New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 12th July 2024
These performances of Brahms's symphonies were recorded live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden in the summer of 2022 (Nos. 1 & 2) and 2023 (Nos. 3 & 4), during La Capitale d’Été festival. The concerts were warmly received, with Der Tagesspiegel noting that the COE and Nézet-Séguin 'throw off historical ballast to reveal the compositional core ... no dark, Germanic heaviness, but transparency, bright colors and clearly articulated phrasing'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
To mark the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg's birth and the centenary of Fauré's death, Järvi and his Frankfurt orchestra present their works inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 play: Schoenberg's symphonic poem from 1903 (composed after Richard Strauss suggested the play as a possible subject for an orchestral work) and the suite of incidental music which Fauré composed at the request of Mrs Patrick Campbell (the first English Mélisande) for the London premiere of the play in 1898.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This open-air concert at the Schönbrunn Palace took place last month, and features Smetana's Vltava and dances from his operas The Bartered Bride & The Two Widows (in recognition of the composer's bicentenary), plus 'La Nuit et l'Amour' from Augusta Holmès's Ludus pro Patria, the Sabre Dance from Khachaturian's Gayane, and Waltz II from Shostakovich's Jazz Suite No. 2. Lise Davidsen joins the orchestra for 'Dich, teure Halle' from Wagner's Tannhäuser, 'Pace, pace mio Dio!' from Verdi's La forza del destino, and 'Heia, in den Bergen' from Kálmán's Die Csárdásfürstin.
Also available on DVD and on Blu-ray.
Available Format: CD
Recently named as Male Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards, Krimmel partners with Israeli-South African pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz to explore ballads by two composers who also featured prominently on his Alpha debut album Saga in 2019; their programme includes Schubert's 'Der König in Thule', 'Fahrt zum Hades', 'Totengräbers Heimwehe' & 'Erlkönig', and Loewe's 'Geisterleben', 'Der Totentanz' & 'Archibald Douglas'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Filmed in Paris last year, this concert from two of today's finest bel canto sopranos includes duets from Bellini's Norma, Delibes's Lakmé and Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, arias from Verdi's La traviata, Bellini's La sonnambula and Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and a selection of songs including 'I Feel Pretty' from Bernstein's West Side Story, 'Art Is Calling for Me' from Victor Herbert's The Enchantress, Henry Mancini's 'Moon River', Harold Arlen's 'Over the Rainbow' and Louiguy's 'La vie en rose'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This fourth instalment of the Cambridge choir's Magnificat series was Andrew Nethsingha's final recording as Music Director; the programme includes canticles by Jonathan Dove, Adrian Cruft, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, Herbert Murrill, Piers Connor Kennedy, Judith Weir and Herbert Howells. Previous volumes have been praised for the choir's 'warm sound and versatility' (The Guardian) and 'exceptionally clear and forward tone' (Choir & Organ), whilst Gramophone described the series as 'the most significant recording project ever in the field of choir-and-organ English church music.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This programme pays tribute to the legacy of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-87) - a composer, music curator, abbess and enthusiastic patron of the arts, she was sister to Frederick the Great and studied music with Johann Kirnberger (himself a pupil of JS Bach). The repertoire includes Amalia's own flute sonata, a trio sonata by Kirnberger, and works by her protégés Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Each of these works by the British composer (b. 1963) is scored for string quartet and one soloist: saxophonist Simon Haram in the title-work, harpist Ruth Wall (Fitkin's partner) in SLOW and RECUR, pianist Clare Hammond in TOUCH, and percussionist Joby Burgess in DISTIL. All pieces other than SLOW receive their world premiere recordings here; DISTIL won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize For Chamber Works in 2015.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Recorded live in Suntory Hall last September, this concert was Williams's debut with the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and features music from his scores for Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Harry Potter films, The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi as well as Tributes! (for Seiji) (written in 1999 to celebrate Seiji Ozawa's twenty-fifth anniversary as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and conducted here by Stéphane Denève).
Also available on Blu-ray and vinyl.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This album from the German string quartet takes its title from a phrase in Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, which sits at the heart of the programme in an arrangement by the late Aribert Reimann. The song cycle is framed by pieces by Byrd and Purcell in new arrangements by Italian composer Stefano Pierini, including Byrd's 'Sing Joyfully', 'Out of the Orient, Crystal Skies' & 'John, Come Kiss Me Now' and Purcell's 'Hear My Prayer' and 'When I Am Laid in Earth'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
