New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 2nd June 2023
Handel: Serse
Emily D’Angelo (Serse), Lucy Crowe (Romilda), Paula Muurihy (Arsamene), Mary Bevan (Atalanta), Daniela Mack (Amastre), Ariodate (Neal Davies), William Dazeley (Elviro); The English Concert, Harry Bicket
This studio recording was made just a few days after a concert-performance at Carnegie Hall which The New York Times described as 'a surfeit of exquisite music-making'; reviewing the London leg of the tour, The Telegraph's Nicholas Kenyon observed that D'Angelo (who makes her operatic recording-debut here) 'swept all before her in a viscerally commanding, authoritative account' of the title-role, and also praised Bicket's 'customary scrupulous care and attention to detail'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This is the fifth volume of the Chiaroscuro's Haydn series, which began in 2016 with a recording of the first three 'Sun' quartets which was praised by BBC Music Magazine for 'the radiant refinement of their sound, and their suave sensitivity of phrasing'; three subsequent instalments have featured as Building a Library recommendations. Formed in 2005, the quartet plays on gut strings and with historical bows, and has been described as 'a trailblazer for the authentic performance of High Classical chamber music’ by Gramophone.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
All four pieces here were commissioned or co-commissioned by the San Francisco-based New Century Chamber Orchestra, and recorded to mark its thirtieth anniversary. The ensemble's Artistic Director Daniel Hope is the soloist in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Lament for Solo Violin and String Orchestra and is joined by Alexey Botvinov for Tan Dun's Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra with Percussion; the programme opens with Philip Glass's Piano Concerto No. 3, and closes with Jake Heggie's Overture for string orchestra (which the ensemble premiered in February).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their accounts of Symphonies Nos. 3 and 6 (both which received five stars in BBC Music Magazine), Dausgaard and the Bergen orchestra present the Symphony in its 1878/1880 version, recorded at the Grieghallen in 2020; reviewing the recording last month, MusicWeb International pronounced that 'Dausgaard maintains a finely tuned balance, so that virtually everything on the page of the score is audible'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Composed in 1947 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Khachaturian's final symphony was intended 'to express the Soviet people’s joy and pride in their great and mighty country', but nonetheless fell foul of the anti-Formalism campaign which came into effect the following year and disappeared from the repertoire for the next decade. Although the work enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity after cultural policies were relaxed, it remains something of a rarity on concert-platforms and recordings due the large forces required (including fifteen trumpets!).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Two works here were composed for the late Queen Elizabeth and received their first performances at the Abbey: Vaughan Williams's communion anthem O taste and see was commissioned for her coronation, whilst MacMillan's Who Shall Separate Us? was written for her funeral. The programme also includes John Tavener's Song for Athene (which was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales), MacMillan’s Mass of St Edward the Confessor, and A special appeal - composed in memory of Óscar Romero, a Salvadorean prelate who was assassinated whilst celebrating Mass in 1980 and was beatified by Pope Francis in 2015.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Gesualdo Six marks the 400th anniversary of Byrd's death with this recording of his great five-part mass (thought to have been composed for domestic use by recusant Catholic families), the movements of which are interspersed with the motets Tristitia et anxietas, Circumdederunt me and Emendemus in melius. The programme also includes the Ave verum corpus, Afflicti pro peccatis nostris, and De lamentatione Jeremiae prophetae.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The mainstay of this ninth volume in The Sixteen's acclaimed Palestrina series is the Missa Ut re mi fa sol la for six voices, thought to have been composed around 1570; the programme also includes three motets from the Canticum Canticorum, and a selection of shorter works composed for St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. The series has been hailed as 'a classic in the making' (Gramophone), whilst Fanfare declared that 'the blend of voices [is] beyond compare'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Music To Hear: Alfonso Ferrabosco, Music For Lyra Viol From 1609
Richard Boothby, Asako Morikawa (viols)
Born in Greenwich in the 1570s, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger collaborated with Ben Jonson on a number of plays and masques, possibly coming into contact with William Shakespeare in the process. This set of pieces for the recently-invented lyra viol was published in the same year as Shakespeare's sonnets, and was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley - whom a number of scholars have suggested may have been the mysterious 'only begetter' of Shakespeare's sequence...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The eponymous 'Mr Charles' was a travelling horn virtuoso and entrepreneur who arrived in Dublin in 1742 whilst Handel was in the city for the premiere of Messiah, and proceeded to cash in on the visiting composer's popularity by mounting concerts of Handel's music. This album reconstructs one such event which took place at the Smock Alley Theatre, and featured the Overture to Il Pastor Fido, the Concerto Grosso Op. 3 No. 3 and John Walsh's arrangement of the Water Music, as well as a concerto by Hasse and horn duets by Mr Charles himself...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
