New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 6th December 2019
Today’s new releases include a tribute to Farinelli from Cecilia Bartoli and Il Giardino Armonico, Franck and Chopin from Gautier Capuçon and Yuja Wang, Marais from German gamba-player Johanna Rose, and premiere recordings of three symphonies by the British TV and film-composer Christopher Gunning.
Ten years on from Sacrificium, Bartoli focuses on the most celebrated castrato of them all, Carlo Maria Broschi (aka Farinelli), with a collection of arias from his brother Riccardo’s La Merope (one of which is a world premiere), Porpora’s Polifemo, Semiramide and La festa d’imeneo, Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, Caldara’s La morte d’Abel, and Giacomelli’s Adriano in Siria.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Capuçon and Wang’s programme opens with Jules Delsart’s transcription of the Franck Violin Sonata, followed by Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise Brillante and Cello Sonata in G minor, and rounded off by Astor Piazzólla's Le Grand Tango; the recording was made at Koerner Hall, Toronto as part of their North American tour earlier this year, during a performance which the Toronto Star praised for the ‘perfect unity’ and ‘remarkable technique’ of the duo.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
A pupil of Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett, Gunning’s film and TV credits include Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Porterhouse Blue and the 1994 BBC adaptation of Middlemarch; the three symphonies here were composed between 2003 and 2018, and receive their first recordings on this album.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The German gamba-player’s first album on Rubicon (a recital of CPE Bach, released two years ago) was described by Gramophone as ‘a really strong solo debut’; now she turns her attention to the music of Marin Marais, one of the instrument’s greatest champions, interspersed with pieces by Visée, Rameau and François Couperin.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the British composer’s birth, this album features two large-scale works (the Missa Sancti Petri from 1987 and Crucifixus pro nobis from 1961), three Christmas carols, and two pieces written especially for the Choir of St Mary’s: Awake my Glory and What love is this of thine?.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The two main works here are Roderick Williams’s A New England Symphony (setting texts by writers including Quaker abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier and James Pennington, the first black student to be admitted to Yale) and Reena Esmail’s This love between us – Prayers for unity, which brings together texts from seven major world religions. Also includes shorter works by Daniel Kellogg, Tawnie Olson and David Hill.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Kathleen Ferrier in New York
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto), John Newmark (piano), Set Svanholm (tenor), New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Pre-dating the great English contralto’s landmark Decca account of Das Lied with Walter, Patzak and the Wiener Philharmoniker by four years, this live recording was made at Carnegie Hall in 1948 and has been newly remastered by Norman White and Adrian Tuddenham; the album also includes Bach’s Vergiss mein nicht, Bist du bei mir and Ach, dass nicht die letzte Stunde with John Newmark.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Moura Lympany - The Decca Legacy
Moura Lympany (piano), Sir Adrian Boult, Royalton Kisch, Anatole Fistoulari
Featuring concertos by Grieg, Schumann, Liszt and Khachaturian and solo works by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Poulenc and Balakirev, this 7-CD set includes previously unreleased material such as a 1947 studio recording of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 and live broadcasts of Alan Rawsthorne’s First Piano Concerto (under Adrian Boult) and Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
