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Presto News - 4th April 2011Mining the archives |
 I suppose it is not surprising that as economic times start to hit the number of new high profile recordings being made, the major record labels have increasingly looked to their archives to provide a steady flow of income. For us collectors this provides the opportunity to purchase whole chucks of catalogue at often very keen prices, and while this practice isn’t particularly new, the quality of the recordings and the prices on offer this year seem to me quite exceptional – Sir John Barbirolli conducting Elgar, Günter Wand conducting Bruckner, Arthur Rubinstein playing Chopin, Glenn Gould playing Bach. The list goes on and on, and includes many of the greatest recordings ever made – recordings which are loved and admired the world over and in many cases are never likely to be surpassed.  Arthur Rubinstein First up then is the re-launch of EMI’s ‘British Composers’ Series. From the very early recordings of Elgar conducting his own works, through a whole host of other composer-conductors to the more recent recordings of Nicholas Maw and Peter Maxwell Davies, this series has always celebrated all that is good about EMI’s commitment to British music. The series has been dormant for a few years now, and during that time a number of the titles have gradually been deleted. It is therefore terrific news that in one fell swoop EMI have just re-issued 34 discs of music (spread across six box sets). In addition to the legendary Barbirolli Elgar recordings already mentioned, you’ll also find Vaughan Williams, Delius, Britten, and virtually every other British composer of note, as well as a 9-disc set of Elgar conducting his own works. If there is one complaint it would be the lack of more contemporary music, but that already looks to be on EMI’s agenda going forward as three Thomas Adès recordings are set to also join this series later this month. In the form of their ‘Collectors Editions’, Decca and DG have for some time been re-issuing their best recordings in the form of box sets, and it is a testimony to the recorded history of the labels that they don’t seem to be running out! The latest additions include Alfred Brendel’s Mozart Piano Concerto recordings, Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert playing Bach, five Rimsky-Korsakov operas from Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Opera, and the small matter of a 26-disc set of Plácido Domingo opera recordings. Sony and RCA have traditionally been slower than the others to ‘box-up’ their archives, but wow have they made up for that now! 28 new box sets totalling nearly two hundred discs, and amongst them some of the most critically acclaimed recordings in history. You simply don’t get better than Rubinstein playing Chopin, or Günter Wand conducting Bruckner. There are so many what I would consider first choices amongst these it is hard to know quite where to begin. I don’t think you’d regret buying any of these, but if you did want guidance on maybe a few to look out for first then in addition to the those already mentioned I’d maybe suggest the Fritz Reiner conducts Richard Strauss set and the Jascha Heifetz plays Great Violin Concertos as great recordings to have in any collection. For a limited period we’ve managed to secure substantial discounts on all the sets mentioned here, and you can view full details on the website via the following links. Featured Box Sets:
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases4th April 2011 |
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. |
 Julia Fischer: PoèmeJulia Fischer (violin), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Yakov KreizbergJulia Fischer follows her extraordinary Grammy-nominated recording of the fiendish Paganini Caprices with a contrasting album − a lyrical and poetic set of impressionistic works for violin and orchestra. Comprising four substantial pieces, this unique program is headed by Suk’s virtuosic Fantasy, a mini-concerto that is now justifiably finding its way into the concert repertoire. It is accompanied by two well-known tone poems – the elegant Poème by Chausson and the English pastoral The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. The album is completed by Respighi’s Poema autunnale (of which there is only one other recording in the catalogue), making the programme truly multinational. |
 Haydn: Piano Sonatas Volume 2Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)The multi-award winning and ever-popular Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is back with Volume 2 of Chandos’ highly acclaimed Haydn Sonata series. This new release follows Bavouzet’s complete Debussy cycle and a number of recent concerto recordings – all of which have been extraordinarily well received by critics and audiences alike, picking up numerous awards along the way. |
 Shostakovich: Piano Concertos and Piano QuintetMartin Helmchen (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir JurowskiShostakovich’s energetic piano concertos feature striking and attractive themes, with sudden changes of mood between the burlesque and haunting, perfectly captured in these live recordings with pianist Martin Helmchen and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski. The Piano Quintet displays perhaps an even greater range of styles within a work of unusual purity written under the looming shadow of war. |
 Liszt: Piano SonataMarc-André Hamelin (piano)The Liszt Sonata is undoubtedly one of the peaks of the repertoire, and recordings are suitably copious, but when an artist of Hamelin’s virtuoso pedigree wishes to tackle it no excuse need be made for an additional version. The recital opens with a lesser-known masterwork, the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, and for light relief there is Liszt’s scintillating supplement to his Italian Année de Pèlerinage, the three pieces of Venezia e Napoli, but perhaps the emotional core of the recital is Liszt’s intensely spiritual Bénédiction du Dieu dans la solitude. |
 French Violin SonatasJennifer Pike (violin) & Martin Roscoe (piano)Jennifer Pike, an exclusive Chandos artist and one of the brightest up-and-coming stars on the musical scene today, named BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002, here performs some of the greatest violin music in the repertoire. On her first recital recording for Chandos, she partners the distinguished pianist Martin Roscoe, and together they superbly capture the Gaelic qualities of the violin sonatas by Franck, Debussy, and Ravel. |
 Górecki: The 3 String QuartetsRoyal String QuartetHenryk Górecki’s intriguing string quartets, all commissions from the Kronos Quartet of San Francisco, signified a new creative phase in his music. The stark contrasts that had been at the heart of Górecki’s compositional thinking in the 1950s and 1960s re-emerged in his chamber music of the mid 1980s and are prevalent in these works. Fans of Górecki will be familiar with the compositional devices employed such as open fifths, sustained rocking motifs, and the juxtaposition of dissonance and consonance. |
 Brahms: Violin ConcertoArabella Steinbacher (violin), Wiener Symphoniker, Fabio LuisiThe Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms is for performers and audience alike one of the loveliest, most challenging examples of the genre. It was with this work that Arabella Steinbacher gave her debut in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in December 2007, the same hall where the composer himself had conducted on occasion. Arabella Steinbacher’s debut was accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Fabio Luisi, who are also to be heard on this live recording in Schumann’s Fourth Symphony. Both this symphony and the Brahms concerto were dedicated to the leading violin virtuoso of the second half of the 19th century, namely Joseph Joachim. |
 Mostly MozartMojca Erdmann (soprano), La Cetra, Andrea MarconMojca Erdmann’s Deutsche Grammophon recording debut combines a variety of Mozart’s best beloved arias and works by his contemporaries such as J.C. Bach, Holzbauer, and Paisiello. The album also features Andrea Marcon and the outstanding period instrumentalists of La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, Basle. Plans in 2011 include her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera as Zerlina in a new Don Giovanni. |
Watch - Video trailer available for this item
Listen - sound samples available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 2nd April 2011 |
Building a Library - Bach, J S: St John Passion, BWV245 |
 First ChoiceGerd Türk (Evangelist), Ingrid Schmithüsen (soprano), Yoshie Hida (soprano), Yoshikazu Mera (counter-tenor), Makoto Sakurada (tenor), Chiyuki Urano (bass), Peter Kooij (bass), Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki |
Disc of the Week |
 Liszt: Funeral OdesBBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov |
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