Today's new releases include Bach, Mozart and Britten from Martin James Bartlett with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and Howard Griffiths, Schumann from Elisabeth Leonskaja (both on Warner), a cabaret-themed recital from Claire Booth and Jâms Coleman on Orchid Classics, and Mendelssohn's 'Scottish' Symphony and The Hebrides from Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie and Alexis Kossenko on Aparté.
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Bach - Mozart - Britten: Concertos
Martin James Bartlett (piano), Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Howard Griffiths
This triptych of youthful works for piano and orchestra comprises JS Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor BWV1052, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat (aka the 'Jeunehomme'), and Britten's Keats-inspired Young Apollo; premiered on CBC Radio in 1939 with Britten as soloist, the latter work was withdrawn by the composer after its second performance, and received its first commercial recording only in 1982. Look out for our in-depth interview with Martin early next month...
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Schumann
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)
Two years on from her account of Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto (which was hailed as 'utterly consistent and totally enlightening' by BBC Music Magazine), the Austrian pianist dedicates a double album to a selection of his works for solo piano: the Abegg Variations, Papillons, the 'Geistervariationen', Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2, and the Études symphoniques. Reviewing her live performance of the latter work at Wigmore Hall in 2010, Classical Source declared that 'her command of colour and tone reverenced the ‘symphonic’ aspect in the work’s title'.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Life Stories
Claire Booth (soprano), Jâms Coleman (piano)
This recital exploring 'the borderland between cabaret and classical' opens with the world premiere recording of Zoë Martlew’s Hotel Babylon, commissioned by Booth as a counterpart of sorts to Schoenberg's Brettl Lieder and described by the composer as 'a Faustian mini-drama tangled up with the Seven Deadlies'. The programme also includes Poulenc's Banalités, four songs from Hanns Eisler’s Hollywooder Liederbuch, Gershwin's 'Somebody Loves Me' and 'Embraceable You', and Thomas Adès's 1994 Tennessee Williams setting Life Story.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 'Scottish' and The Hebrides
Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie, Alexis Kossenko
Following fine recordings of the 'Italian' and 'Reformation' symphonies in 2023, Kossenko and his musicians present two works inspired by the composer's visit to the British Isles in 1829; these are the first period-instrument recordings to use the 'London version' of the Scottish Symphony from 1842 and the 'Rome version' of The Hebrides (which Mendelssohn played on the piano for Berlioz in 1830).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Gregory Fritze: Overtures & Symphonies
London Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Sanz-Espert
Born in Pennsylvania in 1954, Fritze originally trained as a tuba-player alongside studying composition with John Adams, and later spent fourteen years as Chair of Composition at Berklee College of Music. This portrait-album features the ebullient London Overture (written for the LSO in 2023), Waterplace Park (an ode to the garden in Providence, Rhode Island), and orchestral versions of two works originally conceived for large concert band: A Day in Valencia, and Sinfonía de Valencia.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Invitation: Mozart, Mendelssohn & Schumann
Jörg Widmann (clarinet), Irish Chamber Orchestra
Gramophone's Charlotte Gardner recently expressed 'sky-high admiration for the orchestra's technical and expressive ensemble virtuosity' as displayed on this album celebrating Widmann's ten-year relationship with the ICO. The programme comprises Mozart's Serenade No. 12 in C minor K388, Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 8 in D, and Robert Schumann's Overture, Scherzo and Finale Op. 52.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
English Cello Works
Andreas Brantelid (cello), Bengt Forsberg (piano), The Royal Danish Orchestra, Thomas Søndergård
Elgar's Cello Concerto opens this programme of English works from the early twentieth century; it's followed by John Ireland’s Cello Sonata in G minor from 1923 (written for Beatrice Harrison, who recorded the Elgar concerto with the composer) and Frank Bridge’s pre-War Cello Sonata in D minor (premiered by Felix Salmond, the soloist at the first performance of the Elgar).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
History of the Russian Piano Trio Vol. 10
The Brahms Trio
Subtitled 'Soviet Avant-Garde', this tenth volume of The Brahms Trio's wide-ranging series focuses on Nikolay Roslavets (who was described by Stravinsky as 'the most interesting Russian composer of the twentieth century') and Shostakovich. Roslavets's Piano Trio No. 4 (1927) opens proceedings, and is followed by Shostakovich's two works in the genre: the single-movement Piano Trio No. 1 was written when he was just sixteen, whilst the much bleaker and more expansive No. 2 was composed in the mid-1940s and is dedicated to the memory of his friend Ivan Sollertinsky (who was condemned by Stalin's regime for his initial support of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
Forgotten Melodies
Alexander Malofeev (piano)
This debut album from the young Moscow-born pianist (who left his homeland for Berlin in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine) features works by four composers who were also born in Russia but settled elsewhere: Glazunov, Glinka, Rachmaninoff and Medtner, who died in Paris, Berlin, Beverly Hills and London respectively. The recording is an Editor's Choice in the latest edition of Gramophone, with Jed Distler noting that 'for all of Malofeev's outsize dynamics, bomb-dropping bass accents and pulverising chords, he never bangs'.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Francisco Garro: Missa O Quam Pulchra Es & Cantate Domino
Cupertinos, Luís Toscano
This is the fifth Hyperion album from the Portuguese vocal ensemble Cupertinos, who won a Gramophone Award for their debut recording of Manuel Cardoso's Requiem in 2019 and have gone on to record the music of their compatriots Duarte Lobo, Filipe de Magalhães, and Pedro de Cristo. Francisco Garro was born in Spain in the mid-1550s, but spent much of his life in Lisbon, where he was appointed Master of the Royal Chapel.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Lagrime di San Pietro
Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre
This album interweaves two settings of Peter’s denial of Jesus, both written towards the end of the composers' lives: Orlando di Lasso's Lagrime di San Pietro (1594) was dedicated to Pope Clement VIII and published in Munich shortly after the composer's death, whilst Lodovico Agostini's Le lagrime del peccatore is a set of madrigali spirituali written in Ferrara eight years earlier. The recording is dedicated to the memory of Denis Raisin Dadre, who died last September.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 88.2 kHz, 24 bit)
