New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 24th April 2020
Today's new releases include Strauss tone-poems from Krzysztof Urbański and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, a second helping of Beethoven from Andrew Manze and Martin Helmchen, the first complete recording of Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne's 1786 opera Phèdre, and a spectacular and illuminating staging of Purcell's King Arthur, conducted by René Jacobs.
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Krzysztof Urbański
Following well-received recordings of Dvořák, Lutosławski, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov, the Hamburg orchestra and their principal guest conductor devote their sixth album on Alpha Classics to tone-poems by Richard Strauss.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hot on the heels of their recordings of the four symphonies (‘Magnard responds well to Bollon’s spontaneous tempo shifts and ferocious energy’ - Fanfare), Bollon & Co. present a selection of smaller-scale orchestral works by the ‘French Bruckner’: the Ouverture Op. 10, Chant Funèbre, Hymne à la Justice, Hymne à Vénus, and Suite dans le style ancien.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
As a postscript to her recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas (‘her credentials are impeccable’ - Gramophone), Kodama explores transcriptions of movements from his string quartets by Saint-Saëns, Mussorgsky and Balakirev, followed by Beethoven’s own set of variations on the finale of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4
Martin Helmchen (piano), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Andrew Manze
The first instalment of Helmchen and Manze’s Beethoven cycle was nominated for an International Classical Music Award and was described as ‘a meeting of minds’ in Gramophone (who awarded it an Editor’s Choice last December), whilst International Piano declared that ‘these are excellent performances – the interpretative gold is undeniable’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The princess in question on this album is Anne, Princess of Orange (1709-1759), the eldest daughter of King George II, who was taught by Handel for eleven years and was also the dedicatee of Kapellmeister Jean-Marie Leclair’s fourth book of flute sonatas – two of which appear here, alongside Handel’s The Harmonious Blacksmith and Keyboard Sonata HWV428, arranged for flute and harpsichord.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Premiered in 1913, Holst’s choral ode sets his own translation of a text by the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa, which tells of an story of an exiled yaksha who enlists the help of a passing cloud to communicate with his distant wife; it’s given here in a new chamber arrangement by conductor Joseph Fort, and paired with the set of five part-songs which Holst completed shortly before beginning work on The Cloud Messenger.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Scored for voice and electronics/tape, the four works on this album were all written for Fraser over the past five years: they comprise Lisa Ilean’s A through-grown earth, Nomi Epstein’s Collections for Juliet, Lawrence Dunn’s While we are both, and Sivan Eldar’s Heave.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne: Phèdre
Judith van Wanroij (Phèdre), Julien Behr (Hippolyte), Tassis Christoyannis (Thésée), Melody Louledjian (Œnone); Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi
In the wake of impressive recordings of rarities by Montéclair, Gervais, Mondonville and Méhul continue their excavations of neglected French repertoire with this world premiere of Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s tragédie lyrique on the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, which was composed some fifty years after Rameau’s great setting of the same myth in Hippolyte et Aricie and looks forward to early Romanticism.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Using a new performing edition by Jacobs, and sung in English with German dialogue, this inventive staging of Purcell’s ‘dramatick opera’ after Dryden was filmed at Berlin’s Staatsoper im Schiller Theater in January 2017 and throws puppet theatre and flying machines into the mix as a young boy in the 1940s pores over a story-book of Arthurian legends; the production was praised by BachTrack as a feast of ‘magnificent music and opulent visuals’.
Available Format: DVD Video
Picture Format: HD 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Verdi: Falstaff (DVD)
Roberto De Candia (Falstaff), Simone Piazzola (Ford), Rebecca Evans (Alice), Daniela Barcellona (Mistress Quickly), Ruth Iniesta (Nannetta), Joel Prieto (Fenton), Maite Beaumont (Meg Page); Daniele Rustioni, Teatro Real, Laurent Pelly
Filmed in Madrid last spring, Pelly’s staging places the action in the 1960s/70s and was described as ‘amusing but thoughtful’ by Opera Wire, who observed that ‘it’s incredible how he can do so much with so little’ and also praised the up-and-coming Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni’s ‘passionate reading of the score’ and the Teatro Real chorus’s ‘acting and dancing abilities’ – both of which are utilised to great effect by Pelly in this production.
Available Format: DVD Video
Verdi: Falstaff
Roberto De Candia (Falstaff), Simone Piazzola (Ford), Rebecca Evans (Alice), Daniela Barcellona (Mistress Quickly), Ruth Iniesta (Nannetta), Joel Prieto (Fenton), Maite Beaumont (Meg Page); Teatro Real, Daniele Rustioni, Laurent Pelly
Sound Format: 2.0 PCM and 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio
Available Format: Blu-ray
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
