New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 27th September 2019
This week's releases include the first volume in a new Brahms symphonies cycle from Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Schubert's late piano sonatas from Francesco Piemontesi, the latest volume in the London Haydn Quartet's ongoing Haydn series on Hyperion, plus tenor Ed Lyon's debut solo album on Delphian featuring songs by Landi, Dowland, Lambert, Cavalli and more.
Released hot on the heels of his magnificent Korngold album with Sinfonia of London, this is the first in a projected Coates series from Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic, and includes the miniature overture The Merrymakers, the 1932 suite from the ballet The Jester at the Wedding, By the Sleepy Lagoon, I Pitch my Lonely Caravan, Dancing Nights, and the London Suite.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following his acclaimed Mendelssohn in Birmingham series with the CBSO, Gardner embarks on a Brahms cycle with his Norwegian orchestra; this first volume was recorded at the Grieghallen last October shortly after the orchestra’s ‘Brahmsfest’, which also included Ein deutsches Requiem, the Violin Concerto and the First Piano Concerto.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Previous volumes in the London Haydn Quartet’s Haydn series have been described as ‘admirably poised, expansive and superbly recorded’ (Early Music Today), ‘faultless in dexterity and intonation’ (The Observer), and ‘unwaveringly unanimous’ (The Strad); here they present the six ‘Apponyi’ quartets which Haydn composed for his second London visit in 1793.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The inaugural volume of the Danish String Quartet’s Prism series (which paired Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 with Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15) was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year and was described by Gramophone as ‘thought-provoking, and often startlingly beautiful’; this second instalment couples Beethoven’s Op. 130 quartet with Schnittke’s String Quartet No. 3.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Swiss pianist takes a break from Liszt’s Années de pélerinage (now two volumes in on Orfeo) to make his debut on Pentatone with the last three Schubert sonatas, which he began studying in 2008, receiving guidance from Alfred Brendel along the way: you can read Piemontesi’s reflections on these works on his blog. Last August, he embarked on a mission to perform the composer’s complete piano works, which will continue in partnership with Wigmore Hall over the coming years.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, 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.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Kolesnikov’s 2016 recording of twenty-four Chopin mazurkas on Hyperion won a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award; this new album includes another nine mazurkas, two impromptus, three waltzes and the Fantasy in F minor Op. 49. Classical Ear described its predecessor as ‘arguably the best Chopin recording I have encountered in recent years’, and MusicWeb International's reviewer deemed it ‘one of the most appealing Chopin discs I’ve ever come across.’
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Described by The Independent as ‘one of the pre-eminent Baroque tenors of our time’, Lyon has a substantial discography of opera and oratorio to his name (including several notable Handel recordings on Delphian), but this programme of music by Cavalli, Landi, Moulinié, Lanier and Dowland is his debut solo album.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Elegy – Countertenor duets by Purcell & Blow
Iestyn Davies, James Hall (countertenors), The King’s Consort, Robert King
Hot on the heels of his album of Purcell and Michael Nyman with Fretwork, Davies is joined by up-and-coming fellow countertenor James Hall (who created the role of Guildenstern in Brett Dean’s Hamlet) for a programme which includes Purcell's Sound the Trumpet and Since the Toils and the Hazards of War, and Blow’s Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Schubert: Schwanengesang & Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge
Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)
‘Swan-songs’ may be the theme of this recital, but there’s no suggestion that the Canadian bass-baritone is gearing up for retirement! He and Drake have been working together on Hyperion for nearly fifteen years, notching up Gramophone Awards for their recordings of Britten’s Songs & Proverbs of William Blake, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, and songs by Samuel Barber.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (1869 Version)
Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Boris), Maxim Paster (Shuisky), Mika Kares (Pimen), Sergei Skorokhodov (Grigory); Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano
Recorded live at the Konserthuset Stockholm in March 2017, this performance presents the original version of Mussorgsky’s opera (with several small cuts); reviewing the concert, BachTrack praised Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk’s ‘commanding, if perhaps young, Boris’, the ‘amazing incisiveness’ of the Göteborg Opera Chorus, and the ‘extreme precision’ of Nagano’s direction in the massive crowd scenes.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
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