New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 8th April 2022
Today's new releases include Beethoven's Diabelli Variations from Mitsuko Uchida, Haydn and Schubert from Grigory Sokolov at Esterházy Palace, the first instalment of a new Mahler cycle from Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic, and works by Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery from the New York Youth Symphony.
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'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Recorded at the Haydnsaal of Schloss Esterházy (where Haydn lived and worked for three decades) in August 2018, Sokolov's programme opens with three of that composer's sonatas followed by Schubert's Four Impromptus D935, plus a generous selection of encores: Chopin's 'Raindrop' Prelude, Debussy's 'Des pas sur la neige', Rameau's 'Le Rappel des oiseaux', and a waltz by Alexander Griboyedov.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Blu-ray, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This second volume of the Norwegian pianist's Mozart Momentum series focuses on the year which saw the composition of Le nozze di Figaro, and features Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24, the Piano Quartet in E flat K493, the Piano Trio in B flat K502, and the concert-aria Ch’io mi scordi di te? (composed for Nancy Storace, who created Susanna in Figaro, and sung here by Christiane Karg).
Read David's interview with Andsnes about Vol. 1 here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The British harpsichordist and conductor marks his 75th birthday by completing his first recorded survey of one of the pinnacles of keyboard music; reviewing Vol. 1 (released in 2020), BBC Music Magazine observed that 'the quality of these performances is immediately apparent in the opening prelude and fugue', whilst Limelight applauded his 'unerring style, impeccable technique and youthful sense of wonder'. As on Vol. 1, Pinnock plays a modern copy of a Henri Hemsch harpsichord, though here the tuning is a semitone higher in order to align with Leipzig Kammerton pitch in 1740.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following their acclaimed Tchaikovsky Project (the first instalment of which was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2017), the Czech Philharmonic and their Music Director embark on their cycle of the nine complete Mahler symphonies with a work which Bychkov describes as 'essentially chamber music'; Symphony No. 2 will follow later this year, with Nos. 1 and 5 already in the works...
Read our new interview with Semyon Bychkov about the Czech Mahler tradition and more here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Works By Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery
Michelle Cann (piano), New York Youth Symphony, Michael Repper
The New York Youth Symphony makes its recording debut with four works by three African-American women composers: Florence Price's Ethiopia's Shadow in America and Piano Concerto in One Movement (recorded for the first time with the composer's newly-discovered original orchestration), Valerie Coleman's Umoja: Anthem of Unity (originally composed as a simple song for women's choir and here expanded into an orchestral work), and Jessie Montgomery's Soul Force, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Debussy: La Damoiselle élue, Le martyre de Saint Sébastien & Nocturnes
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France, Chœur de Radio France, Mikko Franck
Following their acclaimed recording of music by the conductor's namesake (which received five stars in BBC Music Magazine), Franck and his Paris orchestra turn to three works by Debussy: La Damoiselle élue (which the composer described as ‘a little oratorio in a mystical and somewhat pagan vein’), the Three Nocturnes from the late 1890s, and the symphonic fragments which André Caplet compiled from the mystery-play Le Martyre de saint Sébastien shortly after the work's premiere in 1911.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
An all-Schubert recording has been on the South Korean pianist's wish-list for some years, and here he presents two of the three sonatas which the composer produced in the final year of his short life: No 20 in A D959 and No 21 in B flat D960. Lim observes that 'they are both deep, dark, late Schubert, but they make a good pairing because they are highly contrasted...I wouldn’t say that Schubert knew he was going to die that year, but I can still feel the depth of these sonatas'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following their 'glistening and ethereal' (BBC Music Magazine) Ash Wednesday evensong recording in 2020, which followed the tradition of using no organ from Ash Wednesday evensong until the Easter Gloria, John's are joined by organist James Anderson-Besant for a service which includes Julian Anderson's My beloved spake, Kenneth Leighton's Preces & Responses, Herbert Howells's Gloucester Service, and music by Stanford, Taverner and Widor.
Available Formats: CD, 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 tenors 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).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Mozart: Lucio Silla
Franco Fagioli (Cecilio), Olga Pudova (Giunia), Alessandro Liberatore (Lucio Silla), Chiara Skerath (Lucio Cinna), Ilse Eerens (Celia); Le Jeune Chœur de Paris, Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey
Captured during semi-staged performances in 2016, this account of the teenage Mozart's opera seria was praised by Salzburger Nachrichten for Equilbey's 'true passion for the music' and the 'wide array of colours' which she draws from the period instruments of Insula. Argentinian countertenor Franco Fagioli makes history as the first male singer to record the demanding role of Cecilio, written for the star soprano castrato Venanzio Rauzzini and sung by artists including Fiorenza Cossotto, Julia Varady and Cecilia Bartoli on earlier recordings.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Così fan tutte (DVD)
Valentina Naforniţa (Fiordligi), Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Dorabella), Matthew Swensen (Ferrando), Mattia Olivieri (Guglielmo), Thomas Hampson (Don Alfonso), Benedetta Torre (Despina); Orchestra E Coro Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Zubin Mehta, Sven-Eric Bechtolf
Filmed in Florence last April, Bechtolf's production focuses squarely on the figure of Don Alfonso, with BachTrack praising the 'seasoned acting experience and natural charisma' which Hampson (himself a superb Guglielmo earlier in his career) brings to the role of the philosopher and devil's advocate, and noting that the staging 'highlights the thoroughness of his schemes and pseudo-scientific ambitions'.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
