New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 16th August 2019
Today’s new releases include a Verdi recital from Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov, high-wire Rossini from Operalia winner Levy Sekgapane, and a bicentenary tribute to Clara Schumann which includes the world premiere recording of Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody (composed for the wedding of Clara’s daughter Julie) in a version for tenor and female chorus.
The charismatic Russian bass proved a master of comic timing on last Friday’s Recording of the Week (Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri from Salzburg), but his first solo album on Deutsche Grammophon showcases his darker, more dramatic side with a programme including arias and scenes from Nabucco, Oberto, Simon Boccanegra, Luisa Miller, I Vespri Siciliani, Ernani, Macbeth, Attila and Don Carlo.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Unico Wilhelm Van Wassenaer and The Recorder in the Low Countries
Erik Bosgraaf (recorder), Francesco Corti (harpsichord)
The eponymous nobleman and diplomat is one of only two native Dutchmen on this collection of eighteenth-century recorder sonatas, but all of the composers featured here have a connection to the Low Countries: Andreas Parcham, Johann Christian Schickhardt and Jean-Marie Leclair all worked in the Republic, whilst Ghent-born Jean-Baptiste Loeillet’s sonatas were all published in Amsterdam.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Hasse at Home - Cantatas and Sonatas
Le Musiche Nove, Veronika Kralova (soprano), Elisa Cozzini (flute), Viola Mattioni (cello), Federica Bianchi (harpsichord)
A collection of chamber and vocal works which Hasse composed for domestic performance in ‘urban mansions and country residences’, including sonatas for flute, cello and harpsichord, and the world premiere recordings of three secular cantatas, Pallido il volto, Clori mio ben and Perché leggiadra Irene, sung by soprano Veronika Kralova.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The German ensemble perform three works for string sextet by British composers from around the turn of the twentieth century: Gustav Holst’s Scherzo from 1897, Joseph Holbrooke’s Sextet Op. 43 ‘Henry Vaughan’ (named for the seventeenth-century devotional poet) from 1902, and Frank Bridge’s String Sextet in E flat, premiered in 1913 with the composer himself on first viola.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Love? Homage to Clara Schumann
Andreas Groethuysen (piano), Julian Prégardien (tenor), Yaara Tal (piano), Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
This bicentenary tribute to the composer and virtuoso pianist includes the Three Romances which she dedicated to her husband Robert, the Three Preludes which Theodor Kirchner dedicated to Clara, and two works which Brahms dedicated to her daughter Julie: the Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, and the Alto Rhapsody which he composed as a wedding-gift, given here in an arrangement for tenor and female choir.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The South African tenor (who won First Prize at the 2017 Operalia Competition) makes his recording debut with an all-Rossini album, including arias from L’italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola, Semiramide, Otello, La donna del lago, Zelmira, Il Turco in Italia and Il barbiere di Siviglia; reviewing his Glyndebourne debut in the latter opera earlier this year, the Financial Times observed that he ‘tosses off his stratospherically high notes with relaxed charm’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Captain Blood: Classic Film Scores for Errol Flynn
National Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Gerhardt
This tribute to the swashbuckling Hollywood star includes music from Korngold’s The Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, Max Steiner’s Dodge City, They Died With Their Boots On and Adventures of Don Juan, Franz Waxman’s Objective, Burma!, and Hugo Friedhofer’s The Sun Also Rises.
Available Format: SACD
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