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Presto News - 17th August 2009Gramophone Awards 2009 - Finalists |
 This week sees the announcement of the shortlist for this year’s Gramophone Awards. Generally regarded as the Oscars of the classical music world, they are the most significant honours bestowed on the classical record industry. As usual each record company was able to nominate a proportion of its annual release, and Gramophone critics then voted to produce the top three in each of the 15 categories. These are without doubt some of the finest discs released in the last twelve months and, although it doesn’t really feel like it has been a vintage year for new recordings, this list reminds you what a great year it has actually been.  Some of the categories look particularly intriguing with, for example, rival sopranos Anna Netrebko and Angela Gheorghiu (whom I’m reliably told genuinely do hate each other) going head to head in the opera category for their recordings of Bellini’s I Capuleti e Montecchi and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly respectively. They both face stiff competition though in the form of the late Richard Hickox’s moving account of Britten’s Owen Wingrave. It was one of the last recordings he made and is right up there with his previous Britten opera recordings. Anniversary composers Handel, Haydn, Purcell and Martinu are all well represented and it is also good to see discs of composers like Lully and Morales featuring alongside discs from their more famous contemporaries. Regular readers will recognise quite a lot of discs from the weekly newsletters and on the whole it is hard to argue with the selections made. We’ll reveal the overall winners on the afternoon of October 2nd along with the artist of the year and overall disc of the year. The Artist of the Year is being decided by public vote and if you haven’t voted yet you can do so now on the Gramophone website. You can browse all this year's finalists here.
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases17th August 2009 |
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. |
 Bernstein: MassJubilant Sykes (baritone), Morgan State University Choir, Peabody Children's Chorus, Morgan State University Marching Band & Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin AlsopWhen Leonard Bernstein was asked by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to compose the inaugural piece for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, he wrote ‘The Mass is also an extremely dramatic event in itself - it even suggests a theater work’. Premièred on 8 September 1971, with additional words by Stephen Schwartz of Godspell fame, Mass is a remarkable visionary piece with a kaleidoscope of musical styles that touches on themes of political protest, existential crisis, and religious faith lost and found. |
 Sailing ByThe essential collection of British Light classics!Decca bring you over two hours of the best and most uplifting classics in the repertoire of Britain’s fine tradition of light music, including Ronald Binge’s ‘Sailing By’, familiar to all radio listeners as the introduction to the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4, Eric Coates’s ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, a version of which is used as the theme tune to BBC Radio 4’s much loved ‘Desert Island Discs’ and many more nostalgic and uplifting classics. |
 German: Tom JonesNational Festival Orchestra and Chorus, David Russell HulmeTom Jones, based on Fielding’s classic novel, first appeared in 1907. One of the finest British operettas to follow Gilbert and Sullivan, the music has a style of its own and brings a new Romantic sweep to the genre. Full of superb numbers, such as the famous waltz-song For Tonight, On a January morning, A Soldier’s Scarlet Coat, Dream o’ Day Jill and West Country lad, this is the first complete recording, and includes three numbers cut during the original run. |
 Shostakovich - Film MusicBelgian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Belgian Radio Symphony Chorus, José SerebrierNo other major composer devoted more of his career to film music than Dmitri Shostakovich. Altogether he composed scores for 36 films, from The New Babylon in 1929 to King Lear in 1971. This 3-CD set contains eight of the most popular ones and at bargain price is not to be missed. |
 Boulez conducts BartókPierre BoulezOver the past 18 years Pierre Boulez has made a series of critically acclaimed recordings (including two Grammys) for Deutsche Grammophon of Bartók’s major orchestral works (principally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the complete concertos with leading international soloists and complete stage works. Here is the entire collection on eight CDs, gathered together in a single specially-priced box for the first time. |
 Volume 5 of the Vanguard Alfred Deller Edition - English, French & Italian MadrigalsAlfred Deller (with Consort )135 Madrigals by Thomas Morley; John Wilbye; Thomas Weelkes; Robert Johnson; John Shepherd; Francis Pilkington; Orlando Gibbons; William Byrd; Josquin Desprez; Guillaume Costeley; Clément Janequin; Claudio Monteverdi; Luca Marenzio; Carlo Gesualdo (and others). |
 A Portrait of Tamás VásáryIn 1962 Stephen Plaistow wrote of the Liszt E flat Polonaise on this set that ‘the playing of the E major Polonaise is outstanding: it has bravura, exquisite timing and poise, colour, delicacy, plenty of rhythmic character and an air of ebullient pomp that is quite irresistible.' You might expect such high praise when playing music of his fellow-countryman Liszt, but those characteristics are also true of the Brahms and Debussy which make up this bargain priced 4-CD set. |
 Six New Alto re-issuesAnother batch of budget-priced re-issues includes Dinu Lipatti playing Chopin, Vivaldi Flute Concertos from Jennifer Stinton and a classic Eugene Onegin from the Bolshoi. |
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