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Presto News - 27th February 2012Vivaldi: Sacred vocal works and concertos |
 I have a lovely Vivaldi disc to tell you about this week, and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to since last April, when I heard some of it live at one of the three days of recording sessions at St John the Evangelist Church in South London. Containing a mixture of instrumental concertos and sacred vocal works for solo soprano, it provides welcome variety and contrast that you don’t always get on discs of Vivaldi.  Florilegium It also mixes the familiar with the virtually unknown. Of the former category is the beautiful motet Nulla in mundo pax sincera, most famously used in the film Shine, and as soprano Elin Manahan Thomas explains on the short video trailer below, this was her first real introduction to singing Baroque music. Of the unknown variety is the flute concerto named Il Gran Mogol, which was only rediscovered in 2010 and here receives only it’s second ever recording. With flautist Ashley Solomon and his superb period instrument ensemble Florilegium, this whole disc represents music making of the highest calibre. The vocal works are undoubtedly two of Vivaldi’s finest works of the genre, and the pure and fresh sounding voice of Elin Manahan Thomas provides a highly persuasive account. An agile technique and perfect intonation are key requirements for this repertoire with its mixture of florid vocal lines and tender expressive ones, and it is hard to imagine anyone better in this respect. The Laudate Pueri is a memorable performance, not least for the beautiful duet with Ashley Solomon’s flute in the Gloria Patri. It is a very moving account and you can see and hear much of it on the video trailer below.  Elin Manahan Thomas Elin Manahan Thomas has a further opportunity to demonstrate her impressive technique and unmannered natural sound in Nulla in mundo pax which after a touchingly simple opening movement is followed by a quasi-operatic recitative and two faster movements full of flourishes and ornamentation. Ravishingly sung, and superbly supported and accompanied by the conductorless Florilegium, my only disappointment is that they couldn’t find time to record the lovely Salve Regina as well! The most eye-catching piece here is probably the recently discovered Flute Concerto Il Gran Mogol, which received considerable mainstream press coverage when it was discovered about eighteen months ago. It isn’t the world premiere recording (that honour went to Katy Bircher and La Serenissima on a disc released a few months ago), but will still be new to most people. It was believed to be written by Vivaldi in the late 1720s or early 1730s and was one of four short concertos on a ‘national’ theme – in this case the Gran Mogol referring to India or the Mogul Empire. To date this is the only one of the four to have been located, and was discovered by musicologist Andrew Woolley in Edinburgh. It is a short, and well-crafted work, and receives a sensitive reading from Ashley Solomon with carefully thought out ornamentation and a lovely blending of his sound with that of the ensemble. If anything it comes across perhaps more like a piece of chamber music for flute and ensemble rather than the concerto in the traditional sense. I think this is intentional and works very well. The disc is concluded with one of Vivaldi’s numerous double concertos – for two solo instruments and string orchestra. In this case the solo instruments are violin and cello with Bojan Cicic (violin) and Jennifer Morsches (cello) providing stylistic and entertaining performances. There is much to enjoy on this disc, and if you only know Vivaldi from the Four Seasons then this is an ideal introduction to some of the other much more varied (and in some respects more interesting) repertoire that he composed.
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 Vivaldi: Sacred works for soprano & concertosElin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Ashley Solomon (flute), Florilegium
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
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Watch: A short video trailer (in French, but with lots of music!)New Releases27th February 2012 |
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. |
 Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & Firebird SuiteBudapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer"Ivan Fischer's new Rite of Spring is lean and hungry, razor-sharp and matches his description of it: "fresh, pagan, scary, new and beautiful". The Observer |
 The Romantic Piano Concerto 56 - Kalkbrenner 2 & 3Howard Shelley (piano & conductor), Tasmanian Symphony OrchestraIf the name Friedrich Kalkbrenner is familiar at all, it’s probably for his famous suggestion that Chopin would benefit from three years of study with him (a bold offer the Pole wisely turned down). But, as Hyperion’s ever-expanding Romantic Piano Concerto series has repeatedly shown, received historical opinion and musical quality don’t always go hand in hand. With Volume 56 we reach the second and final instalment of Kalkbrenner’s concertos, dazzlingly played by Howard Shelley, directing the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard. |
 Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo VänskäBIS present a new recording of Jean Sibelius’s Symphonies 2 and 5 from the Minnesota Orchestra and their Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä. Beginning in the early 1990s, seminal recordings with Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra of tone poems and the seven symphonies stood at the forefront of a new interpretative approach to the composer’s music.
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 Brahms: Works for chorus and orchestraCollegium Vocale Gent & Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe HerrewegheAnn Hallenberg, whose voice won over the public of some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, takes on the Rhapsody for contralto solo and men's chorus by Brahms while the rest of the programme leads the listener through his essential works for chorus and orchestra. |
 Stravinsky: The FirebirdBergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew LittonFollowing the success of their recordings of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton here perform The Firebird. The disc also includes arrangements of pieces by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, ending with Stravinsky’s tongue-in-cheek 1955 Greeting Prelude for the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux.
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 Spohr: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Howard ShelleyWe talk of the nine symphonies of Beethoven and Bruckner but what about the ten of Spohr? Howard Shelley and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conclude their survey of his symphonies with two that push the boundaries of the genre itself. Both Nos. 7 and 9 are programmatic works, something that Spohr along with Berlioz did much to champion. In the Seventh, titled ‘The earthly and divine in human life’ and inspired by a holiday in Switzerland, he uses not one but two orchestras to great colouristic effect. His Ninth explores that perennial favourite theme of composers from Vivaldi to Glazunov, the Seasons (though Spohr starts with winter rather than spring). |
 Rautavaara: Modificata, Towards the Horizon & IncantationsTruls Mørk (cello), Colin Currie (percussion), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, John StorgårdsThis new recording couples Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s latest concerto works with an orchestral piece from his early Modernist period (Modificata; 1957/2003) The virtuoso Percussion Concerto Incantations (2008) features the Scottish percussion soloist Colin Currie, who is the dedicatee and première performer of this work. Currie wrote himself the virtuoso cadenza to the final movement. Rautavaara’s Second Cello Concerto Towards the Horizon (2009) was written for cellist Truls Mørk and plays continuously in one 20-minute movement.
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 Medtner: Arabesques, Dithyrambs, ElegiesHamish Milne (piano)‘Write one such piece and one can die.’ So pronounced Rachmaninov, no less, after hearing the second of Medtner’s Arabesques. This is just one of the delights in the enticing selection box offered by Hamish Milne, a long-standing and ardent champion of Medtner’s music. These two discs explore the many miniatures – in size though not in ambition – that he wrote throughout his life. |
Download - download options available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 25th February 2012 |
Building a Library - Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major |
 First Choice(coupled with Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris)Andre Previn (piano), Uan Rasey (trumpet), Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra |
Disc of the Week |
 Dénes Várjon: PrecipitandoWorks by Berg, Janacek and LisztDénes Várjon (piano) |
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