New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 22nd February 2019
Today’s new releases include the seventh instalment of Giovanni Antonini’s Haydn 2032 project, Thomas Adès’s extravagantly surreal third opera on DVD and Blu-ray, live Stravinsky and Debussy from Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, and Busoni’s epic Piano Concerto from Kirill Gerstein, Sakari Oramo and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The seventh volume of Antonini’s projected series of the complete Haydn symphonies (destined for completion on the tercentenary of the composer’s death in fourteen years’ time!) focuses on music which had its origins in the theatre, including Symphonies Nos. 9, 65 and 67, and the four entr'actes for Mozart's Thamos, König in Ägypten, composed at around the same time as the latter two works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Busoni: Piano Concerto
Kirill Gerstein (piano), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Sakari Oramo
Lasting over an hour and scored for vast forces including a veritable battery of percussion and a 50-strong male chorus, Busoni’s five-movement Piano Concerto is a relative rarity in the concert-hall thanks to the logistical challenges which it poses; this project has been a labour of love for pianist Kirill Gerstein, who talked to Katherine recently about the piece, which he describes as ‘a Mahler-esque symphony, but with an Italianate flavour’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos.1, 3 & 4
Vadym Kholodenko (piano), Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya
The first volume of the Cliburn Gold Medalist’s Prokofiev concertos with the Forth Worth Symphony (made during his tenure as their first-ever ‘Artist in Partnership’ in 2014/5) impressed International Piano with its ‘straightforward brilliance’, whilst CD Review observed that ‘there is no doubt about his virtuosity and his affinity with Prokofiev’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
John Kitchen plays British Light Music on the Organ of the Usher Hall, Edinburgh
John Kitchen (organ)
The City Organist of Edinburgh pays homage to the Golden Age of British light music in a programme which includes excerpts from Arthur Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Tempest and The Yeomen of the Guard, and Michael Thomson’s Salute to Busby Berkeley, Parc de Paris, Whirly-Granny, and Tullich to Inverey.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French flautist Anna Besson specialised in Irish traditional music before moving into the baroque repertoire with which she has made her name; she’s joined here by Belgian tenor Reinoud van Mechelen for a programme of songs which were popular in the salons of eighteenth-century Dublin, including Jack Latine, Ailen Aroon, Will ye go to Flanders, and Teague, the Irish Trooper.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For the sequel to her debut album on Decca (praised for her ‘fearsome virtuosity and superb technique’ by BBC Music Magazine), the young Dutch recorder-player embarks on a musical journey through Europe, taking in works by François Couperin, Marin Marais, JS Bach, Dario Castello, Jacob van Ryck and Henry Purcell, as well as the world premiere recording of a concerto by French composer Jacques-Christophe Naudot.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Purcell: The Cares of Lovers
Rowan Pierce (soprano), William Carter (theorbo), Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
For her debut solo album, the British soprano (who impressed with her ‘choral’ contributions on Christian Curnyn’s one-voice-per-part recording of Acis and Galatea) presents an all-Purcell programme including Sweeter than Roses, Bess of Bedlam, O solitude, Music for a While, and The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
