New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 5th June 2020
Today’s new releases include a third instalment of Haydn from the Chiaroscuro Quartet, the world premiere recording of Fazil Say's 2018 cello concerto Never Give Up from its dedicatee Camille Thomas, archive Mahler from Ádám Fischer, and Beethoven from the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and their new Chief Conductor Robert Trevino.
Following their acclaimed recordings of the ‘Sun’ Quartets (praised in The Strad for their ‘exuberance and temporal flexibility’ and in BBC Music Magazine for the ‘radiant refinement of their sound, and their suave sensitivity of phrasing’), the Alina Ibragimova-led quartet turn to Op. 76, including the ‘Fifths’ and ‘Emperor’ Quartets; the album was Record of the Week on Radio Three’s Record Review last month.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Fazil Say’s new concerto Never Give Up, written for and premiered by Thomas in April 2018, is the mainstay of the Franco-Belgian cellist’s second album on Deutsche Grammophon, which also includes Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Ravel’s Kaddisch, and transcriptions of arias from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Bellini’s Norma, Massenet’s Werther, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded around Malmö’s Beethoven festival in 2019, this is the young American maestro’s first recording as Chief Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra as well as his debut on Ondine. Trevino, whose teachers have included David Zinman, Kurt Masur, Leif Segerstam and Michael Tilson Thomas, has previously held positions with the Basque National Orchestra, New York City Opera, and Cincinnati Symphony; look out for Katherine’s interview with him later this month.
Available Formats: 5 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Captured live in 1989 at the festival which Fischer founded that year, this recording pre-dates the conductor’s BBC Music Magazine Award-winning account of the symphony (‘the most lightly, as in ineffably, characterised Mahler One I’ve heard since Kubelík’s’) by two decades. Fischer has spoken of his ‘close personal bond’ with both the work itself (which was the first Mahler symphony he ever heard live) and the composer at the time of writing – Mahler was Musical Director of the Hungarian State Opera when he composed the piece, and Fischer later held that same position for a similar length of time.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC
Mendelssohn: Die erste Walpurgisnacht
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius
With an excellent, comprehensive survey of his church music and fine recordings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Paulus, Christus and Elias under their belts, Bernius and his Stuttgart singers have impressive form when it comes to Mendelssohn; now they tackle his 1843 setting of Goethe’s ‘night on the bare mountain’, supplemented with the incidental music for Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonos.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
The Venezuelan soprano makes his recording debut with arias from Handel’s Atalanta, Berenice and Arminio and Gluck’s Antigono, La Corona, La Sofonisba and Il Tigrane, three of which are world premiere recordings. Mariño’s career milestones to date include prizes at the Opéra de Marseille International Singing Competition and the Gütersloh Neue Stimmen Competition, and last year he was nominated for Opernwelt’s Best New Artist award.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Górecki: Sanctus Adalbertus
Ewa Tracz (soprano), Stanislav Kuflyuk (baritone) Silesian Philharmonic Choir, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczk
This is the world premiere recording of Górecki’s 1997 oratorio, which was written to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Polish saint’s martyrdom but remained unperformed until five years after the composer’s death in a completed version by his son Mikołaj; Górecki recycled parts of the work in his Salve, sidus Polonorum, scored for chorus and large percussion ensemble and premiered in 2000.
Available Format: CD
Henze: Der Prinz von Homburg
Štefan Margita (Friedrich Wilhelm), Helene Schneiderman (Die Kürfurstin), Vera-Lotte Böcker (Prinzessin Natalie Von Oranien), Robin Adams (Prinz Friedrich Artur von Homburg), Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Cornelius Meister
Completed in 1958 and premiered in Hamburg two years later, Henze’s opera is set in seventeenth-century Brandenburg during the Prusso-Swedish wars, with the composer citing Beethoven, Reger, Mahler, Stravinsky and Schoenberg as influences; recorded live in Stuttgart last spring, this is its first appearance on CD.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
As well as the Grieg Piano Concerto (with Alceo Galliera) and the Schumann Piano Concerto (with Herbert von Karajan) and music by Scarlatti, Chopin, Bach and Ravel, this set also incorporates five newly remastered test discs which Lipatti made with the cellist Antonio Janigro, three of which have never previously appeared on CD – the repertoire includes Fauré’s Après un rêve, Ravel’s Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera, and Rimsky Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
The Best of Tasmin Little
Tasmin Little (violin), Piers Lane, Martin Roscoe (piano), Edward Gardner, Sir Andrew Davis et al
Released to mark the British violinist’s planned retirement (now postponed due to the cancellation of numerous concerts and other events as a result of social distancing restrictions), this 2-CD set includes the Walton and Britten concertos with Edward Gardner, The Lark Ascending with Sir Andrew Davis, The Four Seasons, and shorter pieces by Schubert, Amy Beach, Elgar, Shostakovich, and William Lloyd Webber.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bizet: Carmen (2 CDs & Blu-ray Audio)
Teresa Berganza (Carmen), Plácido Domingo (Don José), Sherrill Milnes (Escamillo), Ileana Cotrubas (Micaela), London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
Newly remastered at Emil Berliner Studios in 24 bit/192kHz, this 1977 studio recording was made shortly after a landmark performance with the same team at the Edinburgh Festival, and has been praised for ‘Abbado's emphasis on close-knit ensemble and histrionic strength’ and Berganza’s ‘sensuous but never overtly sensual portrayal’ (Gramophone Classical Music Guide) of the title-role.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Blu-ray Audio, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
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