Stephen Hough: Piano Concerto, Sonatina & Partita
Sir Stephen Hough (piano), The Hallé, Sir Mark Elder
Subtitled 'The World of Yesterday' (after Stefan Zweig's 1934 memoir), Hough's first piano concerto began life as a score for a film about an Austrian baroness in the early 1930s who commissions a young American composer to complete a concerto which was left unfinished by her late sister; Hough eventually stepped away from the project, but developed the piece as a full-scale concert-work. It's followed here by the little Sonatina nostalgica which Hough composed as a seventieth-birthday present for his fellow pianist Philip Fowke, and the Mompou-inflected Partita from 2019.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Khachaturian: Piano Concerto
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
As well as the Piano Concerto which Khachaturian composed for Lev Oborin in 1936 (which features a part for musical saw!), this album includes selections from Pictures of Childhood, the 'Sabre Dance' and 'Lullaby' from the 1939 ballet Gayaneh, the Adagio from Spartacus, and the Masquerade Suite (compiled from incidental music for a play by Mikhail Lermontov). Reviewing a live performance of the concerto last November, the Los Angeles Times declared that 'Thibaudet mastered the score, deftly working the extremes of flashy dynamism and feathery ruminations'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Masabane Cecilia
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Aron Goldin (piano)
The South African soprano (who was a finalist in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2021 and also won the Song Prize) makes her solo recording-debut with a programme which includes songs from her homeland, Lieder by Schubert and Strauss, gospels and spirituals, 'I could have danced all night' from My Fair Lady, and two of her favourite opera arias: Rusalka's 'Song to the Moon' and 'Ebben? Ne andrò lontana' from Catalani's La Wally.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
The Music of Malcolm Arnold
London Choral Sinfonia, Jack Liebeck (violin), Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), James Orford (organ), Michael Waldron
A number of works receive their world premiere recordings on this collection of Arnold's choral and orchestral music: the John Clare Cantata, the two part-songs 'Spleen' and 'Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam', the Two Ceremonial Psalms, and This Christmas Night (first performed at 10 Downing Street in December 1967, and setting text by Harold Wilson's wife Mary). The album also includes the Organ Concerto from 1954, the Concerto for Two Violins (commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin in 1962), and Owain Park's new arrangement of The Padstow Lifeboat for three trumpets, organ, strings and percussion.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali
This is the final instalment of the Finnish conductor's Sibelius cycle from Gothenburg, which has been described as 'strikingly individual, but in no way contentious' (BBC Music Magazine), 'refreshing and enlightening' (Fanfare), and 'splendidly articulate and expressive' (Gramophone). In addition to the two symphonies, the album includes eight extracts from the incidental music which Sibelius composed for Shakespeare's The Tempest in 1925/6, which was used for a production at the Finnish National Theatre the following year.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Rachmaninov: Orchestral Works
WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cristian Măcelaru
This 3-disc set from the Köln orchestra comprises the three symphonies, the rarely-performed Caprice Bohémien from the early 1890s, and the Böcklin-inspired symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead. Speaking to Gramophone last month, the Romanian conductor explained: 'The reason why I wanted to do Rachmaninov with the WDR Symphony Orchestra is because the depth of the sound they produce is so profound, and there is a warmth and a gentle flexibility that I absolutely adore.'
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Twilight: Schumann Songs
Ian Bostridge (tenor), Saskia Giorgini (piano)
Following their recordings of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin and songs by Respighi, Bostridge and Giorgini team up again for a recital of Lieder by Robert Schumann, comprising the Fünf Lieder Op. 40, Liederkreis Op. 39, the Zwölf Gedichte von Justinus Kerner Op. 35, and two songs from the Lieder-Album für die Jugend Op. 79: 'Schneeglöckchen' and 'Des Sennen Abschied'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
The Last Castrato: Arias for Velluti
Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Orchestre et Chœur de l'Opéra Royal, Stefan Plewniak
Born in 1780, Giovanni Battista Velluti created some of the last major roles written for the castrato voice, most notably Arsace in Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira and Armando in Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto. This album focuses on some of the lesser-known works which he premiered, including Paolo Bonfichi's Attila, Giuseppe Nicolini's Carlo Magno and Traiano in Dacia, Francesco Morlacchi's Tebaldo ed Isolina, and Saverio Mercadante's Andronico.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Le vase brisé
Thomas Elwin (tenor), Lana Bode (piano)
This debut solo album from British tenor Thomas Elwin (who was a founding member of VOCES8) charts the arc of an ill-fated romantic relationship, and takes its title from a poem by inaugural Nobel Prize-winner Sully Prudhomme which is set here by Clémence de Grandval. The programme also includes songs by Lili Boulanger, Franz Liszt, Augusta Holmès, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, Reynaldo Hahn, and Paolo Tosti.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Benjamin Britten: Canticles
James Way (tenor), Natalie Burch (piano), Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo), Annemarie Federle (horn), Hugh Cutting (countertenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone), Alis Huws (harp)
A former Britten-Pears Young Artist, Way steps into Pears's shoes for the five canticles which Britten composed between 1947 and 1975 (including settings of texts by TS Eliot and Edith Sitwell); Betts-Dean is Isaac to Way's Abraham in Canticle No. 2, whilst Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner Hugh Cutting and Ross Ramgobin join him for The Journey of the Magi. The album was awarded four stars in The Times this week, with Geoff Brown describing it as 'a fascinating and rewarding release'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
In Chains of Gold Vol. 3
Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, Silas Wollston (organ)
This third volume of Magdalena Consort and Fretwork's series exploring the English pre-Restoration verse anthem includes two large-scale, incomplete works by Thomas Tomkins: Know you not (composed for the funeral of Prince Henry in 1612) and O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance, written in response to the English Civil War. Also includes works by Richard Nicholson, Thomas Ravenscroft, William Stonnard, John Amner, William Pysinge, Simon Stubbs and John Ward.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Wisdom & Strength
Siglo de Oro, Patrick Allies
This album of contemporary sacred choral music is programmed as an 'imaginary Sunday', comprising a morning Communion service and evensong; the programme includes Kerensa Briggs's Media Vita, Judith Ward's Mass for St Mark, O Clap Your Hands, Responses and Gloria tibi Trinitas, Kristina Arakelyan's Christ, our Paschal Lamb, Marisse Cato's Flamed Tongue, and Joanna Marsh's Worthy is the Lamb.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
