Coming Soon,
Cecilia Bartoli in L'Italiana in Algeri and other forthcoming highlights
Highlights for the rest of the summer include two new opera stagings from last year’s Salzburg Festival, with mesmerising central performances from Cecilia Bartoli as Rossini’s ‘Italian Girl in Algiers’ and Asmik Grigorian as Strauss’s Salome; there’s also Bach from Mahan Esfahani, a second volume of Carbonelli from Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort, and a superb new Beethoven cycle from Ádám Fischer and Danish Chamber Orchestra.
Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri (DVD)
Cecilia Bartoli (Isabella), Edgardo Rocha (Lindoro), Ildar Abdrazakov (Mustafà), Alessandro Corbelli (Taddeo); Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi
Filmed at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival last year, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s contemporary staging of Rossini’s comic opera was described by BachTrack as ‘slickly choreographed [and] gloriously silly’; making her stage debut in the role of Isabella, Bartoli is sassy, sensual and as scintillating as ever in Rossini’s fiendish coloratura writing, and the young Uruguayian tenor Edgardo Rocha has buckets of charm as her lover Lindoro. Released 9th August.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri (Blu-ray)
Cecilia Bartoli (Isabella), Edgardo Rocha (Lindoro), Ildar Abdrazakov (Mustafà), Alessandro Corbelli (Taddeo); Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Moshe Leiser & Patrice Caurier
Subtitles: It, E, G, Sp, F, Ko, Jp
Available Format: Blu-ray
Recorded at the former MGM Studios earlier this year with the composer in attendance, Across the Stars features Williams’s own arrangements of themes from Dracula, Sabrina, Schindler’s List, Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, the Harry Potter series and The Adventures of Tin-Tin - all custom-made for Mutter, with whom he has been friends for many years. Released 30th August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For his first Bach recording since his award-winning Goldberg Variations on Deutsche Grammophon (‘hugely stimulating’ - The Guardian), the Iranian-American harpsichordist turns to pieces which he describes as ‘amongst Bach’s most mysterious works’; the recording was made on a new instrument based on designs and writings by Michael Mietke, augmented with an additional soundboard. Released 2nd August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The first volume of Čičić’s survey of sonatas by the London-based Italian baroque composer was one of our Recordings of the Year in 2017, and was described by Gramophone as ‘a full house of deliciousness’ – two years on, he and the Illyria Consort score a full house of their own by completing the set. You can read Katherine’s interview with him about the composer here. Released 26th July.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Delius: Sea Drift - Vinyl Edition
Roy Henderson (baritone), New English Symphony Orchestra and Choir
Issued to mark the label’s ninetieth birthday this year, this limited edition vinyl re-pressing of the label’s first release feature a ‘needle-drop’ flat transfer of the original 1929 recording from the Delius Festival on the A-side, and a cleaned-up version (refurbished using the latest technology at Abbey Road) on the B-side. Released 5th July.
Available Format: Vinyl Record
The Jupiter Project
David Owen Norris (piano), Katy Bircher (flute), Caroline Balding (violin), Andrew Skidmore (cello)
Featuring arrangements of Piano Concerto No. 21 by Hummel and Johann Baptist Cramer, Clementi’s transcription of the Jupiter Symphony, and Hummel’s reduction of the Overture to Die Zauberflöte, this album aims to recreate Mozart as it would have been experienced in a nineteenth-century drawing-room. Released 2nd August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
On the evidence of the three symphonies which we’ve already test-driven in the Presto office, Fischer Senior’s Beethoven cycle (recorded at intervals over the past three years) looks set to prove as fresh and revelatory as his excellent ongoing Mahler series with his Dusseldorf orchestra; Fischer takes the unusual step of casting a countertenor, Lars Møller, in the Ninth. Released 12th July.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Seven Days Walking was inspired by the Italian composer’s regular hikes along the same Alpine trail in the winter of 2018. Day One was released on CD in March of this year and topped the UK Classical Chart, with subsequent volumes appearing digitally at monthly intervals; the entire ‘journey’ will be released as a boxed set in September. Released 20th September.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Strauss: Salome (DVD)
Asmik Grigorian, John Daszak, Anna Maria Chiuri, Gábor Bretz, Julian Prégardien; Wiener Philharmoniker, Franz Welser-Möst
Like the Italiana mentioned above, this production of Strauss’s Biblical one-acter was also captured at Salzburg last year; in the gruelling title-role, the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian (named Female Singer of the year at the 2019 International Opera Awards) was described by the Financial Times as ‘a Salome to end all Salomes’ and as ‘Salome incarnate’ by director Roman Castellucci. Released 12th July 2019.
Available Format: DVD Video
Strauss: Salome (Blu-ray)
Asmik Grigorian, John Daszak, Anna Maria Chiuri, Gábor Bretz, Julian Prégardien; Wiener Philharmoniker, Franz Welser-Möst
SOUND FORMAT: BD: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD MA 5.1
PICTURE: NTSC, 16:9
Available Format: Blu-ray
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
