New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 21st April 2023
Today's new releases includ Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians from The Colin Currie Group, a programme tracing the evolution of the Baroque tenore assoluto from Michael Spyres & Il Pomo d'Oro, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 from the Czech Philharmonic & Semyon Bychkov, and the physical release of Fabio Luisi's acclaimed Nielsen cycle with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Christiane Karg (soprano), Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Semyon Bychkov
This third instalment of Bychkov's Mahler cycle with his Prague orchestra is already accruing accolades, with a five-star review in The Sunday Times declaring that 'this is turning out to be one of the truly great Mahler sets' thanks to the 'exquisite balance, control and stillness' on display. It was also featured as Record of the Week on Radio 3's Record Review earlier this month, when Andrew McGregor applauded the 'fabulous solos, sensuous slides from the strings, [and] beautifully managed changes of tempo'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The sequel to Spyres's Gramophone Award-winning Baritenor sees the versatile American singer continuing his exploration of 'the absolute extremes of the human voice' by focusing on the Baroque and early Classical periods, including scenes and arias from Rameau's Naïs, Lully's Persée, Vinci's Catone in Utica, Porpora's Germanico in Germania, Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice and Mozart's Mitridate. Arias by Hasse, Galuppi and Latilla receive their world premiere recordings.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Released digitally in three volumes between October and January, Luisi's outstanding survey of Nielsen's complete symphonies is now available as a physical box-set; the cycle was welcomed by Gramophone as 'spiritually and sonically the best we’ve yet had on record', whilst Fanfare described the accounts of Nos. 4 and 5 as 'one of the top Nielsen symphony recordings in the catalog'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Currie fell under the spell of Reich's Music for 18 Musicians (composed in the mid-1970s) in his teens, and describes the piece as 'the perfect musical beehive'; last year he realised a long-held ambition to record the work with the ensemble which he founded in 2006 for a BBC Proms performance of Drumming to mark the composer's seventieth birthday. Reich has worked closely with the group since its inception, describing Currie himself as 'one of the greatest musicians working in the world today'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Four concerti by contemporary Polish composers receive their world premiere recordings here: Marcelo Nisinman's Variations on a Polish Melody (based on the Polish Ave Maria and scored for violin, cello and chamber orchestra), Mikołaj Piotr Górecki's The Second Space for string quartet and orchestra, Paweł Łukaszewski's Neopolis Concerto (written for the Szczecin ensemble), and Ewa Fabiańska-Jelińska's Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Inspired by Shaul Tchernichovsky's poem Sachki, Sachki, the American pianist's Pentatone debut album is released to mark Earth Day and spans a wide range of 'generations, continents and cultures': repertoire includes works by Margaret Bonds, Jimmy López Bellido, Nyokabi Kariũki, JS Bach, Clarice Assad, Franz Schubert, Gabriel Kahan, Debbie Friedman and Karen Tanaka. Downes was named Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today in 2022.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Restored and remastered by Lani Spahr, this collection of Beecham's Strauss recordings from the 1950s includes three performances which are new to CD: Le bourgeois gentilhomme, the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ from Salome and the conductor's only known recording of Macbeth (all captured live at the Royal Festival Hall on 17th October 1956). 1955 recordings of Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel complete the programme.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This programme of American choral works from the Cambridge choir includes Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (with Davies as soloist), Eric Whitacre's Leonardo dreams of his flying machine, Nico Muhly's A Good Understanding & A Great Stone, David Lang's Protect yourself from infection and Caroline Shaw's And the swallow. Also features Herbert Howells's Take him, earth, for cherishing, commissioned in memory of John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their exploration of sonatas for three violins (which was nominated for an International Classical Music Award in 2022 and praised in Early Music Review for the players' 'considerable talent and seemingly limitless energy'), Ensemble Diderot turn their attention to a genre which could be viewed as a forerunner of the string quartet; the programme features works by Goldberg, Janitsch, Fasch, Telemann and Handel
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (DVD)
Krassimira Stoyanova (Ariadne/Prima Donna), Sophie Koch (Komponist), Jessica Pratt (Zerbinetta), AJ Glueckert (Bacchus), Markus Werba (Ein Musiklehrer); Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Daniele Gatti, Matthias Hartmann
Filmed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence last summer, Matthias Hartmann's production sets the opera in the 1920s; the British Theatre Guide described Stoyanova's heroine as 'a model of dignity and steadfastness in demeanour, and with a golden voice to send shivers down the spine', also praising Pratt's 'storming, sensual performance' as Zerbinetta and Glueckert’s 'silky smooth legato' in the taxing role of Bacchus.
Also available on Blu-ray and CD/download/streaming.
Available Format: DVD Video
Released in the wake of Podger's triumph at this week's BBC Music Magazine Awards (where Tutta sola was crowned Recording of the Year), this set brings together the Vivaldi recordings which she made for Channel Classics between 2003 and 2018 - including award-winning accounts of L'estro armonico, Le Quattro Stagioni, La Cetra, and La Stravaganza. The latter recording was named Gramophone's Baroque Album of the Year in 2003, thanks to Podger's blend of 'sheer digital dexterity [and] exquisitely fine detail'.
Available Format: 7 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
