New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 3rd November 2023
Osborne's previous recordings of Debussy have been widely praised, with BBC Music Magazine applauding his 'marvellous range of colour, finely judged touch, and ability to combine powerful waves of sound with diaphanous passagework' in the Préludes (2006), and The Sunday Times describing him as 'a master of illumination and perceptiveness in the French pianistic canon' upon the release of his set of early and late piano pieces last year. This new album also includes La plus que lente, the Berceuse héroïque, and Roy Howat's realisation of the six-page sketch for the eleventh étude.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The Canadian pianist signed to Deutsche Grammophon after taking First Prize at the XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition, and a collection of live recordings from the contest (issued by the label a month after his victory) was described by Gramophone as 'one of the most distinguished Chopin recitals of recent years, full of maturity, character and purpose'. This debut studio album of French repertoire includes Ravel's Miroirs, Alkan's Le festin d'Esope, and excerpts from Rameau's Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The first volume of Zimmermann's solo Bach survey received five stars in BBC Music Magazine ('Zimmermann’s interpretations are the most impressive I have heard in recent years'), whilst Fanfare deemed it 'easily a top recommendation'; this second instalment comprises the Sonata No. 1 in G minor, the Partita No. 1 in B minor, and the Sonata No. 3 in C major. Zimmermann again plays the 1711 'Lady Inchiquin' Stradivarius, which he describes as 'the love of my life'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bob Chilcott: Christmas Oratorio
Neal Davies (baritone), Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Nick Pritchard (tenor), The Choir of Merton College, Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas
Premiered at The Three Choirs Festival in 2019, Chilcott's oratorio sets passages from the gospels of St Luke and St Matthew, intertwined with hymn-texts and poetry by Christina Rossetti, Percy Dearmer and Robert Herrick; the Church Times described the first performance as 'a palpable success', praising Pritchard's 'inspired delivery' of Chilcott's 'fluent and varied' recitative in particular. The album also includes Chilcott's settings of 'Jesus Christ the Apple Tree', 'The Pear Tree Carol' and 'Welcome, all wonders in one sight!'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 29 & 40, Oboe Concerto
Ivan Podyomov (oboe), Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Recorded at the Sala della Carità in Padua this February, this is the second instalment of the young Russian conductor's Mozart series with Il Pomo d'Oro: reviewing Volume One back in February, BBC Music Magazine noted that 'the orchestral playing here has a panache and high-speed accuracy whose impressiveness can’t be argued with', whilst The Guardian relished the 'fleet string figures and ripe, punchy woodwind'. Look out for our interview with Maxim about the project next week...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 7 & 10
Robert Levin (fortepiano), Ya-Fei Chuang (fortepiano), Bojan Čičić (violin), Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Levin began his survey of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra with the AAM back in 1993 (with the late Christopher Hogwood at the helm); the project was resumed this year after a two-decade hiatus, with two further instalments ready for release in 2024. This volume comprises the Concerto No. 7 K242 (originally scored for three keyboards but presented here in the composer's later version for just two), the Concerto No. 10 in E flat, and the Concerto Movement for Piano, Violin and Orchestra K315f. Listen to David's podcast with Robert Levin about the project here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra
Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Jouko Laivuori, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
As well as the three-movement Concerto for Orchestra from the first half of the 1950s (which draws on folk music from the Kurpie region), this album includes the Partita for Violin and Orchestra - originally composed for violin and piano at the request of Pinchas Zukerman in 1984 and orchestrated for Anne-Sophie Mutter four years later. The programme is completed by the Novelette from 1979, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich upon his appointment as Musical Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following their accounts of the six Op. 18 quartets (described as 'dynamic, intelligent, agile and argumentative' by Gramophone and 'spruce, clean-sounding, finely articulated ' by BBC Music Magazine), the Chiaruscuros turn to two works from Beethoven’s middle and late periods: the 'Harp' quartet from 1809 and the six-movement String Quartet No. 13 from 1826 (given here with the more straightforward finale which Beethoven substituted for the original Grosse Fuge after its mixed reception at the premiere).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
United Strings of Europe's fourth album for BIS is built around a pair of post-Romantic masterpieces: Strauss's Metamorphosen and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. The programme also includes the world premiere recording of Daniel Kidane's Be Still, plus transcriptions of three vocal works: Casulana's 'Morir non puo il mio cuore', Gesualdo's 'Tristis est anima mea' and 'When I am laid in earth' from Purcell's Dido & Aeneas.
Read more about the history of United Strings of Europe here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Joanna Marsh's 'In Winter's House' (which featured on United Strings of Europe's Renewal) is on the bill of fayre for this programme of music for Epiphany, which also includes Howells's 'Here is the Little Door', Pärt's 'Morning Star', Clemens non Papa's 'Magi veniunt ab oriente', Handl's 'Mirabile mysterium', Cornelius's 'Die Könige', Eccard's 'Maria wallt zum Heiligtum' and Byrd's 'Ecce Advenit'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Infinite Refrain: Music of Love’s Refuge
Randall Scotting (countertenor), Jorge Navarro Colorado (tenor), Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Scotting writes: 'This album of passionate duets and arias explores the nuances of gay love in the seventeenth century...The seed from which this album grew was a desire to acknowledge and celebrate Venice as a place of unusual tolerance'. The programme includes Monteverdi's 'Tornate, o cari baci', 'Pur ti miro' and 'Vorrei baciarti', 'Dove, m’ascondo' from Castrovillari's La Cleopatra, 'Misero, così va?' from Cavalli's Eliogabalo, and 'Da torbido nembo' from Melani's Ercole in Tebe.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The centrepiece of this album marking the ninetieth anniversary of the Polish composer's birth is the Missa brevis, which began life in 2002 as a Sanctus and Benedictus for children's voices and was expanded into a mass for SATB choir a decade later. The programme also includes 'O gloriosa virginum', 'De profundis', 'In pulverem mortis', 'Izhe Xeruvimy', 'Veni Creator' and the 1981 setting of the Agnus Dei.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Britten: War Requiem
Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) & Simon Preston (organ), London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Melos Ensemble, Highgate School Choir & The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten
This new remastering of the first-ever studio recording of the War Requiem (originally recorded at Kingsway Hall in 1963) was made by the same team who worked on the recent remastering of the Solti Ring Cycle; a second disc captures rehearsal-footage (in mono) via the courtesy microphone by the conductor’s podium and a microphone in the producer’s control room. The documentation includes an introduction and technical note on the new transfers by Dominic Fyfe, original session-photographs, and excerpts from producer John Culshaw’s 1981 autobiography Putting the Record Straight.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
