New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 25th June 2021
Today's new releases include two notable debut recordings: American violinist Randall Goosby in a programme of music by Florence Price, George Gershwin, William Grant Still and others, and pianist Elena Fischer-Dieskau in Brahms and Schumann. Elsewhere, there's a Viennese-themed recital from Alasdair Beatson, Christian Gerhaher's debut in the title-role of Simon Boccanegra on DVD and Blu-ray, and a collection of orchestral works by the Czech composer and conductor Vítězslava Kaprálová.
The 24-year-old American violinist and Perlman protégé’s first recording for Decca celebrates music written by Black composers and inspired by Black culture, including world premieres of music by Florence Price and a specially-commissioned work by Xavier Dubois Foley, plus William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano from 1943, Dvořák’s Sonatina for violin and piano, and Heifetz arrangements of highlights from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Born in Brno in 1915, the Czech composer and conductor Vítězslava Kaprálová studied with Martinů, Václav Talich, Charles Munch and Vítězslav Novák, leaving behind a substantial and varied body of work upon her death aged just 25; recorded at the Kaprálová Festival in Michigan, this collection of her orchestral music includes the Piano Concerto, Prélude de Noël, Vojenská symfonieta (‘Military Sinfonietta’), and Suite en miniature.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
This first instalment of a projected series of Mozart concertos from the Russian fortepianist and Il Gardellino was warmly praised by MusicWeb International this week, with reviewer David McDade observing that 'Pashchenko is full of play and exuberance but never at the expense of the darker undercurrents of the music' in No. 17 and describing her account of the Jeunehomme's slow movement as 'simply superb'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following what Fanfare described as 'characterful, cogent, committed' accounts of Beethoven string quintets last year, the WDR players turn their attention to the chamber works which the eighty-year-old Bruch composed in 1918, inspired by the virtuoso violinist Willy Hess (who had performed in the premieres of his Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola and the Konzertstück for Violin and Orchestra).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following recordings of the Chopin Études and JS Bach keyboard concertos (the latter praised in BBC Music Magazine for her ‘eloquent precision and immaculate technique’), the South Korean pianist turns to Rachmaninov for her third recording on Rubicon, opening with the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor and closing with the Moments Musicaux; three of the Op. 23 Preludes are sandwiched between the main works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following acclaimed accounts of Beethoven violin sonatas with Viktoria Mullova (on Onyx) and the Mendelssohn cello sonatas with Johannes Moser, Beatson makes his solo recording debut on Pentatone with a programme which explores the music of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Vienna, including Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Korngold’s Piano Sonata No. 3, and Schoenberg’s Kleine Klavierstücke.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Described by Schwäbische Zeitung as ‘a magician of the piano who combines intense drama with delicate lyricism’, the Edinburgh-educated pianist (and granddaughter of the great baritone Dietrich) presents a trio of works which Clara Schumann read in manuscript shortly after their composition: Brahms’s Fantasies Op. 116 and Two Rhapsodies, and Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A pupil of Campra and favourite of Louis IV (who declared him the equal of Lully), the French composer André Cardinal Destouches embarked on a musical career relatively late in life, following extensive missionary work in South-East Asia and a spell in the army; his final opera Semiramis was premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1718, and centres on the Babylonian queen who would also inspire Rossini’s last Italian opera.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This release is the first instalment of a new series of recordings born out of Zefiro’s collaboration with the Styriate Festival in Graz, centring on the rediscovery of forgotten operas by the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741) who served as Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for four decades; Dafne in lauro was first performed on 1st October 1714 to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Charles VI.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Johann Simon Mayr: Elena
Julia Sophie Wagner (soprano), Daniel Ochoa (bass), Mira Graczyk (soprano); Concerto de Bassus, Simon Mayr Chorus, Franz Hauk
Premiered in Naples in 1814 and subsequently revised for performance at La Scala two years later, Mayr’s rescue-opera blends Neapolitan, Viennese and French elements; a long-term champion of the German composer’s works, Hauk has produced over thirty recordings of Mayr’s music over the course of the past two decades, including numerous world premieres.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Originally released in 2011 (The Firebird) and 2014 (Petrouchka and Rite of Spring), these acclaimed period-instrument accounts of Stravinsky ballets are now re-released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death; the Rite was described as ‘mandatory listening’ by International Record Review, and was also a Building a Library recommendation in 2019.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (DVD)
Christian Gerhaher (Simon Boccanegra), Jennifer Rowley (Amelia Boccanegra), Christof Fischesser (Jacopo Fiesco), Otar Jorjikia (Gabriele Adorno), Nicholas Brownlee (Paolo Albiani), Brent Michael Smith (Pietro); Philharmonia Zurich, Chor der Oper Zürich, Fabio Luisi, Andreas Homoki
Filmed in Zurich last December (with a live audience of just fifty people and the orchestra placed in a rehearsal-room a kilometre away!), this new production featured Gerhaher’s role-debut as Verdi’s tormented Doge and was broadcast live on TV, with FAZ observing that ‘one experiences facial expressions and gestures almost up close, realizing only in the close-up how involved the protagonists are in the action down to every blink of an eye’.
Available Format: DVD Video
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Blu-ray)
Christian Gerhaher (Simon Boccanegra), Jennifer Rowley (Amelia Boccanegra), Christof Fischesser (Jacopo Fiesco), Otar Jorjikia (Gabriele Adorno), Nicholas Brownlee (Paolo Albiani), Brent Michael Smith (Pietro), Philharmonia Zurich, Chor der Oper Zürich, Fabio Luisi, Andreas Homoki
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Picture format: 16: 9 NTCS Full HD
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
