New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 10th February 2023
Today's new releases include Florent Schmitt's ballet based on the story of Salome, Beethoven piano concertos from Boris Giltburg and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, Bach and Pärt from Arabella Steinbacher and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, a bird-themed album from La Rêveuse, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot, and sacred works by Margaret Bonds from Janinah Burnett, Dashon Burton, The Dessoff Choirs and Malcolm J Merriweather.
Florent Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé
Marie Laforge (flute), Sandrine Buendia (soprano), Les Apaches!, Julien Masmondet
This performance of Schmitt's 1907 ballet was recorded live at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in December 2021, and includes a new prologue by French composer Fabien Touchard (b. 1985) which pays homage to Loïe Fuller (the American actress and dancer who created the role of Salomé and was subsequently referenced in WB Yeats's poem 'Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen').
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 4
Boris Giltburg (piano), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
Giltburg, Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic complete their Beethoven cycle, which has been described as 'as near to perfect in matters of execution and faithfulness to the written notes as is humanly possible' by Fanfare and praised for Giltburg's 'polished and cultivated pianism' (Gramophone). The recordings were made at The Friary in Liverpool in 2019 (No. 3) and 2022 (No. 4).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
JS Bach & Pärt: Works for Violin & Chamber Orchestra
Arabella Steinbacher (violin), Peter von Wienhardt (piano) Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
The German violinist's latest album for Pentatone features Bach's two concertos for solo violin and the double concerto (for which she's joined by Christoph Koncz), bookended by Arvo Pärt's Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel. Steinbacher writes: 'As different as Bach and Pärt may be, they have a spiritual and sacred origin in common. Their music takes me back to myself and brings me peace every time I hear or play it.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
For their fifth album on Pentatone, Holland Baroque present a programme of JS Bach's organ works in new arrangements for chamber orchestra by their artistic directors Judith and Tineke Steenbrink; the Dutch sisters have previously won praise for their transcriptions of Telemann's Polish Dances, and collaborated with sheng-player Wu Wei on Silk Road, which wove together traditional Chinese music and new compositions inspired by Rameau, Leclair and Vivaldi.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Legacy
Christian-Pierre La Marca (cello), with Julien Chauvin (violin), Andrien La Marca (viola), Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Le Concert de La Loge
The French cellist's third album on Naive explores what he describes as 'the filiations that run through the cello repertory during the era of Viennese Classicism': Haydn's two Cello Concertos constitute the mainstay of the programme, which also includes the slow movement of Haydn's employer and mentor Porpora's Cello Concerto No. 1 in G, Mozart's abandoned Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and cello K320e (completed by Robert Levin), an aria from Porpora's Gli orti esperidi, and La Marca's own transcription of the Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
This ornithological programme from the French early music ensemble includes musical depictions of cuckoos (via Corrette, Saint-Saëns and Britten), nightingales (via François Couperin, Michel Blavet and Jakob Van Eyck) and hens (via Rameau and Saint-Saëns); the second half of the album is given over to Vincent Bouchot's Le Carnaval des animaux en péril, a new work inspired by birds and musical instruments which have faced the threat of extinction.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This third and final instalment of Phantasm's Well-Tempered Consort series (conceived by its founder and director Laurence Dreyfus) includes two works from the Inventions and Sinfonias as well as the Fantasia in G major BWV 572, interwoven with the excerpts from the Clavierübung III and The Well-Tempered Clavier. Reviewing the previous volume, BBC Music Magazine observed that 'Dreyfus’s transcriptions generate fresh insights into the workings of Bach’s contrapuntal ingenuity and humanity', whilst Gramphone judged the results to be 'wholly wondrous'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Romaniuk plays six different instruments on this album: a Fazioli concert piano, a Graf fortepiano from 1835, a Flemish muselar, a seventeenth-century harpsichord, a Yamaha CP80 electro-acoustic piano and a Prophet Rev2 synthesiser. His programming is similarly eclectic, taking in music by Kapsberger, Scarlatti, Purcell, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie, Ligeti and Adams.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Margaret Bonds: Credo, Simon Bore the Cross
Janinah Burnett (soprano), Dashon Burton (bass-baritone), The Dessoff Choirs, Malcolm J Merriweather
Following their excellent recording of Bonds's Christmas cantata The Ballad Of The Brown King in 2019, the New York choirs and their Music Director present two more world premiere recordings of sacred works by the African-American composer; written in collaboration with Langston Hughes and based on the spiritual 'He Never Said a Mumblin' Word', Simon Bore the Cross focuses on the figure of Simon of Cyrene, whilst the Credo (premiered by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic shortly before Bonds's death) sets texts by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The American countertenor's second album on Signum is a collection of 'anti-Valentine’s songs' from the seventeenth century, exploring what Scotting describes as 'a unique period when feeling these bittersweet emotions was embraced as fuel for artistic expression'; includes music by William & Henry Lawes, Étienne Moulinié, Daniele da Castrovillari, John Dowland, John Blow, Henry Purcell and Pierre Guédron.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Christian Lacroix's lavish production of Offenbach's 1866 opéra bouffe was filmed at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées at Christmas 2021, and uses the original, unabridged version of the score as reconstructed by Palazzetto Bru Zane; Opera Canada described the show as 'perfect holiday fare, bubbly, joyful, and whimsical'.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
