JS Bach: The Complete Works For Keyboard, Vol. 10
Benjamin Alard (harpsichord, clavichord), Gerlinde Sämann (soprano)
This tenth volume in Alard's musical biography of Bach focuses on the composer's early years in Leipzig, and features two works which were originally composed for family members: the six sonatas BWV 525-530 (written for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann and later used as a teaching-tool for Bach's other students) and the Notebook for his second wife Anna Magdalena. Alard plays four different instruments, including an original 1763 clavichord by Johann Adolf Hass and a modern copy of an eighteenth-century harpsichord by Carl Conrad Fleischer.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The centrepiece of Gerhaher and Huber's all-Brahms recital is the set of Neun Lieder und Gesänge Op. 32, which sets texts by August von Platen and Georg Friedrich Daumer; the programme also includes the 'Regenlied' cycle on poems by Klaus Groth, and favourites such as 'Von ewiger Liebe', 'Die Mainacht', 'Herbstgefühl' and 'Lerchengesang'. A recent recital of Brahms lieder from the pair at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre was described as 'edge-of the-seat engaging and truly unforgettable' by The Arts Desk.
Available Format: CD
Following her 2022 album Romantic Piano Masters (which was nominated for an Opus Klassik Award and praised in Gramophone for her 'trademark expressiveness and finely calibrated control'), the Georgian pianist explores the musical ties between Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Liszt. Her programme comprises Haydn's Keyboard Sonata in D Hob. XVI, Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 18 in D, Beethoven's 'Appassionata' Sonata, and a selection of pieces by Liszt: 'Après une lecture du Dante' from Années de pèlerinage, the Liebesträumen Nos. 1 and 3, and 'La Campanella' from the Grandes études de Paganini.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This is the choir's first recording with their new music director Christopher Gray (who succeeded Andrew Nethsingha in 2023) and continues their tradition of championing music by living composers. Two large-scale triptychs sit at the heart of the programme: James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados (which was premiered in 1990 in response to political repression in Latin America) and Joanna Marsh's Echoes in Time, written for the choir this year. The album also includes new works by Helena Paish and Martin Baker, and music by Roxanna Panufnik and Dobrinka Tabakova.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Bastille Musique marks the centenary of Boulez's birth with new studio recordings of two key works: sur Incises (1996-1998) and the chamber and orchestral versions of Éclat, plus the world premiere recording of a new expansion of Multiples. A former member of Ensemble Intercontemporain, Wendeberg worked closely with Boulez and recorded his complete piano works for Bastille four years ago.
Available Format: CD
Conductor and guitarist Michael Poll made his debut on Orchid back in 2017 with his own arrangement of two Bach lute suites for seven-string guitar, and now returns to the label at the helm of the RPO for a trio of works by twentieth-century American composers. Barber's popular Violin Concerto from 1939 is flanked by two lesser-known pieces by composers who celebrate their seventieth birthdays this year: Byron Adams’s Midsummer Music (1998) and David Conte's Sinfonietta (2012).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Ravel: Piano Concertos - Bach/Wittgenstein
Yeol Eum Son (piano), Residentie Orkest The Hague, Anja Bihlmaier
In addition to the two Ravel concertos, the South Korean pianist's new album includes four Bach transcriptions by Paul Wittgenstein, who commissioned the Concerto for the Left Hand after losing his right arm owing to injuries sustained at the Battle of Galicia. Reviewing Son's performance of the concerto at Edinburgh's Usher Hall in early 2020, The Scotsman observed that she 'balanced a granitic power with a sense of melting poetry, her solo passages exquisitely shaped and delivered with calm conviction.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Formed in 2016, the Eusebius Quartet made its recording debut four years ago with an album of Korngold which received five stars in BBC Music Magazine (who observed that 'sometimes its hard to believe that there are only four musicians playing') and was Record of the Week on Radio 3's Record Review. This sequel features two quartets which were written towards the ends of the composers' lives, plus new arrangements of Elgar's Carissima and four of Fauré's Préludes Op. 103 by Iain Farrington.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Postcards From Ukraine, Vol. 1: Violin Miniatures
Markiyan Melnychenko (violin), Peter de Jager, Benjamin Martin (piano)
The Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko presents a programme of pieces which were inspired by Ukrainian folk music, including Borys Lyatoshynsky's Three Songs on Tajik Themes, Stanyslav Lyudkevych's Chabarashka and Lamentations, Mykola Kolessa's Three Kolomyiky, and Anatoliy Kos-Anatolskyi's The Shawl of Dovbush.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Recently named as one of this year's Victoires de la Musique, the French double bassist Lorraine Campet appeared on La Boîte à Pépites's anthology of chamber music by Rita Strohl, and now makes her debut on Aparté with an album of German Romantic works. Her programme includes her own arrangement of Schubert's 'Arpeggione' Sonata and Lieder by Josephine Lang, plus Solange Boukhobza's transcription of Beethoven's Variations on 'Bei Männern' and Thomas Martin's transcription of Schumann's Fantasiestücke.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Released to mark the centenary of the great German baritone's birth (which falls on 28th May), this anthology brings together his complete recordings for HMV, Electrola, Teldec & Erato. Repertoire includes substantial selections of Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and Strauss, duets with Victoria de los Ángeles, three live recitals from Salzburg, and relative rarities by Eisler, Pfitzner and Schoeck.
Available Format: 79 CDs
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: A Centenary Tribute
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Gerald Moore, Irwin Gage, Karl Engel (piano), London Symphony Orchestra, Zoltán Kodály
SOMM's contribution to the centenary focuses on live recital recordings made between 1960 and 1975, including songs by Busoni, Kodály, Mahler, Strauss and Reger, and is supplemented by two complete interviews conducted by Jon Tolansky on the occasion of Fischer-Dieskau's 75th and 80th birthdays.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
