New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 13th January 2023
Today's new releases include Lionel Tertis's transcription of Elgar's Cello Concerto from Timothy Ridout, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Martyn Brabbins on Harmonia Mundi, the complete Beethoven violin sonatas from Midori and Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Warner, Lully's Psyché from Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset on the Château de Versailles's own label, and an album commemorating the 400th anniversary of the deaths of William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes (featuring new commissions by Sir James MacMillan and Roderick Williams) from The King's Singers & Fretwork on Signum.
Elgar: Viola Concerto & Bloch: Suite For Viola and Orchestra
Timothy Ridout (viola), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
The young British viola-player took First Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in 2016, so it's fitting that his first orchestral recording on Harmonia Mundi features Tertis's arrangement of the Elgar Cello Concerto; the composer himself described it as 'admirably done and fully effective', and conducted its premiere (with Tertis as soloist) in 1930. It's followed by Bruch's Suite for Viola and Orchestra from 1918, originally written for viola and piano but given here in the composer's own orchestration.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This year the Austrian conductor presided over the New Year's Day festivities for the third time, conducting a programme which included the overture to Suppè's operetta Isabella, Josef Strauss's 'Heldengedichte' and 'Aquarellen' Waltzes, Eduard Strauss's Polka 'Wer tanzt mit?', Carl Michael Ziehrer's 'In lauschiger Nacht', the 'Glocken-Polka mit Galopp' from Josef Hellmesberger Jr.'s ballet Excelsior, and of course Johann Strauss II's 'An der schönen blauen Donau'.
(The DVD DVD and Blu-ray of the concert will be released on 27th January).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Since making her house debut as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro in 1991 (when she stepped in to replace an indisposed Felicity Lott), Fleming has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera over 250 times, and this compilation of her personal highlights there includes excerpts from Britten's Peter Grimes, Verdi's Otello, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier & Arabella, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Lehár's Die lustige Witwe, Dvořák's Rusalka, Massenet's Manon & Thaïs, and Carlisle Floyd's Susannah.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French-Armenian conductor succeeded Andrés Orozco-Estrada as the FRSO's Music Director in 2021, and for their first collaboration on record they pay tribute to a composer whose bicentenary fell last year; the programme comprises the Symphony in D minor, the symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (1882), and the symphonic interlude from the 1872 oratorio Rédemption. The latter two works are given here in new editions, prepared for the anniversary.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Staier began his survey of The Well-Tempered Clavier with Book Two in November 2021; Limelight Magazine described the results as 'a wonderful recording, packed with contrapuntal joy', and deemed his instrument of choice (a modern Parisian copy of a two-manual model by Hieronymus Albrecht Hass) 'a versatile Rolls-Royce of a harpsichord, offering a kaleidoscope of colours'. With that first album in the running for an International Classical Music Award, he now completes his survey on the same instrument.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following her 2020 recording of the Violin Concerto (praised by Fanfare for her 'old-fashioned star quality') Midori teams up with Thibaudet for Beethoven's complete violin sonatas on this recording marking the fortieth anniversary of her professional debut. The Japanese violinist writes: 'My journey with Beethoven has been a kind of personal friendship...He speaks to me as a companion, reminding me to always strive and stretch'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is the world premiere recording of Gurney's Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major, thought to have been composed in 1918/19, and dedicated to his friend and fellow war-poet F.W. Harvey; it's coupled with the Elgar Violin Sonata, performed here from Marshall-Luck's new critical edition which was published by Henle last year. Marshall-Luck also gave Gurney's Violin Sonata in E flat (dating from around the same time) its first recording back in 2013, with BBC Music Magazine opining that the work 'could hardly have better and more convincing exponents'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
2023 marks the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two towering figures of the English Renaissance, Thomas Weelkes and William Byrd. The King's Singers and Fretwork join forces to mark the occasion with a programme of sacred and secular works by both composers, plus two new commissions in their memory: Sir James MacMillan's Ye Sacred Muses (a response to Byrd's elegy for Thomas Tallis) and Roderick Williams's Death Be Not Proud, inspired by Weelkes's Death hath deprived me (which was in turn composed in memory of Thomas Morley).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Stile Antico also contributes to the Byrd anniversary with this second instalment of their Golden Renaissance series on Decca, which began in 2021 with an album devoted to Josquin Des Prez; their programme is built around the Mass for Four Voices, and also includes Retire, my soul, Optimam partem elegit, Turn our captivity, Tribue, Domine and Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Lully's music has been a cornerstone of Les Talens Lyriques' repertoire since its inception in 1991, and with eight complete opera recordings under their belt Rousset and his ensemble turn to the tragédie lyrique on the Cupid and Psyche myth which he composed in 1678. Seven years earlier, Lully had written the interludes for Molière's play on the same subject, but the two men fell out badly after Molière failed to consult Lully about a revival; enlisting Thomas Corneille to write a new libretto, Lully expanded the existing incidental music into a full-scale opera in its own right.
Read our recent interview with Christophe Rousset about why his work as a Lully champion 'isn’t finished yet' here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Auber: Le Philtre
Patrick Kabongo, Emmanuel Franco, Eugenio Di Lieto, Luiza Fatyol, Adina Vilichi; Kraków Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Luciano Acocella
Although it enjoyed enormous success at its 1831 premiere (receiving almost 250 performances), Auber's opera about a young farmhand who purchases a 'love-potion' quack doctor to help him gain the love of a beautiful heiress has since been eclipsed by a work on the same libretto which premiered a year later - Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, which alters the names of the characters but retains the basic plot.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
