Coming Soon,
Francesco Piemontesi's Liszt and other forthcoming highlights
Among the highlights for the coming months are Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra (a slight change of pace now that the final recording in their acclaimed Mahler series is in the can), the 1774 Naples version of Gluck’s Orfeo with Philippe Jaroussky in the title-role, and a staggering Liszt recital from Francesco Piemontesi which we’ve already got pegged as a serious contender come awards season!
Chamber and Instrumental
The young Swiss pianist’s first all-Liszt recital (centring, aptly enough, on 'Suisse'!) looks set to give Daniil Trifonov’s 2016 set of the Transcendental Études a run for its money in terms of poetic eloquence and sheer virtuosity; the release also includes a bonus documentary by French filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, exploring Piemontesi’s relationship with Liszt’s ‘Years of Pilgrimage’.
Available Formats: CD + DVD Video, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bruch’s evergreen Violin Concerto No. 1 is the centrepiece of Chen’s second album for Decca, which also includes arrangements and original compositions by the great violinists Jascha Heifetz and Fritz Kreisler, and A New Satiesfaction - a mash-up of Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 and Rossini’s William Tell Overture by the cellist of Chen’s Made in Berlin Quartet.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (1774 version - Limited Edition casebound deluxe)
Philippe Jaroussky, Amanda Forsythe, Emőke Baráth; Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera & I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Small wonder that Jaroussky’s piercingly sweet timbre placates the Furies of Hell in this gripping account of Gluck’s masterpiece – the role fits him like a glove, particularly in this 1774 Naples version of the score where several key passages sit significantly higher than the original writing for the alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni.
Available Format: CD
Wagner: Das Rheingold
Samuel Youn (Alberich), Iain Paterson (Wotan), Susan Bickley (Fricka), Will Hartmann (Loge), The Halle, Sir Mark Elder
Recorded live at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in November 2016, Elder’s account of the Vorabend to Wagner’s epic drama features Iain Paterson (who will sing the role at the 2020 Bayreuth Festival) as Wotan; the cast also includes Samuel Youn and Will Hartmann, who both won praise from The Guardian for their ‘malign plausibility’ as Alberich and Loge.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Handel: Acis and Galatea
Lucy Crowe (Galatea), Allan Clayton (Acis), Neal Davies (Polyphemus); Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn
The Early Opera Company perform Handel’s popular pastoral in the original Cannons version of 1718, in which the five soloists also serve as the chorus (though here soprano Rowan Pierce stands in for Lucy Crowe, who contributes a more lyrical and voluptuous Galatea than one often hears). Allan Clayton sings Acis with a thrilling heroic edge – watch out for him in the title-role of Brett Dean’s Hamlet, out later this summer on Opus Arte.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (DVD)
Richard Croft (Tito), Anna Stéphany (Sesto), Alice Coote (Vitellia); Robin Ticciati, Claus Guth
Two outstanding mezzos dominate this contemporary staging of Mozart’s final opera from last year’s Glyndebourne Festival: Alice Coote takes a break from her usual trouser-roles as a ‘magnificently dramatic’ (The Stage) Vitellia, whilst Anna Stéphany (who took over the role from Kate Lindsey at relatively short notice) makes a powerful and assured debut as Sesto.
Available Format: DVD Video
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (Blu-ray)
Richard Croft (Tito), Anna Stéphany (Sesto), Alice Coote (Vitellia); Robin Ticciati, Claus Guth
LPCM 2.0, DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
Available Format: Blu-ray
Orchestral
It's almost three decades since Fischer and his Budapest orchestra recorded any Mendelssohn, but this Dream more than holds its own against the recent fine accounts from John Eliot Gardiner and the late Claudio Abbado, and has the advantage of including several sections which are often omitted, such as the tiny parodic funeral-march from Act Five.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The final instalment of a cycle that has been fêted as ‘bursting with light and life’ (The Observer on the Italian and Reformation symphonies) and praised for its ‘pace, precision, flexibility and transparency’ (Gramophone on Symphony No. 1 and the Scottish, which won a Schallplattenkritik Award last year).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hot on the heels of their final Walton recording together (you can read David’s interview with him about the project here), Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra return to Elgar following a Symphony No. 1 that attracted attention for the conductor’s ‘feeling for pace and colour’ (Classical Music) and the ‘special splendour of the brass and strings’ (The Sunday Times).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Previous volumes of Antonini’s slow-burning Haydn series (still 14 years away from the finishing-line!) have been described as ‘the sort of Haydn playing you dream of’ (The Sunday Times on Il distratto, which also won a Gramophone Award) and ‘breathtaking in its accuracy’ (Gramophone on Solo e pensoso); the eponymous Symphony No. 26 is followed by the Alleluia (No. 30) and No. 41.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vocal and Choral
Handel's Finest Arias for Base Voice, Vol. 2
Christopher Purves (baritone), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
Purves’s first collection of Handel’s bass arias (released in 2013) was a resounding success – the recording was shortlisted for both the Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Awards, and described as ‘masterful, dazzling and powerful’ by Early Music Today. This second instalment includes arias from Esther, Belshazzar, Joshua, Rinaldo, Siroe and Tolomeo.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For their fourth recording together, Sampson and Middleton focus on Schubert’s depiction of female characters (such as Mignon from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, Gretchen from his Faust, and Ellen from Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake) and his settings of texts by women, including Helmina von Chézy and Marianne von Willemer.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For his first album since retiring from public performance as a singer six years ago (he continues to appear as a speaker and narrator), the German bass-baritone joins the NDR Big Band for a programme of jazz and swing standards including But not for me and Cry Me a River. Quasthoff has real form in this music – his 2007 Jazz Album was described as ‘Ella good’ by Jazz Times.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Formed in 2004, this Belgian early music ensemble has notched up an impressive array of accolades, including Gramophone Recording of the Year for their 2011 album of Schütz and a BBC Music Magazine Award for their recent tribute to Martin Luther. This programme is inspired by a concert-series which Buxtehude organised in Lübeck, and which a young JS Bach travelled nearly 400 km on foot to attend.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
