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Presto Editor's Choices - November 2021

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Katherine Cooper More about Katherine

MirrorsTwo glorious baroque recitals themed around the idea of reflections have dominated my listening this month - namely soprano Jeanine De Bique's debut recording Mirrors (featuring Alcina, Agrippina, Cleopatra and others as depicted by Handel, Graun, Broschi and Manna) and Le Consort's sparkling Specchio Veneziano, pairing works by Vivaldi and his contemporary Giovanni Battista Reali.

Fast-forwarding a few centuries, I thoroughly enjoyed a high-octane trip down the rabbit-hole (rather than through the looking-glass) courtesy of Irish National Opera's world premiere recording of Gerald Barry's madcap Alice's Adventures Under Ground - the Royal Opera House's co-production, incidentally, is available to stream until Sunday should you care to experience it in all its glory!

Jeanine De Bique (soprano), Concerto Köln, Luca Quintaville

This debut solo recording from the Trinidadian soprano is an absolute knock-out on all counts: the concept of pairing Handelian heroines with their counterparts in operas by his less familiar contemporaries throws up some real gems, and De Bique exudes a sheer joy in singing that will take your breath away. Her ornamentation (particularly in Handel's 'L'alma mia fra le tempeste') is dazzling stuff, and she evidently relishes Graun's sometimes unpredictable flights of coloratura fancy.

Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Francesca Aspromonte (soprano), I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis

Further obscure baroque delights abound on this fascinating recital of music from Italian oratorios centring on the two Marys: stand-outs include Mary Magdalene's awestruck, joyous description of the Resurrection to John in Perti's Gesù al Sepolcro and the Virgin Mary's searing lament from Draghi's Il Crocefisso per Grazia. Wonderful work, too, from Boris Begelman in the intricate dialogue with voice in 'Cor imbelle a due nemici' from Bononcini's La Converzione di Maddalena.

Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Claudia Boyle, Gavan Ring, Peter Tantsits, Stephen Richardson (bass), Clare Presland, Alan Ewing, Hilary Summers; Irish Chamber Orchestra, André de Ridder

The Irish composer's Lewis Carroll-inspired one-act opera packs an astonishing range of musical references and styles into its fifty minutes, but this wild ride down the rabbit-hole has real dramatic coherence; Claudia Boyle brings bags of charm and character to the gravity-defying role of Alice, with Presland's deliciously imperious Queen of Hearts and Ewing's languid, lugubrious Humpty Dumpty adding to the fun.

Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon

The programme - with two Bach cantatas bookending a sequence of opera arias and oratorio excerpts - may seem a little disjointed, but the French soprano is in ravishing, luminous voice throughout. Cleopatra's two great laments are given with heart-rending fragility (the floated top C sharp in 'Se pietà di me non senti' is worth the price of the disc alone), and the jubilant coloratura of Bach's Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen is despatched with tender rapture rather than showy exuberance.

Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Alexei Semenenko (violin), Artem Belogurov (piano)

These two young musicians have played together since their student days in Odessa, and there's a real sense of music-making between friends on this triptych of sonatas by American composers; I love their exuberant, open-hearted sound in the first movement of André Previn's Violin Sonata No. 2 from 2011, and the darker hues they both summon for the Idyll of the Paul Gay sonata from 1984. The pair have great fun with Tony Schemmer's blues- and jazz-inflected Oboe Sonata, which translates quite naturally to the violin.

Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Timothy Jones (horn), Olivier Stankiewicz (oboe), Andrew Marriner (clarinet), London Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín

Martín enjoyed a top-flight career as a flautist for many years (often playing in sections alongside some of the musicians here) before switching to conducting, and he really does seem to breathe and phrase as one with the soloists in both the concertos and the wonderfully fluid account of the Gran Partita here. First among equals is Olivier Stankiewicz, whose stratospheric cadenzas in the Oboe Concerto go beyond what I'd thought possible on the instrument. all the while sustaining absolute beauty of tone.

Available Formats: 2 SACDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, John Jeter

The string sound in particular is more austere than that on the Philadelphia Orchestra's recent recording of the Third Symphony - but both approaches pay their own dividends in this music, and Price devotees (or anyone who can't wait until the New Year for the rival recording to appear on CD) will want to hear this account from Vienna. The main attraction, though, is The Mississippi River Suite, in which Price's arresting, expansive treatment of spirituals including 'Go down, Moses' and 'Deep River' is at once thrilling and profoundly moving.

Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

Le Consort, with Victor Julien-Laferrière (cello)

There really is a tangible sense of stepping through the looking-glass in the opening minute of this lovely 'Venetian Mirror' of an album: the group improvisation on some of the musical ideas to come has a glassy, shimmering quality that's instantly beguiling, and that iridescence is shot through the whole programme of works by Vivaldi and his lesser-known contemporary Giovanni Battista Reali. Parallels between the two composers abound, with the beginning of Reali's Sinfonia No. II calling to mind Vivaldi's Winter as well as the Trio Sonata RV 73 (which features later on the programme).

Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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