New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 29th June 2018
This week’s highlights include a second volume of Handel’s ‘Arias for Base Voice’ from Christopher Purves, Brett Dean’s Hamlet and David Bösch’s staging of Il trovatore on DVD and Blu-ray, and Suk from British pianist Jonathan Plowright, whilst the Romantic Piano Concerto project on Hyperion takes in Rheinberger and Bernhard Scholz…
The Romantic Piano Concerto 76 - Rheinberger & Scholz
Simon Callaghan (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ben Gernon
Following his advocacy for the music of Roger Sacheverell Coke on Volume 73, Simon Callaghan returns to the Romantic Piano Concerto series to champion two concertos by the German composer and conductor Bernhard Scholz (1835-1916) and another by Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901), better-known for his compositions for organ and choir.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
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
Vivaldi & Handel
Grace Davidson (soprano), Academy of Ancient Music, Bojan Čičić (leader), Joseph Crouch
The British soprano (whose previous solo appearances on disc include Fauré’s Requiem with Tenebrae and the LSO Chamber Ensemble, Handel’s Jephtha and Monteverdi’s Vespers with The Sixteen, and new works by Francis Pott and Alec Roth) performs Handel’s Silete venti, Salve Regina and Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and Vivaldi’s Nulla in mundo pax sincera
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Stravinsky: Music for Violin Volume 2
Ilya Gringolts (violin). Peter Laul (piano), Sinfónica de Galicia, Dima Slobodeniouk
Following an inaugural volume that was described as ‘extremely enjoyable and extremely valuable’ (BBC Music Magazine), the second instalment of Gringolts’s blistering survey of Stravinsky’s violin works includes the Suite italienne, the Violin Concerto, the Divertimento, the 'Variation d’Apollon' from Apollon musagète, and the Pastorale in a version for violin and chamber ensemble.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Dutch-Italian violinist Bernardini takes a break from her duties as leader of the Dunedin Consort (with whom she recorded a ‘fluid and crisply details’ [BBC Music Magazine] set of the Bach concertos in 2016) to explore Spohr’s demanding music for the unusual combination of violin and single-action pedal-harp, dating from the early 1800s.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Kalevi Aho: Timpani & Piano Concertos
Ari-Pekka Mäenpää (timpani), Sonja Fräki (piano) Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Erkki Lasonpalo, Eva Ollikainen
The Finnish composer (b.1949) has set himself the mammoth task of composing concertos for every instrument of the symphony orchestra, and in 2015 the Turku Philharmonic commissioned this showpiece for its principal timpanist Ari-Pekka Mäenpää; it’s paired with the Piano Concerto No. 1, which dates from the late 1980s.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Plowright was praised in The Observer last week for his ‘formidable technique and total command of this repertoire’ on this collection of works by Dvořák’s pupil and son-in-law, which includes Spring Impressions, Summer Impressions, Nálady (‘Moods’), and the seven Piano Pieces Op. 7.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Brett Dean: Hamlet (DVD)
Allan Clayton, Sarah Connolly, Barbara Hannigan, Rod Gilfry, Kim Begley, John Tomlinson; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Chorus, Vladimir Jurowski
When Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn’s Hamlet opened at Glyndebourne last summer it was praised for the ‘great brilliance’ of the score (The Telegraph) and its ‘dark, complex sometimes wryly postmodern’ take on Shakespeare (Financial Times) as well as Allan Clayton’s ‘fearless mastery’ of the title-role. Look out for our exclusive interviews with both Clayton and the composer over the coming weeks.
Available Format: DVD Video
Brett Dean: Hamlet (Blu-ray)
Allan Clayton, Sarah Connolly, Barbara Hannigan, Rod Gilfry, Kim Begley, John Tomlinson; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Chorus, Vladimir Jurowski
LPCM 2.0 DTS-HD 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Verdi: Il Trovatore (DVD)
Lianna Haroutounian, Gregory Kunde, Anita Rachvelishvili, Vitaliy Bilyy; Royal Opera House, Richard Farnes
First seen at Covent Garden in summer 2016, David Bösch’s contemporary staging of Trovatore is caught here during its 2017 revival, with the powerhouse Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili (whose impressive debut solo album was released on Sony earlier this year) a stand-out Azucena - The Stage praised her ‘blood-curdling low notes and searing upper range’ and The Guardian her ‘thrillingly intense’ stage-presence.
Available Format: DVD Video
Verdi: Il Trovatore (Blu-ray)
Lianna Haroutounian, Gregory Kunde, Anita Rachvelishvili, Vitaliy Bilyy; Royal Opera House, Richard Farnes
LPCM 24-bit stereo
5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Available Format: Blu-ray
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