New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 26th July 2024
This week's new releases include a collection of chamber works by the Australian-born composer Jane Stanley from The Hermes Experiment and Red Note Ensemble on Delphian, Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 and The Butterfly Lovers Concerto from Chloe Chua, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago on Pentatone, Smetana's complete operas on Supraphon, and (on DVD and Blu-ray) Wagner's Götterdämmerung from Christian Thielemann and Dmitri Tcherniakov in Berlin (with Andreas Schager as Siegfried and Anja Kampe making her role-debut as Brünnhilde).
Bedřich Smetana: The Complete Operas
Prague National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Brno Janáček Opera Chorus and Orchestra et al
Issued to mark the Year of Czech Music and the bicentenary of Smetana's birth, these recordings of his eight completed operas (plus the Twelfth Night-inspired fragment Viola) were made in Prague and Brno between 1960 and 1983. Zdeněk Košler conducts The Bartered Bride, The Secret and Libuše, František Jílek The Two Widows, Zdeněk Chalabala The Devil's Wall, František Vajnar The Kiss, Jaroslav Krombholc Dalibor, and Jan Hus Tichý The Brandenburgers in Bohemia.
Available Format: 17 CDs
Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Blu-ray)
Anja Kampe (Brünnhilde), Andreas Schager (Siegfried), Mika Kares (Hagen), Lauri Vasar (Gunther), Mandy Fredrich (Gutrune), Violeta Urmana (Waltraute), Jochen Schmeckenbecher (Alberich); Staatskapelle Berlin, Christian Thielemann, Dmitri Tcherniakov
Filmed in Berlin in autumn 2022, Tcherniakov's staging of the Ring Cycle was praised in The New York Times for delivering 'a level of detail rarely seen in opera' (albeit with the caveat that 'not everything adds up'). The Guardian applauded Anja Kampe's 'tender strength' in her role-debut as Brünnhilde and the 'gleaming agility of Andreas Schager’s lolling, skipping, feckless Siegfried', as well as Thielemann's 'detailed and expansive' approach to the score.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Butterfly Lovers Concerto & Paganini
Chloe Chua (violin), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Mario Venzago
A year on from her debut album of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Locatelli's Il laberinto armonico, the Singaporean violinist couples Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 with The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto; composed by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao in 1959, the latter work incorporates melodies from Shaoxing Opera and was inspired by an ancient Chinese legend concerning two star-crossed lovers. Reviewing Chua's previous recording, BBC Music Magazine enthused that 'the Vivaldi’s familiar characteristics dazzle in a performance that is way beyond the teenager’s sixteen years'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This collection of chamber works by the Australian-born, Glasgow-based composer (b.1976) takes its title from a 2016 piece for violin and piano, which was applauded by the Sydney Arts Guide for its 'spellbindingly clear soundscape' at its premiere in Perth. The album also includes Helix Reflection for flute and B flat clarinet, the mixed sextet Oneiroi, and the song-cycle The Indifferent (scored for soprano, clarinet, harp and double bass, and setting poetry by the Australian poet Judith Bishop).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Albert Dietrich: Symphony in D minor
Klaidi Sahatçi (violin), Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, Christoph König
A friend and contemporary of Brahms and a pupil of Robert Schumann, Albert Dietrich collaborated with the two better-known composers on the F-A-E Sonata for Joseph Joachim, for whom the Violin Concerto on this recording was also written (although the premiere in 1874 was given by Johann Lauterbach). His Symphony in D minor from 1869 was dedicated to Brahms, and was one of the most frequently performed new symphonies of its day; the Overture in C major (which opens the album) was premiered in 1882.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Born in Paris in 1847, Holmès was denied access to the city's conservatoire but studied composition privately with César Franck, and produced a number of large-scale cantatas and orchestral works as well as over 100 songs. This album comprises her three symphonic poems Irlande, Pologne and Andromède, the Wagner-influenced symphony Roland furieux (inspired by Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso), and the symphonic ode Ludus pro patria, which includes the celebrated interlude 'La Nuit et l'Amour'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Sorabji: Vocal and Chamber Works
Sharon Bezaly (flute), Wild Beautiful Orchestra, Chappell Kingsland
This collection of works by the English composer, pianist and writer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji includes ll tessuto d’arabeschi ('Tapestry of Arabesques') for flute and string quartet, the Cinque sonetti di Michelangelo Buonarroti, and the Trois poèmes du Gulistān de Sa'dī. In the latest issue of Gramophone, Richard Whitehouse observed that 'such accurate and idiomatic performances under the astute guidance of Chappell Kingsland is a primary reason for recommending this release to Sorabji’s devotees and doubters alike.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Premiered at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth in 1754, this festa teatrale was written in honour of Frederick the Great, who arrived in the city to visit his sister Wilhelmine of Prussia (who was then Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth). An accomplished composer herself, Wilhelmine wrote the libretto and commissioned the Munich vice-Kapellmeister Andrea Bernasconi to provide the score for a work which celebrates the superiority of the female soul (drawing on Zoroastrian philosophy along the way).
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The Barry-born Welsh composer Grace Williams (1906-1977) studied with Gordon Jacob, Egon Wellesz and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and in 1949 became the first British woman to score a feature film. Vocal writing was a particular interest throughout her career, with the works here including the Song of Mary, a number of folk-song arrangements which were commissioned for BBC children’s programmes, the carol 'Shepherds watched their flocks', and a setting of Shakespeare's 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' from 1967.
Look out for David's interview with the performers next week...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Francisco Mignone: Concertos and Concertinos
Fábio Zanon (guitar), Ovanir Buosi (clarinet), Alexandre Silvério (bassoon), Emmanuele Baldini (violin), São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Neil Thomson
The Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone (1897-1986) was born into a musical family of Italian immigrants in São Paulo, and studied in his home city and in Milan; an excerpt from one of his early operas was premiered by the Wiener Philharmoniker under Richard Strauss in 1923. This album comprises his concertinos for clarinet and bassoon (both written in the late 1950s), the Guitar Concerto from 1975 and the Violin Concerto from 1960 (which music critic José da Veiga Oliveira described as ‘the greatest work of this challenging genre in the history of Brazilian music’).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
