New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 12th July 2019
Today’s new releases include the first recording of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto for Nicola Benedetti (which draws on influences as diverse as Brahms, Stravinsky, Robert Johnson and Duke Ellington), the CD release of last month’s Summer Night Concert from Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace, a new clarinet concerto by Joseph Phibbs, and an outstanding Salome from last year’s Salzburg Festival, with Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian in the title-role.
Marsalis: Violin Concerto & Fiddle Dance Suite
Nicola Benedetti (violin), Philadelphia Orchestra, Cristian Măcelaru
The Scottish violinist gives the world premiere recording of Marsalis’s Violin Concerto (his first composition for classical violin, written in collaboration with Benedetti and first performed in London in 2015), and the Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin, premiered earlier this year and drawing on Scottish, Irish, jazz and ragtime influences.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The German-born percussionist’s debut solo album features new music by Guillo Espel, Eric Sammut, Oriol Cruixent and Marco Pereira as well as Vassileva’s arrangement of Grigoraș Dinicu's Hora Staccato, two of her own compositions, and Japanese marimba-player Keiko Abe’s Variations of Dowland’s Lachrimae Pavane.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Filmed at the baroque park of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace last month, the concert opens with the overture to Bernstein’s Candide and includes Max Steiner’s Casablanca Suite, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, Barber’s Adagio, and Ziehrer’s Sternenbanner-Marsch; Yuja Wang joins the orchestra for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and the evening closes with the Hoe-Down from Copland’s Rodeo by way of encore. DVD and Blu-ray releases will follow later this month.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Phibbs & Mozart: Clarinet Concertos
Mark van de Wiel (clarinet), Philharmonia Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Warren-Green
Premiered by van de Wiel and the Philharmonia Orchestra in 2017, Joseph Phibbs’s Clarinet Concerto was described by the Sunday Times as lyrical and virtuosic…and accessible without sounding old-fashioned’, and by its first conductor Edward Gardner as ‘a joy to work on and perform’; it’s coupled here with a live recording of the Mozart concerto, made at Cadogan Hall in 2013.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Generally regarded as the founder of the Mannheim School, the Czech composer and violinist Johann Stamitz (1717-57) composed almost sixty symphonies, and was largely responsible for establishing the four-movement structure of the genre which would endure for well over a century; the five works here were composed in Mannheim in the early 1750s, and showcase his capacity for melodic invention and virtuosic string-writing.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rossini: Eduardo e Cristina
Silvia Dalla Benetta (soprano), Laura Polverelli (mezzo-soprano), Kenneth Tarver and Xiang Xu (tenors), Baurzhan Anderzhanov (bass); Virtuosi Brunensis & Camerata Bach Choir, Gianluigi Gelmetti
Composed at breakneck speed in 1819 and including recycled material from Ermione, Ricciardo and Zoraide and Adelaide di Borgogna, Rossini’s Swedish two-acter was extremely successful in its own lifetime but is only rarely performed today; this live recording was taken from a fully-staged production at the Bad Wildbad Festival in 2017, which was described as ‘an evening of pure bel canto pleasure!’ by Operagazet.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Strauss: Salome (DVD)
Asmik Grigorian (Salome), John Daszak (Herod), Anna Maria Chiuri (Herodias), Gábor Bretz (Jokanaan), Julian Prégardien (Narraboth) Wiener Philharmoniker, Franz Welser-Möst
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.
Available Format: DVD Video
Strauss: Salome (Blu-ray)
Asmik Grigorian (Salome), John Daszak (Herod), Anna Maria Chiuri (Herodias), Gábor Bretz (Jokanaan), Julian Prégardien (Narraboth); Wiener Philharmoniker, Franz Welser-Möst
Sound Format: BD: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD MA 5.1
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Available Format: Blu-ray
The Swiss festival celebrated its silver anniversary last summer with a wide-ranging programme featuring music by Bach, Smetana, Rachmaninov, Rossini, Dvořák, Lutosławski and others; the line-up included festival veterans such as Valery Gergiev, András Schiff, Mischa Maisky and Dmitri Sitkovetsky and newcomers Seong-Jin Cho, Edgar Moreau, and Andrei Ioniță.
Available Format: DVD Video
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
