New Releases

"There are a lot of people who do not go to the opera because they think you need to have special knowledge for that. I believe that you need a heart and sensibility, and everybody has that." Rolando Villazón

Remember this name - one of the world's leading tenors, Rolando Villazón, is set to become a UK household name in early 2010. Alongside a prime-time ITV show in which he will star, he also releases an exclusive UK album 'Tenor', giving the UK public the opportunity to sample some of the best-loved tenor arias sung by a consummate professional.

Appearing on ITV's new prime-time show Popstar to Opera Star, hosted by Myleene Klass and Alan Titchmarsh, Mexican Villazón will be both a mentor and panellist, lending his operatic expertise to the pop singer students throughout the series. Can eight singers from the world of pop transform their voices and master the art of opera? Coronation Street star Kym Marsh and McFly singer Danny Jones join a glittering celebrity line-up preparing to warble their way into the nation’s hearts. They've already conquered the pop world - but will they hit the high notes en route to operatic success? Villazón has been one of the most in-demand singers on the international opera circuit for almost a decade now, and has firmly established himself in the A-list opera-houses of Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Vienna, New York and London.

On ‘Tenor', Villazón showcases some of the best-known tenor arias popularised by operatic legends including the 'Three Tenors' Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras. The greatest tenor arias on this disc vary from sophisticated Handel and emotional operatic greats by Verdi and Puccini through to 20th Century classics from Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ and Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’.

Villazón's enormous personality and charisma shine through every inflection on both the TV show and on this album. He is sure to win over the British audience when he brings musical cheer to our winter evenings.

Sir John was born in Holborn, London, on 2 December 1899. His father and grandfather were both professional violinists who had settled in London from Italy and were employed in theatre orchestras around the West End. They had also been members of the orchestra at La Scala Opera House in Milan and had played under Arturo Toscanini. Barbirolli's mother came from a town on the Atlantic coast in the south-west of France.

The EMI Classics catalogue of recordings includes many unique treasures by most of the great musicians of the 20th century, but few are greater than those made for the Company by Sir John. This set not only includes some of the truly incomparable interpretations he made for EMI but also some he made during the period he was with Pye. Many of these are with his beloved Hallé Orchestra, the orchestra with which he became most closely associated during the last 30 years of his life.

Barbirolli had an enormous love of English music and was one of its greatest exponents. More than any other conductor he revived the public's affection for the music of Elgar back in the 60s, when EMI issued his irreplaceable Elgar recordings, virtually all of which have never been out of the catalogue.

Perhaps the best-known of Barbirolli's Elgar recordings is that of the Cello Concerto with the young Jacqueline du Pré. In this set we have taken the opportunity to re-issue the earlier recording of the Concerto with André Navarra. This is a marvellous performance that has largely been over-shadowed by the du Pré, but it is no less excellent and deserving of wider appreciation.

The music of Delius was another of Barbirolli's great loves and his recordings rival those by Beecham, who was regarded as Delius's prime advocate. Here we have two works by Delius: the beautiful orchestral interlude from the opera A Village

Romeo and Juliet and one of his longer tone poems. Barbirolli's final recording was of music by Delius, made in the month of his death.

Vaughan Williams's music had a prominent place in Barbirolli's repertoire and, being a Londoner, the London Symphony had a very special place in Sir John's affections. His excellent 1957 Pye recording with the Hallé Orchestra is featured here. Barbirolli made the first ever recording of the Fifth Symphony for EMI in 1944 and it was this 1962 Philharmoniarecording that marked his return to EMI, after a seven year period of recording for Pye.

As well as these three great English composers we also have music by Bax, Butterworth and Ireland, whose music was also very close to Sir John's heart. The recordings of Bax's The Garden of Fand and Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad are being released on CD for the first time.

English music was not the only great love of Sir John's life. From early in his career he championed the music of Sibelius and recorded some of its greatest interpretations. His 1962 recording of the Second Symphony, made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Reader's Digest, has still to be surpassed, and the Violin Concerto he did with Ida Haendel for EMI is still among the best. Sibelius is here represented with a selection of short orchestral pieces, most notable amongst which is a stunning performance of Pohjola's Daughter. French music, too, was another musical genre in which Sir John excelled and the recordings he made for Pye in the late 50s received rave reviews when they were first issued.

In the mid-sixties EMI went with Sir John to Vienna to record a very successful cycle of Brahms's Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The recordings were singled out not only for the quality of the orchestral playing but also for the excellent quality of the recorded sound; this version of No.3 was reckoned to be the best of the interpretations.

Tchaikovsky is not a composer one necessarily associates with Barbirolli but the 1957 recording of Symphony No.4 that he made with the Hallé is an exceptionally exciting performance. The 1964 recording of the popular Serenade for Strings, made with the London Symphony Orchestra, is extremely fine with an exquisite third movement.

Barbirolli came late to the music of Mahler and it was not until he was in his sixties that he made the first of only a handful of marvellous recordings. He made this recording of the Fifth, and the Five Rückert Lieder with Janet Baker and the NewPhilharmonia, just a year before he died.

Throughout his life Sir John loved to conduct operas, especially those by Verdi and Puccini, and it is only fitting that we should include on the final disc of this set some excerpts from one of the finest Butterfly recordings ever made.

“Halls is a formidably talented young keyboard player, bursting with energy and inspiration.” Evening Standard

“His inventive and ebullient playing is a delight.” Daily Telegraph

Matthew Halls is one of the brightest sparks of the UK early music scene, who, as director of Retrospect Ensemble, has rapidly established himself as one of Britain's most exciting young conductors as well as a leading harpsichordist. ‘J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations’, features Bach’s popular masterpiece for keyboard, plus Sarabanda con Partite and Aria Variata.

Matthew Halls’ debut solo recording presents J.S. Bach’s most significant variation sets for harpsichord in this, the second release in the Retrospect series.

The Goldberg Variations is a work that that continues to fascinate and astound performers and listeners alike. The artistry and technique it demands is met with virtuosic skill and innate musical understanding by Matthew Halls.

The two earlier works, Sarabanda con Partite and Aria Variata, show the extent to which Bach had become the true master of this composition technique by the time he came to compose The Goldberg Variations.

Matthew Halls is Artistic Director of Retrospect Ensemble, whose debut recording, ‘Henry Purcell: Ten Sonatas in Four Parts’, was shortlisted for a Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2009.

He has enjoyed a busy and exciting career, playing with many of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Theatre of Early Music, Montreal and New York Collegium.

As a keyboard soloist he has appeared at the Cheltenham International Festival; Händel Festspiele, Göttingen, Händel Festspiele, Halle; Enescu Festival, Bucharest; Ottawa International Chamber Festival; Antiquarium Festival, Moscow, Lamèque Festival, Canada and Dias da Mùsica, Lisbon.

The music of the German composer Friedrich Gernsheim (1839–1918) is gradually beginning to emerge in recordings, revealing him as one of the finest composers of his age.

His two piano quintets are tightly constructed, powerfully argued and full of rhythmic energy, and also abound with memorable tunes.

They are, in fact, both masterpieces, among the very best of German Romantic chamber music, ranking alongside the Brahms and Schumann works.

These superb performances, in excellent sound, come from one of the finest young string quartets in Lithuania and an established poet of the keyboard, the Paris-based Russian Edouard Oganessian, also known as an organist.

Astonishingly, neither work has been recorded before.

Two of world’s greatest musicians appear together – for the first time anywhere – on Toccata Classics, playing an hour of ‘new’ Dvorák.

Josef Suk – the great-grandson of Antonín Dvorák – undertook these transcriptions of 30 Dvorák songs at the suggestion of Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics.

Josef Suk had Dvorák’s own viola restored for the recording sessions, which took place in Prague at the beginning of September.

Suk’s transcriptions turn the songs into exquisitely beautiful instrumental miniatures.

A fascinating CD coupling inspired arrangements by Mozart of fugues by J. S. Bach with Haydn quartets that feature a fugal movement and music by their contemporaries Werner and Albrechtsberger, highly esteemed by Emperor Joseph II, who even opened a special department for fugal forms in the imperial library in Vienna.

‘ . . . it is well known that changes in taste have very little influence on the fugue. For this reason, lovers of music for quartet need not be afraid. . . to find in these works of art anything that might be offensive to the tastes of our own time . . . precisely because they are written in a spirit that never goes out of fashion . . .’ Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1808

2CD's for price of 1

Two versions of the Paganini Caprices at a special price, featuring Albanian violinist, Tedi Papavrami, in this virtuoso repertoire: live in Tokyo on the 19th of April 2001 and a studio version made in 1997 in Gradignan. Papavrami, a child prodigy, studied with his father from the age of four, before continuing his studies with Pierre Amoyal and Viktoria Mullova amongst others.