New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 2nd August 2024
Described as 'deft and exuberant' in The Guardian earlier this week, this triptych of works by the Catalan composer Roberto Gerhard comprises his flamenco-influenced Alegrías Suite from the early 1940s, Pedrelliana (a tribute to his first teacher Felipe Pedrell), and the ballet on episodes from Cervantes’s Don Quixote - given here in its final incarnation, which was performed at the Royal Opera House in 1950 with choreography by Ninette de Valois and Margot Fonteyn as Dulcinea.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This sequel to La Serenissima's enormously popular Vivaldi x 2 opens with the Concerto for two violins, two oboes, two recorders, strings & continuo in C RV557 and closes with Il Proteo, ò Il mondo al rovverscio ('Proteus, or The World Upside-Down') - upcycled by Vivaldi from an earlier strings-only version, and so-named because the treble and bass lines are switched. The previous album was described as 'vibrant yet polished to perfection' by the Sunday Times and hailed as 'a feast of pleasures' by Gramophone.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The British dramatic soprano describes this recital as 'a reminiscence of my childhood and its joyful association with the American Songbook, music which was so particularly loved by my father, Bob'. The programme includes Harold Arlen's 'One for My Baby', Stephen Sondheim's 'Send in the Clowns', George Gershwin's 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off' and 'Someone to Watch Over Me', Jerome Kern's 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill', and Burt Bacharach's 'A House Is Not a Home'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Irish cellist and composer Ailbhe McDonagh's response to Vivaldi's Quattro Stagioni is built around new Irish airs inspired by the melodic material of the original; the four movements are entitled 'Earrach (Spring)', 'Samhradh (Summer)', 'Fomhar (Autumn)', and 'Geimhreadh (Winter)'. Soloist Lynda O'Connor reflects: 'Irish and Baroque music are similar in many ways. The freedom to ornament, similarities in structure and the prominence of reinterpretation are apparent in both styles'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Born in Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1864, Borgstrøm studied with Johan Svendsen and Johan Halvorsen in his home city before enrolling at the Leipzig Conservatory and became a highly respected music critic as well as producing a substantial body of symphonic works. This album comprises the tone-poems Tanken ('The Idea') from 1917 and Jesus i Gethsemane from 1904.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Albert Lortzing: Overtures
Marc Gruber (horn), Philipp Baader (trumpet), WDR Funkhausorchester, Ernst Theis
Best known today for his 1837 comic opera Zar und Zimmermann, the German singer and composer Albert Lortzing devoted most of his energies to composing for the stage: this portrait album features the overtures to his operas Casanova, Yelva, Rolands Knappen, Die beiden Schützen ('The Two Marksmen') and Der Pole und sein Kind, ballet music from Hans Sachs and Undine, and the two orchestral concert-pieces for trumpet and horn respectively.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
George Lloyd: The Piano Works, Solo & Duo
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (piano duo), Kathryn Stott (piano), Martin Roscoe (piano)
A violinist by training, Lloyd was encouraged to write for the piano by his wife Nancy, who had fallen in love with the recordings of Alfred Cortot in her youth. The works here include the two-piano works Aubade (1971), Eventide (1989) and The Road Through Samarkand (1995), and the solo pieces An African Shrine, St. Antony and the Beggar, The Lily-leaf and the Grasshopper and The Transformation of That Naked Ape (inspired by zoologist Desmond Morris's book of 1967).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Although Lloyd began composing for the medium relatively late in life, he had an affinity with brass band music from a young age: he once recalled being held spellbound by a Salvation Army Band on a childhood holiday, and went on to serve as a Royal Marines bandsman. This album includes his Miniature Triptych, English Heritage, Royal Parks suite and Diversions on a Bass Theme.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This is the farewell recording of the Verdi Quartett, which was founded in 1985 and disbanded in 2021; as well as the two numbered quartets (dating from 1908–1909 and the mid-1940s), the album includes the early String Quartet in C minor which Vaughan Williams composed whilst studying under the supervision of Stanford at the Royal College of Music. The ensemble's discography also includes the first survey of Ernst Toch's string quartets, a Schubert series on Hänssler, and the complete chamber music of Brahms.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This is Nagano's first purely symphonic recording with the Hamburg orchestra, which he has served as General Musical Director since 2015 (he will be succeeded next year by Omer Meir Wellber). Exploring the transition from Viennese Romanticism to Modernism, the programme places Webern's Langsamer Satz between two orchestrations of works by Schubert: Mahler's arrangement of the 'Death and the Maiden' Quartet and Webern's transcription of the German Dances D820. (The cover features an oil painting by the late Erich Gargerle, a German artist and violinist).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
