New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 4th March 2022
Today's new releases include a first instalment of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas for violin from Frank Peter Zimmermann, a live recording of the St John Passion from Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms sextets from the Belcea Quartet (with guests Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras), and snapshots of Donizetti's three Tudor Queens from Sondra Radvanovsky at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and their Music Director present three of Debussy's piano works in orchestrations by two of his friends and collaborators: the Petite Suite in Henri Büsser's arrangement from 1907, André Caplet's version of Children’s Corner from 1911, and his completion of La Boîte à joujoux as a ballet, which Debussy had begun to orchestrate himself but left unfinished (the ballet was eventually premiered a year after the composer's death, in 1919).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Three years on from his debut album Love and Death, the British pianist continues his partnership with Warner with this album of Rachmaninov and Gershwin, featuring the former’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with which Bartlett won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2014) and the latter’s Rhapsody in Blue; the programme also includes arrangements of both composers’ solo piano works by Earl Wild.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following widely acclaimed recordings of the complete string quartets and piano quintet (described in The Guardian as 'intense and wonderful quartet playing' and awarded a Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2016), the Belceas team up with two distinguished guests for the two sextets. The recording was made at the Konzerthaus Wien last March, amid a major European tour with these works; BachTrack hailed their Hamburg performance as 'world-class music-making'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Although his discography includes superb recordings of the violin concertos and sonatas for violin and keyboard, Zimmermann has certainly bided his time before tackling Bach's solo violin music on record - now four decades into his career, the German violinist describes this body of works as 'a mighty tree, which protects me and crushes me at the same time’. This first instalment comprises the Sonata No. 2 in A minor, the Partita No. 2 in D minor and Partita No. 3 in E major.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following much-praised recordings of sonatas by composers including Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Ravel, Ibragimova and Tiberghien reconvene for Mendelssohn's sole published work in the genre (the Op. 4 sonata from 1823) and two others which were left in manuscript: an 1838 sonata intended for Ferdinand David which the composer abandoned mid-revision, and an early sonata which shows the influence of his composition-teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter. The programme is completed by an eight-minute sonata fragment in D minor, thought to date from the late 1820s.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
JS Bach: St. John Passion
Nick Pritchard (Evangelist), William Thomas (Christus), Alex Ashworth (Pilatus), Julia Doyle (soprano), Alexander Chance (countertenor), Peter Davoren (tenor). English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Recorded live at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford on Good Friday 2021, Gardiner’s John Passion was praised by The Arts Desk for the ‘bright expressiveness’ of the Monteverdi Choir (singing from memory), and the ‘great pathos’ brought to the role of Jesus by young bass William Thomas; The Times observed that ‘the crowd choruses were thrillingly delivered’ and that ‘Gardiner shaped every word of the chorales for maximum emotional impact’.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The UK-based Japanese violinist won the String Category of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2020, where her programme included Jenő Hubay's Carmen Fantasie; that work appears on her debut album, alongside Enescu's Impressions d’enfance, violin sonatas by Poulenc and Ravel, Lili Boulanger's Nocturne, and Debussy's Beau Soir. You can watch our video-interview with Coco about her story so far here...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Thought to have been one of Louis XIV's many mistresses, Lydie de Rochefort-Théobon (subsequently La Comtesse de Beuvron) was a maid of honor to Marie-Therese d'Autriche and is mentioned in the letters of Madame de Sévigné. Rousset (who plays a Nicolas Dumont harpsichord from 1704 on this recording) acquired this manuscript in 2004; the programme includes pieces by Lully, Lebègue, d'Anglebert, Gaultier, Monnard and Chambonnières.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded on the 'Father Willis' organ of Truro Cathedral last August, this Vaughan Williams triptych comprises Briggs's own transcriptions of Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus and the Fifth Symphony, and a version of The Lark Ascending, which was regularly performed as a violin/organ piece in the first half of the twentieth century. Briggs's previous Vaughan Williams album, Bursts of Acclamation, was described as 'music-making of the highest order' by Gramophone and 'a goldmine for organ buffs' by BBC Music Magazine.
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.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The American soprano's second solo album for Deutsche Grammophon focuses on three tragic heroines which have become central to her repertoire in recent seasons: Donizetti's Lucia (which she will sing in Munich, Naples and New York this spring), Gounod's Juliette, and Verdi's Violetta. Sierra's debut recording, There's a Place for Us, won the Newcomer Prize at the Opus Klassik Awards in 2019, and prompted Opera News to declare that 'there’s no question as to her technical and interpretive skills or her commitment to text and drama'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The young British vocal consort's programme centres on their namesake's Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday and Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah, and also features two shorter works inspired by Holy Week: Judith Bingham's Watch with me (setting text from Matthew’s account of the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane and from Wilfred Owen’s poem Exposure) and Joanna Ward's Christus factus est, which was commissioned by the group for this recording.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Released individually between 2013 and 2020, Dausgaard's Brahms symphonies have been described as 'superbly incisive' (BBC Music Magazine) and 'flexible, clear and transparent' (Pizzicato). In addition to the symphonies, the set includes Dausgaard's own orchestrations of the Hungarian Dances, the Alto Rhapsody with Anna Larsson, the 'Academic Festival' and 'Tragic' Overtures, a selection of the Liebeslieder-Walzer, and the Variations on a Theme of Haydn.
Available Formats: 4 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
