New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 10th March 2023
Today's new releases include an all-American album from Yuja Wang (featuring works by Teddy Abrams and Michael Tilson Thomas), Strauss's Four Last Songs from Rachel Willis-Sørensen, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons, French Romantic rarities from ténor de grâce Cyrille Dubois and the Orchestre National de Lille, and symphonic reflections on mortality by Wagner, Mahler and Strauss from Jakub Hrůša in Bamberg.
The main event here is the world premiere of American composer and conductor Teddy Abrams's Piano Concerto: written for Wang in 2022 and originally conceived as a companion-piece to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the 35-minute work pays homage to Gershwin, Broadway, gospel music and boogie-woogie. It's preceded here by a short work by Abrams's mentor Michael Tilson Thomas: You Come Here Often? (2016) was also composed specially for Wang, and was described by BachTrack as 'full of wit and charming jazzy inflexions' when she performed it as an encore at Carnegie Hall in 2019.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their outstanding recording of works by Rott, Mahler and Bruckner last October, the Bamberger orchestra and their Chief Conductor present a programme of symphonic reflections on mortality - comprising the Prelude & Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Mahler's 1888 symphonic poem Totenfeier and the Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5, and Strauss's Tod und Verklärung.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In the wake of their much-praised surveys of works by Firsova, Penderecki and Górecki (the latter described as 'a recording deserving of the very highest recommendation' by Gramophone), the Tippetts mark their twenty-fifth birthday with this recording of the three quartets which Korngold composed in 1923, 1933 and 1945 respectively. The quartet began exploring Korngold's music in depth ten years ago, shortly after recording an album devoted to the music of his fellow film-music composer and younger contemporary Bernard Herrmann.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Born into a large musical family in 1673, Joseph Marchand spent much of his career in the employ of Louis XIV, playing the basse de violon in the prestigious Chapelle Royale, the 24 Violons and the Petits Violons du Roi, and published these Sept Suites de pièces mêlée[s] de sonates pour le violon et la basse in 1707. Shot through with the influence of Marais, Sainte-Colombe and François Couperin, the suites also testify to Marchand's own virtuoso credentials, being the first published works to feature double-trills.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Franco-Romanian violinist's programme takes its title from a 1940 suite of pieces by Enescu, premiered by the composer himself and his godson Dinu Lipatti two years later. The album also includes Enescu's much earlier Impromptu Concertant in G flat major, Ysaÿe's Rêve d'enfant (written whilst the composer was on tour and anxious about the health of his youngest son Antoine), Nino Rota's Improvviso, and the Ravel & Debussy Violin Sonatas.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Debussy sonata also features on Galy and Gonzalez Buajasan's homage to twentieth-century Paris, alongside Poulenc's sonata in memory of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and single-movement 'Sonate posthume' (composed in 1897 but only published nearly forty years after his death), and Milhaud's Cinéma-Fantaisie d’après Le Boeuf sur le toit & 'Brazileira: Mouvement de samba' from Scaramouche.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dubois unearths some real rarities over the course of this brilliantly-sung recital exploring the evolution of the French ténor de grâce from 1820 to the early twentieth century - his programme includes arias from Charles Silver's Myriane, Halévy's Les mousquetaires de la reine, Charles Luce-Varlet's L'élève de Presbourg, and Louis Clapisson's Gibby la cornemuse & Le code noir. And back on the beaten track, there's a knock-out account of Tonio's top-C-studded 'Ah, mes amis!' from Donizetti's La fille du régiment.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Strauss: Four Last Songs
Rachel Willis-Sørensen (soprano), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Andris Nelsons
The American soprano scored a palpable hit at Covent Garden a few years ago when she shared the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier with Renée Fleming, and the release of this all-Strauss recital (her second solo album on Sony) was originally scheduled to coincide with her role-debut as Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. As well as the Four Last Songs (which she performed at Buckingham Palace for the King's seventieth birthday in 2018), the programme includes the closing scene of Capriccio.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Today sees the release of two further instalments of Agnew's superb survey of Gesualdo's sacred and secular works, the first volume of which won the Gramophone Award for Early Music in 2020. The set of Responsories for Maundy Thursday were published in 1611 and constitutes the first of three sets of madrigali spirituali for Holy Week, all scored for two sopranos, alto, two tenors and bass.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The fifth and sixth books of secular madrigals were published in the same year as the Tenebrae Responsoria, and make similarly bold use of dissonance and chromaticism; this volume completes a series which has been applauded for 'the sheer inquisitive delight that these singers bring to Gesualdo’s extraordinary world' (Gramophone) and for the performers' 'studious attention to the poetry and its nuances' (BBC Music Magazine).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Subtitled 'New Light on French Romantic Women Composers', this set presents music by twenty-one composers, from relatively well-known figures such as Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Pauline Viardot and Mel Bonis to virtually unknown ones including Marthe Grumbach, Jeanne Danglas, Hedwige Chrétien and Madeleine Lemariey. The repertoire encompasses chamber music, orchestral works, piano pieces and songs.
Available Formats: 8 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This limited-edition collection of Haitink's complete studio recordings with the Concertgebouworkest (with which he enjoyed a close relationship for sixty-five years) includes cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Schumann, Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich symphonies, award-winning recordings of Debussy & Ravel, and the first international DVD release of the Eurovision Christmas Matinee performances of Mahler’s symphonies. Documentation includes a foreword by Patricia Haitink, tributes from numerous musicians, a generous selection of photos, and a chronological recording index.
Available Format: 113 CDs + 4 DVD Videos
Emilio De' Cavalieri: Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo
Anett Fritsch, Carlo Vistoli, Cyril Auvity, Daniel Schmutzhard, Georg Nigl, Florian Boesch; Il Giardino Armonico, Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Giovanni Antonini, Robert Carsen
Premiered in Rome in 1600, Cavalieri's Rappresentatione sets an allegorical libretto by Agostino Manni depicting a heated dialogue between the soul and body, with contributions from such figures as 'Counsel', 'Reason', 'Time' and 'Pleasure' along the way; the composer argued that it constituted the first modern example of music-drama, given that the first performance was fully-costumed and pre-dated his rival Jacopo Peri's secular La Peri by a year. This production was filmed at the Theater an der Wien in 2021, and was described by BachTrack as 'an unmitigated, tremendous success'.
Available Format: DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
