New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 1st September 2023
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody
Yuja Wang (piano), Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel
These live recordings were made during Wang's Rachmaninoff residency at Walt Disney Hall this February, which was staged to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth; reviewing the concerts, the Los Angeles Times pronounced that 'this was Rachmaninoff heard like it’s not been heard anywhere else', praising Wang's 'exceptional power, depth and dazzle' and Dudamel's 'propulsive and extravagantly detailed' conducting.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
These short pieces were composed at intervals throughout Fauré's career, and were not conceived as coherent collections: his son Philippe noted that the composer would 'far rather have given his nocturnes, impromptus and even his barcarolles the simple title “Piano piece No so-and-so"'. They draw inspiration from composers including Chopin, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Chausson and Lalo, as well as from Fauré's relationships with Adela Maddison and Emma Bardac (whose daughter Régina-Hélène was the dedicatee of the Dolly Suite).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
These recordings were made in Paris in April 2021, when Vogt was already undergoing treatment for the cancer which claimed his life last September; aware of the possibility that he would not survive the hear the final edits, he enlisted his friend Paul Lewis to be his 'second pair of ears' and to approve the recording for release. During the recording-sessions he reflected that 'This idea that despite everything things aren’t so horrible in this world. It always plays a role in Mozart'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is Piemontesi's third Liszt recording, following his accounts of the Swiss and Italian chapters of Années de pèlerinage on Orfeo a few years ago: those recordings prompted BBC Music Magazine to declare that 'Piemontesi’s pianism can hold its own alongside anyone’s in terms of absolute technical facility', and International Piano to describe him as 'a pianist of exceptional refinement allied to consummate technical demand'. The liner-notes are written by the composer's great-great-granddaughter, Nike Wagner.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)
Surely a contender for album-cover of the year, this 'Shakespeare Songbook' features Tippett's Three Songs for Ariel, Honegger's Deux Chants d'Ariel and Frances-Hoad's Rosalind, plus individual songs by composers including Ireland, Poulenc, Coleridge-Taylor, Beach, Sullivan, Schubert and Dring. Williams's own setting of 'Sigh no More, Ladies' from Much Ado About Nothing receives its world premiere recording.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following two acclaimed Ravel albums and the award-winning Americascapes (featuring music by Cowell, Hanson, Ruggles and Loeffler) with the Basque National Orchestra, the Mexican-American conductor makes his recording-debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI, who appointed him as Principal Guest Conductor in May 2021. The recording was made at the orchestra's home in Turin last November.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
British Piano Concertos Vol. 2
Simon Callaghan (piano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Stephen Bell, George Vass
Following his championship of shorter works for piano and orchestra by Addison, Benjamin, Maconchy, Searle and Rubbra last year, Callaghan presents three concertos from the middle of the twentieth century: Gordon Jacob’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in E flat (premiered in 1957 and praised by The Timesfor 'the composer’s masterly understanding of the orchestra' after a Proms performance that year), John Addison’s Variations for Piano and Orchestra from 1948, and Rubbra's Piano Concerto from 1932.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Emilie Mayer: Piano Concerto & Overtures
Tobias Koch (piano), Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens
Following recordings of the chamber music and several of the symphonies, CPO's Emilie Mayer Edition continues apace with this account of her Piano Concerto in B flat from 1850 (thought to be her sole concertante composition), three untitled concert overtures, and the Faust Overture from 1880, which was one of her most popular works during her lifetime. The first volume of her symphonies from CPO won an Opus Klassik Award, whilst The Sunday Times observed that 'she writes with sweeping confidence, convincing in large-scale forms, texturally inventive'.
Available Formats: CD, 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 opened the Edinburgh International Festival this year, having received its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in January).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
After albums centring on Duarte Lobo, Manuel Cardoso and Pedro de Cristo, the Portuguese vocal ensemble explore the sacred music of another of their countrymen: Filipe de Magalhães (c. 1571–1652), who learned his craft at the Cathedral of Évora and was subsequently appointed Mestre da Capela Real in Lisbon. Founded in 2009, Cupertinos won a Gramophone Award for their debut recording of music by Cardoso in 2019, and have been praised for the 'unadorned freshness' of their sound by BBC Music Magazine.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
