New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 21st May 2021
Today's new releases include a third volume of Mozart violin sonatas from Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, Beethoven, Bartók and Dvořák from the Juilliard String Quartet, Bruckner's Third Symphony from Christian Thielemann and the Wiener Philharmoniker, and vintage Stravinsky from Leonard Bernstein.
This is the second instalment of Thielemann’s Bruckner project with the Wiener Philharmoniker (the orchestra’s first complete recorded cycle under a single conductor), following an account of the Eighth Symphony which was described as ‘resonant and glowing’ by The Guardian, and acclaimed for its ‘sweep and depth’ by Gramophone.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Sonatas For Fortepiano & Violin, Vol. 3
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano)
This third volume of Faust and Melnikov’s superb period-instrument Mozart series features Sonatas K379, 377, 302, and 454; previous instalments have been praised for their ‘great subtlety and flexibility’ (BBC Music Magazine), ‘breezy fluency’ (Sunday Times), ‘style and fantasy' (Gramophone), and ‘clarity of articulation’ (International Piano).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Stravinsky (whom Bernstein described as ‘the last great father-figure of Western music’), this 6-CD set includes Bernstein’s celebrated 1958 recording of The Rite of Spring, as well as Oedipus Rex (with René Kollo and Tatiana Troyanos), The Soldier’s Tale, Pulcinella, Petrushka, the Symphony of Psalms, The Firebird, the Octet, and the Concerto for Piano & Wind Instruments.
Available Formats: 6 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Antonelli is the soloist in the Cello Concertos RV405 and 413, and also directs his Rome-based period-instrument ensemble in the Sinfonias for Strings RV125 and 168, the Mandolin Concerto RV425, the Concerto for Two Violins RV517, and the Chamber Concerto RV96. The group’s previous recordings include Sacred Handel – Music for the Carmelite Vespers (2020) and Corelli Bolognese (2016), the latter praised in Limelight Magazine as ‘brisk, light and highly virtuosic’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This second volume of Skalkottas’s orchestral works from the Athens State Orchestra takes its title from the third movement of the 1948 ballet-suite The Sea (three excerpts of which are featured here); the programme also includes Series One of the 36 Greek Dances for Orchestra, and the Symphonic Suite No. 1, which the composer reconstructed from memory after leaving the manuscript behind in Berlin in the early 1930s.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This 75th-anniversary release from the Juilliards comprises Beethoven’s second ‘Rasumovsky’ Quartet (Op. 59 No. 2), Dvořák’s ‘American’ Quartet, and Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3; the album received five stars in this month’s BBC Music Magazine, with Jessica Duchen declaring that the group’s ‘trademark tonal beauty, sensitively attuned ensemble and technical splendour is amply on show in this recording’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Canadian guitarist performs a selection of her own compositions, including Going Nowhere, Briny Ocean, Toronto 98, Fundy, Impressions, and Three Preludes; currently Professor of Guitar at the Musikhochschule in Detmold, Kavanaugh was a prize-winner at the Segovia Competition in the 1980s, and has been described as ‘a first-class performer and musician’ by The Mail Star.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This collection of rarities from seventeenth-century Habsburg and Bohemia includes sonatas by Giovanni Battista Buonamente, Philipp Jakob Rittler, Georg Piscator, Wendelin Hueber and Antonio Bertali, and vocal works by Federico Cauda, Johannes Maria Mandl, and Giovanni Felice Sances.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Italian baritone celebrates the legacy of Giuseppe Maria Boschi, a favourite of Handel who created roles in Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Flavio and Tolomeo; the programme includes arias from Handel’s Siroe Re di Persia, Rinaldo and Muzio Scevola, Porpora’s Ezio, Lotti’s Polidoro, Orlandini’s Arsace, Ariosti’s Vespasiano, Caldara’s L’inimico generoso, and Ariosti’s Vespasiano.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Handel: Ariodante (DVD)
Cecilia Bartoli (Ariodante), Kathryn Lewek (Ginevra), Nathan Berg (King of Scotland), Christophe Dumaux (Polinesso), Sandrine Piau (Dalinda), Rolando Villazón (Lurcanio), Kristofer Lundin (Odoardo); Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, Gianluca Capuano, Christof Loy
This all-star Ariodante was the highlight of the 2017 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, with the Chicago Tribune declaring that ‘a winning cast and Loy's inventive staging made this 282-year-old opera feel fresh and modern’, and Der Standard pronouncing that ‘Cecilia Bartoli is a league of her own!’ in her gender-fluid portrayal of the title-character.
Available Format: DVD Video
Handel: Ariodante (Blu-ray)
Cecilia Bartoli (Ariodante), Kathryn Lewek (Ginevra), Nathan Berg (King of Scotland), Christophe Dumaux (Polinesso), Sandrine Piau (Dalinda), Rolando Villazón (Lurcanio), Kristofer Lundin (Odoardo); Les Musiciens du Prince - Monaco, Gianluca Capuano, Christof Loy
Picture format: 1080i / 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Verdi: Falstaff (DVD)
Michael Volle (Falstaff), Alfredo Daza (Ford), Barbara Frittoli (Alice Ford), Nadine Sierra (Nannetta), Daniela Barcellona (Mistress Quickly), Francesco Demuro (Fenton); Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Martone
German baritone Michael Volle takes on a rare comic role with his debut as the ‘fat knight’ in this contemporary staging from Berlin, filmed at the newly-reopened Unter den Linden in spring 2018, with BachTrack observing that ‘his comic timing [is] often excellent and his charisma gets him a long way’; the Financial Times praised Alfredo Daza’s ‘resonant baritone and biting bourgeois affectations’ as the jealousy-wracked Ford, and Barbara Frittoli’s ‘luscious, floating tones’ as his wife Alice.
Available Format: DVD Video
Verdi: Falstaff (Blu-ray)
Michael Volle (Falstaff), Alfredo Daza (Ford), Barbara Frittoli (Alice Ford), Nadine Sierra (Nannetta), Daniela Barcellona (Mistress Quickly), Francesco Demuro (Fenton); Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Martone
Picture format: 1080i / 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
