New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 24th March 2023
Today's new releases include previously unreleased recordings of Wagner, Britten, Berlioz and Strauss by Jessye Norman, two Stravinsky ballets from the Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä, variations by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Webern from Cédric Tiberghien, and Beethoven & Ravel concertos from Martha Argerich with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and their new Music Director Lahav Shani (who succeeded Zubin Mehta in late 2019).
Exactly a year on from his debut recording of the complete Sibelius symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic (our best-selling title of 2022), the young Finnish conductor makes his first appearance on disc with the Philharmonie de Paris; Mäkelä was appointed Music Director of the orchestra in September 2021, and conducted these works with them at the Aix-en-Provence Festival last year. A second Ballets Russes album is in the works for 2024, featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Jeux & Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Martha Argerich (piano), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahav Shani
Argerich performed with the Israel Philharmonic during her long-term friend Zubin Mehta's final season at the helm, and was keen to return to usher in his young successor Lahav Shani (who himself appeared with the orchestra as soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 under Mehta at the beginning of his career). The recordings were made at the Charles Bronfmann Auditorium in Tel Aviv in late December 2019 as part of Shani's first series as Music Director.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Taking its title from a ravishing section in Purcell's Now does the glorious day appear (written to celebrate the birthday of Queen Mary), this programme of seventeenth-century English music also includes the same composer's Evening Hymn, 'O, Let Me Weep' and 'In the black dismal dungeon of despair' as well as John Blow's Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell and works by Pelham Humfrey & William Webb.
Watch our video-interview with Tim Mead about the project here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
![Variation[s] 1: Beethoven](https://d1iiivw74516uk.cloudfront.net/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwcmVzdG8tY292ZXItaW1hZ2VzIiwia2V5IjoiOTM4ODQ2Ni4xLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6MjAwfSwianBlZyI6eyJxdWFsaXR5Ijo2NX0sInRvRm9ybWF0IjoianBlZyJ9LCJ0aW1lc3RhbXAiOjE2NzUyNzA4NTh9)
It's twenty years since Tiberghien's first recording of Beethoven variations prompted Gramophone to describe the young Frenchman as 'an individual, versatile pianist who’s clearly one to watch'; now he embarks on a new series which will present the composer's complete variations alongside sets by other composers. The programme includes his Eroica Variations and Variations on an Original Theme in F major, Op. 34, as well as Mozart's 'Alla turca' Sonata, Schumann's Geistervariationen, and Webern's Variations Op. 27.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Beethoven's Op. 34 variations also feature on the British pianist's programme, alongside the set of variations on 'God Save the King' which he composed in 1803; they're preceded by Mozart's Variations on a Minuet by Jean-Pierre Duport, and followed by Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses & Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann in F sharp minor. Briggs's previous solo recording for Avie, The Austrian Connection, prompted Musical Opinion to describe her as 'a player at the height of her powers'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Maconchy, Lutyens & Wallen: Works for Piano and Orchestra
Martin Jones (piano), Rebeca Omordia (piano), BBC Concert Orchestra, John Andrews
All four works here receive their first-ever recordings; the most recent composition is Errollyn Wallen’s Piano Concerto, commissioned by Julian Lloyd Webber for Rebeca Omordia (who gave the world premiere in Birmingham last November). In the wake of his survey of Elisabeth Lutyens's solo piano works, Martin Jones is the soloist in her Music for Piano and Orchestra (1964) and takes the orchestral piano part in Eos (1975) - and also opens proceedings with Elizabeth Maconchy's Dialogue for Piano and Orchestra (1941).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The Germany-based South Korean quartet won the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in 2018, and were highlighted by Alfred Brendel as an ensemble to watch in our interview marking his ninetieth birthday. Their second recording on Alpha takes its title from a work by their compatriot Soo Yeon Lyuh (composed for the Kronos Quartet in 2016), and also includes Mozart's 'Dissonance' Quartet and Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra were recorded live at Rouvali's first concert with the Philharmonia as Principal Conductor in autumn 2021: reviewing the concert, The Guardian's Tim Ashley observed that 'Rouvali proved a fine Straussian, measured in his approach, and careful in his attention to detail and colour', whilst The Times's Rebecca Franks declared that 'there were “wow” moments aplenty as the Philharmonia laced up its hiking boots'. Also included are studio recordings of Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel, made at Fairfield Hall in March 2022.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto & Lalo: Symphonie espagnole
Ellinor D’Melon (violin), RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín
This is the debut recording of Cuban-Jamaican violinist Ellinor D’Melon, who took First Prize at the International Wieniawski Competition for Young Violinists in 2012 and at the Debut Berlin Competition in 2017; reviewing her live performance of Tchaikovsky with this orchestra and conductor in Dublin four years ago, The Irish Times described her as 'one of those rare players who gives the impression that her command – both technical and musical - is total'.
We will be hosting a launch-event for this album at our new premises in Leamington Spa this evening.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Recently featured as Record Review's Disc of the Week and described in the March issue of Gramophone as 'one of those rare programmes in which the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts', this recital of music by 23 female composers includes Cécile Chaminade's Nuit étoilée, Matilde Capuis's Tre Momenti, arrangements of Nadia Boulanger's Three Pieces for Organ, Florence Price's Adoration and Hildegard von Bingen's O virtus sapientae, and excerpts from Pauline Viardot-García's Six Morceaux.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
No connection with the composer Louis Spohr here - this is the second instalment of a series exploring the 600-strong collection of historical flutes amassed by Peter Spohr, a former factory-director and amateur flautist living in Frankfurt. Six of the instruments are showcased here in six eighteenth-century flute concertos: the programme comprises works by Vivaldi, C.P.E. Bach, Quantz, Leclair, Blavet and Woodcock.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Mozart: Requiem - Paisiello: Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon
Sandrine Piau, Chantal Santon Jeffery (sopranos), Éléonore Pancrazi (mezzo), Mathias Vidal (tenor), Thomas Dolié (baritone), Le Concert de la Loge, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Julien Chauvin
Mozart's Requiem is heard here in the version used for its Paris premiere in 1804, which replaces the original basset-horns with cors anglais, omits several movements and incorporates music by Jommelli. It's coupled with the mass which Neapolitan composer Giovanni Paisiello wrote for Napoleon's coronation at Notre-Dame, which also took place in 1804; the Mozart Requiem would also play a role in his funeral ceremony at Les Invalides thirty-six years later.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Desmarest: Circé
Véronique Gens (Circé), Caroline Mutel (Astérie), Cécile Achille (Eolie), Romain Bockler (Phaebetor), Mathias Vidal (Ulysse), Nicolas Courjal (Elphénor) Sébastien d'Hérin, Les Nouveaux Caractères
Trained at the court of Louis XIV, Henri Desmarest spent two decades in self-imposed exile from Paris after eloping with one of his singing-students (for which he received a death-sentence in absentia); he subsequently found employment as court composer for Philip V of Spain. This Odyssey-inspired tragédie en musique was premiered at the Paris Opera three years before the scandal, and builds on the legacy of Lully, with whom Desmarest had a somewhat conflicted relationship during his time at the French court.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jessye Norman: The Unreleased Masters
Jessye Norman (soprano), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Masur, Berliner Philharmoniker, James Levine, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
Released with the support of Norman’s family and estate, this collection of previously-unreleased recordings comprises highlights from Tristan und Isolde (with Thomas Moser as Tristan), Haydn's Scena di Berenice, Berlioz's Cléopâtre, Britten's Phaedra, Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder (from 1992), and a 1989 recording of Strauss's Four Last Songs with James Levine and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
