Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - May 2022
Personal favourites from May's crop of new releases include a starkly beautiful recital of Purcell, Strozzi, Eccles and Park from mezzo Helen Charlston and theorbist Toby Carr on Delphian, a vivid, vulnerable Violetta from Lisette Oropesa on Pentatone's new Traviata, punch-packing Rachmaninov from Steven Osborne on Hyperion, and an immensely involving English-language Schöne Müllerin from Nicky Spence and Christopher Glynn on Signum.
The grave beauty of Charlston's inky mezzo is a joy in itself, and the fierce directness of her delivery makes a formidable impact in this programme of laments by Eccles, Purcell, Strozzi et al, with a terrific new commission by Owain Park (which feels perfectly integrated into the framework of the recital) also making its mark; Carr, always completely attuned to his singer's imagination, conjures some magical colours from his theorbo throughout.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jeremy Sams's poetic but unpretentious English translation captures the lovelorn journeyman's simple eloquence so effectively here (the bitter tirade at the predatory huntsman and his 'scrabbly stubble' is especially biting), and Spence and Glynn respond in kind with an interpretation that strikes an ideal balance between muscularity and lyricism. Even if you're a non-native English-speaker (or generally allergic to Lieder in translation), do give this a try.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
All three works here were composed whilst Coleridge-Taylor was still a student at the Royal College of Music, but from listening 'blind' you'd never identify these as apprentice-pieces: his inventive orchestration in the Nonet (with some particularly striking writing for horn and piano) is a treat, and the Piano Quintet (where the Kaleidoscopes yield nothing to the Pavel Haas Quartet's recent Brahms recording in terms of near-orchestral weight) seems to pick up where Dvořák left off.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Scottish pianist's 2014 recording of the Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2 is one of my desert-island discs, and his account of No. 1 yields nothing to its predecessor in terms of athleticism, poetry and sheer beauty of sound - Osborne knows exactly when to step on the gas and when to let the music breathe, and as ever his clarity in the thickest passages is such that you could take dictation from the recording if you were so-minded.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Verdi: La Traviata
Lisette Oropesa (Violetta), René Barbera (Alfredo Germont), Lester Lynch (Giorgio Germont), Dresdner Philharmonie, Daniel Oren
The passion and pathos of Oropesa's vivid, truly three-dimensional Violetta registers just as keenly on this studio-recording as it does on stage, and the sheer gorgeousness of her singing (from the manic pyrotechnics which close Act One to the exquisite floated top A at the end of 'Addio del passato') is the worth the price of the set alone. Barbera's elegant, if rather light-voiced Alfredo is an ideal foil, and Lynch matches her emotional investment to the hilt in their great confrontation-scene.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Barber: The Complete Songs
Dylan Perez (piano), Samantha Clarke, Soraya Mafi, Louise Kemény, Mary Bevan (sopranos), Fleur Barron (mezzo), Jess Dandy (contralto), Nicky Spence (tenor), Dominic Sedgewick, Julien Van Mellaerts (baritones), William Thomas (bass) Navarra String Quartet
Part of the pleasure of this lovely set lies in the variety of marvellous young voices on display, with Barron and Dandy making especially ravishing contributions in Opp. 18 and 45 respectively and Spence (so wonderfully supported by Perez in the composer's own piano reduction) capturing the aching beauty of Knoxville to perfection. Add in Perez's unfailingly idiomatic playing and the chance to hear some of the early posthumously-published songs for the first time on disc, and I'd say you have a hot contender come awards season...
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Lupo served in the courts of both Elizabeth I and Charles I, working alongside composers including Ferrabosca and Gibbons, and many of the works here fuse Italian and English elements in the most beguiling of ways: Fretwork positively revel in the range of textures, from spare beauty to full-throttle shredding, and the rhythmic vitality of the music registers loud and clear.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
NAZARENO! Bernstein, Stravinsky, Golijov
Katia & Marielle Labèque, Chris Richards, Gonzalo Grau, Raphaël Séguinier; London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Rattle's early championing of Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue and Riffs earned him the composer's passionate gratitude at a time when many of his orchestral compositions were programmed relatively infrequently, and his long experience with the piece shines forth on this live recording, with the LSO brass having an absolute blast; Gonzalo Grau's arrangements of Golijov's NAZARENO! are electrifying, too, especially the raucous 'Guaracha y Mambo'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
