Today's new releases include Shostakovich's String Quartets Nos. 6-12 from Cuarteto Casals, the world premiere recordings of Steve Reich's Jacob's Ladder and Traveler's Prayer, this year's summer concert from the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, with Piotr Beczała as guest soloist), and choral works by the Mendelssohn siblings from the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Justin Doyle.
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Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2
Cuarteto Casals
The second volume of the Barcelona-based quartet's Shostakovich cycle comprises String Quartets Nos. 6 -12, written between 1956 and 1968. The composer's music has long been a central part of the ensemble's recital-repertoire: in late 2015, they took part in the Barbican's Shostakovich Day at Milton Court, when The Independent enthused that 'by the purity of their intonation and the subtlety of their shaping and shading, the Cuarteto Casals took the breath away' and The Telegraph noted that 'the quartet were alert to the way Shostakovich’s most innocent beginnings lead very quickly to something savage and sarcastic'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Steve Reich: Jacob's Ladder/Traveler's Prayer
New York Philharmonic, Synergy Vocals, Colin Currie Group, Jaap van Zweden, Colin Currie
This first recording of Jacob's Ladder was made live at the work's premiere at Lincoln Center in October 2023, when The New York Times enthused that the piece 'burbles with a steady, propulsive rush' and New York Classical Review reflected that it 'had perhaps the strongest early music feel of anything from Reich'. Composed in 2020 and setting text from Genesis, Exodus and Psalms, Traveler's Prayer also receives its world premiere recording here.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn: Sacred Music, Vol. 1
Christina Landshamer (soprano), Ludwig Mittelhammer (baritone), Kammerakademie Potsdam, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Justin Doyle
This triptych of large-scale choral works by the Mendelssohn siblings comprises Felix's unfinished, posthumously-published oratorio Christus and setting of Psalm 42 ('Wie der Hirsch schreit nach frischem Wasser'), and Fanny's joyful cantata Lobgesang ('Meine Seele ist stille') - composed in 1831 to mark her only child Sebastian's first birthday.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Summer Night Concert 2025
Piotr Beczała (tenor), Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Sängerknaben, Tugan Sokhiev
This year's gala concert at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna took place on 13th June, with Polish tenor Piotr Beczała joining the Wiener Philharmoniker for arias from Bizet's Carmen, Puccini's Turandot, Lehár's Giuditta, and Kálmán's Gräfin Mariza. The programme also includes the Overture to Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, 'Komm zu uns und sing und tanze' from Offenbach's Die Rheinnixen, Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers, and the Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Silvestrov: Symphony No. 8 & Violin Concerto
Janusz Wawrowski (violin), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Lyndon-Gee
The Ukrainian composer remarks that both works here are 'based on the idea of treating the great form in a different way – as a chain of moments and not as a dialectical development.' Written in 2016, the Violin Concerto was premiered two years later by his compatriots Valeriy Sokolov and Kirill Karabits, whilst the symphony dates from 2012/13; Lyndon-Gee describes it as 'a homage to the human race; to the fundamental life-force; to the tragedies that repeat themselves over and over in our existence. But also, to love and to humanity, to hope and to renewal.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
A French Odyssey
UnderStories Ensemble
This is the debut recording of the French-Italian Baroque ensemble UnderStories, which was founded in 2018 as a cello duo and has since expanded to explore (or arrange) repertoire for various combinations of low string instruments including violone and piccolo cello. Their programme features music for two cellos and continuo by Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Michel Corrette, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Martin Berteau and Louis-Francois-Joseph Patouart.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Carl Teike: Marches, Vol. 2
The Royal Swedish Navy Band, Alexander Hanson
The son of a German blacksmith, Carl Teike (1864-1922) became a military musician at the age of nineteen and composed over a hundred marches in the course of his career - the best-known being 'Alte Kameraden', which was rejected by his regimental Kapellmeister and prompted Teike to leave the band and pursue a dual career as a composer and police-officer. This second instalment on Naxos includes 'Der Kaiser kommt', 'Die Welt in Waffen', 'Heil Potsdam' and 'Für Thron und Reich'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
20th-Century Foxtrots, Vol. 7: Northern Europe
Gottlieb Wallisch (piano)
This is the final chapter of Wallisch's survey of the origins and evolution of the foxtrot, and focuses on composers from England, Scotland, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries; the programme includes relatively well-known pieces such as excerpts from Walton's Façade Suite and Delius's Koanga as well as hidden gems by composers including Cyril Scott, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Dick Kattenburg, Jacob Gade, Erik Chisholm, and Ture Rangström.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Silent Pool
Peter Jacobs (piano)
Taking its title from a short piece by Grace Williams (itself inspired by a tragic legend which played out in a lake in the North Downs), this recital of British piano music by women composers includes Ethel Smyth's Piano Sonata No. 3, Helen Grime's The Silver Moon, Madeline Dring's Colour Suite, Cecilia McDowall’s Vespers in Venice, and Elizabeth Maconchy's A Country Town.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Donizetti: Il diluvio universale
Nahuel Di Pierro (Noè), Enea Scala (Cadmo), Giuliana Gianfaldoni (Sela), Maria Elena Pepi (Ada); Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Coro dell’Accademia Teatro Alla Scala, Salvo Sgrò, Matteo Ricchetti, Riccardo Frizza
Premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in 1830, Donizetti's opera on The Great Flood was originally presented as an oratorio in order to circumvent restrictions around theatrical performances during Lent; the work was subsequently staged in Genoa and Paris during the composer's lifetime, but then disappeared from the repertoire for 150 years.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
