New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 31st May 2024
The 24-year-old Finnish conductor makes his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with Symphonies Nos. 35, 36 and 40; described by Tagesspiegel as 'a talent of a century', Peltokoski was appointed as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen' first-ever Principal Guest Conductor in 2022, after leading workshops with the orchestra and winning the players over with his 'passion for music, inspirational ability to communicate, sense of humour, and willingness to listen to and collaborate'. The digital version of the album includes three solo piano improvisations by Peltokoski, each based on one of the symphonies.
Available Format: CD
Five years on from his Gramophone Award-winning account of Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano (which he will perform for his Wigmore Hall debut next month), the pianist and barrister Paul Wee makes his orchestral recording debut with Adolph von Henselt’s Concerto in F minor (premiered by Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn in the 1840s) and Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf's Concerto in F sharp minor from 1873. The recording is an Editor's Choice in the latest edition of Gramophone, with Jeremy Nicholas describing Wee's playing as 'thrilling stuff, which will leave you breathless with admiration'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This triptych of British works for cello and orchestra takes its title from a new concerto by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, written for and premiered by Laura van der Heijden; after its first performance in Glasgow last year, The Times observed that Frances-Hoad 'has created a beautiful musical kaleidoscope of shifting colours and textures where the outer movements offer focused blasts of energy'. The programme also includes Frank Bridge's Oration - Concerto elegiaco for cello and orchestra and Walton's Cello Concerto.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Six months on from his recording exploring the connections between Satie and Cage (praised by Fanfare for its 'delicacy, clarity, supple phrasing, and wit'), the French pianist devotes an entire album to the latter composer. The title CAGE² is carried over from a stage show which Chamayou and dancer-choreographer Élodie Sicard recently toured around France, and which was built around twelve pieces for prepared piano which Cage composed between 1940 and 1945; the programme includes The Perilous Night, In the Name of the Holocaust, Mysterious Adventure, and Daughters of the Lonesome Isle.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The Palestinian-Jordanian pianist's third recording for Rubicon focuses on music of the First and Second Viennese Schools: the programme comprises Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, Beethoven's Eroica Variations, Webern's Variations Op. 27, and Schoenberg's Two Pieces Op. 33, Five Pieces Op. 23 & Six Little Pieces Op. 19. Berg, Schoenberg and Webern all featured on Said's debut recording Echoes From An Empire back in 2015, which was hailed as a 'classily produced and superbly executed disc' by Gramophone and 'a gripping recital, tellingly designed and very impressively played' by BBC Music Magazine.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
In their début recording the musicians of Philadelphia-based Filament - violin, gamba and keyboards - explore Buxtehude's Op. 1 trio sonatas from 1694, in which he draws on the pinnacle of the counterpoint of the previous century while also weaving into his music the increasing inventiveness that would come to shape the Baroque. The influences of Corelli are particularly apparent. The Broad Street Review praised previous live performances by Filament as containing a 'fervor and delight that make early music seem current, and easy, joyful communication'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Premiered in 1979, Ten Holt's Canto Ostinato was born out of the composer's desire to grant performers and audiences more freedom that they were traditionally given in classical concerts: the work can be performed by different numbers of performers (and on different instruments), but is most frequently played by two or four pianists. The work's duration is also very flexible owing to the fact that many passages can be repeated ad libitum, with some performances lasting almost an entire day; this particular interpretation takes just over an hour.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Released to mark the centenary of Culshaw's birth, this set includes the first-ever studio recording of Barber's Adagio for Strings, the 1951 & 1953 Bayreuth recordings (which were a precursor to the landmark Solti Ring Cycle), Copland playing his own music, the first international release of Solti's 1854 Brahms Requiem (recorded for Capitol), and a lost tape of Clifford Curzon. The supporting documentation includes a 6500-word essay on Culshaw's legacy by Dominic Fyfe and many previously-unseen photographs.
Available Format: 12 CDs
Antonio Pappano & Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Complete symphonic, concertante & sacred music recordings
Pappano served as Music Director of the Roman orchestra from 2005 until 2023, when he was succeeded by Daniel Harding. This celebration of his tenure includes their Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Award-winning recording of the Verdi Requiem and Quattro pezzi sacri from 2009, Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe solennelle, Respighi's Roman Trilogy and Il tramonto, and symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Bernstein.
Available Format: 27 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
