Coming Soon,
Aigul Akhmetshina's debut album on Decca and other forthcoming highlights
Stand-out recordings for the summer include Bashkir mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina's first solo recording (centring on her signature-role of Carmen and also including snapshots of her Rosina, Cenerentola, Charlotte and Romeo), a live recording of Meyerbeer's Le Prophète from the London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Mark Elder (with John Osborn in the title-role and Elizabeth DeShong as his mother), an homage to Peter Pears from Irish tenor Robin Tritschler, piano duets by Schubert and Desyatnikov from Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy, and an Irish album from Daniel Hope.
The Bashkortostan-born mezzo's debut solo album on Decca includes excerpts from her signature-role of Carmen (which she is currently singing at Glyndebourne following performances at the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden), plus arias from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and La cenerentola, Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Massenet's Werther; the final track is the Bashkir folk-song 'Nightingale'.
Look out for our exclusive video-interview with Aigul next month, filmed at the Royal Opera House and exploring the psychology of Carmen...
Released 26th July.
Available Format: CD
Meyerbeer: Le Prophète
John Osborn (Jean de Leyde), Elizabeth DeShong (Fidès), Mané Galoyan (Berthe), James Platt (Zacharie) London Symphony Orchestra, Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône, Lyon Opera Chorus, Sir Mark Elder
This performance of Meyerbeer's 1848 grand opera about a sixteenth-century innkeeper who is radicalised by Anabaptists and proclaims himself King of New Jerusalem was recorded in concert at last year's Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Reviewing the live performance, Opera Magazine declared that 'the achievement of Elder and everyone else here deserves wider currency and it would be tragic if a recording was not forthcoming'.
Released 28th June.
Available Formats: 3 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Songs For Peter Pears
Robin Tritschler (tenor), Philip Higham (cello), Malcolm Martineau (piano), Sean Shibe (guitar)
This programme of music written for the British tenor (1910-86) includes Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (the first major work which he composed for his partner), Lennox Berkeley's Five Housman Songs and Songs of the Half-Light, Arthur Oldham's Five Chinese Lyrics, Richard Rodney Bennett's Tom O’Bedlam’s Song, and Geoffrey Bush's Songs of the Zodiac (dedicated to Pears's memory and premiered by Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Graham Johnson).
Released 14th June.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This sequel to Werner's Gramophone Award-nominated debut album Phrases features Errollyn Wallen's Tree and Werner's own Unspecified intentions, close-ups, Les Leçons du Mardi and Lullaby for a Sister, plus arrangements of Barbara Strozzi's Che si può fare, Julie Pinel's Sombres lieux and Hildegard von Bingen's O vis eternitatis; three 'Echoes' (conceived in collaboration with Max Baillie, Colin Alexander, Marianne Schofield, and Kit Downes) complete the programme.
Released 28th June.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released in celebration of The Year of Czech Music, these newly digitally transferred and remastered recordings were originally made between the 1960s and 80s (and with the exception of The Bartered Bride are otherwise unavailable as physical products). Highlights include Jaroslav Krombholc's recording of Dalibor, Zdeněk Chalabala's account of The Devil's Wall, and the only Supraphon recording of The Brandenburgers in Bohemia (conducted by Jan Hus Tichý).
Released 21st June.
Available Format: 17 CDs
This album exploring the intersection of Irish folk and classical music is rooted in Hope's own Irish heritage: his paternal great-grandfather left Waterford for South Africa in the 1890s, as recounted in the 2021 TV documentary Celtic Dreams: Daniel Hope’s Hidden Irish History. The repertoire includes new arrangements of traditional Irish melodies, plus works by Ina Boyle, Thomas Roseingrave, Turlough O'Carolan and (perhaps more unexpectedly) Vivaldi, Purcell and Geminiani.
Released 5th July.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The first recording of Leonid Desyatnikov’s Trompe-l’œil sits at the heart of this recital from Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy: commissioned by Britten Pears Arts and premiered by the couple at Aldeburgh in 2023, the piece was conceived as a reflection of Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for piano duet D940, which follows it on the recording. The recital opens with another of Schubert's works for piano duet: the Divertissement à la hongroise D818, based on a melody which the composer heard a kitchen-maid singing whilst he was working for Count János Károly Esterházy de Galántha in the summer of 1824.
Released 21st June.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This volume of St Johns's Magnificat series is the final instalment to be recorded under the direction of Andrew Nethsingha, who took up the position of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey in January 2023. The programme includes works by Judith Weir, Jonathan Dove, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Charles Villiers Stanford, plus a new setting of the canticles written especially for the choir by former member Piers Connor Kennedy.
Released 12th July.
Available Format: CD
Nadine Sierra & Pretty Yende in Concert
Nadine Sierra (soprano), Pretty Yende (soprano), Les Frivolités Parisiennes, Giacomo Sagripanti
Filmed in Paris last year, this concert from two of today's finest bel canto sopranos includes duets from Bellini's Norma, Delibes's Lakmé, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, arias from Verdi's La traviata, Bellini's La sonnambula Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and songs by Leonard Bernstein, Victor Herbert and Louiguy.
Released 12th July.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
