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Presto News - 29th November 2010Christmas Releases |
 With the Ashes cricket series under way, and the first flakes of snow starting to cause the usual chaos to the UK’s fragile railway system, I sense it must be about time to tell you about this year's top Christmas releases. There seem to have been fewer new things this year than in previous years, but any loss in quantity is certainly made up for by the quality, with some absolutely fantastic recordings well worth investigation.  Stile Antico Top of my list is the new disc from award-winning young British vocal ensemble Stile Antico. Working without a conductor, this small group of singers rehearse and perform like chamber musicians, and the results are breathtaking - a beautifully blended, balanced and homogeneous sound while still giving direction and musical shape to the phrases. This new recording groups together Tudor music for Advent and Christmas and is centred around Thomas Tallis’s 7 part ‘Christmas’ Mass Puer natus est. The mass is interspersed with other seasonal Tudor music by Byrd, Sheppard, Taverner and Robert White. There is a short video to watch via the link below, but safe to say this is my absolute ‘must-have’ disc this Christmas. For something a bit different I’ve been really enjoying a ‘Christmas in Russia’ disc from the Don Cossacks Choir of Russia. Christmas Eve in the Russian Orthodox Church takes place on January 6th and is traditionally celebrated by the liturgy of the Christmas Vigil. It is a service that lasts many hours and includes a lot of music, and the new disc contains chants and music from the Christmas Vigil. The choir have an amazing sound with the depth and resonance of the low basses particularly striking. I really enjoyed it and it is well worth hearing. Bach choral works performed on modern instruments is pretty rare these days and when you’re considering options for a work like the Christmas Oratorio it is very easy not to look beyond the number of excellent period-instrument recordings under the likes of Gardiner, Jacobs, Harnoncourt and co. With that in mind I have to admit it took me a while to get round to listening to Riccardo Chailly’s new modern instrument recording with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. But I’m really glad I did, as it is not far short of revelatory. He proves beyond any doubt that vivid, stylistically aware performance is not at all the exclusive preserve of period instrument ensembles. In this recording the orchestra are superb and the huge tonal richness which the choir and orchestra reach in the climaxes is incredibly powerful. Meanwhile the soloists, led by Martin Lattke as the Evangelist, are all top quality. Finally, if you’re after something a little more light-hearted and dare I say it ‘to have on in the background’ while doing such festive things as making mince pies or decorating the Christmas tree, then look no further than the new John Rutter album ‘A Song in Season’. No living composer has come to be more closely associated with Christmas than John Rutter and his combination of uplifting melodies, choir-friendly textures and just the right amount of frivolity has attracted a massive audience. This new recording is superbly performed by the Cambridge Singers & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and if you like Rutter (which I know not everyone does) you won’t be disappointed. There are many other new seasonal releases worth a look and you can browse full details of them on our special Christmas page here.
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 Puer natus estTudor Music for Advent & ChristmasStile Antico |
 Christmas in RussiaRussian Orthodox Christmas VespersDon Cossacks Choir Russia, Marcel Nicolajevich Verhoeff (direction) |
 Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248Martin Lattke (Evangelist), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Wiebke Lehmkuhl (alto), Wolfram Lattke (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass), Leipzig Gewandhausorchester & Dresdner Kammerchor, Riccardo Chailly |
 John Rutter: A Song in SeasonCambridge Singers & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Rutter |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Watch a short videoNew Releases29th November 2010 |
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. |
 Bach - Cantatas Volume 47Hana Blažíková (soprano), Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Satoshi Mizukoshi (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass), Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki SuzukiAs always the opening choruses are of particular interest, for instance that of Cantata BWV47, a striking example of Bach’s skills in illustrating a text in music but also a highly complex composition in which the interplay between choir and orchestra is beautifully balanced. The soloists also have their share of fine moments on this instalment. Hana Blažíková, dubbed ‘an ideal Bach soprano’ in International Record Review on account of her performance on the previous Cantata volume, performs the charming and playful aria ‘Auch mit gedämpften, schwachen Stimmen’ with solo violin, while Robin Blaze and Peter Kooij – both veterans of this series – each have received a true display piece in the form of the two arias of BWV27. |
 Lyapunov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2Shorena Tsintsabadze (piano), Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry YablonskySergey Lyapunov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 deserves a place among the great Romantic piano concertos, while the Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes bears the imprint of Liszt’s virtuosic pianistic style. As a Russian Nationalist composer, Lyapunov was strongly influenced by Mily Balakirev, leader of the ‘Mighty Handful’ of composers, to whom he dedicated his Glinka Prize-winning Piano Concerto No. 1. |
 Vivaldi: Ercole sul TermodonteRolando Villazon (Ercole), Patrizia Ciofi (Orizia), Diana Damrau (Martesia), Joyce DiDonato (Ippolita), Vivica Genaux (Antiope), Topi Lehtipuu (Telemone), Philippe Jaroussky (Alceste), Romina Basso (Teseo), Europa Galante, Fabio BiondiHercules reborn! Rolando Villazón and Joyce DiDonato lead a dazzling cast in Vivaldi’s opera Ercole sul’Termodonte, first heard in Rome in 1723 and reconstructed by conductor Fabio Biondi from the original libretto, historical scores and his intimate knowledge of the composer. |
 JS Bach: Oboe ConcertosAlexei Ogrintchouk (oboe/director), Swedish Chamber OrchestraIn many of J. S. Bach’s cantatas, passions and oratorios, the oboe – and its various relatives such as the oboe d’amore and oboe da caccia – plays a prominent role. Using it as his preferred obbligato instrument, Bach obviously cherished the versatility of the oboe and selected it to accompany arias that deal with grief and heavenly joys, repentance and pastoral calm. Researchers have for a long time thought that his keyboard concertos were originally composed for other instruments, and much evidence points to certain of them being intended for the oboe, or oboe d’amore. Four such works have been gathered here, together with the Adagio from the composer’s Easter Oratorio, in performances by Alexei Ogrintchouk, one of today’s outstanding oboists. |
 Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52 'Lobgesang'Ruth Ziesak (soprano), Mojca Erdmann (soprano) & Christian Elsner (tenor), MDR Radio Choir & MDR Symphony Orchestra, Jun MärklHot on the heels of October’s release of Elijah, comes a new recording of Mendelssohn’s opulent Symphony No. 2 ‘Lobgesang’. Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony, and Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, Jun Märkl is one of the most notable conductors of his generation. Mendelssohn’s immense Symphony No. 2 enjoyed great success following its 1840 première in Leipzig. Using texts from the Lutheran Bible, he created a stirring symphonic cantata in which the whole world unites in a triumphant song to the Heavenly Father. Jun Märkl, whose Naxos recordings have gained high praise, leads an outstanding line-up of artists in this thrilling performance. |
 Järnefelt: Orchestral WorksLahti Symphony Orchestra, Jaakko KuusistoCompleted in the spring of 1893, Järnefelt’s Serenade was composed in Paris, and the French influence – especially that of his teacher Massenet – can be clearly heard. Two years later, in the Symphonic Fantasy, composed after a momentous visit to Bayreuth, the influences are rather Wagnerian, and especially obvious in the central slow section with its clear reminiscences of Parsifal. The programme closes with Berceuse for violin and orchestra. The piece is a beautifully atmospheric miniature which has found a place in concerts of lighter music all over the world. |
 Mahler: Symphony No. 4 and Rückert-Lieder - DVDMagdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio AbbadoIn Summer 2010 Claudio Abbado and his outstanding Lucerne Festival Orchestra performed another symphonic work by Gustav Mahler: the Symphony No. 4. Abbado combines the orchestral work (which features a solo soprano in the finale) with Mahler’s “Rückert-Lieder”. Soloist in both works is the Czech soprano Magdalena Kožená. Magdalena Kožená does not only make the “heavenly joys” resound in the final movement of Mahler’s fourth symphony. Before that, she devotes herself to the seraphic beauty and intimate simplicity of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder. |
 Verdi: Simon Boccanegra - DVDPlácido Domingo (Simon Boccanegra), Marina Poplavskaya (Amelia Grimaldi/Maria Boccanegra), Joseph Calleja (Gabriele Adorno), Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio PappanoPlácido Domingo’s triumphant “return” to his baritone roots (his first debut with the Mexican National Opera, in 1959, was as a baritone), is captured in this stunning 2-DVD set of the Royal Opera House’s 2010 production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Domingo is joined by Marina Poplavskaya, Joseph Calleja, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Jonathan Summers and Lukas Jakobski in this Antonio Pappano conducted performance, directed by Elijah Moshinsky. |
Listen - sound samples available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 27th November 2010 |
Building a Library - Wolf, H: Mörike-Lieder |
 First ChoiceJoan Rodgers (soprano), Stephan Genz (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano) |
Disc of the Week |
 Bellini: I PuritaniJohn Kentish (Bruno), Joan Sutherland (Elvira), Nicola Filacuridi (Arturo), Giuseppe Modesti (Giorgio), Ernest Blanc (Riccardo), David Ward (Valton) & Monica Sinclair (Enrichetta), The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & The Glyndebourne Chorus, Vittorio Gui |
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