New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 24th January 2020
Today’s new releases include a recital of Haydn, Schubert and Wolf from Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton, the first solo album from Swedish soprano Malin Byström, Beethoven rarities from the Fine Arts Quartet, and an early Donizetti world premiere from Bergamo, starring mezzos Anna Bonitatibus and Sonia Ganassi.
The sacred and secular muses on this second album from Bevan and Middleton (following their Gramophone award-nominated Voyages in 2017) include Ganymede, the Virgin Mary, Christ, St Peter, Venus, Dido and Arianna, with Haydn’s great cantata on the latter forming the recital’s centrepiece; the programme also includes excerpts from Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder and two of Schubert’s settings of Italian texts by Metastasio.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Berg, Duparc & Rangström: Orchestral Songs
Malin Byström (soprano), Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Stefan Solyom
For her debut solo album, the Swedish soprano (who was crowned Female Singer of the Year at the 2018 International Opera Awards following a sensational Salome at Covent Garden) sings Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, Duparc selections including La Vie antérieure, L'Invitation au voyage and Extase, and five orchestral songs by her compatriot Ture Rangström.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
After their ‘voluptuously recorded’ (Fanfare) accounts of Magnard’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 in September, Bollon & Co. turn to the ‘French Bruckner’’s first two symphonies, both dating from the early 1890s and written whilst the composer was working under the guidance of Vincent d’Indy.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Olga Neuwirth: …miramondo Multiplo…
Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Ingo Metzmacher, Susanna Mälkki, Daniel Harding
Neuwirth made history just before Christmas when her opera on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando became the first work by a female composer to be staged at the Vienna State Opera. This album presents three orchestral works which predate it: miramondo multiplo for trumpet and orchestra (2006), Remnants of Songs … an Amphigory for viola and orchestra (2009), and Masaot/Clock without Hands, dedicated to the Wiener Philharmoniker and premiered in 2015.
Available Format: CD
Bookended by the original version of String Quartet No. 1 Op. 18 and the Grosse Fuge, the Fine Arts’s programme also includes Beethoven’s arrangement of the fugue from Handel’s overture to Solomon, three fugues from the mid-1790s, and an early version of the Adagio espressivo from String Quartet No. 14.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This debut recording from the Berlin-based string quartet (founded in 2009) pairs Debussy’s quartet of 1893 with Reynaldo Hahn’s String Quartet No. 2 from 1939; Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg (who appeared on last year’s Presto Award-winning Libertà! with Pygmalion) joins for Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées in an arrangement for voice and string quartet by Noga cellist Joan Bachs.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Phan and Huang’s Gods & Monsters was nominated for a Grammy in 2017, and for their fifth album together they explore the music of the Boulanger sisters, which takes its title from Lili’s 1914 song-cycle on poems by Francis Hammes and also includes Nadia’s Soleils couchants, La mer est plus belle, Versailles and Soir d'hiver.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Featuring songs by Alma and Gustav Mahler, Wagner, Webern and Zemlinsky in new arrangements by David Matthews, Kokoschka's Doll draws on letters and diaries to tell the story of Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka’s relationship with Alma and his subsequent commissioning of a life-size replica of the composer in the aftermath of their break-up; the work was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival in 2017, with Tomlinson ‘a compelling dramatic presence’ (The Guardian) as the elderly artist.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rossini: Zelmira
Silvia Dalla Benetta, Joshua Stewart, Mert Süngü, Marina Comparato, Federico Sacchi, Luca dall'Amico; Virtuosi Brunensis, Gianluigi Gelmetti
Recorded at the Rossini In Wildbad Festival in 2017, this account of Rossini’s final Neapolitan opera presents the score in its revised 1826 incarnation for Paris; Gelmetti’s recording of Eduardo e Cristina from the festival was described as ‘driven and passionate’ (BBC Music Magazine), and praised in Opera Magazine for its ‘genuine dramatic momentum’.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Donizetti: Enrico di Borgogna (DVD)
Anna Bonitatibus, Sonia Ganassi; Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De Marchi
The world premiere video recording of the first of Donizetti’s operas to be staged, this performance of his 1818 opera eroica was captured at the 2018 Donizetti Festival in Bergamo and presents the work as a play-within-a-play, recreating the organised chaos of the original premiere in Venice. Anna Bonitatibus sings the eponymous Prince of Burgundy, with Sonia Ganassi as his beloved Elisa, and Operalia-winning South African tenor Levy Sekgapane (whose impressive debut solo album was released last summer) as the villainous usurper Guido.
Available Format: DVD Video
Donizetti: Enrico di Borgogna (Blu-ray)
Anna Bonitatibus, Sonia Ganassi; Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De Marchi
PCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
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