New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 8th February 2019
Today’s new releases include Weber and Schubert piano sonatas from Paul Lewis, an early Valentine’s Day gift from The King’s Singers, an Offenbach bicentenary celebration from up-and-coming French coloratura soprano Jodie Devos, and a 22-SACD boxed set of newly-remastered digital transfers of radio broadcasts which Wilhelm Furtwängler made with the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Second World War.
Lewis pairs two works composed in 1816/17 by composers who both died in their thirties: Weber’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in A flat and Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B flat D575. The British pianist has impressive form in Schubert, including several Gramophone Award nominations - BBC Music Magazine described his 2014 recording of the late sonatas as ‘piano playing of the highest calibre’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda
Reviewing the live concert at the Barbican last autumn, The Times described the Tchaikovsky as ‘a performance of hot blood and obsessive thoughts’, whilst Classical Source’s review of the Mussorgsky (recorded last summer) singled out principal trumpet Philip Cobb (‘Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle’) and saxophonist Simon Haram (‘The Old Castle’) for particular praise.
Available Format: SACD
The violinist-turned-conductor Andrew Manze has impressive form with Mozart in both of his capacities (his discography includes acclaimed recordings of the last three violin concertos with The English Concerto, and Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 26 with Francesco Piemontesi), but this is his first recording of his music with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, with whom he recently completed a fine Mendelssohn cycle on Pentatone.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their 2007 recording of Respighi’s Vetrate di chiesa, Brazilian Impressions and Rossiniana (which was awarded a Gramophone Editor’s Choice), Falletta and her Buffalo orchestra turn to the composer’s most popular work, recorded in New York last summer.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Violin Concerto, Photoptosis, Die Soldaten Vocal Symphony
Leila Josefowicz (violin), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
This trio of works by one of Germany’s leading post-War composers (1918-70) includes the first-ever CD release of the vocal symphony from his opera Die Soldaten (which Zimmermann prepared after being advised that the stage work was unperformable), the late ‘prelude for large orchestra Photoptosis, and the early and unfairly neglected Violin Concerto – look out for Katherine’s interview with soloist Leila Josefowicz next week.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Heimweh – Schubert Lieder
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Gerold Huber (piano), Matthias Schorn (violin)
For her debut solo album on Pentatone, the young German lyric soprano (whose discography includes Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Iván Fischer and Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem with Marin Alsop) explores the theme of homesickness and longing in Schubert songs including Der Zwerg, three Mignon songs, Ellen’s Gesangen, and Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
As she prepares to sing Donna Anna at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Russian soprano releases an album of music by Mozart and his contemporaries, including the concert-arias Vado, ma dove? and Chi sà, chi sà?, and excerpts from Don Giovanni, Die Entführung, La clemenza di Tito and Le nozze di Figaro, Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Traetta’s Antigona.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French soprano (who took second prize and audience prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2014) marks Offenbach’s bicentenary with a programme of virtuoso arias from works including Orphée aux enfers, Vert-Vert, Fantasio, Le Roi Carotte, Un mari à la porte, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Robinson Crusoë, prepared in association with Palazzetto Bru Zane.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded over a ten-year period and featuring four different line-ups of the iconic vocal sextet, Love Songs includes members’ own arrangements of traditional favourites such as My Love is like a Red, Red Rose and I Love my Love, plus songs by Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Charles Trenet.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
The Cleveland Orchestra: Centennial Concert (DVD)
Lang Lang (piano), Centennial Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Recorded live at Severance Hall last September to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the orchestra’s foundation, this concert opens with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 (with Lang Lang as soloist), followed by the Symphonic Fantasy from Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Johann Strauss II’s Wiener Blut, and Ravel’s La Valse.
Available Format: DVD Video
The Cleveland Orchestra: Centennial Concert (Blu-ray)
Lang Lang (piano), Centennial Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Sound Formats: LPCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Picture Format: 1080p High Definition 16:9
Available Format: Blu-ray
Puccini: Tosca (DVD)
Anja Harteros, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Ludovic Tézier; Salzburger Bachchor & Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann
Filmed at last year’s Salzburg Easter Festival, Michael Sturminger’s Scorsese-influenced production was described as ‘the perfect thriller’ by Kleine Zeitung, whilst Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised Harteros’s Tosca as ‘a very modern diva, beautiful to look at and absolutely consistent in every note’.
Available Format: DVD Video
Puccini: Tosca (Blu-ray)
Anja Harteros, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Ludovic Tézier; Salzburger Bachchor & Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann
Sound format: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.0
Picture: NTSC 16:9
Available Format: Blu-ray
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
