Today's new releases include Mahler's Symphony No. 1 from Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on Alpha, Grace Williams's Violin Concerto, Elegy for String Orchestra and Sinfonia concertante for Piano & Orchestra from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruch from Johan Dalene and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Book Two of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier from Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Pentatone.
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi
Järvi launched his Mahler cycle from Zürich back in March, when BBC Music Magazine's David Nice enthused: 'I'll go for broke and say I don’t know a better Mahler Fifth than this one'. Speaking to Presto's James Longstaffe earlier this year, Järvi declared 'There are many other composers I probably could easily live without, but not Mahler', recounting how his music 'became a kind of obsession of mine' after his family relocated to the US from Estonia.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Mendelssohn & Bruch: Violin Concertos; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Johan Dalene (violin), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Choir, Malin Broman, Gemma New, Kaspars Putniņš
The Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene came to international attention in 2019 after winning the Carl Nielsen Competition, and was named Gramophone's Young Artist of the Year in 2022 after releasing a widely acclaimed recording of the Nielsen and Sibelius concertos. Here he pairs two of the most popular concertos in the violin repertoire, with the choral version of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending by way of coda.
Available format: SACD
Grace Williams: Violin Concerto
Geneva Lewis (violin), Clare Hammond (piano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jaime Martín, Ryan Bancroft, Jac van Steen
This recording of the Violin Concerto (premiered in 1950) was made live at the BBC Proms in 2023, when BachTrack observed that Lewis's 'mellifluous flow and sweetness of tone lent itself comfortably to Williams’s lyricism' and applauded Martín's 'careful shaping [of] the orchestra’s supporting narrative'. The album also includes the Elegy for String Orchestra from 1936 (conducted by Bancroft) and the Sinfonia concertante for Piano & Orchestra from 1941 (conducted by van Steen).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
JS Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
The French pianist returns to Bach after a long sabbatical (which has included superb albums devoted to Kurtág, Bartók, Messiaen and Beethoven): his recording of Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier was released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2014, when Gramophone noted that 'clarity of texture and of part-playing are the virtues which predominate, plus a cool atmosphere.' Aimard remarks: 'Each of the 48 pieces is unique and demands specific interpretative choices...This is why each section of this recording exhibits ranges and combinations of tools of sound production and capture.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Hallé Orchestra, Choi & Youth Choir, Kahchun Wong
This performance took place at Bridgewater Hall in January, roughly halfway through Wong's first season as Music Director. Reviewing the concert in The Guardian, Sarah Noble noted that the Singaporean conductor 'joined the Hallé at the height of its powers – and on the strength of this compelling Resurrection, he knows precisely how to wield them', whilst BachTrack applauded him for 'achieving that rare feat of mastering the architecture of this sprawling symphony while wringing out all the highs and lows or the journey.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Hailey Clark, Golda Schultz (sopranos), Jennifer Johnston, Okka von der Damerau (mezzos), Giorgio Berrugi (tenor), Michael Nagy (baritone), Tareq Nazmi (bass); Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir, Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris et al, Klaus Mäkelä
This performance was recorded across two concerts at the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam this May; the composer's granddaughter Marina was present at the second, which fell on the anniversary of Mahler's death. Reviewing that second concert, BachTrack pronounced: 'From the very first note, meticulous preparation was evident, everyone on stage quite literally singing from the same page. Mäkelä made the difficult sound easy; the challenging, accessible.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie & Vier Lieder Op. 27
Louise Alder (soprano), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
Hot on the heels of 'a Sibelius recording that’s up there with the finest of any era' (BBC Music Magazine), the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its British Chief Conductor climb Strauss's mountain, with soprano Louise Alder (who was a headline soloist at the Last Night of the Proms this year) joining for four favourite Lieder: 'Ruhe, meine Seele!', 'Cäcilie', 'Heimliche Aufforderung', and 'Morgen!'. Alder makes her Metropolitan Opera debut next week as Zdenka in Strauss's Arabella.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Gaïa
Gautier Capuçon (cello) and friends
Capuçon describes Gaïa as 'an album dedicated to the Earth, inspired by its beauty, fragility, and strength'; the seventeen new works on the programme were all commissioned especially for this project, and include Max Richter's Sequence for Gaïa, Ayanna Witter-Johnson's Forever Home, Nico Muhly's Side Piece, Abel Selaocoe's Toro Tsa Kwa, and Missy Mazzoli's The Usual Illusion.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Rebecca Clarke: The Complete Songs
Kitty Whately (mezzo), Nicholas Phan (tenor), Gweneth Ann Rand (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Anna Tilbrook (piano) et al
Best known today for her Viola Sonata and 'The Seal Man', Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) composed a very wide range of songs throughout her career, encompassing settings of texts by Goethe, Richard Dehmel, William Blake, AE Housman and the Chinese poet Ssu-K'ung T'u as well as folksong settings such as 'Down by the Salley Gardens', 'The Tailor and the Mouse', and 'It was a Lover and his Lass'.
Read our interview with Kitty Whately, who was a driving force behind the recording as well as tomorrow's Focus Day at Wigmore Hall and the upcoming Rebecca Clarke Song Competition.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Christoph von Dohnányi: Vienna
Wiener Philharmoniker, Christoph von Dohnányi
The German conductor (who died last month two days before his 96th birthday) had a long relationship with the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducting them in over a hundred concerts as well as in numerous productions at the Wiener Staatsoper. This set includes their previously unreleased accounts of Strauss's Burleske and the complete Mendelssohn symphonies, plus a number of recordings which have hitherto only been available on vinyl; his Wiener Philharmoniker legacy is supplemented here by selected recordings with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Wiener Symphoniker, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Available format: CD + DVD Video
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Blu-ray)
Peter Kellner (Figaro), Maria Nazarova (Susanna - singing), Ying Fang (Susanna - acting), Andrè Schuen (Count), Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (Countess), Patricia Nolz (Cherubino); Wiener Staatsoper, Philippe Jordan, Barrie Kosky
Filmed at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2023, Kosky's production was praised as 'brilliantly cast and meticulously directed' by BachTrack, whilst Der Standard declared that 'beauty and pointedness are combined in the noblest way'. The performance was also warmly received on a musical level, with Wiener Zeitung noting that Jordan and the Viennese orchestra 'deliver an ideal mixture of elegant lyricism and concentrated expression'.
Available format: Blu-ray
Thank You, Johann Strauss!
André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra
To celebrate the bicentenary of Johann Strauss's birth on 25th October, Rieu and his dedicated orchestra present a deluxe collection of favourites including An der schönen blauen Donau, Kaiserwalzer, Rosen aus dem Süden, Wiener Blut, Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald and his father's Radetzky March, plus a bonus DVD of live concert footage. Rieu writes: 'There is a reason I named my orchestra after him, and that's because I can't think of any other composer who has brought so much joy to the world with his music.'
Available formats: 3 CDs + DVD Video, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
