New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 29th September 2023
Released in advance of the centenary of Puccini's death next year, the Chilean-American tenor's second recording on Deutsche Grammophon includes arias from Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, La fanciulla del West, Le Villi and Il tabarro (which Tetelman will be singing at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from tomorrow), plus the trio 'Io so che alle sue pene' from Madama Butterfly - for which Tetelman is joined by Rihab Chaieb as Suzuki and Önay Köse as Sharpless.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Berlioz, Ravel & Saint-Saëns
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Kazuki Yamada
This is the world premiere recording of Saint-Saëns's 1870 song-cycle Mélodies Persanes (which draws inspiration from poetry by Attar, Khayyam and Hafiz) in a new edition by Palazzetto Bru Zane; this version incorporates two short interludes from Nuit Persane. The album also includes Ravel's Shéhérazade and Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été; Lemieux's recent performance of the latter work in Paris was described as 'exemplary' by BachTrack.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In January 2022, the National Symphony Orchestra embarked on a cycle of Walker's complete sinfonias to mark the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer's 100th birthday; individual volumes were released digitally between July 2022 and September 2023, with Walker's son Gregory remarking that the complete set 'offers an opportunity to experience my father’s compositional evolution in context for the first time'.
Read our in-depth interview with Noseda and Gregory Walker here.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Inspired by the night skies of Zambia (where she spends time teaching each year), Lapwood's first full-length album for Sony includes transcriptions of favourites such as Debussy's Clair de lune, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 as well as new works by composers including Ghislaine Reece-Trapp, Olivia Belli, Kristina Arakelyan, and Ēriks Ešenvalds & Sara Teasdale.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hot on the heels of his recording of Mozart violin sonatas with Kit Armstrong, Capuçon directs the complete concertos from the violin with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (of which he has been Artistic Director since 2021). Recorded last September at Lausanne’s Théâtre de Beaulieu, the double album also includes the Rondo in C major K373 and Adagio in E major K261.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The mainstay of Ott's all-Beethoven programme is the Piano Concerto No. 1, recorded in a single day at the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra's base in Hilversum; it's followed by the ‘Moonlight' Sonata, Für Elise, the first of the Op. 119 Bagatelles, the 'little nothing' (as the composer described it) 'Lustig und Traurig', and the Allegretto in B minor WoO 61. Reviewing her previous Beethoven recording back in 2011, Classic FM observed that 'there is some really fine playing here...notably poised and lucid'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The Polish pianist's account of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier (released in 2019) was a Recording of the Month in Gramophone, with reviewer Jed Distler describing her interpretations as 'some of the greatest and most fulfilling Bach pianism on record' thanks to her 'pianistic resourcefulness, keen polyphonic acumen [and] impeccable taste'; like its predecessor, this volume is recorded on a Shigeru Kawai grand. A prize-winner at the International Chopin Competition in 1980, Pobłocka is the first Polish pianist to record the complete Well-Tempered Clavier.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
A year on from his Schubert recital Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe with Joseph Middleton (which earned him a nomination for Male Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards), the German baritone embarks on a new partnership with Israeli-South African pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz: set to complete in 2028 (the bicentenary of the composer's death), the Schubert 200 project will see the duo performing and recording annual programmes of works which Schubert composed exactly two centuries earlier.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This nocturnal recital includes Schubert's 'Im Walde', 'Wandrers Nachtlied II' and 'Nachtstück', Robert Schumann's 'Die feindlichen Brüder' and 'Der Hidalgo', Clara Schumann's 'Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen' and 'Am Strande', Wolf's 'Der Tambour' and 'Ganymed', Pfitzner's 'Nachtwanderer', and Strauss's 'Schlechtes Wetter' & 'Des Dichters Abendgang'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This collection of works commissioned by The King's Singers over the past 55 years includes György Ligeti’s six Nonsense Madrigals (setting children’s poetry and extracts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Australian composer Malcolm Williamson's 1972 setting of The Musicians of Bremen, Judith Bingham's Tricksters, and Ola Gjeilo’s A Dream within a Dream. The most recent work is Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ Alive, composed for the group last year.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ola Gjeilo: Dreamweaver
Ola Gjeilo (piano), Grace Davidson (soprano), Duncan Riddell (violin), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Holloway Choir, Rupert Gough
The title-work here is inspired by the medieval Norwegian folk-poem Draumkvedet, in which a sleeping man is granted a vision of the afterlife which he shares upon awakening: the texts are by Charles Anthony Silvestri, who has also collaborated with Eric Whitacre on Sleep and The Sacred Veil. The album also includes the world premiere recording of The Road, which traces a route between places close to the composer's heart - beginning near his home in Hallingskarvet.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Porpora: Polifemo
Yuriy Mynenko (Aci), Max Emanuel Cencic (Ulisse), Pavel Kudinov (Polifemo), Julia Lezhneva (Galatea), Sonja Runje (Calipso), Dilyara Idrisova (Nerea); Armonia Atenea, George Petrou
Premiered at the King's Theatre in London in 1735 with a cast including the star castrati Farinelli and Senesino, Porpora's opera sets two episodes from the cyclops's story: his jealousy-driven murder of Acis (which had also inspired Handel in London thirteen years earlier) and his blinding at the hands of Ulysses. Acis's aria 'Alto Giove' (originally sung by Farinelli) has become a firm favourite with mezzos and countertenors, though stagings of the complete opera remain relatively rare; Cencic first directed the piece in Salzburg in 2019, and took it on tour earlier this year.
Available Format: 3 CDs
This collection of works for violin, hardanger fiddle and electronics from the British violinist and composer explores themes of lost and fragmented memories, drawing inspiration from her grandfather's experiences as a Navy seaman in World War II, research on how the brain reboots after waking from a coma, the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact (a sequel to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), and Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks. The album was recently described as 'absolutely wonderful' by Welsh singer, songwriter and broadcaster Cerys Matthews.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
