Today's new releases include a tour of early eighteenth-century Leipzig with Reinhard Goebel, a live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 from the late Michael Tilson Thomas in Verbier, a lively collaboration between VOCES8 and Swedish barbershop group Ringmasters, and Robert Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39 and Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart from Matthias Goerne and Markus Hinterhäuser.
The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music before Bach
Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum Leipzig, Reinhard Goebel
The NBCM and its artistic director launch a new series exploring the musical life of Leipzig in the early eighteenth century with a programme which includes world premiere recordings of an overture by Johann Beer and a horn concerto by Georg Melchior Hoffmann (who was Telemann's successor as director of the Collegium Musicum). The album received four stars in the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine, where Nicholas Anderson described it as 'a stimulating issue which explores some untrodden paths'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
Verbier Festival Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas
This latest release in Deutsche Grammophon's Verbier Gold series is issued in memory of the late Michael Tilson Thomas, who enjoyed a warm relationship with the Swiss festival for many years. This concert was recorded on 22nd July 2005, when Tilson Thomas was a decade into his tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony: reviewing a performance with that orchestra two years earlier, SFGate enthused that his interpretation 'unfolded with a logic that was at once cogent and relaxed...mixing forceful precision and loosey-goosey vitality in thrilling proportions'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Shall We Gather
VOCES8 and Ringmasters
The Grammy-nominated British ensemble VOCES8 joins forces with the Swedish a cappella group Ringmasters (who won the World Barbershop Championship in 2012) for an eclectic programme spanning four centuries: highlights include Eric Whitacre's Lux aurumque, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Pseudo Yoik ( a whimsical take on the folk music of Lapland), and VOCES8 member Blake Morgan's Moonrise.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Robert Schumann: Zwielicht
Matthias Goerne (bass-baritone), Markus Hinterhäuser (piano)
This recital comprises Liederkreis Op. 39 (written in 1840 and setting poetry by Joseph von Eichendorff), selections from Lieder und Gesänge aus Goethes 'Wilhelm Meister', and Schumann's final song cycle Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart - composed in late 1852, it sets Gisbert von Vincke's translations of poems which were attributed to the ill-fated queen. The duo's 2017 Schumann album was very warmly received, with The Guardian praising 'the combination of Goerne’s distinctively veiled tone and care over every word and nuance with Markus Hinterhäuser’s equally punctilious accompaniments'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Coleridge-Taylor, Dvořák, Stewart
Gil Shaham (violin), Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen
Shaham couples the violin concerto which Dvořák dedicated to Joseph Joachim with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's concerto for American violinist Maud Powell; written in 1912, the latter work had to be reconstructed for its US premiere after the parts were lost in transit at sea. The album also includes the world premiere recording of a movement from composer-violinist Curtis Stewart's first orchestral work The Famous People, a set of five recompositions of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances which was commissioned by Shaham and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Sudamericano
Leonardo Andersen (guitar)
Argentinian guitarist Leonardo Andersen presents a programme which explores the musical diversity of South America, taking in tango, Andean huayno, chacareras, vidala and zamba. Andersen's own compositions are presented alongside music by Juan Quintero, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pilo García, Juan Falú, and Néstor Gómez.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Love & Devotion
Rheinische Kantorei, Edzard Burchards
This album brings together motets by some of the composers who held the position of cantor at the Thomaskirche Leipzig, from Tobias Michael (appointed in 1631) to Johann Adam Hiller, who served from 1789 until 1801. The programme also includes music by Sebastian Knüpfer (1657–76), Johann Schelle (1677–1701), and of course JS Bach, who spent 27 years in the role; there are also pieces by Johann Ludwig Krebs and Werner Fabricius, who were both unsuccessful in their applications for the job.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
David T. Little: What Belongs to You
Karim Sulayman (tenor), Alarm Will Sound, Alan Pierson
Based on Garth Greenwell's acclaimed 2016 novel about an American writer's obsession with a Bulgarian sex-worker, Little's one-man opera is scored for tenor and sinfonietta and was premiered in Virginia in September 2024, when Opera Magazine applauded the work's 'unflinching honesty' and Sulayman's 'hypnotic allure'. Reviewing this first recording, BBC Music Magazine noted that 'Britten and contemporary American composers lurk in the background, but Little's musical style is generally his own', whilst Gramophone declared that the work 'gets under one's skin and stays there'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
