New Release Round-up, New Release Round-Up - 14th February 2025

This account of Ravel's 1912 symphonie chorégraphique was recorded live at the Barbican last April (five months before Pappano began his tenure as the LSO's Chief Conductor). The Times's Richard Morrison described it as 'a sumptuous performance, so vividly and dramatically characterised that the ballet seemed to play out in my mind’s eye as the piece progressed', whilst The Arts Desk's David Nice noted that 'Pappano managed the miracle of pointillist details coming through even in the most elaborate of impressionistic textures.'

Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

This recording of Stravinsky's Hans Christian Andersen-inspired miniature opera was made at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, when the work was presented in a double-bill with Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias. Reviewing the live performance, Le Figaro declared Devieilhe 'unforgettable' in the role of the Nightingale who wins the previously hard heart of a Chinese emperor after persuading Death to grant him more time.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

Another Stravinsky work inspired by Hans Christian Andersen gets an outing this week - namely the Divertimento or concert suite from the ballet Le baiser de la fée ('The Fairy's Kiss'), which was originally written for the Ida Rubinstein ballet company in Paris; it's coupled with the Pergolesi-influenced Pulcinella from 1920, which Gimeno describes as a 'frankly miraculous' score. The album also includes Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy's Curiosity, Genius, and the Search For Petula Clark - commissioned by the Toronto Symphony and inspired by one of Glenn Gould's radio interviews.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

The centrepiece of this album is Kurtág's Hölderlin-Gesänge for baritone and (briefly) tuba and trombone; Appl was selected to perform the cycle at the Kurtág Festival by the composer and his late wife Marta, and collaborated closely with the composer for this recording. Kurtág also joins Appl for Schubert's Der Jüngling an der Quelle and Brahms's Sonntag (songs which he and Marta frequently rehearsed together) with Baillieu stepping in for six further Schubert songs and Aimard partnering Appl for four Kurtág miniatures.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

Rattle chose Haydn's musical retelling of the Creation story for his inaugural concerts as Chief Conductor, enthusing that 'It contains everything. The whole world. It looks both towards the past and far into the future of everything music can be.' This recording was made from two live performances in Munich in September 2023; reviewing it earlier this week, MusicWeb International declared that 'there are innumerable examples where you find yourself smiling at a phrase or emphasis you didn’t expect' and described Gerhaher as 'at his absolute peak' as Raphael/Adam.

Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

Chandler and La Serenissima's previous recording of The Four Seasons was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2016 thanks to the 'intelligent, imaginative approach to bowing, articulation and ornamentation' - now they revisit the set using a new edition prepared from a set of parts which is currently held at the Henry Watson Library in Manchester. Written in the hand of one of Vivaldi's main copyists, it contains a host of small but significant differences from the version which was published in Amsterdam in the mid-1720s.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

Following acclaimed recordings of the piano concertos, 24 Preludes, Moments Musicaux and Études-Tableaux, Giltburg continues his Rachmaninoff odyssey with the composer's two piano sonatas and a solo piano transcription of the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (originally made by Georgy Kirkor in 1957 and significantly revised by Giltburg for this recording). Giltburg's set of the Préludes was Building A Library's Recommended Recording in December 2022, and was praised in The Observer for the 'vivid skill, colour and poetry' on display.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

Brahms is the unifying thread which runs through this debut solo album from Kazakh pianist Samson Tsoy: the programme features his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and arrangement of the Chaconne from Bach's Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, plus Busoni's transcriptions of five chorale preludes and Reger's solo piano arrangement of the Vier Ernste Gesänge. The album received four stars in The Guardian last week, with Fiona Maddocks describing it as 'a probing meditation on creativity'.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

Now based in the Netherlands, Zemtsov was born in Mexico City and has been strongly drawn to Latin-American culture since childhood; taking its title from an image in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Yellow Butterfly features music by composers including Astor Piazzólla, Consuelito Velázquez, Cuchi Leguizamón and Manzanero Canché, arranged for viola and ensemble by Joan Albert Amargós, Claudio Constantini, and Zemtsov herself.

Watch Dana perform Piazzólla's Le Grand Tango (which features on the album) at Presto Music last January.

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

Liszt has occupied a special place in the French pianist's repertoire since her teens; her second solo recording (released in 2005 and featuring La lugubre gondola, St. Francois de Paule marchant sur les flots and the Mephisto Waltz No. 1) prompted Gramophone to hail her as 'a talent in a million', and a sequel in 2011 was similarly warmly received. On this new album she tackles the composer's sole piano sonata and the Réminiscences de Don Juan (a fantasy on themes from Mozart's Don Giovanni, widely regarded as one of the most technically-demanding works in the repertoire and described by Busoni as 'the highest point of pianism').

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples

Following recordings of Massenet's Grisélidis and Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, the soprano marks Valentine's Day with a programme of arias and duets about romantic love, including 'O mio babbino caro' from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, 'Je veux vivre' from Gounod's 'Roméo et Juliette', 'Se come voi piccina io fossi' from Puccini's Le Villi, and the torrid Saint-Sulpice scene from Massenet's Manon (with Julien Dran as Des Grieux).

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

Filmed in Berlin in March 2023, Tobias Kratzer's production of Strauss's 'lyric comedy' was described by British Theatre Guide as 'persuasive - challenging, but ultimately an affirmation of love and tenderness'; there was also praise for the 'perfect balance and transparency' which Runnicles achieved in the pit, and for Jakubiak's unfailingly 'clear and smooth' timbre in the title-role.

Available Format: Blu-ray

• View full details

Remastered from the original analogue tapes, this postscript to Supraphon's Ančerl Gold Edition (2002-2008) showcases the Czech conductor's rapport with a range of distinguished soloists: highlights include Sviatoslav Richter in Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Liszt, Mstislav Rostropovich and David Oistrakh in Dvořák, Wilhelm Kempff in Chopin, and Ida Haendel in Sibelius.

Available Format: 7 CDs

• View full details