Coming Soon,
Quatuor Ébène's Beethoven odyssey and other forthcoming highlights
September highlights include the first of a series of live Beethoven recordings from Quatuor Ébène, John Nelson’s memorial performance of Berlioz’s Requiem from St Paul’s Cathedral on the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death, the world premiere recordings of two concertos by Gabriel Prokofiev, and the original one-act version of Puccini’s first opera Le Willis, with Ermonela Jaho as the betrayed woman who goads her faithless lover into exhaustion and insanity from beyond the grave.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth next year, the Ébènes will tour 21 countries with the Beethoven string quartets, making live recordings in Vienna, Philadelphia, Tokyo, São Paulo, Melbourne, Nairobi and Paris; this first instalment was captured at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and a documentary of their journey will be released at the end of 2020. Released 27th September.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Gabriel Prokofiev: Saxophone Concerto, Bass Drum Concerto
Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Joby Burgess (timpani), Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexey Bogorad
The world premiere recordings of two works for instruments which only rarely feature as concerto soloists, both performed by their dedicatees: the Bass Drum Concerto for virtuoso percussionist Joby Burgess (composed in 2012), and the Saxophone Concerto for Branford Marsalis, first performed in Naples in 2016. Released 27th September.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Symphonic Dances
Dong Hyek Lim (piano), Martha Argerich (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Vedernikov
The South Korean pianist is joined by his mentor Martha Argerich for the composer’s own transcription of his Symphonic Dances for two pianos, and by the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a work which he describes as ‘a feast of continuation of overwhelmingly beautiful and heart-throbbing melodies’. Released 13th September.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Recorded at the Barbican in March of last year, this first instalment of a projected Schumann cycle from Gardiner and the LSO prompted The Guardian to describe the conductor as ‘one of the great Schumann interpreters, wonderfully alert to the music’s volatility and rigour’; the album opens with the Overture to Genoveva. Released 20th September.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their critically-acclaimed accounts of piano quintets by Schumann, Franck and Shostakovich, Hamelin and the Hungarian quartet team up to explore the chamber music of Ernő Dohnányi, opening with the 1895 quintet which was composed whilst he was still in his teens, and piqued Brahms’s interest so much that he requested a private performance. Released 1st November.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition makes his debut on Hyperion with an all-Shostakovich recital which sandwiches the complete Preludes Op. 34 between the two piano sonatas, rounded off by the two-minute Nocturne from The Limpid Stream. Released 27th September.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Canadian contralto performs a triptych of late nineteenth-century works inspired by the sea: Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Chausson’s Poème de l'amour et de la mer, and the world premiere recording of Victorin Joncières’s ‘ode symphonique’ La mer on four poems by Édouard Guinand, whose work was also set by Chaminade and Debussy. Released 13th September.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Puccini: Le Willis
Ermonela Jaho (Anna), Arsen Soghomonyan (Roberto), Brian Mulligan (Guglielmo) Opera Rara Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder
Following her success as Leoncavallo’s Zazà last year, the Albanian soprano Jaho tackles a far more vengeful abandoned woman, Anna in Puccini’s early supernatural opera, given here in the original one-act version which the young composer submitted for a competition held by the music publisher Sonzogno in 1883. Look out for Katherine's exclusive interview with her about the role next month. Released 20th September.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
