Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - June 2022
Personal favourites from this month's new releases include an absolute tour de force of a recital from contemporary music diva and composer Héloïse Werner (plus a rich and varied roster of instrumental soloists and composers including Josephine Stephenson, Nico Muhly and Oliver Leith), a revelatory Dichterliebe from Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov, and a superb collection of the young Ravel's ambitious submissions for the Prix de Rome, with Véronique Gens, Michael Spyres and Julien Behr among the distinguished line-up of singers...
Phrases
Héloïse Werner (soprano), Amy Harman (bassoon), Lawrence Power (violin, viola), Calum Huggan (percussion), Colin Alexander (cello), Laura Snowden (guitar), Daniel Shao (flute)
Werner's high-energy, Cathy Berberian-ish virtuosity in the sequence from Aperghis's Récitations and her own dizzying Unspecified Intentions (which fits very naturally in between the Aperghis selections) is so startling that you might need a breather before carrying on - but there's real heart and soul alongside the avant-garde pyrotechnics throughout this recital of new works, particularly in Werner's deeply personal Confessional and Nico Muhly's radiant Benedicite Recitation for voice and flute.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Lieder: Berg, Schumann, Wolf, Shostakovich, Brahms
Matthias Goerne (bass-baritone), Daniil Trifonov (piano)
I loved Goerne's previous two collaborations with star pianists from the Deutsche Grammophon roster, and this latest instalment is no less compelling: the main event is a Dichterliebe that's so much more than the sum of its formidable parts, with Trifonov's achingly beautiful phrasing of the introduction setting the tone for an interpretation that's full of fresh insights on several levels. Brahms's Vier ernste Gesänge are finely done, too, though given how recently Goerne recorded them elsewhere I'd happily have foregone them here to make room for more of Shostakovich's Michelangelo settings - they suit him down to the ground.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This isn't Wilson's first rodeo with Ireland on disc: he recorded a near-identical programme with the Hallé back in 2009, but even if you own and love that earlier set this new volume is well worth hearing - not least for the arrangement of A Downland Suite, which showcases the Sinfonia of London's distinctive lush string-sound to perfection. The cinematic qualities of Mai-Dun are even more thrillingly captured here than on the previous recording, and the gorgeous orchestration of The Holy Boy is a little gem.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ravel: Cantates Pour Le Prix de Rome
Véronique Gens, Vannina Santoni (sopranos), Sophie Koch, Janina Baechle (mezzos), Julien Behr, Michael Spyres (tenor), Jacques Imbrailo (baritone), Choeur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Pascal Rophé
Given the stylistic and harmonic complexity of the three main cantatas here (Alyssa, Alcyone and Myrrha), it's easy to see why the panel at the Paris Conservatoire were rather flummoxed by the young Ravel's vaulting ambition when he unsuccessfully submitted them for their prestigious composition-competition. It's fascinating to hear the foreshadowings of later works like Shéhérazade and occasional echoes of Wagner (specifically Tristan) in these scores, and all seven well-contrasted soloists sound fully invested in text and drama throughout.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
It was the vivid setting of Erlkönig on Golda Schultz's marvellous This Be Her Verse which turned me onto the work of the nineteenth-century German composer Emilie Meyer, and this collection of world premiere recordings of her piano trios (an academic labour of love for the trio's pianist Katharina Sellheim) reveals her to be just as involving in her approach to chamber-music. Though all three works here are thought to date from around the same time, there's a marked difference between the full-bodied Romanticism of the D minor trio which opens proceedings and the more Classical harmonic language of the affable E flat trio which follows. Both boast a wealth of rich melodic material, imaginatively deployed.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Each of these six works by contemporary Estonian composers has its own richly evocative sound-world, from the iridescent beauty of Tõnu Kõrvits's To the Moonlight to the taut energy of Ülo Krigul's The Bow and Lepo Sumera's Olympic Music I (the latter written for the Tallinn Sailing Regatta at the 1980 Summer Olympics and combining high adrenaline and ceremonial grandeur in equal measure). There's some stunning woodwind-playing in the Kõrvits, but three string soloists get plenty of chance to shine in Helena Tulve's mesmerising L’ombre derrière toi (originally scored for a trio of viola da gambas).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
I love the sparseness and simplicity of Lang's settings of five texts from the Old Testament tied to Jewish holidays, and the clarity and balance of Cappella Amsterdam's performance captures the piece's symmetry quite wonderfully. The long sequence of metaphors in for love is strong (from the Song of Songs) is brought to life with quiet wonder, and the call-and-response string of single words in solitary (from the Book of Lamentations) has a bleak beauty that's both haunting and hypnotic.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
