from the BBC Proms (London, 2012), and Boulez’s 85th birthday concert (Berlin, 2010), all performed by members of the West Eastern Divan orchestra.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This disc features the world premiere recording of James MacMillan's Stabat Mater. The Sixteen also gave the world premiere of this work at a series of concerts in October 2016. The Stabat Mater is profoundly shaped by MacMillan's beliefs, but it is a work with deep roots and a universal message, a celebration of both tradition and radical renewal.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This album unveils the charms of a repertoire that delighted Parisian concert halls and salons throughout the 19th century. It demonstrates how the viola emerged from the violin’s shadow thanks to virtuoso playing, now resuscitated by the talent of Antoine Tamestit and Cédric Tiberghien in pieces which showcase the famed singing tone of Tamestit's viola, a 1672 Stradivarius, loaned by the Habisreutinger Foundation.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This set brings together three of Handel’s most compelling works for the stage in lavish Glyndebourne productions featuring period-instrument accompaniment from the renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. David McVicar directs an all-star cast in Giulio Cesare, while in Robert Carsen’s fun-filled transformation of Rinaldo, lacrosse sticks and flying bicycles lend the fantasy’s warriors and witches contemporary chic. Finally, Barrie Kosky’s Saul stole the 2015 Festival season and had critics raving.
Available Format: 5 DVD Videos
This set brings together three of Handel’s most compelling works for the stage in lavish Glyndebourne productions featuring period-instrument accompaniment from the renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. David McVicar directs an all-star cast in Giulio Cesare, while in Robert Carsen’s fun-filled transformation of Rinaldo, lacrosse sticks and flying bicycles lend the fantasy’s warriors and witches contemporary chic. Finally, Barrie Kosky’s Saul stole the 2015 Festival season and had critics raving.
Available Format: 4 Blu-rays
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
