New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 21st June 2024
A period-instrument recording of Mahler's final symphony - conductor Philipp von Steinaecker noting particularly the 'shattering blare of the brass... and the pure and warm sound of the strings'. The Mahler Academy Orchestra's blend of young musicians and leading players from European orchestras brings a blend of youthful vigour and experience to the often-enigmatic Ninth.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Fittingly described as 'an intriguing hall of mirrors', this album from Kolesnikov and Tsoy hinges around Leonid Desyatnikov's fascinating work based on the Schubert Fantasie D940. Gramophone observed that 'Kolesnikov and Tsoy’s approach to the piece is so immersive, as well as deeply artistic, that the work is immediately appealing, yet its interest grows in subsequent hearings.'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Verdi: Inno Delle Nazioni & Quatro Pezzi Sacri
Freddie De Tommaso (tenor), Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala Milan, Riccardo Chailly
As the Euro 2024 competition heats up this rare recording of Verdi's astonishing work incorporating the national anthems of Britain, France and Italy could hardly be better timed, and tenor Freddie De Tommaso steps undaunted into the shoes of the last singer to commit it to disc - namely, Pavarotti. It's complemented by the unorthodox, yet always compelling, Quattro Pezzi Sacri in which the chorus of the Teatro alla Scala have an opportunity to shine by themselves.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 27
Robert Levin (fortepiano), Louise Alder (soprano), Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
The triumphant conclusion of Levin's acclaimed (and long-interrupted!) Mozart project - with his last complete keyboard concerto, his final work from the Veinnese period, and a work dedicated to one of his favourite vocal collaborators. BBC Music Magazine praised the previous instalment, released in March, as 'constantly alive, alert and superbly done...If the sound is one delight, others include the deft playing, sprightly tempos, and dynamics that convey drama without ever being exaggerated'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Our Gilded Veins
Katherine Bryan (flute), Henry Clay (cor anglais), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Rory MacDonald
Contemporary British works are the focus of this album, with a decidedly elegiac theme. Martin Suckling's striking Meditation (after Donne) incorporates the sounds of church bells from around Scotland, but the main focus is the world-premiere recording of Jay Capperauld's flute concerto Our Gilded Veins, performed by its dedicatee Katherine Bryan. A heartfelt string arrangement of Maxwell Davies's Farewell to Stromness is a beautiful coda.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dvořák is the point of origin for this album - with his well-known 'American' quartet, in which he draws on spirituals, indigenous folk music and other elements, and quartets by Florence Price and Louis Gruenberg, both of whom were in their ways influenced both by Dvořák and by the same inspirations he drew on. James Lee III's Pitch In for string quartet and children's choir, an urgently politically-aware rallying-cry of a work, likewise draws on American folk idioms.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
An impressive debut album from Filament - exploring early works by Buxtehude and the way they tie together the stylus fantasticus - the world of freely inventive toccatas and fantasias - with the emerging style of Corelli and his contemporaries. Too long relegated to the status of a mere forerunner to Bach, Buxtehude comes into his own in this recording as a composer of vigour and originality.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
These imaginative reconceptions of the madrigal genre open up new worlds - everything from chamber-style intimacy underpinned by the gentle plucking of a lute all the way up to theatrical dramas. The exuberant virtuosity of the instrumentalists is given free rein in some dazzling diminutions, recapturing how these works could have sounded in the time of Monteverdi, Merulo and de Rore.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Donizetti: Alfredo Il Grande (Blu-ray)
Antonino Siragusa (Alfredo), Gilda Fiume (Amalia), Lodovico Filippo Ravizza (Eduardo), Adolfo Corrado (Atkins); Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Corrado Rovaris, Stefano Simone Pintor
Stepping into the void left by Rossini at Naples's Teatro di San Carlo in 1823, Donizetti knew he had to come up with something impressive. Alfredo il Grande is not merely ambitious in scale, but also in subject matter - a re-telling of the story of England's Alfred the Great and his struggles against Viking invaders. Its premiere was, by all accounts, unsuccessful - but the work's power is undeniable and its response to war and humanitarian issues is more relevant than ever. Connnessi all'Opera noted that Antonino Siragusa's voice was 'perfect for the Italian repertoire of the early nineteenth century', while Gilda Fiume possesses 'a beautiful light colour, the accent is always incisive, her musicality is excellent'.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Matthew Ash - Product Manager, Recorded Music
