New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 14th May 2021
Today's new releases include Riccardo Chailly's collected Stravinsky recordings, Strauss's Burleske and Ein Heldenleben from Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (with French pianist Bertrand Chamayou the eloquent soloist in the former work), Handel arias from French mezzo Héloïse Mas, and Erich Kleiber's Polydor recordings from Berlin.
Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben & Burleske
Bertrand Chamayou (piano), Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano
This live recording of Ein Heldenleben (with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra’s concert-master Roberto Gonzales-Monjas taking on the taxing solo violin role) is coupled with another early work, the Burleske from 1885/6; Rob Cowan recently described Chamayou as ‘more fleet-fingered than virtually any of his rivals’ on the recording, and observed that the orchestra ‘leap to the challenge of responding to him with boundless enthusiasm’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Marcel Poot: Symphonies Nos. 1-7
Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Léonce Gras, Frédéric Devreese et al
This 2-CD set comprises the complete symphonies of Belgian composer Marcel Poot (1901-1988), a pupil of Paul Dukas and a founder-member of ‘Les Synthétistes’ (a composers’ collective who styled themselves as the Belgian equivalent of ‘Les Six'). Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4-7 receive their world premiere recordings here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Erich Kleiber: The Complete Polydor 78s
Staatskapelle Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker, Erich Kleiber
Newly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn and receiving its first complete issue for the first time in any format, this collection of recordings which Kleiber made in the late 1920s includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Dvořák’s New World Symphony, a substantial selection of Mozart’s German Dances, excerpts from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and overtures by Rossini, Nicolai, Berlioz, and Johann Strauss II.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Enrique Jordá - Decca Recordings 1950-51
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, New Symphony Orchestra, Enrique Jordá
Featuring several items which are new to CD, this collection of early 1950s recordings by the Spanish conductor includes Dvořák’s New World Symphony (recorded in London with the New Symphony Orchestra), Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Clifford Curzon as soloist, Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini, Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and shorter works by Chabrier, Turina, Granados, Albéniz, and Glinka.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Gerhard, Walton and Stravinsky: Works for Narrator and Ensemble
National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Sinfonietta, Argo Chamber Ensemble, Antal Doráti, Sir William Walton, Gennady Zalkowitsch
This trio of twentieth-century works with narrator comprises a 1973 recording of Roberto Gerhard’s The Plague (inspired by Albert Camus’s 1947 La Peste and narrated here by Alec McCowen), William Walton’s only stereo version of Façade (recorded in 1969, with Peggy Ashcroft and Paul Scofield), and the original version of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale in a new translation (with Rudolf Nureyev in the title-role).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Max Rostal: Twentieth-Century Violin Sonatas
Max Rostal (violin), Colin Horsley (piano), Noël Mewton-Wood (piano), Monique Haas (piano)
This newly-remastered set features the German violinist’s 1954 recordings of the Elgar, Delius and Walton sonatas (made with his regular recital-partner Colin Horsley at Argo’s Hollymount studios), an earlier account of Busoni’s Violin Sonata No. 2 with Australian pianist and Busoni-champion Noël Mewton-Wood, and 1958 recordings of Ravel and Mihalovici with the latter’s wife, Monique Haas.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
For the seventh instalment of their ‘Music for Brass Septet’ series on Naxos, ‘the classiest brass ensemble in Britain’ (BBC Music Magazine) focus on Americana, with their own in-house arrangements of Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Three Preludes, and Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Quiet City.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French countertenor and his ensemble explore vocal music by the German Baroque composer Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714), whose work was largely forgotten in the wake of a fire which destroyed a substantial amount of his manuscripts two decades after his death. This album focuses on two substantial surviving bodies of work, both entitled Harmonische Freude musikalischer Freunde, which explore man’s relationship with destiny and volatile celestial forces.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This all-Handel recital from the French mezzo (who made several early-career cameo appearances on Joyce DiDonato’s award-winning Stella di Napoli back in 2014) features arias from Ariodante, Alcina, Amadigi, Agrippina, Teseo, Hercules, Parnasso in festa and Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno as well as the cantata La Lucrezia. Mas was a prize-winner at the 2018 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and a semi-finalist at Operalia that same season.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Arne: Artaxerxes
Christopher Ainslie (Artaxerxes), Elizabeth Watts (Mandane), Caitlin Hulcup (Arbace), Rebecca Bottone (Semira), Andrew Staples (Artabano), Daniel Norman (Rimenes); The Mozartists, Ian Page
Originally released in 2011 following an acclaimed production at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio, Page’s recording of Arne’s 1762 opera about skulduggery in ancient Persia was praised in Gramophone for Watts’s ‘ruthless virtuosity’ as the venomous Mandane, and in International Record Review for the ‘style and sureness’ of Page’s direction. You can read Chris’s full review from the Presto archives here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Bizet: Carmen (DVD)
Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen), Andrew Richards (Don José), Anne-Catherine Gillet (Micaëla), Nicolas Cavallier (Escamillo); Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Adrian Noble
Filmed in 2009 at the Opéra Comique (where the work was premiered in 1875), this performance prompted The Times’s Hugh Canning to declare that ‘has never sounded more revolutionary, romantic or thrillingly vibrant’, whilst Opera Today described Noble’s production as ‘an intense, elegant, cliché-free staging that tells the story with an engaging freshness’.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Bizet: Carmen (Blu-ray)
Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen), Andrew Richards (Don José), Anne-Catherine Gillet (Micaëla), Nicolas Cavallier (Escamillo); Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Adrian Noble
Picture format: HD 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo and DTS-MA 5.0
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
