New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 20th September 2024
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The French cellist first recorded the Bach suites in 2007, winning a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and receiving a five-star review in BBC Music Magazine; last year he revisited the works in this studio recording from Haarlem, after performing them as part of a project with choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker entitled Mitten wir im Leben sind (included here on a Blu-ray). Queyras reflects that 'The requirements called for by the composer, the musical gesture we are induced to employ, do in fact create a kind of choreography', and describes the experience of working on the pieces with dancers as akin to chamber music.
Jean-Guihen Queyras will perform excerpts from the Cello Suites at Presto Music on Monday 28th October - look out for highlights from the evening on our YouTube channel in early November.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Blu-ray, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
A year on from his recording of Schubert's Impromptus D959 & 960, Brautigam turns his attention to the composer's last two piano sonatas, composed during the final months of his short life and published posthumously; as on the previous recording, Brautigam plays a Paul McNulty copy of a Viennese fortepiano from the later 1810s by Conrad Graf. Reviewing the Impromptus last December, Gramophone declared that 'What is consistently compelling about these performances is the way Brautigam and his instrument allow us to look under the bonnet of the music, and to wonder anew at Schubert’s genius.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Richard Strauss: Tag und Nacht
Kateřina Kněžíková (soprano), Jakub Hrůša (piano/conductor), Bamberger Symphoniker
The Czech soprano's first solo recording Phidylé (featuring songs by Martinů, Duparc, Ravel and Szymanowski) won the Vocal Prize at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2022; this second album on Supraphon sees her joining forces with her long-term friend Jakub Hrůša, who conducts the Bamberger Symphoniker in the Vier letzte Lieder and makes his recording debut as a song pianist in a selection of Lieder including 'Cäcilie', 'Morgen!', 'Heimliche Aufforderung', 'Zueignung' and 'Das Rosenband'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Recorded last year to celebrate the French tenor's sixtieth birthday, this album includes excerpts from operas including Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Gounod's Polyeucte, Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko, Moniuszko's Halka and Wagner's Lohengrin, plus popular Italian and South American songs, the Mario Lanza classic 'Be My Love', and Alagna's own composition 'Sognare'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Nessun Dorma
Pene Pati (tenor), with Amina Edris (soprano), Amitai Pati (tenor), Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Emmanuel Villaume
As well as the eponymous show-stopper from Puccini's Turandot, the Samoan tenor's second album for Warner includes arias from Gounod's Faust, Massenet's Manon and Werther, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Dom Sébastien and La favorite, and Berlioz's La damnation de Faust. Pati is joined by his wife Amina Edris for duets from Mascagni's L'amico Fritz, Puccini's La bohème & Guiraud's Frédégonde, and by his brother Amitai for scenes from Mercadante's Il bravo and Verdi's Macbeth; all three come together for the trio 'Tu possèdes, dit-on, un joyau magnifique' from Halévy's La Juive.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This programme takes its cue from a musical soirée which was hosted by composer Stephen Storace and recounted by Irish tenor Michael Kelly, who observed that 'the players were tolerable; not one of them excelled on the instrument he played, but there was a little science among them' - the four musicians in question were Haydn (violin 1), Baron von Dittersdorf (violin 2), Mozart (viola), and Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (cello). The programme comprises Haydn's String Quartet No. 5 in G, Vaňhal's String Quartet No. 2 in A, Dittersdorf's String Quartet No. 5 in E flat, and Mozart's 'Dissonance' Quartet.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Chamber Music by James Joyce
The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, Solstice Ensemble, Desmond Earley
An accomplished tenor himself, the Irish novelist and poet referenced music frequently in his works; his collection of poems Chamber Music was published in London in 1907 and has inspired composers including Barber, Moeran, Szymanowski and Berio (Joyce disliked the title, but told his brother Stanislaus that 'some of them are pretty enough to be put to music'). This programme of world premiere recordings includes settings by Ēriks Ešenvalds, Owen Brady, Damien Geter, Natasa Paulberg, Ivo Antognini and Desmond Earley; it is performed by the choral scholars of Joyce's own alma mater, from which he graduated in 1902.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Huangci makes her debut on Alpha Classics with an all-American programme which opens with Gershwin's own solo piano version of Rhapsody in Blue, made three years after the premiere of the original version in 1924. The recital also includes Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata (premiered by Vladimir Horowitz in Havana in 1949), Amy Beach's Variations on Balkan Themes and Earl Wild's Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin - riffing on 'Liza', 'Somebody Loves Me', 'The Man I Love', 'Embraceable You', 'Lady Be Good', 'I Got Rhythm' and 'Fascinating Rhythm'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Penderecki: Paradise Lost
Andrzej Pieczyński (Milton/Voice of God), Mariusz Godlewski (Adam), Joanna Freszel (Eve), Bartłomiej Misiuda (Satan) et al; Orchestra of the Łódź Grand Theatre, Rafał Janiak
Filmed in Łódź in the autumn of 2022, this is the world premiere recording of Penderecki's 1978 opera on Milton's epic poem (to a libretto by Christopher Fry); reviewing the results in the October edition of Gramophone, Christian Hoskins noted that 'both the singing and orchestral playing are consistently communicative' and predicted that this 'very welcome release will do much to increase the understanding and appreciation of one of the composer’s most significant works.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Ring Odyssey
Christiane Libor, Michael Weinius, Derek Welton, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Salvatore Caputo, Chœur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux Joseph Swensen
Requiring a single soprano, tenor and bass-baritone plus male chorus and orchestra, Swensen's Ring Odyssey condenses Wagner's tetralogy into just over two hours and respects the original choronology and orchestration: Swensen explains that 'My solemn promise to Wagner was that, aside from the occasional solo timpani roll denoting the passage of time, I would not change or add a single note to his masterpiece'. The piece was recorded in concert last May, in Toulouse.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Bruckner From the Archives, Vol. 4
Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet, Ferdinand Stangler, Christoph von Dohnányi Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
This fourth instalment in what MusicWeb International described as 'a Bruckner series of uncommon interest' (conceived by SOMM Executive Producer and award-winning audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr) comprises the first-ever release of a live 1963 radio broadcast of Symphony No. 5 from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi, and the debut CD release of the String Quintet (plus its alternate movement, the Intermezzo) from the Wiener Konzerthausquartett and violist Ferdinand Stangler.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Released to coincide with the German conductor's 95th birthday later this month, this 40CD set celebrates his long-standing relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra, which he served as Music Director from 1984 until 2002. The repertoire includes Wagner Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (with Robert Hale, Gabriele Schnaut, Alessandra Marc and Anja Silja), symphonies by Bruckner, Schumann, Dvořák and Mahler, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, and works by Harrison Birtwistle, Carl Ruggles, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Edgard Varèse.
Available Format: 40 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
