New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 14th June 2019
Today’s new releases include songs by Brahms, Schubert and Mahler from Renée Fleming, the final volume of Pieter Wispelwey and Paolo Giacometti’s Schubert/Brahms series, Kabalevsky from the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and operatic rarities by Korngold and Mercadante on DVD and Blu-ray.
Lieder: Schumann, Brahms, Mahler
Renée Fleming (soprano), Hartmut Höll (piano); Münchner Philharmoniker, Christian Thielemann
On her first Lieder album in nearly twenty years, the American soprano sings Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -Leben and a selection of Brahms songs (including Wiegenlied, Lerchengesang, Mondnacht, and Die Mainacht) with Hartmut Höll, and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with Christian Thielemann and the Münchner Philharmoniker.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Set down in Bamberg last June, this is Blomstedt’s first recording with the German orchestra, who appointed him Honorary Conductor in 2006 after more than two decades of regular work together; the American-born Swedish conductor has previously recorded Mahler with the San Francisco and NHK Symphony Orchestras.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The overture to Kabalevsky’s first opera Colas Breugnon is the swashbuckling curtain-raiser here, followed by the First Symphony from 1932 (composed to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution), and the Second Symphony of 1934, which was a favourite of Toscanini; the Overture Pathetique from 1960 rounds off the programme.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Inspired by anxiety regarding climate change, John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean (the sequel to Become River from 2010) won a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 2015; commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the third part of the triptych was premiered in 2017 and described as ‘packed with drama in microcosm’.
Available Formats: CD + DVD Video, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Wu Wei collaborates with Holland Baroque on an East-meets-West programme which includes improvisations on traditional Chinese melodies and arrangements of music by Rameau, Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach; you can watch him giving a brief history and demonstration of the sheng (an ancient Chinese mouth-organ constructed from bamboo and metal) here.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The final instalment of Wispelwey and Giacometti’s Schubert/Brahms duo series opens with the world premiere recording of this transcription of Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 1 (arranged for cello, but retaining the original key of G major rather than being shifted to D), followed by the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor and Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata; their earlier recording of the piece for Channel Classics was a Building A Library First Choice in 2012.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Latvian choir’s recording of Rachmaninov’s Vespers back in 2013 was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award and was praised in The Times for its ‘sepulchral basses, soft-grained but strong sopranos, tenors who soar without strain’; for their latest album they turn their attention to another seminal work from the Russian a cappella repertoire, supplemented with the Nine Sacred Choruses from the mid-1880s.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
John Tavener’s meditative 1989 composition for cello and strings is the mainstay of this album from British cellist Matthew Barley, which also includes readings of WB Yeats and Frithjof Schuon by Julie Christie and Olwyn Fouéré and a collaboration with tabla player Sukhvinder ‘Pinky’ Singh. You can read David’s interview with Barley about the recording here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane (DVD)
Sara Jakubiak, Brian Jagde, Josef Wagner, Okka von der Damerau; Deutsche Oper Berlin, Marc Albrecht, Christof Loy
This 2018 production of Korngold’s 1927 opera (which the composer himself regarded as his greatest work) was filmed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and was described by Classical Voice America as ‘what can only be hoped will be a comeback for a neglected masterpiece’, while BR Klassik observed that Albrecht ‘succeeds in making Korngold's over-orchestrated score appear transparent’.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane (Blu-ray)
Sara Jakubiak, Brian Jagde, Josef Wagner, Okka von der Damerau; Deutsche Oper Berlin, Marc Albrecht, Christof Loy
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Mercadante: Didone abbandonata (DVD)
Viktorija Miškūnaitė, Katrin Wundsam, Emilie Renard, Carlo Vincenzo Allemano; Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De Marchi
Premiered in Turin in 1823, Mercadante’s operatic treatment of the Queen of Carthage adds a third wheel to the central relationship by introducing a Machiavellian rival for Dido’s affections in the form of the Moorish king Jarba; this performance was filmed at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival last year, and was praised in Opera Wire for the ‘power and flexibility’ of Lithuanian soprano Miškūnaitė in the formidable title-role and the ‘dramatically powerful’ staging by Jürgen Flimm.
Available Format: DVD Video
Mercadante: Didone abbandonata (Blu-ray)
Viktorija Miškūnaitė, Katrin Wundsam, Emilie Renard, Carlo Vincenzo Allemano; Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De Marchi
Picture format: HD 16:9
Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-HD 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
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