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John Field: Complete Nocturnes
Alice Sara Ott (piano)
For her eleventh album on Deutsche Grammophon, the German-Japanese pianist presents the eighteen numbered nocturnes by Irish composer John Field (often regarded as the father of the genre), with which she fell in love during the lockdowns of 2020/21: she reflects that 'their beauty and grace affected me profoundly and enriched my life while I was preparing for this recording.' The album received four stars in The Times last week, with Geoff Brown observing that 'Field’s more whimsical offerings have a playful spirit all their own...[Ott's] heart is always in the right place. So are her fingers'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Vivaldi: Arsilda
Benedetta Mazzucato (Arsilda), Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Lisea), Marie Lys (Mirinda), Shira Patchornik (Nicandro), José Coca Loza (Cisardo), Nicolò Balducci (Barzane), Leonardo Cortellazzi (Tamese); La Cetra Basel, Andrea Marcon
Premiered in 1716 at the Teatro Sant’Angelo in Venice, Vivaldi's Arsilda, regina di Ponto is set in ancient Anatolia, its rather convoluted plot featuring a pair of twins, a case of mistaken identity, a secret engagement and (after much intrigue and confusion) a double wedding. Reviewing a live performance in Amsterdam at the weekend, BachTrack applauded the 'lightness, enthusiasm and energy' which Marcon brings to the score and singled out the characterful playing of La Cetra's strings, who 'had the Venetian melodies - each one more beautiful than the last - and the delightfully phrased emotions completely under control.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 2, 7 & 10
Jerusalem Quartet
For their debut on BIS, the quartet return to a composer which has been central to their repertoire since the group was formed in 1993; their recording of Quartets Nos. 6, 8 and 11 for Harmonia Mundi (released in 2007) prompted Gramophone to hail them as 'one of the most technically assured and tonally responsive quartets of today' and was described as 'vivid and profoundly intelligent' by BBC Music Magazine. The quartet will perform complete cycles of the Shostakovich quartets at nine venues in the 2025-26 season, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of their professional debut.
Available format: SACD
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
John Findon (Gerontius),Christine Rice (Angel), Roderick Williams (Priest/Angel of the Agony) Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, various choirs, Nicholas Collon
The outstanding British dramatic tenor John Findon makes his recording-debut in a major role on this new Gerontius, which was captured live in Helsinki this April. Findon attracted much admiration when he stepped in to replace a sick colleague as Peter Grimes at English National Opera last autumn (having been noticed by musicOMH for his 'frightening intensity' as Bob Boles earlier in the run), and made a similarly impressive last-minute debut at Covent Garden last week as Števa in Jenůfa (opposite another fine recent Gerontius, Nicky Spence, as Laca).
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Christian Sinding: The Symphonies
Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Karl-Heinz Steffens
Perhaps best remembered for his charming piano piece Frühlingsrauschen ('Rustle of Spring'), the Norwegian composer Christian Sinding also composed a small body of orchestral works including four symphonies (written between 1890 and 1936) which enjoyed significant popularity during his lifetime but are rarely performed today. Sinding studied composition in Christiania and Leipzig, where he became influenced by Liszt and Wagner.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Gavin Higgins: The Faerie Bride
Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo), Roderick Williams (baritone), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Martyn Brabbins
Premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2022, the oratorio The Faerie Bride sets a libretto by Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon and centres on the Welsh legend of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach (or 'Lady of the Lake'); reviewing the first performance, The Guardian observed that 'Higgins’ control of his orchestral forces was highly assured, and combined with an equal instinct for colouristic and atmospheric detail'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Trio Gaspard began their survey of Haydn's complete piano trios back in 2020, with BBC Music Magazine describing the first volume as 'lively and spontaneous' and Gramophone detecting 'high levels of virtuosity and performative imagination' in the third instalment last year. Each album has included a newly-commissioned response to one of the trios; this latest chapter features Sally Beamish's Trance, inspired by Haydn's F sharp minor and dedicated to the memory of Beamish's violinist mother Ursula (who performed the work many times during the composer's childhood).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
George
Sonya Yoncheva (soprano), Olga Zado (piano), with Marina Viotti (mezzo)
The Bulgarian soprano makes her recital-debut on Naïve with a programme dedicated to French novelist, journalist and activist George Sand, featuring spoken excerpts from the writer's correspondence as well as works by composers who knew and loved her - including Franz Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3, Pauline Viardot's arrangements of two Chopin mazurkas for voice and piano, and Chopin's transcription of 'Casta diva' from Bellini's Norma.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Paris 1913: L'offrande lyrique
Claire Booth (soprano), Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)
This album of French song takes its title from a cycle by Louis Edmond Durey (1888-1980), which receives its first recording here: setting poems by Rabindranath Tagore in translations by André Gide, it was inspired by Schoenberg’s The Book of Hanging Gardens. The programme also includes Ravel's and Debussy's Trois poemes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Satie's Trois poemes d'amour, and songs by Reynaldo Hahn, André Caplet, Lili Boulanger, Gabriel Grovlez and Georges Auric.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Uncharted
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (countertenor), John Churchwell (piano)
The American countertenor makes his solo recording debut with a programme of Austro-Germanic Lieder, including Korngold's early Abschiedslieder ('Songs of Farewell'), Robert Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39, Clara Schumann's 'Liebeszauber' & 'Der Mond kommt still gegangen', and Brahms's 'Dein blaues Auge' & 'Mein wundes Herz verlangt'. Nussbaum Cohen made an impressive showing in the title-role of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne last summer, when Opera Now praised his 'commanding projection and agility' and The Arts Desk declared that 'Nussbaum Cohen probably has the most blazing upper trumpet tones on the countertenor scene today'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Le Tre Soprano: The Three Ladies of Ferrara
Amanda Forsythe, Amanda Crider, Amanda Powell (sopranos), Apollo's Fire, Jeannette Sorrell
Thought to have been the earliest documented female professional musicians, the 'Three Ladies of Ferrara' (namely Laura Peverara, Livia d'Arco and Anna Guarini) performed at the court of Alfonso II d'Este, and influenced the development of the madrigal as well as inspiring the formation of similar groups elsewhere in Italy. This album features music which was written for them by Luzzasco Luzzaschi (who was closely associated with the ensemble), and works by Marini, Falconieri, Marini, Piccinini and Strozzi.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain
Phoenix Chorale, Christopher Gabbitas
This second Signum album from the Grammy-winning Arizona choir and their Music Director (a former member of The King's Singers) features works inspired by the natural world from composers including John Rutter, Connor Koppin, Erika Lloyd, Eric Whitacre and Dale Trumbore, plus arrangements of Kate Rusby's 'Underneath The Stars' and 'The Sun Whose Rays' from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Vilém Blodek: In the Well
Prague National Theatre Orchestra, František Škvor
To mark the 150th anniversary of Vilém Blodek's death, Supraphon present a 1959 recording of his one-act comic opera In the Well (V studni), which centres on a folk tradition whereby an unmarried girl can foresee the identity of her future bridegroom by looking into the village well on Midsummer Eve. A monophonic version of the recording was available on LP in the early 1960s, but this is its first appearance in stereo (remastered from the original tapes by Aleš Dvořák).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Cécile Chaminade and Her Contemporaries Play Chaminade
Cécile Chaminade (piano), Lilian Bryant, Una Bourne, William Murdoch, Rudolph Ganz, Gertrude Meller, Marie Novello, Shura Cherkassky et al
This release features some of the earliest recordings made by a classical pianist: Chaminade's own accounts of her 'Air de ballet', the 'Pas des écharpes' ('Scarf Dance') from the Callirhoë Suite, the 'Courante' from the Trois Danses Anciennes, 'Danse Créole' and 'Les Sylvains', all captured in London in 1901.
(Technical note from the label: 'Because of the length restrictions of 78-rpm discs, many of the recordings here are abbreviated, usually by the removal of repeated sections, and in three examples works have been extended by adding unmarked repeats to make best use of the available time').
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
