New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 6th November 2020
Today’s new releases include Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals and a Christmas story by Michael Morpurgo from the Kanneh-Mason family, Brahms and Schumann lieder from Elīna Garanča and Malcolm Martineau, the final instalment of Martin Helmchen and Andrew Manze’s Beethoven concertos series, and Thalberg’s L’art du chant appliqué au piano from Australian pianist (and international lawyer) Paul Wee.
For their first recording as a family, the Kanneh-Masons present Saint-Saëns’s ‘zoological fantasy’ (interspersed with readings from Olivia Colman) alongside Michael Morpurgo’s Grandpa Christmas story, which incorporates music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Heifetz. The album also includes new arrangements of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and Eric Whitacre’s The Seal Lullaby.
A deluxe edition of this album will be released on 20th November, including full texts and illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
If you’re in the market for another animal-based fantasy narrated by a national treasure, there’s also this lovely new account of Poulenc’s story of Babar the Elephant, based on a tale by French author and illustrator Jean de Brunhoff and born out of musical ideas which Poulenc improvised for an army of small cousins in the early 1940s.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
For her first-ever Lieder recording, the Latvian mezzo joins forces with Martineau (now her regular recital-partner) for Schumann’s Frauenliebe und-leben and a selection of Brahms songs including Heimweh, Von ewiger Liebe, Mädchenlied, Geheimnis, and Sapphische Ode. Look out for Katherine’s forthcoming interview with Garanča about her childhood exposure to this repertoire, and her preparations for her first Wagner role, Kundry, which is scheduled for Easter 2021.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 & Triple Concerto
Martin Helmchen (piano), Antje Weithaas (violin), Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello); Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Andrew Manze
Just in time for the anniversary of the composer’s birth later this month, Manze and Helmchen complete their acclaimed cycle of the piano concertos, throwing in the Triple for good measure; their accounts of Nos. 2 & 5 won the Beethoven250 prize at this year’s Gramophone Awards, impressing the panel with its ‘its artistry, poetry, stylish musicianship and, perhaps above all, rapport between soloist and conductor’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
French cellist Sébastien Hurtaud commissioned the concerto Chemin des Dames from New Zealand composer Gareth Farr in 2017, and premiered it later that year; the work pays tribute to the fallen soldiers of World War One (including three of Farr’s great-great-uncles) as well as their widows and other bereaved relatives. It’s coupled with Elgar’s Cello Concerto, composed in the immediate aftermath of the War.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
On the sequel to their 2018 album Intuition (‘spectacular playing by any standards’ – Gramophone), Capuçon and Ducros present another programme of popular miniatures, including Monti’s Csardas, Debussy’s Clair de Lune, Schubert’s Ave Maria, Einaudi’s Una Mattina and Albinoni’s Adagio as well as works by Marguerite Monnot, David Bevilacqua, Max Richter and Michael Nyman.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following his astonishing debut recording of Alkan’s mighty Symphony and Concerto for Solo Piano last year (which was nominated for a Gramophone Award and described by Fanfare as ‘an exceptional release, urgently recommended to everyone’), the Australian pianist and lawyer turns to Alkan’s contemporary Thalberg: published between 1853 and 1863, this collection includes transcriptions of opera arias by Bellini, Rossini and Weber and songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Dear Mademoiselle: A Tribute to Nadia Boulanger
Astrig Siranossian (cello), Nathanaël Gouin (piano), Daniel Barenboim (piano)
This musical thank-you letter to the French composer and teacher features Boulanger’s own Trois pièces for cello and piano (for which Siranossian is joined by ‘Mademoiselle’’s former pupil Daniel Barenboim) as well as music by some of her illustrious students, including Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, Elliott Carter’s Cello Sonata, Quincy Jones’s Soul Bossa Nova, and Astor Piazzólla’s Le Grand Tango.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bernstein: West Side Story
Gwendolyn Masin, David Cristobal Litago, Marijke Schroder, Henriette Jensen, Jonas Tschanz, Melisma Sax Quartet
In advance of the sixtieth anniversary of the iconic film version of Bernstein’s musical next year, Orchid Classics present a new suite arranged for violin and saxophone quartet by Dutch composer-conductor Henk Huizinga, recorded during live performances at the GAIA Music Festival in Oberhofen, Switzerland last year.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is the seventeenth Ondine recording from the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir, with previous successes including Gramophone Award-nominated discs of Rachmaninov and Silvestrov and a 2019 account of Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which won the choral category of the International Classical Music Awards earlier this year.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This collection of choral favourites from the London boys’ choir includes music by Allegri, Victoria, Mozart, Fauré, Bruckner, Elgar and Rutter as well as excerpts from a number of famous movie soundtracks, including The Lord of the Rings. The boys’ solo voices are featured prominently, and highlights include music from Mychael Danna’s Oscar-winning score for Life of Pi, the original soundtrack of which also featured the choir.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
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