Coming Soon,
Mitsuko Uchida's Diabelli Variations and other forthcoming highlights
Stand-out releases for early spring include Beethoven's Diabelli Variations from Mitsuko Uchida, Franco-Italian operatic recitals from tenors Benjamin Bernheim and Pene Pati, Rachmaninov songs from Asmik Grigorian and Lukas Geniušas, and the complete Sibelius symphonies (plus extras!) from the Oslo Philharmonic and their new Musical Director Klaus Mäkelä - the first conductor to be signed by Decca since Riccardo Chailly four decades ago.
For her first recording in six years, Uchida turns to what her fellow pianist Alfred Brendel once described as 'the greatest of all piano works'; her live performances of the set have been praised as 'mesmerising' (The Guardian), 'dazzling' (The Arts Desk) and 'compelling to the end' (New York Times), whilst a lecture-recital which she gave on the work in Cambridge during her tenure as a Humanitas Visiting Professor prompted Varsity to observe that 'what Uchida did magnificently both in playing and in discussing the piece was reveal how each one of the variations related to the other'.
Released 8th April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Boulevard des Italiens
Benjamin Bernheim (tenor), Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Frédéric Chaslin
Named for the Parisian street which houses both the Opéra-Comique and Opéra Garnier, Bernheim's second solo album on Deutsche Grammophon documents a century of Italian operatic history in France: his programme includes arias from Spontini’s La Vestale, Mascagni’s Amica, Donizetti's Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal, La Fille du régiment and La Favorite, Verdi's Don Carlos and Jérusalem, and Cherubini's Ali Baba, plus French-language versions of Puccini's 'Recondita armonia' and 'Addio, fiorito asil'.
Released 8th April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado
Bezuidenhout and Heras-Casado conclude their period-instrument Beethoven cycle, which prompted both artists to be nominated for Opus Klassik Awards in 2020 and has been praised for its 'admirable sense of spontaneity' (BBC Music Magazine), 'brilliantly coloured playing' (Sunday Times), and 'precise and imaginative ensemble' (Gramophone).
Released 15th April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hot on the heels of extraordinary recitals of Schumann, Chopin and Brahms, the fruits of Hough's lockdown recording-sessions continue in the form of the late G major sonata (composed after the ‘Great’ C major symphony and Schubert's final string quartet), the decidedly sunnier A major sonata from 1819, and the minute-long fragment from a projected Sonata in E minor, thought to date from the mid-1820s.
Released 1st April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This is the debut recording of the 26-year-old Finnish conductor, who succeeded Vasily Petrenko as Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic in September 2020; reviewing a concert given to mark the 155th anniversary of the composer's birth, BachTrack declared that 'Sibelius’s music is in Mäkelä’s DNA and it was exciting to watch him bring a fresh perspective to the work'. The set also includes Tapiola and fragments of the Eighth Symphony, which were long believed to have been destroyed by Sibelius.
Released 25th March.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The incandescent Lithuanian soprano kicks off a new relationship with Alpha Classics in an all-Rachmaninov recital, taking its title from the opening song on the programme and also featuring 'Spring Waters', 'How Fair this Spot', 'Do not Sing, My Beauty', and 'Believe Me Not, Friend!'. Grigorian's plans with the label include a recording of Strauss's Four Last Songs this summer with Mikko Franck and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 (with the same artists plus Matthias Goerne) is already in the can...
Released 25th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dance With Me
Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor), Lucienne Rénaudin-Vary (trumpet), Berlage Saxophone Quartet, Ludwig Orchestra
Following the success of their Gershwin-Berg-Berio project Crazy Girl Crazy, Hannigan and the Ludwig Orchestra team up for a celebration of twentieth-century dance music, taking in the waltz, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, samba and jive; the programme includes music by Kurt Weill, Frederick Loewe, Glenn Miller, Barry Manilow, Robert Stolz, George Hamilton Green, and Edward Elgar.
Released 11th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Pene Pati
Pene Pati (tenor), Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Choeur de l'Opéra national de Bordeaux, Emmanuel Villaume
The Samoan tenor makes his debut on Warner Classics with a programme of French and Italian arias, from operas including Gounod's Polyeucte and Roméo et Juliette, Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Moïse et Pharaon, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and L'Étoile du Nord, Massenet's Manon, Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, and Godard's Jocelyne. Pati's upcoming engagements include La traviata in Berlin, Roméo et Juliette in San Diego, and La damnation de Faust in Monte-Carlo.
Released 25th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Like Diana Damrau back in 2020, Radvanovsky tackles the demanding final scenes of each opera in Donizetti's Tudor trilogy: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux - but whereas Damrau undertook this 'Three Peaks Challenge' in the studio, Radvanovsky recorded the programme live, in a single concert. The Canadian-American soprano has sung all three roles at the Metropolitan Opera, an achievement which was honoured with an Annual Excellence in Opera Award in 2016.
Released 11th March.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Franck: Complete Songs and Duets
Tassis Christoyannis (bass), Véronique Gens (soprano), Jeff Cohen (piano)
Recorded in Venice last year, this is the first complete edition of Franck's works for voice and piano; highlights include 'S’il est un charmant gazon' and 'Roses et papillons' (on texts by Victor Hugo), 'Le sylphe' (setting a poem by Alexandre Dumas père), and the Six Duos on poetry by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Amable Tastu, Guy Ropartz, André Theuriet, and Alphonse Daudet.
Released 25th March.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater & Other Works
Emmanuelle de Negri (soprano), Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian (countertenor), Le Caravansérail, Bertrand Cuiller
As well as Scarlatti's remarkable Stabat Mater for ten voices (where the line-up of distinguished soloists includes Thomas Hobbes and Zachary Wilder as well as de Negri and Bénos-Djian), this programme features three of the composer's keyboard sonatas, the secular cantata Pur nel sonno almen talora for soprano, and excerpts from the opera Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura (also known as Narciso).
Released 8th April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
