New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 18th May 2018
Valery Gergiev and the Münchner Philharmoniker embark on a complete Bruckner cycle (recorded in live concerts at the composer’s resting-place and to be continued over the next two years), pianists Dejan Lazić and Alessio Bax perform Beethoven concertos, Philippe Herreweghe returns to Monteverdi’s Vespers thirty years after his first recording, and Isabelle Faust assembles a crack team of soloists for Schubert’s Octet.
Strauss: Macbeth, Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration & Festmarsch
Staatskapelle Weimar, Kirill Karabits
Karabits was appointed chief conductor of the Weimar Staatskapelle in 2015, and for their second recording together they explore two early works which Richard Strauss premiered with the ensemble during his time as second Kapellmeister. The programme is completed by Tod und Verklärung, which Strauss completed whilst living in the city, and the comparatively rare Festmarsch from 1876.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Sibelius & Rautavaara: Violin Concertos
Tobias Feldmann (violin), Orchestra Philharmonique Royal De Liege, Jean-Jacques Kantorow
The German violinist pairs two twentieth-century works for violin and orchestra by Finnish composers: Sibelius’s 1904 warhorse and Rautavaara’s compelling two-movement soundscape from the mid-1970s, described by The Independent as ‘one of the most interesting, accessible and idiomatic fiddle concertos of modern times’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Schubert: Octet
Isabelle Faust, Anne Katharina Schreiber, Danusha Waskiewicz, Kristin von der Goltz, Lorenzo Coppola, Javier Zafra, Teunis van der Zwart, James Munro
Using period instruments, Faust and seven colleagues tackle the hour-long quasi-symphonic octet which Schubert composed in 1824 at the behest of amateur clarinettist Count Ferdinand Troyer. Two of the D89 Minuets with Trios (D89), arranged for octet, make a delightful postscript.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Three decades after his first recording of the Vespers, Herreweghe returns to the score with a line-up of soloists which includes soprano Dorothee Mields, high tenors Reinoud Van Mechelen and Samuel Boden, and bass Peter Kooij, who also appeared on his earlier recording.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In September 2017, Gergiev and his Munich orchestra gave the first concert in a projected cycle of the complete Bruckner symphonies at the St. Florian Monastery where Bruckner was a chorister and later organist, and is now buried; the programme consisted of the First, Third and Fourth symphonies, and the Second, Ninth and Eighth will following this autumn.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Münchner Philharmoniker, Valery Gergiev
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Lazić’s programme explores Beethoven’s links with London in the early 1800s through the music of Muzio Clementi (a respected pianist-composer himself, he also published Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Violin Concerto, as well as commissioning the piano transcription of the latter which Lazic performs here) and Clementi’s one-time pupil Johann Baptist Cramer, whose sonata ‘Le retour à Londres’ closes the album.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following his 2014 recording of the Hammerklavier and Moonlight sonatas (you can read David’s interview with him about that recording here), the Italian pianist couples with mighty Emperor concerto with shorter pieces including Piano Sonata No. 27, the Polonaise Op. 89, and a selection of Contradanses.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The British harpsichordist and conductor has made numerous recordings for Linn from the podium, but this is his first solo album at the keyboard for the label: his programme of fantasias, grounds and pavans explores William Byrd’s wide-ranging imagination, and culminates in a virtuoso performance of the evocative showpiece The Bells.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released in anticipation of the centenary of the Armistice this November, this fifth album from Nethsingha and his Cambridge choir on Signum focuses on the sacred music which Vaughan Williams composed in the immediate aftermath of World War One: the great Mass for double choir is complemented by smaller-scale works including O Taste and See, Lord, thou has been our refuge and the Te Deum.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In the final volume of their acclaimed series exploring music for the liturgical calendar, Ross and Clare College focus on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, taking in music by Sheppard, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rachmaninov, Britten, Gabriel Jackson and James MacMillan, and Ross’s own Duo Seraphim (which receives its world premiere recording here).
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Prologue: Music by Monteverdi, Caccini, Cavalli, Stradella & Scarlatti
Francesca Aspromonte (soprano), Il pomo d’oro, Enrico Onofri
The rising young Italian soprano first came to our notice in 2016 thanks to her stylish contribution to Giovanni Antonini’s Haydn 2032 series; for her solo debut album she explores the prologues of Italian early operas, including Cavalli’s Eritrea, L’Ormindo and La Didone, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Caccini’s L’Euridice, and Cesti’s L’Argia and Il pomo d’oro.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Julie Fuchs (Leïla), Cyrille Dubois (Nadir), Florian Sempey (Zurga), Orchestre National de Lille, Alexandre Bloch
Captured live in concert in May 2017, this is the first Pearl Fishers on record to use Bizet’s own 1863 version of the score, which was discovered less than a decade ago (following its original run, the opera wasn't revived until after the composer's death, with significant alterations by other hands). The light-voiced cast sing exquisitely, particularly Cyrille Dubois (well known for his Lully and Rameau recordings) as Nadir.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Wolf-Ferrari: I Quatro Rusteghi
European Opera Centre, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
Following their well-received 2010 recording of Il segreto di Susanna on Avie, Petrenko and his Liverpool orchestra tackle Wolf-Ferrari’s 1906 comic opera, which centres on ‘four curmudgeons’ struggling to keep their rebellious wives under the thumb; reviewing the live performance from 2012, The Guardian observed that ‘The singing is uniformly good, and Vasily Petrenko’s conducting exquisite’.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
