New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 5th November 2021
Today's new releases include Bach and Handel from Sabine Devieilhe and Pygmalion, Josquin from the Belgian multidisciplinary collective Graindelavoix, Brahms's Piano Sonata No. 3 and Four Ballades from Alexandre Kantorow, and the world premiere recording of Rameau's Achante et Céphise from Alexis Kossenko (starring Devieilhe and Cyrille Dubois in the title-roles).
The final instalment of the elder Fischer’s superb Mahler cycle from Düsseldorf was recorded in concert last March, immediately before lockdown restrictions were introduced: as Fischer reflects in the booklet-note, ‘the orchestra was playing in full line-up in front of a full house for the last time for a long while… The mood was ominous: we all felt something was amiss’. The series has met with considerable critical acclaim, with Symphony No. 1 winning the Orchestral category at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards and No. 3 an Opus Klassik Award that same year.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French soprano's second solo recording with Pygmalion and her husband Pichon features two complete Bach cantatas (Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut and Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen) and arias from Handel's Giulio Cesare, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, and Brockes Passion; baritone Stéphane Degout and lutenist Thomas Dunford appear as guest artists.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A year on from his recording of Brahms's Piano Sonata No. 2 (described by The Guardian as 'massively assured, as impressive for its moments of crystalline delicacy as it is for its command of the more extrovert, barnstorming moments'), the French pianist turns to its successor, published in the same year and praised for its near-symphonic vision by Robert Schumann; the programme also includes Brahms's transcription for the left hand of the Chaconne from Bach's Partita No. 2 for solo violin.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Italian pianist, composer and conductor Gianluca Cascioli recorded an album of Beethoven's variations for Deutsche Grammophon whilst still in his teens, and now he joins forces with Minasi and Ensemble Resonanz for the composer's own arrangement of his Violin Concerto and a new performing version of the Piano Concerto No. 4, based on source-material from the archives of the Vienna Musikverein and on Beethoven's own handwritten notes.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
BBC New Generation Artist Semenenko joins forces with his regular duo partner Belogurov (a friend since their student days in Odessa) for André Previn's Violin Sonata No. 2 (written for his former wife Anne-Sophie Mutter in 2011), a transcription of Tony Schemmer's 1981 Oboe Sonata, and Paul Gay's Violin Sonata from three years later.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bach Before Bach
Chouchane Siranossian (violin), Leonardo García Alarcón (harpsichord), Balazs Maté (cello)
Bach's Violin Sonata in G major BWV1021 and Violin Sonata in E minor BWV1023 are the mainstays of Siranossian's programme, which also includes Carlo Farina's Sonata quinta detta la farina, Johann Paul von Westhoff's Sonata III: Imitazione delle Campane, Andreas Anton Schmelzer's Vitori der Christen, and works by Georg Muffat and Johann Gottfried Walther.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following acclaimed recordings of Tchaikovsky's All-Night Vigil (praised in Gramophone for 'choral singing of beguiling sophistication' and nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award) and the Rachmaninov Vespers, the Latvian singers turn to Grechaninov's work, composed three years before the Rachmaninov and premiered by the same choir in Moscow.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Antwerp-based male vocal ensemble mark the anniversary of Josquin's death with a programme of works which they believe were composed in the knowledge that he was nearing the end of his life, including Douleur me bat, Parfons regretz et lamentable joye, and Regretz sans fin; also included are laments on Josquin's death by Gombert, Vinders and Appenzeller.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
The majority of this programme was broadcast as part of last Christmas's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, given from a congregation-less King's College Chapel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; Angels, from the realms of glory, Quilter's I Sing of a Maiden, Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,and Holst's In the bleak midwinter (arr. Wilberg) were recorded the following June.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Rameau: Achante et Céphise
Sabine Devieilhe (Céphise), Cyrille Dubois (Achante), Judith Van Wanroij (Zirphile); Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, Les Ambassadeurs, La Grande Écurie, Alexis Kossenko
This is the world premiere recording of Rameau's pastorale héroïque, composed in honour of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and first performed in Paris in 1751; combining elements of mythology and fairy-tale, the plot centres on the eponymous lovers and the good fairy Zirphile's efforts to rescue them from the persecution of the evil genie Oroès.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Gerald Barry: Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Claudia Boyle, Gavan Ring, Peter Tantsits, Stephen Richardson, Clare Presland, Alan Ewing, Hilary Summers; Irish Chamber Orchestra, André de Ridder
Signum Records launch their new partnership with Irish National Opera with this world premiere recording of Barry's 2016 opera, described as a 'gleeful, picaresque romp' by The Guardian and as a 'rollercoaster ride' by the Financial Times; the seven singers take on fifty-four roles between them, with Boyle as Alice, Ewing as Humpty Dumpty, and Presland as The Queen of Hearts.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
