New Releases

Many composers have been reluctant to set Shakespeare’s words to text, but Vaughan Williams remained undaunted, using his words many times in his compositions. This disc includes RVW’s ‘Orpheus with his lute’ and many other songs of longing of the early baroque. Performed by Swedish soprano Elisabeth Holmertz, the duo of Holmertz and Bock accompany her, along with Poul Hoxbro on low whistle.

Alain Vanzo was born in Monaco in April 1928 and was apparently a gifted musician from an early age. From an inauspicious start, he was eventually heard by a singing teacher who recognised his talents, and from that point on, he was lucky enough to be integrated into the French music scene where he triumphed in various performances.

He made his debut at the Pera and the Opera-Comique in 1957, going on to sing the Duke of Mantua that same year.

He became known and respected as a lyric tenor and matured towards a more robust tenor, culminating in him taking on Werther at aged 40 and Don Jose at aged 45. By the time he reached the age of 48, and after his performance of Faust in 1976 in the US, he had become a star and this disc shows exactly why he was so well respected.

This is a wonderful disc of Massenet’s famous ‘tunes’, performed by top soloists at the peak of their careers.

Continuing their survey of Mendelssohn’s String Quartets, in Mendelssohn the Leipzig musicians are in their element: sovereign instrumental command, consummate sound design, and precision teamwork perfected in detail offer a dynamic listening experience in a special class of its own.

Liszt was the first, but pianists of later generations also journeyed through the gigantic cosmos of the Wagnerian music drama with paraphrases and transcriptions for the piano. Severin von Eckardstein has brought together the best of these on his latest SACD. The result is a fascinating look at the reception history of Wagner’s music.

Mahler initially had a hard time of it. When Das klagende Lied finally met with his own critical favor, he stated, “My first work in which I have found myself as ‘Mahler’!” Here it is heard in colorful contrast to the fragment from his last symphony and the “Blumine” andante originally intended for the first symphony. The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn under its resourceful conductor Stefan Blunier is in top form on this fascinatingly detailed look at Mahler’s compositional techniques.

With Kirsten Flagstad as Brünnhilde, Lotte Lehmann as Sieglinde, Kathryn Meisle as Fricka, Lauritz Melchior as Siegmund, Emmanuel List as Hunding, Conductor, Fritz Reiner, San Francisco, 13 November, 1936. First released by our predecessor organization, educational Media Associates of America, Inc., in 1976 on LP-426, this recording was subsequently reissued in a restoration by Maggi Payne in 1999 as Music & Arts CD1048, and was newly restored for the present edition in 2013 from recently discovered NBC transcription discs by Ward Marston and Aaron Z. Snyder.

William Youngren wrote of the previous CD issue in Fanfare magazine: ”Reiner conducts with verve; Flagstad is splendid throughout; Lehmann is in good form, but occasionally overacts; Meisle is powerful and convincing; Schorr sings well but sounds old and fluffs a few notes; Melchior is superb - he and Flagstad make the Todesverkündigung scene alone worth the price of the disc.“

Following on from their recent success at this year’s 2013 BBC Music Magazine Awards where they won the Award for Technical Excellence for their recording of Parsifal, PentaTone is delighted to bring you the next installment, Das Rheingold.

This is the 7th release in PentaTone’s successful Wagner Edition and the 1st one in the Wagner Year. Das Rheingold is the first release of the cycle: Der Ring des Nibelungen. The other 3 “Ring recordings” will follow in the course of 2013.

Continuing with their critically acclaimed Wagner series, the attached images show previous releases which have received unprecedented critical acclaim.

The recordings have various been awarded The Sunday Times CD of the Week, The Opera Choice of the month in BBC Music Magazine, the Recording of the month also in BBC Music Magazine and several Gramophone Editor’s Choices.

PentaTone’s Wagner Edition is an unprecedented project and we aim at supporting it with a lot of attention in the media throughout the year. In the Wagner year there will be a lot of attention for Wagner through articles in the media and performances of his opera’s. We expect therefore the interest for the PentaTone Edition (especially as a collector’s item) to increase substantially.

This next release will be supported by advertising in various magazines.

This album is a follow up to the album ‘ If a Song be Worth a Smile’. The composers and lyricists are (same as for the previous album) all American and still alive. Many of the songs were specially written for Lisa Delan and some are world premiere recordings.

Lisa Delan wrote for the CD-booklet :

“When I recorded the partner CD to The Hours Begin to Sing – And If the Song Be Worth a Smile – I was delighted to include four premiere recordings, one of which I commissioned for the CD. I am thrilled with The Hours Begin to Sing to introduce four more premiere recordings, three of which were written specifically for this disc. And although I cannot claim parentage in this drama of creation, I am honoured to have been cast in the role of midwife.”