New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 6th January 2023
Today's new releases include Poulenc's La Voix Humaine from Véronique Gens, the Orchestre National de Lille and Alexandre Bloch, violin sonatas by Janáček, Brahms & Bartók from Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say (both on Alpha Classics), Malcolm Arnold's Clarinet Concerto from Michael Collins, the BBC Philharmonic and Rumon Gamba on Chandos, and three piano concertos by Carl Reinecke from Simon Callaghan, the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen and Modestas Pitrėnas on Hyperion as part of their doughty Romantic Piano Concerto series.
Four years on from their Gramophone Award-nominated recording of Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Gens and the Lille orchestra join forces once again for a work which the great French tragédienne has long dreamed of performing and recording: Poulenc's searing one-act monodrama from 1958, depicting a woman's final telephone-conversation with her ex-lover. It's coupled with a much sunnier work for orchestra only: the Sinfonietta, commissioned by the BBC in 1947 to mark the first birthday of the 'Third Programme'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Having recorded Bacewicz's violin concertos to considerable acclaim on Chandos, Borowicz now embarks on a survey of the Polish composer's complete symphonic works; both symphonies here are scored for very large forces and date from the early 1950s, with No. 4 winning the Polish Ministry of Culture Prize in 1955. The project is the first to use the new version of the scores prepared by the PWM Edition in Kraków.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Collins is the soloist in the concerto for clarinet and strings, which was premiered by Frederick Thurston at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949; the programme also includes the Divertimento No. 2 (written for the newly-formed National Youth Orchestra in 1961), the early tone-poem Larch Trees, the Commonwealth Christmas Overture (commissioned by the BBC to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of King George VI's first Christmas Broadcast), and Philip Lane's orchestration of The Padstow Lifeboat, originally scored for brass band.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following recordings of concertos by Roger Sacheverell Coke, Josef Rheinberger and Bernhard Scholz, Callaghan makes his third appearance in Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series with three works by Carl Reinecke (1824-1910); a pupil of Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, Reinecke went on to teach composers including Grieg, Janáček, Stanford, Bruch and Albéniz.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries
Rachel Barton Pine (violin), Encore Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Daniel Hege, Jonathon Heyward
This 25th-anniversary reissue of Barton Pine's recording of concertos by Chevalier de Saint-Georges, José White Lafitte and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with the Encore Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Hege also includes her recent account of Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 2; completed a year before her death in 1953, the manuscript was among the many scores which were discovered at Price's abandoned house in Illinois in 2009.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Fifteen years on from their celebrated recording of works by Beethoven, Ravel, Bartók and Say himself, the Moldovan violinist and Turkish pianist team up again for Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Janáček's Violin Sonata from 1914, and Bartók's Violin Sonata No. 1 - which Kopatchinskaja considers to be 'a marvel from start to finish, one of his finest works’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded at Abbey Road's Studio 2, these accounts of the Brahms Cello Sonatas and Vier ernste Gesänge were captured using analogue technology – tape recorders, vintage microphones and longer takes. Elschenbroich writes: 'Alexei and I were not interested in recreating a bygone era or reminiscing a past aesthetic; we wanted to find the best reproduction of our music...the listener only needs one pair of ears and the music must come to life in her or his unique space.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Augusta Read Thomas: Dream Catcher
Clarissa Bevilacqua (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Vimbayi Kaziboni
This debut recording by Milan-born violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua brings together Augusta Read Thomas’s complete works for solo violin, and also includes her Violin Concerto No. 3 'Juggler in Paradise' - premiered by Frank-Peter Zimmermann in 2009 and described by the composer as 'a series of poetic outgrowths and variations'. The title-work received its first performance that same year, and is dedicated to Dallas Symphony Orchestra violinist Maria Schleuning.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Already nominated for an International Classical Music Award, this album from the Chicago-based string trio brings together seven neglected works by French composers, all written between 1926 and 1939; pieces by Henri Tomasi, Robert Casadesus and Gustave Samazeuilh receive their world premiere recordings, alongside works by Jean Cras, Émile Goué, Jean Françaix, and Gabriel Pierné.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
In the running for a Grammy Award next month, this album from the US percussion ensemble comprises Danny Elfman’s Percussion Quartet (which began life when Philip Glass approached the composer about writing a companion-piece for his own Perpetulum, and draws on Elfman's experiences with African balafon and Indonesian gamelan), an arrangement of Glass's Metamorphosis I, and a reworking of Jlin's Perspective (originally conceived as electronic music).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Based on the series of online performances which the American violinist gave during lockdown (which was described as 'a marvel for a time of crisis' by The New York Times, Alone Together presents 39 world premiere recordings of works by composers including Vijay Iyer, Tania Leon, George Lewis, Missy Mazzoli, Ellen Reid, Lester St. Louis, and Rajna Swaminathan - many of them commissioned by Koh to support young composers who were struggling financially during the pandemic.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hugo Wolf: The Complete Songs, Vol. 11
Fflur Wyn, Sophie Bevan, Rowan Hellier, Adrian Thompson (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), John Chest, Jonathan Lemalu (bass-baritone), Sholto Kynoch
Launched in 2011, Oxford Lieder’s complete Hugo Wolf song series (recorded live at the Holywell Music Room over the course of several festivals) crosses the finishing-line with this album comprising the second half of the composer's wonderful Goethe settings, including Ganymed, Prometheus and Anakreons Grab. The series has been praised as 'acutely sensitive to Wolf's musical nerve system' (BBC Music Magazine) and 'an impressive achievement' (Gramophone).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Recorded live in Leipzig, this recital takes its title from a new song-cycle by Stefan Heucke, setting texts by the German poet and essayist Hilde Domin (1909-2006); the programme also includes Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder (something of a calling-card for Schwanewilms) and recitations of Domin's poetry by German actor Wolf-Dietrich Rammler.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
