New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 29th April 2022
Today's new releases include Dora Pejačević's Piano Concerto and Symphony in F sharp minor from Peter Donohoe, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, eighteenth-century operatic heroines from Patricia Petibon and La Cetra, Heinz Holliger's 'dream-opera' Lunea (starring Christian Gerhaher as the poet Nikolaus Lenau), and a Dante-inspired recital from Italian bass Mirco Palazzi and pianist Marco Scolastra.
Dora Pejačević: Piano Concerto & Symphony
Peter Donohoe (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Born into an aristocratic family in Budapest in 1885, Pejačević studied in Zagreb, Dresden and Munich, but was largely self-taught. Her 1913 Piano Concerto was both her first orchestral composition and the first work in the genre by a Croatian composer, whilst the Symphony in F sharp minor was composed during the First World War (when she was also working as a volunteer nurse). It's given here in the revised version which she prepared for its first public performance in Vienna in 1920.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For her first recording with orchestra, the German violinist couples Mendelssohn’s evergreen concerto of 1845 with a far less familiar work: Christian Sinding's Violin Concerto No. 1 from 1898, which enjoyed great success at its premiere thanks to its memorable melodies and brilliant orchestration, but has since rather receded from the repertoire. Sinding's lovely Romance from 1910 is sandwiched between the two concertos.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Praised in The Guardian earlier this month for the 'top performances and meticulous imagination' on display, the Castalians' debut recording centres on Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor and Thomas Adès's The Four Quarters (written for the Emerson Quartet in 2011), framed by leader Sini Simonen's own arrangements of Lassus's La nuit froide et sombre and Dowland's Come heavy sleep.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their superb accounts of piano trios by Amy Beach, Louise Farrenc and Rebecca Clarke (which was a New York Times Recording of the Year in 2019), the Neaves present a programme of music connected by the theme of remembrance: Rachmaninov's Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G, minor, Brahms's Piano Trio No. 1 (inspired in part by his feelings for Clara Schumann) and Ravel's sole work in the genre, written on the cusp of the First World War and drawing on the composer's Basque roots.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The first instalment of Napolitano's Brahms project (described as 'intense [and] infinitely rewarding' by International Piano) juxtaposed the Klavierstücke Opp. 118 & 119 with a selection of Berg's and Webern's solo piano works, and this second volume pairs Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments. Napolitano writes: 'the two works address the same problems of musical construction: the perfectly economic use of classical forms, the absolute concision, the presentation of musical material in crystal-like formations'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French soprano's new album focuses on heroines from eighteenth-century opera: Handel's Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) and Armida (Rinaldo), Rameau's Phèdre (Hippolyte et Aricie), Gluck's Alceste, and Mozart's Elettra (Idomeneo). The programme also includes arias from Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes and Offenbach's La grande-duchesse de Gérolstein, and is bookended by excerpts from Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art and Ode for St Cecilia's Day.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Taking its title from a sonnet in La Vita Nuova, this recital brings together a selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century works on texts by Dante: Donizetti's Il conte Ugolino and Amor cha nullamato amar perdona, Rossini's Francesca da Rimini, Filippo Marchetti's La Pia, Cirro Pinsuti's Beatrice, Francesco Morlacchi's Venite a intender and L'Ugolino di Dante, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Quattro Sonetti dalla Vita nova and Sera.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Heinz Holliger: Lunea
Christian Gerhaher (Lenau), Juliane Banse (Sophie), Ivan Ludlow (Anton Schurz), Sarah Maria Sun (Marie/Karoline), Annette Schönmüller (Therese) Philharmonia Zurich, Basler Madrigalisten, Heinz Holliger
Premiered in Zürich in 2018, Holliger's 'dream-opera' on the life of the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau was described by BachTrack as 'one of the season’s most unforgettable, if pointedly cerebral, musical encounters', whilst the Neue Zürcher Zeitung observed that the central role allows Gerhaher to 'display his full sensitivity in dealing with the finest nuances of language'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Named Record of the Week on Radio 3's Record Review in February, this album of sacred choral works by Italian composers features Rossini's O salutaris hostia, 'Due canti' from Wolf-Ferrari's Otto cori, Marco Enrico Bossi's A Raffaello Divino, Puccini's Requiem for chorus, solo viola and organ, and Verdi's Pater noster as well as the Four Sacred Pieces.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Taking its cue from Van Nevel's 2018 book on 'the world of the Franco-Flemish School 1400-1600', the Huelgas Ensemble's programme includes Josquin's Cueur langoreulx, Lhéritier's Locutus est Dominus, Busnois's Bel Acueil, Févin's Lamentaties voor Witte Donderdag, Mouton's Qui ne regrettoit, and movements from masses by Ockeghem, Josquin and Gombert.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
