New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 4th August 2023
Currently Principal Oboe of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Mayer fell in love with the music of JS Bach as an eight-year-old chorister at Bamberg Cathedral, and this album features works by four members of the Bach family. Johann Sebastian is represented by arrangements of the Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A major BWV1055 (thought to have been originally written for oboe), the famous Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3 and the Badinerie from Suite No. 2; the programme also includes concertos by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph Friedrich, and his older cousin Johann Christoph.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
This is the third instalment of Honeck's live Tchaikovsky series from Pittsburgh, which began in 2016 with an account of Symphony No. 6 coupled with his own orchestral fantasy on Dvořák's Rusalka; No. 4 followed in 2020, and was featured as Record Review's Disc of the Week and BBC Music Magazine's Orchestral Choice thanks to Honeck's tendency to 'keep one foot in the ballet theatre'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Conducted by the composer at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center Concert Hall in 2019, this is the world premiere recording of Tan Dun's vast new choral work, which draws inspiration from Chinese and Sanskrit texts and the Bach Passions; the large forces include indigenous singers, traditional Chinese instruments and a dancing pipa-player, with BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Shenyang among the soloists. (The work will open the Edinburgh International Festival tomorrow, having received its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in January).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This collection of songs and instrumental works commemorating the 400th anniversary of Byrd's death includes 'Why do I use my paper, inke and penne?', 'Sellinger's Round', the elegy for Thomas Tallis 'Ye sacred muses', 'O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth' and 'The sweet and merry month of May'. Back in June, the album was described in The Guardian as 'a rounded portrait of this complicated composer...beautifully done'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Arthur and the Hanover Band complete their survey of a set of works which he notes 'occupy a significant place in the history of music, marking as they do the origin of the keyboard concerto genre'. This second volume comprises Concertos Nos. 2, 5 & 6, plus the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5; the first instalment (released last year) featured what Gramophone described as 'an enjoyably no-nonsense kind of playing', whilst BBC Music Magazine noted that '[Vivaldi's] Italian influence does indeed permeate the performances'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A pupil of Moniuszko and teacher of Szymanowski, Zygmunt Noskowski (1846-1909) spent three years as Music Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, a position which Antoni Wit also held from 2002-2013; the two symphonies here date from the 1870s, and show the influence of Brahms and Schumann as well as incorporating elements of Polish folk-music. The album is a sequel of sorts to Wit's 2022 recording of Zygmunt Stojowski's Symphony in D minor, which was performed at the Warsaw Philharmonic's inaugural concert in 1901.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Gunnar de Frumerie: Clarinet Concerto & Piano Concertino
Thorsten Johanns (clarinet), Oliver Triendl (piano), Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ivan Repušić
Born in Stockholm in 1908, Frumerie was an acclaimed pianist who studied with Alfred Cortot, and counts Swedish opera-singers Anne Sofie von Otter and Nina Stemme among his relatives. As well as the Clarinet Concerto and Piano Concertino (composed in 1957/8 and 1977 respectively), this album includes his Musica per nove (1976) and Svit i gammal stil (1930), based on a very early set of piano pieces.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Grisey: Dérives
Katrien Baerts (soprano), Kora Pavelić (mezzo), WDR Sinfonieorchester, Sylvain Cambreling, Emilio Pomàrico
This triptych of works by the French Spectralist composer (1946-98) comprises Dérives (composed in the mid-70s and scored for two orchestral groups), L’icône paradoxale (a homage to the Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca), and the world premiere recording of Mégalithes - a 1969 work for fifteen brass instruments, which received its first performance only in 2009.
Available Format: CD
Byzantine Orthodox music and literature are a major source of inspiration for the Serbian-Swedish composer and violinist Djuro Živković (b.1975), and the title-work on this album draws on the writings of eleventh-century mystic and theologian Niketas Stethatos; scored for piano and six other instruments, the piece won the Saltö Society Award and Swedish Music Publishers' Award. The programme also includes I Shall Contemplate... II for viola and chamber ensemble, and Night Music, which remixes piano music by Scriabin.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
ORA continues its series of Renaissance Gems and their Reflections with this programme centring on Vespers and Benediction for the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, featuring music by Palestrina, Guerrero and Anerio alongside works by contemporary composers including Sir James MacMillan, Olivier Tarney, Kim Porter, Giles Swayne, Matthew Martin and Sven-David Sandström.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Jonas Kaufmann (Andrea Chénier), George Petean (Carlo Gerard), Anja Harteros (Maddalena di Coigny); Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Marco Armiliato, Philipp Stölzl
This starrily-cast Chénier was filmed at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2017, when BachTrack observed that Stölzl's historically-accurate production 'makes a strong case for Andrea Chénier’s continued presence in the repertoire' and BR Klassik enthused that 'a sensational Anja Harteros brings the house down!'.
Available Format: DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
