Coming Soon,
English Baroque treasures from Rachel Podger and other forthcoming highlights
Highlights for late May and early June include English and Scottish consort and chamber music from Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque, captivating Schubert Ländler from Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a Messiaen recital album from Barbara Hannigan, two rediscovered Romantic piano concertos from Paul Wee, a duet recital (including a new commission written for them by Leonid Desyatnikov) from Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, the first volume of a new series exploring the music of Brahms and his contemporaries from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Heloïse Werner's complex and riveting second album Close-Ups, a pensive Winterreise from Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide, and a new staging of Dvořák's Rusalka from the Royal Opera House under Semyon Bychkov, with Asmik Grigorian in the title role.
This programme of violin-led chamber music from Jacobean to Early Georgian England and Scotland includes Locke's Little Consort in Two Parts for Severall Friends, sonatas by Handel and Purcell, 'Lochaber' from Francesco Barsanti's Collection of Old Scots Tunes, and works by Richard Jones, Geminiani and John Jenkins.
Released 24th May.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The smaller side of Schubert is on display in this album from Pierre-Laurent Aimard - a break from virtuosity and angst to focus on the transparent playfulness of these rustic dance-miniatures, all based on the central European dance that ultimately evolved (once it had changed out of its hobnailed boots!) into the waltz.
Released 24th May.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Messiaen
Barbara Hannigan (soprano), Bertrand Chamayou (piano), Vilde Frang (violin), Charles Sy (tenor)
As if further proof were needed of Barbara Hannigan's incredible affinity for the complex, sensuous vocal music of the early twentieth century! Following up on several highly-acclaimed recordings of Schoenberg, she now turns to Messiaen's two great song-cycles of the 1930s, plus the rarely-heard and profoundly spiritual La mort du nombre.
Released 24th May.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A pair of exciting rediscoveries, brought back to life by the formidable pianism of Paul Wee - Henselt's concerto in F minor was premiered by Clara Schumann under the baton of Felix Mendelssoh, enjoyed immense popularity in his time, and is widely believed to have exerted a significant influence over Rachmaninoff's development of his own concertos. It's juxtaposed here with the heady late-Romantic swirling of Bronsart's concerto in F sharp minor.
Released 31st May.
Available Format: SACD
Two of Schubert's most significant piano-duets - the Divertissement à la hongroise and the Fantasie in F minor - are complemented by the striking, turbulent Trompe-l'œil by Ukrainian composer Leonid Desyatnikov, commissioned for the duo themselves by the Aldeburgh Festival last year and playing with musical themes from the Schubert Fantasie.
Released 21st June.
Available Format: CD
A welcome follow-up to Chandos's orchestral 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series from the mid-2000s, this new exploration of the musical landscape of Brahms's time kicks off with a pair of piano quartets: Brahms's own No. 2 in A major and an 1884 work by Luise Adolpha Le Beau, whose Cello Sonata was recently recorded by Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih.
Released 24th May.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Close-Ups
Heloïse Werner | Max Baillie | Julian Azkoul | Ruth Gibson Colin Alexander | Marianne Schofield | Kit Downes
A hotly-awaited second album from soprano-composer Héloïse Werner weaves together a dizzying tapestry of conceptual threads - from a melancholy, fatalistic song by Barbara Strozzi, via a scathing survey of male attitudes to quote-unquote 'hysteria' from the fifth century BC up until the early 2020s, to the macaronic close-ups by Werner herself (to words by her sister), it is an exhilarating and unique journey of discovery.
Released 28th June.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dvořák: Rusalka (Blu-ray)
Asmik Grigorian (Rusalka), David Butt Philip (Prince), Matthew Rose (Vodník), Emma Bell (Foreign Princess), Sarah Connolly (Ježibaba) The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus, Natalie Abrahami, Ann Yee, Semyon Bychkov
The peerless Asmik Grigorian takes the title role of the doomed water-spirit in this contemporary and distinctly ecologically-minded staging by Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee.
Released 24th May.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
