Verdi
Lise Davidsen (soprano), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Released to coincide with her appearances in Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera, the Norwegian soprano's sixth solo album on Decca includes Lady Macbeth's 'Vieni, t'affretta', 'La luce langue' and 'Una macchia', followed by excerpts from Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Aida, and Don Carlo. Elisabetta in the latter opera was Davidsen's first major Verdi assignment: reviewing her role debut at Covent Garden in 2023, The Guardian described her closing aria as 'a tour de force of glorious singing', whilst BachTrack enthused that 'her dark soprano is simply outstanding, the attack on the notes so clean, rock solid, seemingly effortless'.
Released 11th September.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Handel: Messiah
Ana Vieira Leite (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Andrew Staples (tenor), William Thomas (bass); English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Christophe Rousset
Harmonia Mundi and the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras launch a new long-term partnership with this live recording of Messiah, captured during last year's European tour - reviewing the London concert, The Arts Desk noted that they made the work feel 'as fresh as if it had been written yesterday' and The Telegraph highlighted the 'surpassingly vivid' choral singing', describing the overall impact as 'revelatory'. The next instalment in the series will be Theodora, to be recorded this October with Swiss soprano Marie Lys in the title-role, iestyn Davies as Didymus, and Alice Coote as Irene.
Released 2nd October.
Available format: 2 CDs
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 'Auferstehungssinfonie'
Louise Alder (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo), Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sir Simon Rattle
Following Rattle's widely acclaimed live recordings of Symphonies Nos. 6. 7 and 9 from Munich, BR Klassik present an account of the 'Resurrection' Symphony which was broadcast from the Isarphilharmonie this March: SeenAndHeardInternational described the concert as 'one of those rare evenings that deepens understanding of a work one thought one already knew'. Previous instalments in the series have been welcomed for Rattle's 'peerless attention to detail' (BBC Music Magazine on No. 7), the 'extraordinary artistry' of the Munich players (Gramophone on No. 6), and lack of 'fussiness or pedantry' (Fanfare on No. 9).
Released 2nd October.
Available formats: CD & Download (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Chamayou placed five of the Songs Without Words at the heart of his 2008 Mendelssohn album for Naïve and now presents the entire set, which he describes as 'a kind of journal that Mendelssohn kept intermittently in the course of his life'. His 2024 album of the composer's works for cello and piano with Sol Gabetta won the Chamber Music prize at the Opus Klassik Awards, and received five stars in BBC Music Magazine thanks to the duo's 'range of tone and expression'. Chamayou plays a fortepiano by Julius Blüthner, dating from around the time that the pieces were composed.
Released 16th October.
Available formats: 2 CDs & Download (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Enescu: String Octet & Piano Quintet
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
The Romanian composer, violinist and conductor George Enescu was just nineteen when he completed his String Octet in 1900, noting that he 'wore himself out' labouring over the score for eighteen months; the piece had to wait almost a decade for its premiere, after French impresario Édouard Colonne deemed it 'too risky' to programme as planned due to the complexity of the writing. The Piano Quintet is an even earlier work, dating from Enescu's student days in Paris (where Colonne was one of his most ardent champions).
Released 11th September,
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
SHINE
Jess Gillam (saxophone)
Spanning nine centuries of music, Jess Gillam's latest album on Decca includes arrangements of songs by Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and David Bowie, and instrumental pieces by CPE Bach, Corelli, Jess's fellow saxophonist Barbara Thompson, and Keel Road's Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen.
Presto will be hosting a launch event with Jess on Wednesday 14th October at our store in Leamington Spa.
Released 9th October,
Available formats: CD & Download (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
The Pyramids Recital
Fatma Said (soprano), Thibaut Maudry (violin), Hani El Sawaf (darbouka drums), Mohamed Ahmed (ney flute), Mohamed El Said (oud lute), Les Frivolités parisiennes, Sammy El Ghadab
Recorded in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza last December, the Egyptian soprano's programme includes arias from Rinaldo, Le nozze di Figaro, Gianni Schicchi and Saint-Saëns's Henry VIII, 'Yo soy María' from Piazzólla's María de Buenos Aires, 'Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores' from Chapí's Las hijas del Zebedeo, Strauss's 'Morgen!', and songs by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Najib Hankash, and Farid El Atrache.
Released 9th October.
Available formats: CD & Download (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Vivaldi / Ovid: Hotel Metamorphosis
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano), Lea Desandre, Nadezhda Karyazina, Philippe Jaroussky, Angela Winkler, Il Canto di Orfeo, Les Musiciens Du Prince - Monaco, Gianluca Capuano, Barrie Kosky
Captured at last year's Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Barrie Kosky's new pasticcio uses some of Vivaldi's most popular arias to tell five stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses (all set in the same hotel-room): Cecilia Bartoli is Eurydice and Arachne, Philippe Jaroussky is Pygmalion and Narcissus, Lea Desandre is Myrrha (who gives birth to Adonis after tricking her own father into bed). BachTrack described the results as 'a compelling introduction to [Vivaldi's] artistry' which achieved 'the remarkable feat of breathing life into what is, in nearly every sense, an entirely new work'.
Released 4th September.
Available format: Blu-ray
Bizet: Carmen
Aigul Akhmetshina (Carmen), Piotr Beczała (Don José), Olga Kulchynska (Micaëla), Kostas Smoriginas (Escamillo), Royal Opera House, Antonello Manacorda
Filmed at Covent Garden in 2024, Damiano Michieletto's new staging of Carmen sets the action in the 1970s and was hailed by BachTrack for 'providing plenty of hard-hitting drama and showing the characters in a new light, all the while giving the glittery set pieces all the space they need'. Already a veteran of seven different productions of Carmen, the young Bashkir mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina was universally acclaimed in the title-role, with The Guardian describing her as 'electrifying' and Opera Now deeming her as 'certainly key to this production's success'.
Read our 2024 interview with Aigul in which she unpacks what made Michieletto's vision of Carmen so special for her.
Released 23rd October.
Available format: Blu-ray
