New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 28th October 2022
Today's new releases include Dvořák's Poetic Tone Pictures from Leif Ove Andsnes on Sony, the first instalment of a new Rachmaninoff series from Sinfonia of London and John Wilson on Chandos, early Schubert piano sonatas from Paul Lewis on Harmonia Mundi, and a recital of baroque works for violin (including music by JS Bach, Henry Purcell, Nicola Matteis Jr, Johann Paul von Westhoff and Giuseppe Tartini) 'tutta sola' from Rachel Podger on Channel Classics.
Barring a superb recording of the Piano Quintet with Sarah Chang and friends twenty years ago, Dvořák hasn't figured in the Norwegian pianist's discography to date, but this work has a special place in his heart: Andsnes describes it as 'the great forgotten cycle of nineteenth-century piano music', noting that 'Dvořák creates unique colours at the piano, and uses the full range of the piano convincingly, even if he was not a pianist-composer’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Wilson and Sinfonia of London make their first foray into Russian repertoire with a work which was premiered in the US in the 1930s - around the same time, in fact, as some of the music featured on their recent Hollywood Soundstage was being composed. The album also features two earlier works: the tone-poem The Isle of the Dead (inspired by a painting by the Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin) and the famous Vocalise (originally written for the soprano Antonina Nezhdanova but heard here in the composer's own version for orchestra).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This triptych of early masterpieces completes Lewis's survey of the Schubert piano sonatas, which he began two decades ago on Harmonia Mundi; Gramophone described an earlier instalment (featuring Sonatas D840, 850 and 894) as 'a recording that makes you want to dance in the street, handing out copies to complete strangers', whilst his set of the late sonatas was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as 'piano playing of the highest calibre'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
A sequel of sorts to her 2013 solo album Guardian Angel (which won the Instrumental Prize at the BBC Music Magazine Awards the following year), Podger's programme opens with Chad Kelly's transcription of JS Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 and also includes works by Johann Joseph Vilsmayr, Henry Purcell, Nicola Matteis Jr, Johann Paul von Westhoff and Giuseppe Tartini plus music from the Nogueira and Klagenfurt Manuscripts.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Released to coincide with Black History Month, this triptych of works by African-American composers also celebrates the centenary of George Walker's birth, with his Lyric for Strings (1946) closing the programme. It's preceded by William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony (premiered by Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall in 1934) and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 from 1930, which draws on poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar and incorporates elements of jazz and blues.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Sibelius: Symphony Nos. 3, 5 & Pohjola's Daughter
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali
This third instalment of Rouvali's Sibelius cycle from Gothenburg couples two symphonies composed on the shores of Lake Tuusula: the Third Symphony from 1907, and the Fifth from 1915, inspired in part by the cry of a flock of sixteen swans flying over the lake. The previous releases in the series have been described as 'startlingly defined' (Gramophone) and 'strikingly individual' (BBC Music Magazine).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Florilegium resume their Haydn series on Channel with the three programmatic works depicting times of day which the composer penned shortly after arriving in Esterházy in 1761, possibly at the request of his new employer Prince Paul Anton: Solomon employs eighteen musicians, to match the forces which Haydn had at his disposal for the premieres.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates its tenth birthday with this recording of Mendelssohn's first three string quartets - two of which were written whilst the composer was still in his teens. The album was an Editor's Choice in the latest edition of Gramophone, with Richard Wigmore observing that 'The Van Kuijk marry high technical polish (tuning and ensemble virtually flawless), close attention to Mendelssohn’s detailed markings and a spirit of youthful, spontaneous ardour'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released to mark the first anniversary of the Brazilian pianist's death, this collection features recordings of Sgambati's transcription of Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits, Hess's arrangement of 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring' and Beethoven’s Andante favori (all from 2014), and several broadcast concerto performances from 1970-1985 - including Richard Strauss’s Burleske from Baden-Baden. The documentation includes a new essay by Freire’s long-time producer at Decca, Dominic Fyfe.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
The Czech bass-baritone's debut solo recording interweaves arias from Mozart's Da Ponte operas and La finta giardiniera with extracts from lesser-known works by his contemporary Salieri: Falstaff (premiered after Mozart's death and strongly influenced by his Nozze di Figaro), Axur (also on a libretto by Da Ponte), La grotto di Trofonio and La scuola de’ gelosi. The Mozart arias include 'Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo', originally written for Guglielmo in Così fan tutte but usually replaced by the briefer 'Non siate retrosi' in full productions of the opera.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Britten: Our Hunting Fathers, Quatre Chansons Francaises & Gloriana Suite
Mark Padmore (tenor), Christina Landshamer (soprano), Basel Symphony Orchestra, Alasdair Kent Ivor Bolton
Padmore (an acclaimed Peter Quint, Aschenbach and Peter Grimes with fine recordings of Britten's Canticles, Nocturnal and Who are these children? under his belt) is the soloist in the 1936 Auden cycle Our Hunting Fathers, whilst Landshamer takes on the even earlier Quatre Chansons Françaises - written when the composer was just fourteen, and setting texts by Paul Verlaine and Victor Hugo. The programme is completed by the suite from the rarely-staged opera Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Taking his cue from a letter which Monteverdi wrote to poet and fellow composer Alessandro Striggio lamenting 'the hard work that had to be done on the Mass for Christmas Eve' at St Mark's in 1616, Marcon has reconstructed the sort of programme which might have been presented at 'Christmas Vespers' that year - drawing on Monteverdi's own Vespro della beata Vergine and Selva morale e spirituale as well as music by Giovanni Gabrieli, Francesco Usper, Alessandro Grandi and Giovanni Valentini.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater & Other Works
Aleksandra Kurzak (soprano), Andreas Scholl (countertenor), Roberto Alagna (tenor); Morphing Chamber Orchestra
As well as the Stabat Mater (adapted by the Morphing Chamber Orchestra's founder Tomasz Wabnic), this all-Pärt programme includes Spiegel im Spiegel, Es Sang vor langen Jahren for alto, violin & viola, Vater Unser, Ein Wallfahrtslied, Summa, Fratres, and My Heart's in the Highlands.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge
Eleanor Lyons (soprano), Sebastian Kohlhepp (tenor), Thomas Bauer (baritone); Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
Ten years on from their account of the Missa solemnis (which prompted The Telegraph to declare that 'if you’ve always had your doubts about the piece, this may be the recording that quells them'), Herreweghe and his Belgian choir team up with the Parisian orchestra once again for Beethoven's only oratorio - depicting Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane and premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1803.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
