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Presto News - 18th June 2012Two terrific Italian Renaissance reconstructions |
 Two reconstructions of religious services from the late Renaissance/early Baroque period this week, both overflowing with gems of Italian polyphony and exuding atmosphere (you can almost taste the incense!). Both come from outstanding British early-music ensembles: Paul McCreesh leads his Gabrieli Consort in a hypothetical re-creation of the investiture of the Doge of Venice in 1595, whilst Robert Hollingworth offers a complete service for the ‘Second Vespers of the Feast of Our Lady’ such as might have been heard in Northern Italy in the early seventeenth century.  Robert Hollingworth After his Striggio disc last year including works for 40-plus voices, Hollingworth has scaled things back a little, numerically speaking, with this programme centring on Viadana and both Gabrielis (the disc commemorates both the 400th anniversary of Giovanni Gabrieli’s death and the publication of Viadana’s influential collection of music for Vespers). There are contributions from Palestrina and Monteverdi, too, but these two giants are very much in a supporting role here: Hollingworth mentions that he was under some friendly peer-pressure to commit a recording of the Monteverdi Vespers to disc, but decided on this slightly more left-field angle instead. I’m extremely glad that he did, as the great discovery for me here was the vital, hugely distinctive music of (Lodovico Grossi da) Viadana, a Franciscan friar writing in the latter half of the sixteenth century: leaving a substantial sacred choral legacy, he was a key figure in the development of the ‘figured bass’ system and was a notable influence upon Schütz and Praetorius as well as upon his compatriots. The performances are as assured and alive as we’ve come to expect from this group. The clean but full-bodied voices thrive in the pleasingly dry acoustic, and there’s some remarkable profundo singing from the young bass Jonathan Sells, dipping down to low D and beyond in the Ab aeterno.  Paul McCreesh Over to ‘La Serenissima’ for Paul McCreesh’s new ‘Venetian Coronation’: some readers may recall the first such disc which the Gabrieli Consort made back in 1989, and the programme has remained (and evolved) in the ensemble’s repertoire ever since. As McCreesh explains in a fascinating and often very touching booklet-note, much has changed in the intervening twenty-odd years, both in the early-music world in general and in terms of his own ideas and research. Several items are performed at a different pitch to that used on the first recording; running-order has been modified, and sections originally given to full choir have been re-allocated to solo voices. If possible, it’s even more atmospheric than the original, with additional pyrotechnics, and the Doge’s jubilatory cornets and sackbuts are splendidly brazen and carnivalesque. What remains constant, however, is McCreesh’s abiding passion for the works of his ensemble’s namesakes – Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli provide the lion’s share of the programme, with instrumental contributions from Bendinelli, Hassler and Gussagno. Unlike Hollingworth, who employs female sopranos and altos (both appropriately clear-toned without being remotely anaemic), McCreesh uses an all-male alto-tenor-bass line-up: collectively and individually, they’re all superb. Although, as McCreesh points out, good cornet and sackbut players are now thicker on the ground than they were in the 1980s, quite a few of the original personnel have returned for this project, along with musicians of the younger generation whom they inspired: there’s a lovely sense of the baton being passed. Both these projects have clearly been underpinned by a formidable amount of academic research, not just in sourcing appropriate repertoire but in reconstructing incomplete sources (the booklet-notes for each disc acknowledge many individual contributors), but what makes them special is that they wear their scholarship so lightly. There’s nothing dry or didactic here – just full-blooded, evocative music-making which oozes dedication and enthusiasm.
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 1612 - Italian VespersI Fagiolini, Robert Hollingworth |
 A New Venetian Coronation, 1595Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh |
Katherine Cooper - katherine@prestoclassical.co.uk |
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Watch: A short video trailerNew Releases18th June 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. |
 Beethoven For All: The SymphoniesAnja Harteros (soprano), Waltraud Meier (mezzo), Peter Seiffert (tenor), René Pape (bass), West-Eastern Divan Orchestra & Vokalensemble Kölner Dom, Daniel BarenboimThe release of the complete Beethoven Symphonies under the banner of Beethoven for All will launch a unique recording and performance project for 2012 in which, in his 70th year, the tireless Daniel Barenboim will also release the complete Piano Concertos and Piano Sonatas. |
 Nielsen & Tchaikovsky: Violin ConcertosVilde Frang (violin), Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eivind Gullberg JensenIn Vilde Frang’s third release for EMI Classics, the energetic young Norwegian violinist continues the idea of Nordic and Russian concerto pairings established with Sibelius and Prokofiev Concertos on her first album. Here the famous romance of Tchaikovsky’s well-loved violin concerto and Scandinavian poise and unique colouring of Nielsen’s concerto are presented in a rare coupling together on disc.
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 Shostakovich: Prologue to Orango & Symphony No. 4Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka SalonenCommissioned to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1932, Orango tells the fantastical story of a human-ape hybrid who, through a combination of sleazy journalism, stock-exchange swindles and blackmail, rises to become a ruthless newspaper baron. Because of its explosive political and musical content, Shostakovich left Orango unfinished. The score remained forgotten until 2004, when a 13 page piano score was found in Moscow. At the request of the composer’s widow, Gerald McBurney orchestrated the Prologue to Shostakovich’s lost opera. Its World Premiere took place at Walt Disney Hall on December 2nd, 2011, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. |
 Buxtehude - Vocal Works 6Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton KoopmanThis is the sixth volume of vocal music (Opera Omnia XVI) in the critically acclaimed series of the complete works of Dieterich Buxtehude from acclaimed early music specialist Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque. It features Membra Jesu Nostri, a rarely recorded sacred cantata based on 13th century lyric poetry. |
 Schubert: String Quartets 'Rosamunde' & 'Death and the Maiden'Artemis QuartetFollowing the Artemis Quartet‘s prizewinning Beethoven Quartet cycle on Virgin Classics, the Berlin-based ensemble has recorded Schubert’s last three quartets, works that Artemis cellist Eckart Runge praises for both their “incredible simplicity and purity” and their “almost terrifying modernism”.
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 Milos: LatinoMiloš Karadaglić (guitar), Studioorchester der Europäischen FilmPhilharmonie, Christoph IsraelLatino includes new arrangements for solo guitar and string orchestra of favourite Latin hits such as Gardel’s Por una cabeza (popular from the film Scent of a Woman), Piazzolla’s classics Libertango and Oblivion, and the folk hit Quizás, Quizás, Quizás. |
 Stravinsky & Martin: Violin ConcertosBaiba Skride (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Thierry FischerFor her previous CD on the Orfeo label, Baiba Skride recorded two highly Romantic violin works by Brahms and has now turned her attention to two 20th-century violin concertos whose composers struck out in extremely individual directions while drawing on traditional formal models. |
 11 KurzopernOriginal Electrola One-Act Operas 1975 - 1980When great masters compose miniature operas, the result is – well, masterly. Mozart, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Gluck, Lortzing and D' Albert: one-act operas from these famous pens are true gems of music history – and of the EMI archives. The Electrola recordings of these 11 short operas (mostly in Singspiel form) were made in the 1970's, but thanks to their all-star casts, which are nothing short of legendary, they seem as fresh as ever. Now EMI is releasing them in a complete edition for the first time. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 16th June 2012 |
Building a Library - Sibelius: Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 |
 First Choice(single SACD coupled with Symphony No. 6)London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis |
 First Choice(4 CD boxed set of complete Sibelius Symphonies and Kullervo)London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis |
Disc of the Week |
 Véronique Gens sings Berlioz & RavelVéronique Gens (soprano), Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, John Axelrod
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