New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 1st November 2024
Both of the orchestras involved with Antonini's mammoth Haydn2023 project come together on this sixteenth volume, which features the famous 'Surprise' Symphony - so named because of the unexpected fortissimo chord designed to wake up any dozing audience-members! The album also includes Symphony No. 90 (which includes a witty false ending) and Symphony No. 92, composed during Haydn's first trip to London in 1792. In recognition of Rossini's great affection for Haydn's music, the Overture to the early one-act opera La scala di seta ('The Silken Ladder') rounds off the programme.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Franck: Symphony in D minor & Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande
Albrecht Meyer (oboe), Emanuel Pahud (flute), Dominik Wollenweber (cor anglais), Berlin Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim
This recording was made at the Philharmonie last June, capturing Barenboim's return to the podium after a period of rest due to a 'serious neurological condition'. Reviewing the concert for the Financial Times, Shirley Apthorp noted that 'Barenboim conducted [the Fauré] with minimal gestures. But the outcome was one of maximal delicacy, as the musicians paid immense attention both to his small commands and to each other; instead of orchestral force, we got chamber music.' The recording is released to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Barenboim's debut with the orchestra as a pianist, as well as the centenary of Fauré's death.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
For his second studio album on Deutsche Grammophon, the winner of the 2021 International Chopin Competition presents Tchaikovsky's set of twelve short character-pieces depicting the months of the year as they manifest in Russia; composed in the mid-1870s, the collection was commissioned by the editor of St Petersburg-based music magazine Nouvellist. The Canadian pianist's last album Waves (featuring works by Rameau, Ravel and Alkan) won him the Young Talent prize at last month's Opus Klassik Awards, whilst the collection of his live recordings from the Chopin Competition was described by Gramophone as 'simply as one of the most distinguished Chopin recitals of recent years'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Three works by Brahms featured on this young French pianist's programme when he won Gold Medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and his all-Brahms recital on BIS in 2021 was described as 'easily one of the best recital discs of the year...A must-listen for devoted pianophiles'. The composer's Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major (his first published work) opens a programme which also includes Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Liszt's transcriptions of 'Der Wanderer', 'Der Müller und der Bach', 'Frühlingsglaube', 'Die Stadt', and 'Am Meer'.
Available Formats: SACD (ECOPAK), MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This is Wong's debut recording as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Hallé, a role which he took over from Sir Mark Elder in September; the Singapore-born conductor has a special connection to Britten's 1957 ballet, thanks to his interest in Balinese Gamelan and folk music of South East Asia. The complete score receives its first commercial recording in a decade here; Wong included a new suite from the work (prepared in consultation with the Hallé's Composer Emeritus Colin Matthews) in his opening concert with the orchestra, with BachTrack describing the results as 'superbly enjoyable' and The Times declaring that Britten's music 'certainly leapt off the page'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The first instalment of Trevino's Americascapes project (which featured works by Charles Martin Loeffler, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles and Howard Hanson) was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award and was also one of our Top Ten Recordings of the Year in 2021. This second volume comprises four episodes from Silvestre Revueltas's unfinished ballet La Coronela ('The Lady Colonel'), George Crumb's A Haunted Landscape, and George Walker's Address for Orchestra; written in the late 1950s, the latter piece was Walker's first major orchestral work, and the composer personally encouraged Trevino to record it.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
These interpretations were recorded live at the South Bank Centre in 2023 as part of the Philharmonia's Santtu Conducts Shostakovich series. Reviewing the performance of Symphony No. 6, BachTrack noted that 'Rouvali was good in finding an edge to this fast music, helped by fantastic playing from the woodwind and brass...the Presto was a tour de force of virtuosic playing, finding extra weight and drama in its final gesture of defiance.' The orchestra's recordings to date with Rouvali (its Chief Conductor since 2021) have also included Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Stravinsky's Petrushka & The Firebird, and Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
To mark the centenary of the prolific film-composer's birth (which fell in April), the Spanish orchestra present a selection of themes from movies and television series including The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Peter Gunn, Days of Wine and Roses) and concert works such as Strings on Fire! (written in 1969 for the debut album of the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra), Lujon, and the Overture to a Pops Concert. In the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine, Michael Beek observed that 'Valiente and his Malaga musicians go at this Mancini selection with great verve and enthusiasm, which is exactly what the late, great composer deserves.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This album is a tribute to two influential Dutch musicians: recorder-player and conductor Frans Brüggen (1934-2014) and composer Louis Andriessen (1939-2021). The heart of the programme is Andriessen's May, which was commissioned in Brüggen's memory by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and received its world premiere (as a live broadcast without audience) at the Concertgebouw in December 2020; the work also became Andriessen's own swansong. The album also includes Andriessen's George Sand: Un beau baiser, Remembering that Sarabande and Ahania weeping, Josquin's Nymphes des bois, Thomas Preston's Upon La Mi Re, and the 'Entrée d'Abaris' from Rameau's Les Boréades (the latter conducted by Brüggen).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
The Spanish quartet embarks on a complete Shostakovich cycle with this volume of the first five quartets, composed between 1938 and 1952. The composer's music has long been a central part of the ensemble's recital-repertoire: in late 2015, they took part in the Barbican's Shostakovich Day at Milton Court, when The Independent enthused that 'by the purity of their intonation and the subtlety of their shaping and shading, the Cuarteto Casals took the breath away' and The Telegraph noted that 'the quartet were alert to the way Shostakovich’s most innocent beginnings lead very quickly to something savage and sarcastic'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Following her recording of Busoni's Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Dalia Stasevska (which Gramophone described as a 'detailed deeply personal reading') earlier this year, the Italian violinist turns to the composer's two violin sonatas, composed in 1876 and 1898-1900 respectively. The Violin Sonata No. 1 in E minor was closely modelled on Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor (just as Busoni's Violin Concerto drew strong inspiration from Brahms's), whilst the six-movement Violin Sonata No. 2 draws on material from JS Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena. The programme is completed by the Four Bagatelles, written for the young Egon Petri in 1888.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
A favourite of Henry VIII, Fayrfax led the Chapel Royal at the Field of the Cloth of Gold celebrations in 1520 (with Jean Mouton representing the French side). As well as his great meditation on the Crucifixion Maria Plena Virtute, this album includes Ave Dei Patris, O Maria, Deo grata, and Aeternae Laudis Lilium. The latter work is thought to have been written at the request of Henry's mother Elizabeth of York in 1502; Phillips points out in his notes that the text contains 'an acrostic which spells out the name of its dedicatee'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Helmut Lachenmann: Mes Adieux
Trio Catch, Trio Recherche, Karolina Öhman (cello), WDR Sinfonieorchester, Lin Liao
This 29th release on Bastille Musique features three outstanding works by Lachenmann from three different periods in his creative life: Notturno: Musik für Julia for cello and small orchestra (1966-1968), the Allegro sostenuto for clarinet, cello and piano (1986-1988), and the world premiere recording of the String Trio No. 2 Mes Adieux (2021-2022). Next week the label will release a recording of Gustav Holst's one-act chamber opera Sāvitri to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.
Available Format: CD
Royal Throne of Kings: Ralph Vaughan Williams and Shakespeare
Eloise Irving (soprano), Kent Sinfonia, Malcolm Riley, James Ross
This album brings together some of the music which Vaughan Williams composed for Shakespeare plays in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1912 and 1913, including an overture for Henry V (which has been reconstructed from the surviving orchestral parts by David Owen Norris), a Henry IV Suite assembled from the surviving cues by Malcolm Riley, and a Stratford Suite compiled by Nathaniel Lew. The programme also includes a Richard II Concert Fantasy arranged by Lew from incidental music which was commissioned by the BBC in 1944 but never used, two excerpts from the score for the 1955 film The England of Elizabeth, and a selection of solo songs.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV
This exploration of the role which music played in monastic life after the Reformation includes Carolus Andreae's Magnificat super Si ignoras te, Blasius Amon's motet Sacrificate sacrificium iustitiae, Lassus's Missa super Veni in hortum meum and Quis rutilat Triadis?, Sebastian Ertel's Aeterno laudanda choro, and shorter works by Jacob Reiner, Johannes Nucius, Giovanni Gastoldi, Christian Erbach, Cipriano de Rore, and Clemens non Papa.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
