Today's new releases include a recital of youthful Mahler Lieder from Joseph Middleton and friends including Sir Simon Keenlyside on Signum, a portrait of French chanteuse Barbara from mezzo Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins on Resonus, the world premiere of Douglas Moore's Pulitzer-winning opera Giants in the Earth on Pentatone, and Goldmark and Sibelius from Sueye Park, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Valentin Egel on BIS.
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Mahler: Lieder der Jugend - Songs of Youth and Awakening
Katharina Konradi (soprano), Sophie Rennert (mezzo-soprano), Mauro Peter (tenor), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)
Three years on from a glorious recording of Kindertotenlieder, the Rückert-Lieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Dame Sarah Connolly, Middleton returns to the latter cycle with Sir Simon Keenlyside as his companion on an album which also includes early songs such as 'Frühlingsmorgen', the 'Serenade aus Don Juan', 'Um schlimme Kinder artig zu machen' and 'Hans und Grete'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Goldmark and Sibelius: Works For Violin and Orchestra
Sueye Park (violin), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Valentin Egel
A year on from her superb recital Echoes of Exile (which was an Editor's Choice in Gramophone as well as BBC Music Magazine's Instrumental Choice last October), the South Korean violinist pairs concertante works by two composers who crossed paths in 1890s Vienna when Sibelius briefly studied with Goldmark. The older composer's Violin Concerto from 1877 opens the album, and is followed by Sibelius's late Suite for Violin and Strings, the two 'Earnest Melodies' from 1914/15, and the Two Humoresques Op. 87.
Available Format: SACD
Douglas Moore: Giants in the Earth
Michael J. Hawk (Per Hansa), Meredith Lustig (Beret Hansa), Andrew Gilstrap (Hans Olsa) Sarah Nordin (Sorrine Olsa), Dylan Morrongiello (Syvert Tonsenten), Megan Koch (Kjersti Tonsenten), South Dakota Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Delta David Gier
Premiered at Columbia University in 1951 (five years before Moore's best-known opera The Ballad of Baby Doe), Giants in the Earth is based on a novel by Ole Edvart Rølvaag which centres on Norwegian settlers navigating a new life in Dakota territory during the late nineteenth century. The piece won a Pulitzer Prize, with the jury stating that 'In no opera by an American is there music of such freshness, beauty, and distinctive character', but has never achieved a foothold in the repertoire despite its auspicious beginning; this is its world premiere recording.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
La Solitude: The Songs of Barbara
Jessica Walker (mezzo), Joseph Atkins, Megan Glover, Solem Quartet
Born in Paris in 1930, Barbara (née Monique Serf) became one of France's most celebrated singer-songwriters of the twentieth century: her most popular song 'L’Aigle Noir' sold a million copies on release-day in 1970, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder quoted the lyrics of 'Göttingen' in a speech celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Élysée Treaty. Mindful of the fact that Barbara's songs are still relatively little-known outside France, Walker presents many of them in new English translations here, with fresh arrangements by Joseph Atkins.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Ustvolskaya: Symphony No. 5 & Poulenc: La voix humaine
Sarah Aristidou (soprano), Tony F. Sias (reciter), Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Completed in 1989 and premiered two years later, Ustvolskaya's Symphony No. 5 (subtitled 'Amen') runs to just thirteen minutes and features a male speaker, who intones The Lord's Prayer in Russian, English or German; that role is taken here by the president & CEO of Karamu House, America's oldest Black producing theatre. The symphony is coupled with Poulenc's Cocteau-inspired one-woman opera from 1958; French soprano Sarah Aristidou, who has premiered works by Jörg Widmann and the late Aribert Reimann, takes the role of Elle.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Paganini Variations
Kian Soltani (cello), Pablo Ferrández (cello), Julien Quentin (piano)
This 17-minute EP opens with Soltani's own variations on Paganini's Caprice No. 24, scored for two cellos and written for himself and his friend Pablo Ferrández (the pair studied at the Kronberg Academy and lived together in Berlin for several years). The album also includes Carlo Alfredo Piatti's Serenade for Two Cellos, Levon Atovmyan's arrangement of the Prelude from his friend Shostakovich's Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano, and a virtuosic excerpt from Jean-Baptiste Barrière's Duet-Sonata for Two Cellos.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Folklore
Christoph Croisé (cello), Ana Bakradze (piano)
Conceived as 'a musical journey throughout nineteenth- and twentieth-century France, Georgia, Hungary and Spain', the Swiss-French cellist and Georgian pianist's programme includes Robert Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, Manuel de Falla's Suite populaire espagnole, Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances, Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pièces, and Sulkhan Tsintsadze’s Five Pieces on Georgian Folk Themes (including a lullaby which Bakradze's mother used to sing to her).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Rheinberger: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2, 3 and 4
Dmytro Semykras (piano)
Naxos's Romantic Piano series continues with a volume devoted to the music of Liechtenstein-born Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901), perhaps best known today for his sacred choral music and organ works: having worked as a professor of piano and a repetiteur early in his career, Rheinberger composed four piano sonatas which sit at the crossroads of the Classical and Romantic traditions.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Halévy: La Juive
Ambur Braid (Rachel), John Osborn (Éléazar), Gerard Schneider (Léopold), Monika Buczkowska (Eudoxie), Simon Lim (Cardinal Brogni); Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Tatjana Gürbaca, Henrik Nánási
Recorded live in Frankfurt in July 2024, this performance of Halévy's 1835 opera about the forbidden love between a Jewish woman and a Christian prince was praised by Frankfurter Rundschau for Braid's 'luminous' account of the title-role and by Concerto.net for Osborn's 'immensely moving' performance as her adoptive father Eléazar. Directed by Tatjana Gürbaca, the production is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (Blu-ray)
Lisette Oropesa (Maria), Aigul Akhmetshina (Elisabetta), Ismael Jordi (Leicester), Roberto Tagliavini (Talbot), Andrzej Filończyk (Cecil), Elissa Pfaender (Anna), Coro Y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real, José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, David McVicar
Filmed at the Teatro Real in Madrid in late 2024, this new production by David McVicar featured Oropesa's debut in the title-role (which she will reprise at the Met next season): Opera Actual praised her 'unmatched agility, flawless pianissimi, and breathtaking filati', whilst La Razón compared her favourably with Montserrat Caballé. As her nemesis Elisabetta, Akhmetshina was also applauded for the 'extraordinary confidence and power' of her characterisation by The Theatre Times, with OperaWire marvelling at her 'astounding projection and flexibility' in a role often sung by sopranos.
Available Format: BLU-RAY
