New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 12th November 2021
Today's new releases include Bach from Benjamin Alard, a selection of miniatures and excerpts from Renaud Capuçon, incidental music from Gabriel Pierné, and two fascinating "tributary" works - Jonathan Nott's extensive orchestral suite based on Debussy's Pélleas et Mélisande, and Timothy Jones's four speculative trumpet sonatas as Mozart might have written them.
Nott conducts the world premiere recording of the symphonic suite which he compiled from Debussy's opera, following in the footsteps of Erich Leinsdorf, whose 1946 suite has become a semi-regular fixture on concert-programmes; Nott's work, however, is twice the length of his predecessor's arrangement and relies less heavily on Debussy’s own interludes. It's coupled here with Schoenberg's symphonic poem of the same name (also inspired by Maeterlinck), which was premiered three years after Debussy's opera.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The fifth volume of Alard’s Bach series (which was described as ‘a project to watch with anticipation’ by Gramophone when it launched in 2018) focuses on Bach’s time in Weimar between 1708 and 1717 and includes the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, the Toccata and Fugue in C minor BWV 564, and the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582. As on previous instalments, Alard moves between organ, pedal harpsichord and clavichord throughout the programme.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This collection of miniatures and popular excerpts from larger works is drawn from the repertoire which Capuçon performed in his daily streams on social media during lockdown, including Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro, 'Marietta’s lied' from Korngold's Die tote Stadt. Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Dvořák's 'Songs my mother taught me', Ysaÿe's Rêve d’enfant, Charlie Chaplin's 'Smile', and Carlos Gardel's 'Por una cabeza'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Published in 1897, Pierre Loti's novel Ramuntcho centres on the exploits of a pelota player and smuggler in the Basque province of France; Pierné composed the incidental music for a 1908 Paris staging of the work, and compiled the two orchestral suites which feature on this album two years later. They are followed here by two suites from the ballet Cydalise et le chèvre-pied ('Cydalise and the Satyr'), written in 1914 and premiered in 1923 at the Paris Opera.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Conceived by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Mozart scholar Timothy Jones (whose completions of Mozart fragments as recorded by Rachel Podger earlier this year were described as 'sound[ing] as close as possible to the real thing' by The Times), these four sonatas draw on material from a variety of Mozart's compositions, including his church music, songs, late violin sonatas, mid-period stage works, and the Piano Sonata in D major K284.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following his two discs of Beethoven piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the American/Israeli pianist presents his first solo recital on Pentatone: a suite of his own devising, featuring music by JS Bach, Handel, Rameau, Couperin, Ravel, Barber, Adès and Ligeti and culminating in Brahms's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This 'Venetian Mirror' compares and contrasts two composers from 'La Serenissima': Antonio Vivaldi and his lesser-known contemporary Giovanni Battista Reali; the programme includes Reali's Sinfonia XII 'Folia' (one of several works to receive their world premiere recording here) and Vivaldi's trio sonata of the same name. Le Consort comprises Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Sophie de Bardonnèche, Hanna Salzenstein and Justin Taylor, with Victor Julien-Laferrière joining for Vivaldi's Cello Sonata in E Minor, RV 40.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Curated by the composer himself, this programme of MacMillan's sacred music includes St Anne’s Mass and a host of world premiere recordings: The Culham Motets (written for the consecration of the Chapel of Christ the Redeemer at Culham Court in 2015), Beatus Andreas, Until the day breathes, Lux aeterna, A Special Appeal, Wedding Song and You are beautiful, my love. The latter two works were composed for the weddings of MacMillan's children.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dvořák: Rusalka
Asmik Grigorian (Rusalka), Eric Cutler (The Prince), Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev (Vodník), Katarina Dalayman (Ježibaba), Karita Mattila (The Foreign Princess); Teatro Real, Ivor Bolton, Christof Loy
Filmed in Madrid last November, this Rusalka was praised by Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times for Grigorian's 'touching vulnerability, rendered heartbreaking by the radiant beauty of her singing' when the production was streamed at the beginning of this year, whilst Opera Today applauded Bolton's direction, noting that 'the whole bubbled along gloriously with each individual line full of rhythmic delight'.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Dvořák: Rusalka (Blu-ray)
Asmik Grigorian (Rusalka), Eric Cutler (The Prince), Karita Mattila (The Foreign Princess), Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev (Vodnik), Katarina Dalayman (Jezibaba); Teatro Real, Ivor Bolton
Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0
Available Format: Blu-ray
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (DVD)
Reinoud Van Mechelen (Hippolyte), Elsa Benoit (Aricie), Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (Phèdre), Stéphane Degout (Thésée); Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
This production of Rameau's first opera uses the third version of the score, which the composer prepared for a run in 1757; it was filmed without audience at the Opéra Comique last November and streamed via Arte Concert; German BachTrack praised van Mechelen's 'bright, assertive' singing of the male title-role, and Benoit's 'gentle-timbred' Aricie, describing the whole as 'a very impressive Rameau evening'.
Available Format: DVD Video
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (Blu-ray)
Reinoud Van Mechelen (Hippolyte), Elsa Benoit (Aricie), Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (Phèdre), Stéphane Degout (Thésée); Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
