New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 29th November 2019
Today’s new releases include the earliest version of Beethoven’s sole opera from René Jacobs and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Angela Hewitt’s second recording of the Bach Partitas (this time around on a Fazioli piano), two symphonies by the teenage Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky from Peter Donohoe.
Beethoven: Leonore
Marlis Petersen (Leonore), Maximilian Schmitt (Florestan), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Rocco); Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs
Jacobs presents the earliest, three-act incarnation of Beethoven’s only opera, which pre-dates Fidelio by nine years and was premiered at the Theater an der Wien in 1805; the cast also includes Robin Johannsen as Marzelline, Johannes Chum as Jaquino, and Johannes Weisser (the Don Giovanni on Jacobs’s superb Mozart/Da Ponte series) as Pizarro.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hewitt first recorded the Partitas on a Steinway in the late 1990s, winning praise from the Gramophone Classical Music Guide for the ‘rhythmic vitality, subtly varied articulation and unfailing clarity of texture’ on display in her interpretations; now partway through a ‘Bach Odyssey’ which began in September 2016, she revisits them here on her own Fazioli piano, captured in the magical acoustic of the Kulturzentrum Gustav Mahler in Toblach.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The third instalment in Fischer’s Saint-Saëns series from Utah sandwiches his popular ‘zoological fantasy’ of 1886 with two less familiar works composed in his teens: the Mendelssohn and Weber-influenced Symphony in A from 1850 (which the composer left unnumbered) and the Symphony No. 1 in E flat from three years later, which was admired by Gounod and Berlioz.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G & Le Tombeau de Couperin
Javier Perianes (piano), Orchestre de Paris, Josep Pons
The Piano Concerto in G is the centrepiece of this all-Ravel programme, which also includes both the piano and orchestral versions of Le tombeau de Couperin and Alborada del gracioso; reviewing a performance of the concerto by Perianes back in 2015, the Spanish newspaper El País praised his ‘impeccable technique as well as [his] great musical inspiration’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Von der Goltz and the Freiburgers present five symphonies which Mozart composed during his European tour (the earliest, K16, was written when he was just eight), interspersed with the much later Five Contredanses K609, one of which quotes ‘Non più andrai’ from Le nozze di Figaro.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Berio, MacMillan, Verbey: Trombone Concertos
Jörgen van Rijen (trombone), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Iván Fischer, Markus Stenz and Ed Spanjaard
The principal trombonist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performs two works which were written especially for him: James MacMillan’s single-movement concerto from 2016 (composed in the aftermath of his granddaughter’s death and described by The Scotsman as ‘a crushingly honest, personal and agonising cry from the heart’) and Theo Verbey’s 2007 Lied. Berio’s SOLO (composed for Christian Lindberg in 1999) completes the programme.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Donohoe won a Gramophone Award in 1988 for his recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos, but reflects that ‘it is inexplicable to me that Tchaikovsky’s solo piano music should remain so infrequently performed’ – he plays his part in redressing the oversight here with a programme which centres on the large-scale G major Sonata and also includes the Six Pieces on One Theme, Scherzo à la russe, the Rustic Russian Scene, and numerous smaller pieces.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The British early music ensemble explore the music of sixteenth-century Flemish composer Hermann Matthias Werrecore, who served as maestro di capella for nearly three decades, plus a motet by his predecessor Franchinus Gaffurius and works by Josquin, Gaspar van Weerbeke and Dominique Phinot, most of which were held in the Milan library during Werrecore’s tenure.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their well-received recordings of Palestrina’s Missa Confitebor tibi Domine and the Brahms and Fauré Requiems, the young American choir and their British music director present Schütz’s Weihnachts-Historie from 1660, plus a selection of motets including Hodie Christus natus est and Ein Kind ist uns geboren.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Karl Münchinger - The Classical Legacy
Wiener Philharmoniker, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger
This 8-CD box opens with six recordings of Haydn symphonies from the late 1950s and early 60s, followed by works including Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Ein musikalischer Spaß and ‘Paris’ and ‘Haffner’ symphonies, and Boccherini and Haydn cello concertos with Pierre Fournier.
Available Formats: 8 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Berliner Philharmoniker, Seiji Ozawa, Paavo Järvi, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded over the last decade and present on nine CDs and Blu-ray audio and video, this hardcover edition includes performances by Seiji Ozawa, Paavo Järvi, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, and Sir Simon Rattle and is supplemented by portraits of each conductor, scholarly introductions to the symphonies, and an essay by Richard Taruskin.
Available Formats: 9 CDs + 1 Blu-ray Audio + 3 Blu-ray Videos, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
