Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - April 2022
It's been a rich and varied month indeed on the vocal recitals front, with South African soprano Golda Schultz and pianist Jonathan Ware offering a compelling programme of songs by Clara Schumann, Emilie Mayer, Rebecca Clarke, Nadia Boulanger and Kathleen Tagg/Lila Palmer, Scottish tenor Nicky Spence joining forces with Julius Drake and the Piatti Quartet for an On Wenlock Edge which packs near-operatic power, and Sandrine Piau and Véronique Gens paying homage to two French singers whose artistry inspired composers including Salieri, Grétry and Cherubini.
Elsewhere, the young musicians of the New York Youth Symphony make a terrific recording debut in music by Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery on Avie, whilst Peter Donohoe, Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra had me itching to discover more music by the Croatian composer Dora Pejačević after hearing their splendid advocacy of her 1913 Piano Concerto on Chandos.
I can see myself returning to this beautifully-conceived recital of songs by five female composers for months to come - much of the pleasure comes from hearing some familiar texts in less familiar settings (try Emilie Mayer's Erlkönig, where the title-character is more seductively plausible than in Schubert), but Schultz's radiant, ardent sound is a joy in itself. She's a born storyteller, and Ware gets plenty of opportunity to shine equally brightly in the Mayer songs in particular.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dora Pejačević: Piano Concerto & Symphony
Peter Donohoe (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Thought to be the first such work by any Croatian composer, Pejačević's 1913 Piano Concerto is a big, bold, exhilarating affair which seems to look backward to Brahms and forwards to Rachmaninov and even early film-scores in some of its sweeping, expansive themes. Donohoe and Oramo do it full justice, and the Symphony in F sharp minor is equally worth hearing, with especially striking orchestration in the Scherzo and an Appassionato finale which carries all before it. More, please.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge & other songs
Nicky Spence (tenor), Julius Drake (piano), Timothy Ridout (viola), Piatti Quartet
Fresh from operatic assignments including Siegmund and Laca, the Scottish tenor packs considerably more punch than I'm used to hearing in this repertoire, and I love it - Spence carries his vocal weight with consummate style and sensitivity, reserving the real firepower for climatic moments and bringing an exquisite tenderness to the more intimate songs such as 'Silent Noon'. The Piattis and Ridout, too, sound every bit as engaged with the texts as their singer throughout.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Corti is seemingly incapable of music-making that doesn't dance and shimmer, but his isn't the only Midas Touch in evidence on this irresistible programme of mandolin concertos by Vivaldi, Paisiello, Lecce and Hummel - La Ragione taps into a wealth of colours in each work too, showcasing the distinctive timbres of three different period mandolins (a relatively dry instrument for the Vivaldi, something significantly sparklier for Paisiello) in the process.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
What infectious fun these singers have with texts and textures alike throughout this marathon of madrigals by a master of the art - for starters, try ‘Sweet honey-sucking bees’, where the sibilance fizzes from voice to voice in a veritable masterclass of ensemble word-painting. They're just as impressive when Wilbye is in dour, Dowland-esque mode, the pure-toned sopranos lending a toothsome astringency to the title-track and 'Weep, weep, mine eyes'.
Available Format: CD
Works By Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery
Michelle Cann (piano), New York Youth Symphony, Michael Repper
This has to be one of the most assured and exciting recording-debuts from a youth orchestra since the West-Eastern Divan and the Simon Bolivars hit the ground running: there's a wonderful sheen and polish to the sound, ensemble is nigh-on immaculate, and the young New Yorkers revel in Price's juba rhythms and inventive scoring in both the Piano Concerto (given for the first time in her original orchestration here) and Ethiopia's Shadow in America.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
It seems there was little actual rivalry involved in the making of this delicious album: Mme Dugazon and Mme Saint-Huberty (the singers to whom these two modern-day French divas pay tribute) appear to have co-existed quite amicably, and Gens and Piau audibly exult in one another's artistry, particularly in the synchronised fireworks of a duet from JC Bach's La Clemenza di Scipione. Chauvin galvanises some scintillating playing, particularly in the stormy Monsigny aria which opens proceedings.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The two Serenades which Rautavaara composed at the very end of his life for Hilary Hahn were first recorded by their dedicatee last year, but it's more illuminating still to hear them in the context of his other late works - particularly In the Beginning (2015), which paints a scarcely less vivid picture of creation than Haydn's 'Representation of Chaos' and receives an atmospheric, clear-eyed premiere recording from Trevino and his Swedish forces here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
