Today's new releases include late Brahms from András Schiff on ECM, Ferdinand Hérold's supernatural opéra comique Zampa (starring Julien Henric as the piratical anti-hero and Cyrille Dubois as his more wholesome younger brother) on Bru Zane, Handel's Giulio Cesare from Harry Bicket and The English Concert (with Christophe Dumaux in the title-role and Louise Alder as Cleopatra) on Linn, and a fairy-tale recital from Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch on Alpha.
Johannes Brahms: Klavierstücke
András Schiff (piano)
An Editor's Choice in next month's Gramophone, this recital of late Brahms was recorded at the Kammermusiksaal des Beethovenhaus Bonn in the spring of 2021, using a Blüthner piano from the 1850s (similar to the instrument which Schiff played on his award-winning recording of the piano concertos). In addition to the Acht Klavierstücke Op. 76 and Opp. 116-119, his programme includes the much earlier, recently rediscovered Albumblatt in A minor, which was given its modern premiere by Schiff in 2012.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Ferdinand Hérold: Zampa ou La Fiancée de marbre
Julien Henric (Zampa), Hélène Carpentier (Camille), Héloïse Mas (Ritta), Cyrille Dubois (Alphonse), Pierre Derhet (Dandolo), François Rougier (Daniel), Lukas Mayr (Un corsaire), Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Erik Nielsen
Premiered to great acclaim at the Opéra-Comique in 1831, Hérold's Zampa shares much of the Gothic atmosphere of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable(which appeared later that year), though the plot also tips its cap to Mozart's Don Giovanni: having squandered his inheritance to embark on a life of piracy and profligacy, the eponymous aristocrat is eventually dragged off to Hell when a marble statue of a woman he seduced and abandoned comes to vengeful life.
Available formats: 2 CDs + Book, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Handel: Giulio Cesare
Christophe Dumaux (Cesare), Louise Alder (Cleopatra), Paula Murrihy (Sesto), Beth Taylor (Cornelia), John Holiday (Tolomeo), Morgan Pearse (Achilla), The English Concert, Harry Bicket
This latest instalment in Bicket's Handel series with The English Concert is Recording of the Month in next month's edition of Gramophone, where Malcolm Hayes declares that the album 'surely captures Dumaux at the top of his game' (having excelled as Tolomeo for over a decade, the French countertenor sang his first Cesare in the spring of 2023). Hayes also applauds Alder's realisation of Cleopatra's 'complete emotional transformation' over the course of the opera, and the impressive range of colours which Bicket draws from his ensemble.
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Contes
Sandrine Piau (soprano), David Kadouch (piano), Ophélie Gaillard (cello)
Three years on from their first joint album Voyage intime (which was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2023), Piau and Kadouch present a programme of musical fairy-tales, including Jeanne Bernard's Trois chansons de Bilitis, Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, Poulenc's La courte paille, Mel Bonis's Mélisande, and Alexander Zemlinsky's Elfenlied. The recording is the Vocal Choice in the October issue of BBC Music Magazine thanks to the 'subtlety and imagination' on display.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Sturm und Drang, Vol. 4
Alexandra Lowe (soprano), The Mozartists, Ian Page
Launched in 2020, The Mozartists' Sturm und Drang series explores symphonies and vocal music which grew out of the late eighteenth-century backlash against Enlightenment rationalism. This fourth instalment features a symphony by the 'Swedish Mozart' Joseph Martin Kraus (whose work was enthusiastically championed by Haydn), Haydn's 'Farewell' Symphony, arias from Mozart's La finta giardiniera and Traetta's Antigone, and a scene from Georg Benda's 1775 melodrama Medea (which the young Mozart described as 'really excellent' in a letter to his father).
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Liszt: Dante Symphony
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Chœur Symphonique de Namur, Gergely Madaras
After the success of his recording of Liszt's Faust Symphony, Madaras explores another of his compatriot's orchestral works which was inspired by a literary masterpiece: the 'Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy', originally conceived as a triptych until the composer's future son-in-law Wagner (the work's eventually dedicatee) persuaded him to drop his planned depiction of Paradise. The recording includes the original conclusion to the piece (which Wagner deemed 'alarming' and 'pompous'), plus John Adams's orchestration of La Lugubre Gondola II.
Available format: SACD
Philip Glass: For Cello
Camille Thomas (cello)
In anticipation of Glass's ninetieth birthday in January, the Belgian cellist presents an album which centres on his rarely-recorded First and Second Cello Concertos, which the composer shared with her after being impressed by her early recordings; No. 1 was commissioned as a fiftieth-birthday present for Julian Lloyd Webber in 2001, whilst No. 2 draws on Glass's score for the 2002 film Naqoyqatsi: Life as War and was premiered by Matt Haimovitz in 2012. The programme also includes arrangements from Glass’s film scores for The Hours and The Truman Show, plus new transcriptions of a selection of Études for cello ensemble.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Viola Concertos From Berlin
Johannes Pramsohler (viola/director), Ensemble Diderot
Following albums devoted to trio sonatas and harpsichord concertos from eighteenth-century Berlin, Ensemble Diderot and its founder turn their attention to works composed to showcase the expressive and technical possibilities of the viola: the programme comprises works by Johann Gottlieb Graun, Ignaz Mara, Markus Heinrich Grauel, and Carl Heinrich Hermann Benda.
Available format: CD
Giordano: Fedora
Vida Miknevičiūtė (Princess Fedora Romazov), Jonathan Tetelman (Count Loris Ipanov), Julia Muzychenko (Olga), Navasard Hakobyan (De Siriex), Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, John Fiore, Christof Loy
First seen in 2016 and significantly refreshed for this Berlin revival last year, Christof Loy's production of Giordano's fifth opera borrows from the aesthetics of 1950s film noir, and makes extensive use of video projections. BachTrack noted the 'charming chemistry' between the two leads (who are regular partners on stage), and declared that Tetelman's Loris is 'possibly all that Giordano and Colautti meant him to be – virile, passionate, impulsive'.
Available format: Blu-ray
Elgar From the Archives, Vol. 5
Joan Hammond (The Blessed Virgin/Gabriel), Marjorie Thomas (Mary Magdalene), William Herbert (St John), John Cameron (St Peter), Owen Brannigan (Judas), Richard Standen (Jesus), BBC Symphony Orchestra & Choruses, Sir Malcolm Sargent
The mainstay of this latest instalment of SOMM's Elgar From The Archives project is a live recording of The Apostles from a BBC Home Service aircheck at the Royal Festival Hall in 1957 (the composer's centenary year, during which Sargent conducted all three major oratorios for the BBC). The album also includes the first CD release of a 1946 EMI recording of Sea Pictures with the contralto Gladys Ripley, George Weldon and the Philharmonia Orchestra (founded the previous year by Walter Legge).
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
