New Releases

Two of the most popular Beethoven pieces of repertoire coupled together – the “Emperor” and Symphony No.5, recorded at a concert earlier this year.

The first ever concerto album of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Myung-Whun Chung with Universal and the first ever major label release of pianist Sunwook Kim, the 1st prize winner of The Leeds Competition in 2006.

This 5-LP Set is set, with its strikingly-handsome silver artwork and Archiv logo, is rather special:

• Limited-Edition, Numbered-Box Set

• The pressings from Optimal on 180 gsm vinyl stock

• Each set offers a free MP3 / FLAC 16-bit digital download

• Original LP front and back covers

• 16-page leaflet, with introduction on Archiv, and facsimiles of the inner pages of the original Archiv gatefold LPs

LP SET OVERVIEW

• Helmut Walcha playing famous Bach organ works – one of Archiv’s first stereo recordings

• Karl Richter – early recordings of two joyous Bach cantatas, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen BWV 51 and the wedding cantata Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten BWV 202

• Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Court Music by Muffat and Biber with Concentus Musicus Wien – one of only two recordings he made on Archiv

• Reinhard Goebel and Music Antiqua Köln’s classic French Baroque programme, Le Parnasse Francais

• Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert with Handel Concerti Grossi op. 6 nos. 9 – 12: an LP to die for, with the clarity and airiness of its recording, and the rhythm and feeling of its performances

ECM New Series presents the first full album devoted to the composer Dobrinka Tabakova, who was born in Bulgaria in 1980, raised from a young age in London, and is now a British citizen. This remarkable recording of her orchestral and chamber compositions for strings is richly melodic, texturally sensuous, and often emotionally radiant.

The disc features Tabakova’s Concerto for Cello & Strings and the Rameau-channeling Suite in Old Style for viola and chamber orchestra - both performed by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra - as well as three chamber works: the string trio Insight, the string septet Such Different Paths and a trio for violin, accordion and double-bass, Frozen River Flows.

The performers include star violinist Janine Jansen, leading the septet heard in Such Different Paths, and several of Tabakova’s former conservatory colleagues from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama: violinist Roman Mints, violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov, and Kristina Blaumane, principal cellist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tabakova’s music has a particularly 21st-century feel for its broad palette - its free mix of tonality and modality, of folk-music influence and the example of past masters. In it there resides the new and the familiar, or rather the familiar within the new, and vice versa; there are the spirits of East and West coursing through the pieces, usually hand in hand; and just as the composer’s technical virtuosity is apparent, she displays a gift for direct communication that can be heard in virtually every measure.

Since a very early age, Magdalena Lisak has been winning top prizes in national and international competitions. One of her most valuable experiences was a course at the Basle Music Academy under Krystian Zimerman. She also honed her skills in masterclasses given by Victor Merzhanov and Leon Fleisher, and in chamber music with members of the Amadeus Quartet. Her interpretations have been recorded for Deutsche Rundfunk, Radio Suisse Romande, Polskie Radio and Telewizja Polska and many more.

This disc features the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22 and the Mazurkas, Op. 17 performed by Dina Yoffe, as well as works for four hands and two pianos, which the artist recorded with her son, Daniel Vayman. It is the second disc that this duo has recorded for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute; the first, with similar repertoire but on historical instruments, appeared in ‘The Real Chopin’.