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Presto News - 29th September 2008Paul Lewis and the Gramophone Awards 2008 |
 Readers of this column over the past eighteen months will know that I've been a big advocate of Paul Lewis' Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle on Harmonia Mundi. Well, I'm thrilled to be able to announce that he has just scooped the coveted Gramophone Record of the Year Award for the fourth and final volume which was released earlier this year.  Paul Lewis It is an astonishing achievement that someone so young can produce a cycle of such maturity that matches (and even sometimes eclipses) the great recordings already in the catalogue. Every phrase has been carefully thought about, and is shaped with such care, yet it never sounds anything other than entirely natural. Beethoven presents an almost unique challenge for the performer in the way it places demands not just on your fingers and in your heart, but also in your head. This three-way balance is vital in order to get the music right. Obviously the technical ability to play all the notes is a pre-requisite, so then the performer needs to work out when to follow his heart in order to reach the emotional depths which much of the music demands, and when the head needs to rein this in for the structure to remain coherent, or to build to the next climax. Basically I'm in awe. This award is so richly deserved. And if you needed any more reasons to buy it, we've even made it this week's Golden Disc so for the next seven days this 3-CD set is yours for the frankly silly price of just £13.49! As normal we've put a page on the website with details of all this year's winners which you can view here, but I would just like to pick up on a couple of other awards as they tie in nicely with two promotions we've just started. The Concerto Awards went to the Canadian violinist James Ehnes for his recording of the Elgar Concerto on the Onyx label. Onyx was founded just a few years ago by Paul Moseley, a former senior executive at Decca, with the view of providing a home to some of the artists being released by the majors as they thinned their rosters. There are now over 30 releases on the label and we're currently offering the whole lot (including the James Ehnes award winner and a new disc by this year's Young Artist winner Maxim Rysanov) at 25% off here. Appropriately enough in this anniversary year, the Historic Archive Award went to the recording of Vaughan William's Fifth Symphony conducted by the composer himself on Somm. The label is worth exploring in more depth as it boasts a wide variety of treasures including both historic Beecham recordings as well as many new recordings of often neglected works by artists like Mark Bebbington. We're offering 25% off the whole label here.
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 Record of the YearBeethoven Piano Sonatas, Volume 4Paul Lewis (piano) |
 Best of Category - ConcertoElgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61James Ehnes (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis |
 Best of Category - Historic ArchiveVaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D majorLondon Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaughan Williams |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases29th September 2008 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Strauss - Don Juan & Eine AlpensinfonieRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons (chief conductor)GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE DISC OF THE MONTH After the successful release of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben in 2004, Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra once again present two familiar symphonic poems by Richard Strauss, who had close ties with the then fledgling Concertgebouw Orchestra. This CD brings together live performances of Don Juan and Eine Alpensinfonie which were recorded during the 2007-8 season and which met with great acclaim both in and outside the Netherlands. |
 Schumann - Songs of Love and LossSarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) & Eugene Asti (piano)The British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, twice nominated for a Grammy, here performs a collection of songs by Robert Schumann, which combines two song cycles from the extremely prolific song year 1840 with several songs from the composer’s last years. |
 Italian Cantatas Volume 4 - Aminta e Fillide, Rome (1707-1708)Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord & direction) & Nuria Rial, Maria Grazia Schiavo (sopranos), La RisonanzaTwo new voices join Fabio Bonizzoni's project of recording the entirety of the cantatas with instrumental accompaniment which Handel composed when in Italy. In this fourth instalment (out of a total of seven CDs planned for release up to the end of 2009), we rediscover the patronage of the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli. |
 Bach Cantatas Volume 5The Monteverdi Choir & The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot GardinerJohn Eliot Gardiner’s choral pilgrimage exploring the magnificence and grandeur of all of Bach’s cantatas continues with this 2CD release, combining cantatas for the eighth and tenth Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in August 2000. |
 Wagner: ParsifalJon Vickers, Norman Bailey, Amy Shuard, Donald McIntyre, The Royal Opera House, Reginald GoodallThe Royal Opera House's 'Parsifal' conducted by Reginald Goodall can be called an historical document of major importance and essential listening for any Wagnerite. As the Gramophone critic noted in 1998, "No conductor today has a greater understanding of this complex structure and, as he himself would have it, its 'Klang', than Goodall." The vintage cast of Jon Vickers (Parsifal), Norman Bailey (Amfortas), Amy Shuard (Kundry), Donald McIntyre (Klingsor) and Louis Hendrikx (Gurnemanz) with the addition of Kiri Te Kanawa as the 1st Flower Maiden produce memorable performances. |
 Joshua Bell plays Vivaldi's Four SeasonsJoshua Bell (violin and conductor) & John Constable (harpsichord continuo), Academy of St. Martin in the FieldsBell explains his take on Vivaldi’s classic: “You will never hear two versions of The Four Seasons that are alike, which is why I think there is always room for another view of the piece. My version is very personal.” Widely considered one of the premiere violinists of his generation, Bell is joined on this studio release by the celebrated musicians of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, who toured the work with him prior to the recording sessions. This recording of The Four Seasons is coupled with another masterpiece of Baroque virtuosity, Giuseppe Tartini’s The Devil’s Trill Sonata. |
 Vivaldi - Cello Concertos Volume 2Christophe Coin (cello), Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni AntoniniAltogether the great Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi left 27 concertos for cello, string orchestra and basso continuo. This is the second volume of these works to be released in the critically acclaimed “Vivaldi Edition” from Naïve. The CD features the same expert performers as Volume l, the distinguished French cellist Christophe Coin and Il Giardino Armonico under the conductor Giovanni Antonini. |
 Beethoven - Mass in CSally Matthews (soprano), Sara Mingardo (mezzo), John Mark Ainsley (tenor) & Alastair Miles (bass), London Symphony Chorus & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin DavisMany of Sir Colin Davis's finest recordings for LSO Live have focused on choral music and opera. Recent titles have included Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini and Tippett's A Child of Our Time. Beethoven's early Mass in C is written on a less grandiose scale than the later Missa Solemnis yet contains some of the composer's most sublime music for voices. |
Tony Palmer’s films about Stravinsky and WaltonFollowing on from his recent successes, this month sees the re-issue of two more Tony Palmer DVDs - this time taking the two 20th century composers Igor Stravinsky and William Walton as his subjects. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 27th September 2008 |
Building a Library - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 'Tempest' |
 First Choice(complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos)Claudio Arrau (piano) |
Disc of the Week |
 Berlioz - Symphonie FantastiqueBerliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle |
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