New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 22nd September 2023
Wagner: Siegfried
Simon O'Neill (Siegfried), Michael Volle (Der Wanderer), Peter Hoare (Mime), Anja Kampe (Brünnhilde), Franz-Josef Selig (Fafner), Gerhild Romberger (Erda), Danae Kontora (Waldvogel); Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded live in concert at the beginning of February, this Siegfried features two notable role-debuts: British tenor Peter Hoare's first Mime and (perhaps more unexpectedly) Austrian baritone Georg Nigl's first Alberich. The previous instalment of Rattle's Munich Ring was described as 'a performance of rare clarity' by Opera Magazine, whilst The Sunday Times declared that 'the orchestral playing and the pacing of the score are masterly.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recorded live at the Barbican last September, this is the third instalment of Rattle's Bruckner series using Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs's Urtext edition; reviewing the performance, BachTrack detected 'a freshness to the playing which perhaps reflected the most recent text' and concluded that 'the abiding impression was of another Rattle Bruckner performance of power and eloquence'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Offenbach: La princesse de Trébizonde
Anne-Catherine Gillet (Zanetta), Virginie Verrez (Le Prince Raphael), Antoinette Dennefeld (Régina), Josh Lovell (Le Prince Casimir); London Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Rara Chorus, Paul Daniel
Premiered in 1869, Offenbach's opéra bouffe centring on a travelling fun-fair features a prince who falls in love with a waxwork (shades of Hoffmann and Olympia here!) only to discover that she's a living, breathing woman. Reviewing Opera Rara's concert-staging at Queen Elizabeth Hall last autumn, The Guardian's Tim Ashley noted that 'the score is delightful, with some brilliant numbers' and praised the 'great brio and panache' of Daniel's conducting.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The 'Anna Maria' of the title was a pupil at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where Vivaldi was employed in various capacities over a forty-year period; an accomplished performer on many instruments, Anna Maria was a fine composer herself, and although she remained at the institution for her entire life her reputation spread throughout Europe. The programme includes the Violin Concerto in C Major, RV. 179a (which bears her name in the manuscript), plus five more concertos with which she was closely associated.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This recording was born out of a collaboration between Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes and Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgadoã, who has been working to protect and restore the Amazon rainforest for three decades: the pair have been presenting concerts of this programme featuring projections of Salgadoã's photographs around the world this season. The album features a suite which Menezes arranged from Villa-Lobos's 1958 symphonic poem Floresta do Amazonas, and Metamorphosis I from Philip Glass's ballet suite Águas da Amazônia.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The French harpsichordist explores the inspiration which Bach (who rarely left his native Saxony) drew from Italian music, with a programme which includes the Italian Concerto, the Keyboard Concerto in F major (after Vivaldi) BWV978, the Keyboard Concerto in D minor (after Marcello) BWV974, and shorter works by Scarlatti, Vivaldi and Marcello themselves. Taylor plays the eighteenth-century harpsichord of the Château d'Assas - a favourite of the late Scott Ross, who worked and lived in the chateau and made several landmark recordings on the instrument.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Originally written as practice-aids for his son Wilhelm Friedemann (who was learning the organ at the time), JS Bach's six trio sonatas BWV 525-530 are presented here in new arrangements by Robert King, following Bach's own practice of transcribing his works for varied instrumental forces. The transcriptions are scored for five melody instruments (two violins, viola, oboe, and oboe d'amore) plus a continuo group of cello, theorbo, harpsichord and chamber organ.
Available Format: CD
The 'Bohemio' in question here is Paraguayan guitarist, poet and composer Agustín Barrios (1885-1944), whom Garcia describes as 'an essential composer in the guitarist’s repertoire': his programme includes sixteen pieces by Barrios plus readings of two of his poems (one of which gives the album its title), as well as his transcriptions of Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 20, the Adagio from Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata, and 'Träumerei' from Schumann's Kinderszenen.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following albums devoted to Louis Gaulard Dumesny and Pierre de Jéliote (who inspired Lully and Rameau respectively), Van Mechelen turns his attention to Joseph Legros (1739-1793) - although Gluck was often abrupt with the singer to the point of rudeness, Legros created the role of Achille in his Iphigénie en Aulide and Orphée in Orphée et Eurydice. The album also includes arias from Laborde's Thétis et Pelée, Berton's Sylvie, Trial's La fête de Flore and Grétry's Céphale et Procris.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
As well as a live recording of The Planets from the Royal Albert Hall in September 1973, this collection also features A Fugal Overture and the orchestral version of Holst's Prelude & Scherzo Hammersmith (which Boult premiered in 1931), Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow, Walton's Symphony No. 1, and Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia antartica - the performance of the latter in October 1977 was Boult's last appearance at a public concert, and was hailed as 'a quite magnificent interpretation' by Anthony Payne.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Purcell: Dido & Aeneas
Fleur Barron (Dido), Matthew Brook (Aeneas), Giulia Semenzato (Belinda), Avery Amereau (Sorceress), Tim Mead (Spirit), Nicky Spence (Sailor), Hilary Cronin (Second Woman), Helen Charlston, Martha McLorinan (Witches); La Nuova Musica, David Bates
This recording was made shortly after La Nuova Musica's Proms performance of Dido and Aeneas last year, which was praised for its fusions of 'thoughtfulness and playfulness, dignity and anguish' by The Arts Desk; The Times awarded the concert five stars, with Neil Fisher observing that 'the result was an irresistible — if at times extravagant to the point of camp — homage to the variety of Purcell’s music'. Helen Charlston and Nicky Spence reprise their roles, with mezzo Fleur Barron and bass Matthew Brook making an imposing pairing as the ill-fated lovers.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Blu-ray)
Bryn Terfel (Don Pasquale), Markus Werba (Malatesta), Olga Peretyatko (Norina), Ioan Hotea (Ernesto), Bryan Secombe (Carlino); Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Evelino Pidò
Filmed at the Royal Opera Houser Covent Garden in 2019, this Don Pasquale was praised in The Guardian for the 'admirable precision and grace' of Pido's conducting and for Terfel's 'fine, sympathetic Pasquale', whilst The Daily Express observed that 'Don Pasquale is a genuinely funny comic opera and Damiano Michieletto's production updates it in a way that makes it funnier still'.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette (Blu-ray)
Aida Garifullina (Juliette), Saimir Pirgu (Romeo), David Alegret (Tybalt), Tara Erraught (Stephano), Gabriel Bermudez (Mercutio); Gran Teatre Del Liceu, Stephen Lawless, Josep Pons
Premiered at Santa Fe Opera in 2016 (and captured here in a revival at Barcelona's Liceu two years later), Stephen Lawless's production relocates the 'star-cross'd lovers' from Verona to Civil War America: Barcelona Metropolitan declared that the director 'successfully creates a dignified and logical background to the ongoing story that is brought to life by the near faultless performers', singling out Garifullina's 'delightfully sung' Juliette for particular praise.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
