Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3
Krystian Zimerman (piano), Maria Nowak (violin), Katarzyna Budnik (viola), Yuya Okamoto (cello)
The Polish-Swiss pianist made outstanding recordings of both Brahms concertos with Leonard Bernstein in the mid-1980s, but the composer's chamber works occupy a special place in his heart: 'There is no bad piece among them. I particularly love the Third Quartet. It’s crazy. It’s so powerful. It has unbelievable drive.' His colleagues here are Maria Nowak (co-leader of Zimerman's Polish Festival Orchestra), Sinfonia Varsovia's principal violist Katarzyna Budnik, and Yuya Okamoto (recently appointed as cellist of the Ébène Quartet).
Released 4th April.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
JS Bach: Keyboard Concertos
Beatrice Rana (piano), Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Candida Thompson
Eight years on from her recording of the Goldberg Variations (which was praised in The Sunday Times for its 'Orphic seductiveness [and] transcendent lightness of touch'), Rana teams up with the Dutch ensemble for Bach's keyboard concertos BWV1052, 1053, 1054 and 1056; she made her concerto debut with the latter work when she was just nine. Reviewing one of their live performances in 2019, BachTrack deemed the collaboration a match 'made in heaven': 'Whatever Rana did on the keyboard was echoed, when called for, precisely by the Sinfonietta's magnificent strings, and vice versa.'
Released 23rd March.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Ravel: Fragments
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
The French pianist's contribution to this year's Ravel anniversary is a postscript of sorts to his acclaimed survey of the complete piano works in 2016, which was described by Gramophone as a set of 'revelatory performances of breathtaking beauty and incomparable power'. The programme features Chamayou's own transcriptions of the Pièce en forme de Habanera, 'Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis' and 'Chanson de la mariée', and several tributes to Ravel by other composers - including Arthur Honegger's Hommage à Ravel, Betsy Jolas's Signets, Ricardo Viñes's Menuet spectral, and Xavier Montsalvatge's Elegia a Maurice Ravel.
Released 7th March.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Lalo & Saint-Saëns: Works for Violin & Orchestra
James Ehnes (violin), BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena
Following his recent Sibelius album from Bergen, Ehnes moves into warmer climes by teaming up with Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena for two works dedicated to the great virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate: Lalo's Symphonie espagnole from 1874 (which was one of the inspirations for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto several years later) and Saint-Saëns's Violin Concerto No. 3 from 1880. Sarasate's own concerto fantasy on themes from Bizet's Carmen rounds off the programme.
Released 8th March.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Germán Enrique Alcántara (Simon Boccanegra), Eri Nakamura (Maria/Amelia), William Thomas (Fiesco), Iván Ayón-Rivas (Gabriele Adorno), Sergio Vitale (Paolo Albiani); The Hallé, Chorus of Opera North, RNCM Opera Chorus, Sir Mark Elder
This recording presents Verdi's political drama as it was premiered at La Fenice in 1857, rather than the 1881 revised version of the score which was prepared in collaboration with librettist Arrigo Boito (and is most commonly heard today). Reviewing a live performance from these forces last year, The Guardian applauded Alcántara's 'elegant, supple-toned' interpretation of the title-role and Elder's 'typically sure-footed panache', whilst The Arts Desk deemed the concert 'probably one of the greatest triumphs of Elder’s near quarter-century as musical director of the Hallé'.
Released 23rd March.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Salieri: Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari
Mirco Palazzi (Cublai), Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (TImur), Marie Lys (Alzima), Fabio Capitanucci (Orcano); Les Talens Lyriques, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset
Following their well-received recordings of Les Horaces, Armida, Les Danaïdes, Tarare and La Grotta di Trofonio, Rousset and his ensemble continue their Salieri project with a comic opera which received its first performances just a year ago: Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari was composed in 1788, but the planned premiere was cancelled by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in the wake of the Habsburg–Ottoman War.
Released 24th April.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
The gestation of Marsalis's Blues Symphony (his second symphonic work) began in 2008, and the great American trumpeter worked with music supervisor Jonathan Kelly for over a decade before finalising this version of the score. The composer writes: 'This piece is intended to further the legacy of Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, James P. Johnson, Leonard Bernstein, John Lewis, Gunther Schuller, and others who were determined to add the innovations of jazz to the vocabulary of the symphonic orchestra.'
Released 14th March.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Habanera
Ana Beard Fernández (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joely Koos (cello), The Endellion Cellists, William Vann
The vocal soloists do double-duty as arrangers on this lovely programme of music for eight cellos and voice: Fernández sings Williams's transcriptions of Falla's Siete Canciones populares españolas, Ravel's Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera and Montsalvatge's Cinco canciones negras, whilst the pair join forces for her arrangements of Xoan Montes's 'Negra Sombra', Henri du Bailly's 'Yo soy la locura', and 'Forêts paisibles' from Rameau's Les Indes Galantes.
Released 14th March.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
The King's Singers
This is The King’s Singers's final album with the current line-up, as bass Jonathan Howard (who joined the group in 2010) was replaced by Piers Connor Kennedy at the beginning of the year. Aside from a sprinkling of Schubert, Brahms and the Mendelssohn siblings, the programme centres on early twentieth-century part-songs, including folk-song settings by Alfvén, Vaughan Williams's Three Shakespeare Songs, Debussy's Trois chansons de Charles d'Orléans, and Elgar's Death on the Hills.
Released 14th March.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
