New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 22nd April 2022
Today's new releases include a characterful Rossini recital from French baritone Florian Sempey, vintage Vaughan Williams from Sir Adrian Boult at the Proms, a 'new symphony' compiled from Rameau's operas from Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, and a trio of works from the last decade of Schubert's life from Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson.
Picking up from where his Symphonie Imaginaire left off nearly twenty years ago, Minkowski's new symphonic synthesis draws on orchestral music and baritone arias from works including Les Indes Galantes, Les Paladins, Castor et Pollux, Dardanus, Zoroastre, Acante et Céphise, and La Naissance d'Osiris.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Xiaogang Ye: Seven Episodes For Lin'a
Yuanming Song (soprano), Yijie Shi (tenor), Songhu Liu (tenor), Cong Gu (horn), Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Stephan Malzew, Franck Ollu
In addition to the title-work (which draws on Ye's love of ancient Chinese poetry), this collection of music by one of China’s best-known contemporary composers includes the Himalayas-inspired Twilight in Tibet and the Tianjin Suite, which was commissioned by the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and depicts the city's rich historical and cultural heritage.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Featuring two world premiere recordings, the Ensemble Diderot cellist's debut solo recording explores the evolution of the chamber cello concerto in pre-Classical Germany via works by Ignác František Mara, Markus Heinrich Grauel, Carl Friedrich Abel, and Johann Wilhelm Hertel.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their recording of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas Nos. 4, 5 & 7 on Onyx (which received five stars in BBC Music Magazine thanks to their 'bracingly fresh interpretative emphasis'), Mullova and Beatson move to Signum for a recital focusing on the final decade of Schubert's short but prolific life: the programme comprises the Violin Sonata in A from 1817, the Fantasie in C from 1827, and the Rondo in B minor from 1826.
Available Format: CD
Still in his early twenties, the Chinese pianist took fourth prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, and also received a special award for his sang froid after an administrative mix-up led to the orchestra launching into Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody rather than the expected Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. His programme here includes Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Chopin, excerpts from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, and Prokofiev's Four Études Op. 2.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rebecca Clarke: Works For Viola
Vinciane Béranger (viola), Dana Ciocarlie (piano), Helene Collerette (violin), David Louwerse (cello)
Béranger's celebration of Rebecca Clarke opens with what is perhaps the British-American composer's best-known work - the Viola Sonata from 1919, which tied with a piece by Ernest Bloch when Clarke submitted it for a composition competition that year. The programme also includes the world premiere recording of the recently-rediscovered Irish Melody, plus the Passacaglia On an Old English Tune, Morpheus, Chinese Puzzle, and the Dumka for Violin, Viola & Piano.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rossini: Figaro? Sì!
Florian Sempey (baritone), with Karine Deshayes (mezzo) & Nahuel Di Pierro (bass); Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Marc Minkowski
In the wake of his recent classy cameo on Benjamin Bernheim's Boulevard des Italiens and a star role on Minkowski's new Rameau project (see above), the French baritone makes his debut solo recording on Alpha with an all-Rossini programme featuring excerpts from the three great comic operas Il barbiere di Siviglia, La cenerentola and L'Italiana in Algeri, plus relative rarities from La scala di seta, L'occasione fa il ladro. and Le comte Ory.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Poétiques de l'instant
Jodie Devos (soprano), Juliette Hurel (flute), Emmanuel Ceysson (harp), Quatuor Voce
Alongside Debussy's String Quartet and Sonate pour flûte, alto et harpe, Quatuor Voce and their guests present the world premiere recording of Yves Balmer's Debussy-inspired Fragments soulevés par le vent and his new arrangement of the composer's song-cycle Proses lyriques for soprano and string quartet. A second volume, centring on Ravel's String Quartet and also featuring new music by a young French composer, is currently in the works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs Volume 4
William Vann (piano), Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone)
The final instalment of Vann's Vaughan Williams series centres on the songs which were collected by Maud Karpeles in Newfoundland in 1929/30, most of which receive their world premiere recordings here; the best-known song from the set, 'She's Like the Swallow', was subsequently arranged by composers including Britten and Bob Chilcott. The programme also includes 'The Jolly Ploughboy', 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale', 'Servant Man and Husbandman', and 'The Turtle Dove'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The oboe band makes its recording debut with a programme of English music by composers who flourished around 1700, including suites from Purcell's King Arthur, The Fairy Queen and Bonduca, overtures by Godfrey Finger and Thomas Morgan, and two pieces by the French-born oboist James Paisible, a favourite of Queen Anne who composed and directed numerous works for ‘The Queen's Oboe Band’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The performances here were captured at the Royal Albert Hall during the Proms in 1972 and 1975; reviewing for the Daily Telegraph, Anthony Payne described Boult's account as 'one of the most taut and concentrated interpretations I have ever heard of the work', whilst Martin Cotton applauded No. 6 for his 'sense of overall direction' and 'strong feeling for the structure and emotional depth of the work'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Janácek: Jenůfa (DVD)
Camilla Nylund (Jenůfa), Evelyn Herlitzius (Kostelnička), Stuart Skelton (Laca), Ladislav Elgr (Števa), Hanna Schwarz (Grandmother Buryjovka), Jan Martiník (Stárek); Staatskapelle Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle, Damiano Michieletto
Filmed in Berlin last February, this production was described by BachTrack's Mark Valencia as 'a Jenůfa to sear the soul...urgent, unsentimental and richly flavoured'; The Times's Hugh Canning, meanwhile, praised Nylund's 'penetrating and deeply touching lyricism' in the title-role.
Available Format: DVD Video
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (DVD)
Krystian Adam (Orfeo), Hana Blažiková (La Musica/Euridice), Anna Dennis (Ninfa), Kangmin Justin Kim (Speranza), Lucile Richardot (Messaggera), Francesca Boncompagni (Proserpina), Gianluca Buratto (Caronte/Plutone), Furio Zanasi (Apollo), English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Captured at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice as part of an extensive tour to mark both the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth and the fiftieth anniversary of Gardiner's first performance of the work, this Orfeo was described as 'a fabulous experience...magically coherent' by The Guardian when the production visited Bristol earlier in the run.
Available Format: DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
