New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 3rd May 2019
Today’s new releases include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde from Ádám Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 6 and 9 from Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester, late Beethoven sonatas from Steven Osborne, and the solo recording debut of pianist Martin James Bartlett, who won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2014.
The fourth instalment of Nelsons’s widely acclaimed Bruckner cycle includes Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and the Prelude to Act One of Parsifal as well as the two symphonies; reviewing a live account of the Ninth shortly after this recording was made, Boston Classical Review observed that Nelsons ‘led [the performance] as if he were taking listeners on a tour through a spacious cathedral'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Anna Larsson (contralto), Stuart Skelton (tenor), Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Ádám Fischer
His brother Iván may have waited until the end of his own Mahler cycle to release Mahler’s Song of the Earth (that recording with the Budapest Festival Orchestra is scheduled for next year), but Fischer Junior is getting in there early – this is the sixth instalment in a cycle that’s attracted praise for its ‘magisterial power’ (BBC Music Magazine) and the ‘extraordinary kinship and telepathy’ between conductor and orchestra (Gramophone).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Thirty years on from his landmark Venetian Coronation, McCreesh weaves music and readings from the coronations of Edward VII, George V, George VI, and Elizabeth II into a composite ceremony which includes works by Purcell, Handel, Elgar, Howells and Parry, and features Simon Russell Beale as the Archbishop of Canterbury; you can read David's recent interview with Paul about the album here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Scottish pianist's previous Beethoven recordings have attracted praise for their ‘potency and lucidity’ (The Daily Telegraph), ‘rhythmically incisive brilliance’ (The Observer), and ‘exquisitely polished pianism’ (International Record Review); Pianist Magazine have already declared these accounts of the late sonatas to be ‘a distinguished release that should be on any shortlist of recommendations’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For his first solo recording since completing his mammoth cycle of the Bach cantatas with Bach Collegium Japan, the Japanese conductor and harpsichordist tackles the English Suites; his earlier recordings of Bach’s keyboard music have been praised for their ‘sense of delight and keen ear for their distinctive qualities’ (Gramophone on the 2003 French Suites) and ‘taut structure’ (BBC Music Magazine on the 2012 Goldberg Variations).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year winner makes his solo recording debut on Warner Classics with a programme which includes Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnets and paraphrases of Wagner’s Liebestod and Schumann’s Widmung, Bach chorale transcriptions by Myra Hess and Busoni, El amor y la muerte from Granados’s Goyescas, and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5
Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jean-Jacques Kantorow
Jean-Jacques Kantarow has done double duty as conductor and violinist on two volumes of his acclaimed Saint-Saëns series with the Finnish orchestra, and now he keeps it in the family with these recordings of the last three piano concertos, which see his son Alexandre joining as soloist; the same forces recorded ‘dramatic and intellectually probing’ (The Times) accounts of the Liszt concertos together in 2014.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Elgar’s String Quartet was composed for the original Brodsky Quartet, and their namesake made its recording debut with the piece back in 1984 (‘superlatively idiomatic…This is quartet-playing of the first order’ - Gramophone). This new recording was made last year to mark the centenary of both works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Stanford: Mass 'Via Victrix' & At the Abbey Gate
Kiandra Howarth (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), Ruairi Bowen (tenor), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone); BBC National Chorus & Orchestra of Wales, Adrian Partington
Stanford’s Mass was composed in 1919 to commemorate the allied victory in World War One, but had to wait until last October to receive its first complete public performance; reviewing the premiere, the Church Times deemed the piece as ‘a major work. Stanford poured all his skills and emotions into it’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Edvard Grieg Kor sings Grieg
Audun Iversen (baritone), Edvard Grieg Kor, Paul Robinson, Håkon Matti Skrede
The resident a cappella ensemble at Grieg’s home, Troldhaugen, have great fun with a Swingle-esque arrangement of the Holberg Suite, with the stratospheric sopranos in particular on impressive form; their debut recording also includes the Four Psalms Op. 74 and Ave Maris Stella, and works by Ole Bull, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, and david lang.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
