New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 12th April 2024
Likened to Mozart by Casals and an influential violin teacher (guiding among others Yehudi Menuhin), George Enescu drew on the musical traditions of his native Romania in his compositions. His most famous works are his Romanian Rhapsodies, in which this influence is most direct; Cristian Măcelaru and the Orchestre National de France use these as an appealing hors d'oeuvre for their new recording of his symphonies Nos. 1-3.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This fourth album of music for strings from Sinfonia of London features works by three virtuoso violinist-composers: George Enescu's Octet from 1900 (arranged for string orchestra by Wilson, Lovell-Jones & Nelson), Eugène Ysaÿe’s Harmonies du soir (scored for string quartet and string orchestra), and Graźnya Bacewicz's Concerto for String Orchestra from 1948. Reviewing the recording in the latest edition of Gramophone, Andrew Mellor observes that 'Sonically, it’s a variation on what we know from Wilson’s group: a rich string texture that concerns itself more with sonority than blend'.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Fischer began his Budapest Beethoven series back in 2008 with a recording of Symphony No. 7 which The Guardian hailed as 'among the greatest ever recorded...superbly articulated, thrillingly elated and emotionally exhausting'; Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6 followed two years later, with Nos. 1 & 5 appearing in 2019. Reviewing their Prom last summer, The Arts Desk declared that 'It takes quite some performance to overcome the seeming familiarity of Beethoven’s Eroica, and yet Iván Fischer and his Budapest orchestra achieved it...the balance and ensemble are consistently jaw-dropping.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Mozart occupies a central place in the repertoire of the South African soprano, who made an unforgettable Glyndebourne debut as Countess Almaviva in 2016 (The Guardian remarked that it was 'hard to imagine finer soprano singing'), and is due to sing Fiordiligi at Covent Garden this summer. Her programme here includes the sextet from Così fan tutte, the quartet from Don Giovanni and the final scene of Le nozze di Figaro as well as solo scenes and arias from all three operas.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dedicated to 'dem lieben Gott', Bruckner's last symphony was left unfinished when he died in 1896; although extensive sketches for the final movement were discovered at his home immediately after his death, Roth chooses to present only the three completed movements on this recording rather than opting for any of the available reconstructions of the fourth. Roth's previous Bruckner recordings with this orchestra have been applauded for their 'lack of Teutonic heaviness' (The Sunday Times on No. 7) and sense of 'meticulous preparation' (Gramophone on No. 4).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
This recording from the Polish ensemble and their director comprises the six Hamburg symphonies (composed in the 1770s) interspersed with solo keyboard fantasias. The group's survey of CPE Bach's flute concertos was described as 'zestful...highly recommended' by Gramophone, whilst Świątkiewicz's 2020 recording of JS Bach's Goldberg Variations was deemed 'full of energy and spontaneity' by BBC Music Magazine.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
To celebrate The Year of Czech Music, Supraphon presents a collection of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century works championing Czech culture and identity: Dvořák's Fanfare for the Opening of the National Jubilee Exhibition in Prague 1891 and My Home, Otakar Ostrčil's tone-poem A Tale of Šemík, Smetana's The Prague Carnival and Vyšehrad from Má vlast, and Suk's Praga (based on the Hussite chorale 'Ktoz jsu Bozi bojovnici' ['Ye Who Are Warriors of God']).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Elisabetta Brusa: Requiem & Stabat Mater
Réka Kristóf (soprano), Dorottya Láng (alto), István Horváth (tenor), Marcell Bakonyi (bass); Hungarian Radio Choir, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Frizza
This is the fifth volume of Naxos's survey of works with orchestra by the Italian/British composer (whose seventieth birthday falls this week): scored for soprano and orchestra, the Stabat Mater was written in 2020 as a trial-run of sorts for the Requiem, which was completed the following year. Reviewing Daniele Rustioni's recording of her Symphony No. 2 earlier in the series, BBC Music Magazine declared that 'Brusa is that modern rarity, a convincing 21st-century symphonist with a powerful stylistic voice and some urgent substance to communicate'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Goerner first recorded Liszt's Piano Sonata in 2007 (on the Cascavelle label), when Classics Today pronounced that 'even in a catalog bursting at the seams with excellent Liszt Sonata recordings, Goerner’s stands out with distinction'; having performed the work regularly in recital over the intervening years, the Argentine pianist revisits it now for Alpha, alongside the Petrarch Sonnets from Années de pèlerinage, the Concert Étude La leggierezza, the Valse oubliée No 2, and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The husband-and-wife piano duo present a programme which includes Debussy's Petite Suite, En blanc et noir. Clair de lune (arranged by Dutilleux) & Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (arranged by Ravel) and Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye & La Valse. The couple's previous recordings together have been praised for their 'easy rapport' (BBC Music Magazine), 'brilliant clarity' (The Sunday Times) and 'shared executive excellence' (Classical Ear).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Saint-Saëns: Déjanire
Kate Aldrich (Déjanire), Anaïs Constans (Iole), Julien Dran (Hercule), Jérôme Boutillier (Philoctète), Anna Dowsley (Phénice); Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Chœur de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Kazuki Yamada
'It will be a strange score', mused Saint-Saëns in the run-up to the first performance of this opera in 1911; 'people will either not like it at all, or will like it enormously'. The work was very warmly received at its premiere in Monte Carlo; early admirers included Fauré, who described the score as 'powerfully evocative'. Based on a story in Sophocles's The Trachiniae (which also inspired Handel's Hercules), the piece began life as incidental music for a play by Louis Gallet in 1898, and was developed into a fully-fledged tragédie lyrique thirteen years later.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Paul Moravec & Mark Campbell: The Shining
Edward Parks (Jack Torrance), Kelly Kaduce (Wendy Torrance), Tristan Hallett, Aubrey Allicock (Dick Hallorann), Malcolm MacKenzie (Mark Torrance), Wayd Odle (Delbert Grady), Roger Honeywell (Lloyd); Kansas City Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
Based on Stephen King's 1977 novel (to which it adheres more closely than Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film), Moravec's opera was premiered in Minnesota in 2016, when The Wall Street Journal described it as 'a well-made, entertaining piece...[which] elevates the tale from a horror story to a human drama'. This recording was made around a new production in Kansas City last year, following a run in Colorado where the story is set.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Mondonville: Le Carnaval du Parnasse
Gwendoline Blondeel, Hélène Guilmette, Mathias Vidal, David Witczak; Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Alexis Kossenko
Known primarily for the splendour of his sacred grands motets, Mondonville brings something of the same approach to his ballet Le Carnaval du Parnasse. It's a light-hearted affair with the usual cast of gods, shepherds and so forth, but the beauty isn't in the plot - which is minimal - but in the spectacle and elegance of the music for which it provides the basis. Dances by turns elegant and vigorous, huge celebratory choruses, and inventive orchestration all combine to create a sense of the French Baroque at its absolute pinnacle of splendour.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
