New Releases

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: Rondeau Production is publishing a ten-part CD series which presents a selection of cantatas for the liturgical year. In Leipzig, music for the liturgical year has an especially well kept tradition: up to the present day the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir) and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) join forces each week in the performance of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas at the church of St Thomas.

The current disc in the series turns to feasts for the Blessed Virgin Mary: the cantata “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” was composed in 1725 for the feast of Mary’s Purification, and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” for the feast of the Annunciation in the same year. The famous chorale “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” forms part of the cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”. This composition originally set a different text, and was intended for the fourth Sunday of Advent. After a number of modifications to the text, the cantata was performed in Leipzig on the feast of the Visitation also in 1725. The cantata’s opening chorus gains its particularly festive character through the initial trumpet motif.

The current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, is fortunate to have boys from the choir’s own ranks performing the soprano and alto solos; a hallmark of the new recording’s unique level of artistry.

In this new album the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates the melodic genius of Burt Bacharach, performing specially written arrangements for full symphony orchestra of favourite Bacharach songs, joined by leading vocalists from London’s West End: Graham Bickley, Mary Carewe, Alison Jiear and Sarah Lark, plus conductor Richard Balcombe

‘In orchestrating the songs for this album I have tried to be faithful to the original recordings…you will recognise all the iconic moments in these songs – the falling piano figure in Close To You, the saxophone solo in Arthur’s Theme, the guiro in The Look Of Love, the bassoons in Magic Moments to name a few. Originally the songs were recorded with just a rhythm section (piano, guitars, bass, and drums) enhanced by a bit of percussion, a small string section and some solo instruments… With a full orchestra we have the opportunity to enhance these original ideas and, hopefully, make the sound fuller and more romantic.’ Richard Balcombe (Conductor / Arranger)

“The RPO do sensuousness uncommonly well. The end result was rich yet delicate, with wonderfully liquid woodwind solos and an exquisite sheen on the strings.” The Guardian

Sony Classical celebrates the 85th anniversary of pianist Leon Fleisher with the release of ‘The Complete Album Collection’.

Leon Fleisher is considered a living legend among the coterie of distinguished American pianists who emerged in the late forties and early fifties. Students consider Fleisher the “Obi-Wan Kenobi of the piano,” and travel from all over the globe come to work with him or even just sit on his master classes.

On the podium, Fleisher championed a wide range of new music, starting with the Washington DC-based Theater Chamber Players, and later as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s associate conductor. Fleisher also introduced innovative curriculum ideas during his respective artistic director tenures at the Tanglewood and Aspen music centers.

However, it was the piano that brought Fleisher into the public eye. A child prodigy who became Artur Schnabel’s youngest student at age ten, Fleisher went on to win first prize at the 1952 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, launching a major international career on the concert platform and recording studio.

In the mid-sixties, the onset of what was later diagnosed as focal dystonia in the right hand forced Fleisher to curtail his playing. As Fleisher sought a variety of remedies, he resumed concertizing with repertoire for left hand.

In a certain sense, the present complete collection of Fleisher’s recordings for Sony Classical and its predecessors (Epic and Columbia Masterworks) demarcates the personal and musical twists and turns of his career journey.

We hear Fleisher soon after his Brussels victory, followed by his now iconic Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann and Grieg concerto collaborations with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, along with highly acclaimed solo recordings.

Two discs represent Fleisher at the peak of his later career playing concertos and recitals for the left hand.

Lastly, Fleisher’s formidable gifts as a Mozart player as revealed in his C major K 503 concerto recording yielded further bounty with his two-handed return a half-century later in the K 242, K 414 and K 488 concertos featured on the collection’s most recent release.

As long as one can access recordings, the very sound of Fleisher’s musical legacy will continue to stand the test of time, and continue to enliven and stimulate music lovers and budding pianists.

Following the release of Sospiro's first CD - Rob Buckland's highly acclaimed collection of saxophone concerti Gameshow - comes our second, The Music of Joanna, the debut album of the exciting new singer/songwriter Jack Omer. This album of original songs by Jack performed by himself with a band of first rate musicians and produced by Neill MacColl is launched on 17 June with an extensive live performance, radio and publicity campaign.

“He is the 'real thing' - an artist who can combine intensely moving lyric-writing with musical settings that have a memorable, inspired simplicity. That simplicity is the hardest thing to find in music - and Jack has it in abundance” John Harle

Jack’s smoky vocals, sympathetic guitar and piano, adorn this collection of original songs, the songs have a light musical feel, that draws its roots from strands of folk, country and Americana, but one that belies the depth of the lyric writing and the subtle beauty of the song melodies. Some of the songs are about deeply personal experiences, others reflect periods of mental and emotional turmoil. There are also fictional narratives whose fiction tells some truths.

A Grand Romance celebrates the intimacy of the relationship between pianist and public, with a sampling of finely honed pieces of the Romantic era. Penned by composers who were highly accomplished keyboardists themselves, it represents a genre of pianism unashamed of sentiment, frill and facility, and luxuriating in the expressive sophistication of the instrument and the wooing of the crowd.

This album is a musical path through Baroque music in Northern Italy. It is amazing to discover how much of the landscape and of the territory is present in these pieces; the same landscape and the same territory represented by Guercino and all the painters around him. The music recalls the art and viceversa creating a strong connection between the sound and the sight that in this album is able to let us relive an era. Again, featuring Alena Dantcheva: listen to the Monteverdi…

This project is a collaboration between the two organists Margherita Gianola and Silvio Celeghin with Francesco Fanna, conductor and director at the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, in which large part of Vivaldi’s manuscripts and scores are archived. The CD is a collection of Concertos where the organ is the absolute protagonist as soloist and in an interesting interaction with string instruments. The title of the release is inspired by the two organs of the XVIII century in the Basilica dei Frari in Venice which are exceptionally appropriate for playing Vivaldi’s music. The Callido (1795) is very versatile and enhances the whole sound, while the Piaggia (1732), the only organ in Venice made while Vivaldi was still alive, is elegant, light and full of verve.

A homage to Julian Bream for his 80th birthday and to the music that was created for him. The CD collects some of the most important pieces for guitar of the 20th century performed by Stefano Grondona, who plays three legendary guitars (one of which belonged to Julian Bream himself) made by Jose Romanillos, who has also turned 80. All the compositions have been important milestones in Stefano Grondona’s career and he shows this in his astonishing interpretations. This album contains one of the best versions of Benjamin Britten’s 'Nocturnal' ever recorded. Benjamin Britten was born 100 years ago and 'Nocturnal after John Dowland' was written 50 years ago: this CD is a perpetual celebration.