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Presto News - 28th September 2009Unknown Britten |
 Next Monday the record label NMC will release 'Unknown Britten', a collection of rediscovered works by Benjamin Britten. Quite remarkably for such a celebrated composer who has been dead for over thirty years, it contains a number of premiere recordings. Some of these are a bit fragmentary and, although interesting to hear once, probably don’t deserve repeated listening. However there are at least two outstanding things on this disc that I’d like to tell you about today.  Benjamin Britten Firstly, there is a superb performance of the composer’s song cycle Les Illuminations sung by the French soprano Sandrine Piau, but the really interesting thing is that it contains three extra songs which were originally sketched as part of the cycle but dropped before the final version. Here they are orchestrated by Colin Matthews and heard for the first time. Having a French soprano for these songs is definitely an advantage as the text sounds so natural. Sandrine Piau apparently fell in love with the music of Britten when she was still a child singing the role of Flora in the composer’s Turn of the Screw. Without doubt this recording goes straight up there with the very finest soprano versions on disc. The other important work on this disc is the Clarinet Concerto, which was commissioned by jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman when Britten was in the United States in the early 1940s. He started work on it while still in America but when he passed through the New York Customs on his way home in 1942 all the manuscripts in his possession were impounded by the censor because they were thought to contain encoded secrets. By the time they were finally returned later that year he had moved on to Peter Grimes and the Concerto was never completed. The single surviving movement was completed and orchestrated by Colin Matthews back in 1989 but he says he always had the idea of turning it into a three-movement work. Twenty years on he has finally done that, using music from the same period as the basis for the other two movements. I am very impressed with what he has created and, bearing in mind there aren’t very many twentieth century clarinet concertos, this comes as a welcome addition to the repertoire and over the next few years will I expect be taken up by a number of clarinetists. The concerto is played by Michael Collins who sounds on top form, while Thomas Zehetmair and his Northern Sinfonia are outstanding throughout the disc. I’ve put a preview video for you to watch on the website and the whole disc comes thoroughly recommended.
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 Unknown BrittenNorthern Sinfonia, Thomas Zehetmair, with Sandrine Piau, Rolf Hind, Michael Collins ... |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Watch a short preview videoNew Releases28th September 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. |
 Renée Fleming - VerismoRenée Fleming, Coro e Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Marco ArmiliatoRenée Fleming sings opera arias by Puccini and his contemporaries. Celebrating the composers of the Verismo style. There are favourite Puccini arias from La Bohème, Turandot, Manon Lescaut and Il Trittico as well as rarely heard arias by other Verismo composers. Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann also joins Renée Fleming for an irresistible melody from Act II of Puccini’s La Rondine. |
 Brahms - Symphony No. 1Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván FischerIvan Fischer turns his attention to Brahms following three acclaimed and award winning recordings of Mahler. This is a stunning interpretation of Brahms Symphony No.1 – once again Ivan Fisher forces the listener to re-appraise familiar repertoire. |
 Scarlatti, A: Davidis pugna et victoriaFredrik Akselberg (tenor), Martin Oro (countertenor), Robin Johannsen (soprano), Roberta Invernizzi (soprano) & Antonio Abete (bass), Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De MarchiThe banning of opera performances during Lent in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Rome meant that composers had to turn their attention to biblical subjects. However there is no sense that either composer or librettist felt at all limited in their subject matter, judging from the extraordinarily inventive oratorios that were produced during this time. Scarlatti’s work tells the dramatic story of David and Goliath. |
 Mortelmans - Homerische Symfonie & other orchestral worksRoyal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn BrabbinsFlemish music has a rather unusual position in the history of nineteenth-century music, in that orchestral and symphonic music were almost completely subordinated to vocal music. There was little expertise in instrumental music, and this concentration on vocal works (which was seen as part of an inherited French culture) got in the way of the development of an orchestral tradition. However, occasionally a figure would appear who broke the mould. Lodewijk Mortelmans (1868–1952) was one of those responsible for the Flemish orchestral renaissance, and who looked with curiosity beyond the Belgian borders. |
 Bach, J S: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-6 BWV1046-1051 (complete)Kati Debretzeni, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot GardinerJohn Eliot Gardiner and his superb period-instrument chamber orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, record their unique interpretation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos for the very first time. Gardiner conducted only two of the six concertos but rehearsed the others with the players. The responsibility of performing the remaining four is left to the hand-picked musicians of the English Baroque Soloists led by the brilliant, Kati Debretzeni, a true Konzertmeisterin and the inspirational presiding virtuoso of this project. |
 Paganini: Caprices for solo violin, Op. 1 Nos. 1-24 (complete)James Ehnes (violin)James Ehnes revisits the most demanding work in the violin repertoire, and delivers an astonishing new interpretation, focusing on the lyrical rather than the pyrotechnics in the Caprices – though there is ample virtuosity on display here! These works have never been exceeded in the challenges they present for the performer, and as such are the ultimate studies for solo violin. |
 Adams, J: Nixon in ChinaRobert Orth, Maria Kanyova, Thomas Hammons, Marc Heller, Tracy Dahl, Chen-Ye Yuan, Melissa Malde, Julie Simson & Jennifer DeDominici, Colorado Symphony Orchestra & Opera Colorado Chorus, Marin AlsopA longtime collaborator of John Adams and champion of his music, Marin Alsop directs this live recording of Opera Colorado’s 25th Anniversary Celebration production of Nixon in China, presented at Denver’s new Ellie Caulkins Opera House during the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention, and featuring an internationally recognized cast. |
 Arnold - Ballet MusicBBC Philharmonic, Rumon GambaChandos is well known for its recordings of Malcolm Arnold’s music – indeed, they are generally acknowledged by most to rank amongst the finest available – and the recordings of Arnold’s film music are best sellers. This unique anthology of ballet music should prove as popular, for the music is similarly illustrative and entertaining. Few of the ballets are represented in the catalogue and one has never before been recorded (Elektra). However they aptly demonstrate Malcolm Arnold’s versatility, covering a broad range of musical moods. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 26th September 2009 |
Building a Library - Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde |
 First ChoiceAlfreda Hodgson (alto), John Mitchinson (tenor), BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein |
Disc of the Week |
 Rachmaninov: Sonata No 1 in D minor, Op 28; Etudes-tableaux, Op 39Yuri Paterson-Olenich (piano) |
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