New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 11th December 2020
Today's new releases include Beethoven chamber works from Emmanuel Pahud, Daniel Barenboim and friends, Gombert masses from Austria-based early music ensemble Beauty Farm, ‘Songs of Comfort and Joy’ from Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott, and world premiere recordings of Alexander Mosolov's Harp Concerto and Symphony No. 5.
Alexander Mosolov: Symphony No. 5 & Harp Concerto
Taylor Ann Fleshmann (harp), Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Arnold
Both of these works by Alexander Mosolov (perhaps best-known today for The Iron Foundry) receive their first recordings here; the Harp Concerto (written in 1939 in response to his teacher Glière's concerto of the previous year) was premiered in its entirety only last winter, whilst the Fifth Symphony (composed in the 1960s) remained unperformed during the composer’s lifetime and was eventually published in 1991. The concerto has been reconstructed by conductor Arthur Arnold.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin this summer, Warner’s final release marking Beethoven’s 250th birthday features an arrangement of the Violin Sonata No. 8 in G, the Serenade in D major for Flute, Violin and Viola Op. 25, the Duo WoO 26, and the Trio in G major WoO37 for flute, bassoon and piano. Pahud and Barenboim’s guests include fellow flautist Silvia Careddu, and Daishin Kashimoto, first concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This album marks the completion of Ehnes and Armstrong’s superb survey of the Beethoven sonatas, which began in 2017; the previous volume (released last October) was a finalist in this year’s Gramophone Awards, with Richard Bratby observing that ‘the freshness and spontaneity of these interpretations is unfaltering, as is the instantaneous rapport and subtle, crystal-clear tonal beauty of the pair’s playing’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Drawing on the series of performances which the legendary cellist broadcast from home in the early days of lockdown, this album includes movements from the Bach Cello Suites, arrangements of Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, Dvořák’s Goin’ Home and Debussy’s Clair de lune, and transcriptions of songs such as We’ll Meet Again, Over the Rainbow and Schubert’s Ave Maria.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Lysander Trio mark their tenth anniversary with world premiere recordings of six of the works which they have commissioned and/or premiered over the course of the decade: Gilad Cohen’s Around the Cauldron, Reinaldo Moya’s Ghostwritten Variations, Jennifer Higdon’s Love Sweet, Sofia Belimova’s Titania And Her Suite, William David Cooper’s An Den Wassern Zu Babel, and Jakub Ciupinski’s The Black Mirror.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Composed in 1696 (but not published until eight years after the composer’s death), the Harmonia Artificioso-Ariosa consists of seven partitas for two instruments and continuo, six of which require the use of scordatura tunings; Der Musikalische Garten have previously explored this technique on à 2 Violin Verstimbt (2015), which featured music by composers including Erasmus Kindermann, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, David Pohle and Telemann.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This Christmas Oratorio was recorded live at Barcelona’s Palau de la Música last December, when Savall spread the six cantatas over two evenings; the soloists are Katja Stuber, Raffaele Pe, Martin Platz, and Thomas Stimmel.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their excellent accounts of masses by Johannes Ockeghem, Noel Bauldeweyn, Pierre De La Rue and Jacob Obrecht, the Mauerbach-based early music ensemble continue their explorations of Franco-Flemish Renaissance polyphony with Gombert’s Missa beati omnes, Missa Philomena Praevia, Missa Media Vita and Missa 'Sur tous regrets'. Their 2015 recording of a selection of the composer’s motets was hailed by Gramophone as ‘beautiful…a debut of note’.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For the seventh release on her own label Prima Classic, Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka presents a programme of predominantly sacred music, interspersed with several contemplative arias from opera; the repertoire includes Ave Marias by Verdi, Vavilov, Gounod, Schubert, Mascagni and Saint-Saëns, Dido’s Lament, Bach’s Bist du bei mir, and excerpts from the Brahms and Fauré Requiems.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This 20-CD collection consists of excerpts from 28 Decca recordings (chiefly highlights albums) made between 1954 and 1996; stand-outs include snapshots of Joan Sutherland as Cleopatra and Hanna Glawari, Marilyn Horne as Carmen and Cornelia, Birgit Nilsson as Salome, Aida, Isolde and Brünnhilde, Lisa della Casa as Arabella, Ariadne and the Countess in Capriccio, and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Boito’s Mefistofele.
Available Format: 20 CDs
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
