Coming Soon,
Kaufmann and Damrau sing Wolf and other early 2019 highlights
Early highlights for 2019 include a Chopin recital from Maurizio Pollini, Wolf from Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch, Bach from Federico Colli, and a rare opportunity to hear a baritone in Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été from Stéphane Degout, François-Xavier Roth and the period instruments of Les Siècles…
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch
Diana Damrau (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
This live recording of Wolf’s 46 settings of poems by Paul Heyse was made in Essen towards the end of Damrau, Kaufmann and Deutsch’s European tour of the programme last February; reviewing the London performance at The Barbican a few days earlier, The Guardian praised Kaufmann’s ‘wonderfully shaded pianissimos’ and Damrau’s ‘overt brilliance and immaculate way with words’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following his debut on Chandos this January with a strikingly vivid Scarlatti recital which was one of our Top Ten Recordings of 2018, the young Italian pianist continues to explore baroque repertoire through a Romantic prism with all-Bach programme which includes Busoni’s transcription of the great Chaconne from the D minor Partita for Solo Violin, the Italian Concerto, and the Keyboard Partita in D BWV828.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The British violinist (whose mother is Polish) has been exploring music by contemporary Polish composers in her live concerts over the past year or two, but for this album she focuses on music from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Szymanowski’s Mythes, Wieniawski’s Légende and Polonaise de Concert, and works by Moszkowski and Mieczysław Karłowicz. Look out for my interview with her early in the New Year…
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Berlioz: Harold en Italie & Les Nuits d'été
Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Stéphane Degout (baritone), Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Though Berlioz arranged Les nuits d’été for baritone and piano, and explicitly invited male voices to take on several songs when he prepared the orchestral version (even dedicating ‘Sur les lagunes’ to the baritone Hans von Milde), the cycle has remained the province of female singers on record; Stéphane Degout is particularly outstanding in Spectre de la Rose, alongside our Orchestra of the Year Les Siècles.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Blue Hour - Weber, Brahms, Mendelssohn
Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet), Berliner Philharmoniker, Mariss Jansons
Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 is the centrepiece of this new album from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s principal clarinettist, with Yuja Wang joining him for the Grand duo concertante; the programme also includes his own transcriptions of seven of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, and Brahms’s Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2 and Wie Melodien zieht es mir.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The veteran Italian pianist (who has a preference for programming pieces which were composed in close proximity) performs four works dating from 1843 and 1844: the Two Nocturnes Op. 22, the Three Mazurkas Op. 56, the Berceuse in D flat Op. 57, and the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58. The recording was made in Munich this May.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Schumann: Cello Concerto & Chamber Works
Gautier Capuçon (cello), Martha Argerich (piano), Renaud Capuçon (violin), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bernard Haitink
Following the Cello Concerto, the French cellist is joined by his violinist brother Renaud and Martha Argerich (who has regularly collaborated with the siblings at the Lugano Festival) for the Fantasiestücke for Piano Trio Op. 88; he and Argerich also perform the Stücke im Volkston Op. 102 and the Fantasiestucke Op. 72.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Midway through his Rachmaninov concertos project, the Israeli pianist takes a break from his trademark Russian repertoire to tackle Liszt’s mighty Transcendental Studies (performed in the 1852 revision which the composer described as ‘the only authentic’ version of the score), plus the Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto and La leggierezza from the Three Concert Studies S144.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The conductorless vocal ensemble explore music by composers with Catholic sympathies who found themselves literally or figuratively exiled from Elizabethan England, including John Dowland (described by the Queen as ‘an obstinate Papist’), Peter Phillips (who spent his later years in Flanders after narrowly escaping execution for treason), and Richard Dering, who befriended Phillips in Brussels but eventually returned to England to serve the Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The live recording of Thielemann’s first New Year’s Day Concert (including the traditional waltzes and polkas by the Strauss Family, Joseph Hellmesberger and Carl Michael Ziehrer, and several encores which remain under wraps) will be released on 11th January; DVD and Blu-ray versions will follow a fortnight later.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Wiener Philharmoniker, Christian Thielemann
Available Format: DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
