Coming Soon, Coming soon - Les Troyens from Strasbourg and more…

It's shaping up to be an exciting autumn all round, so here are a few upcoming highlights which we heard about during a recent trip to Rotterdam for the annual Classical:NEXT conference... full details and release-dates for most of these titles should be with us over the next month or two, so watch this space for pre-order links as soon as they hit our inbox!

Les Troyens from Strasbourg on Erato

The stand-out operatic release of the autumn, Berlioz's five-hour epic was recorded live in concert this April, with John Nelson conducting the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg and a distinguished cast including Joyce DiDonato in her role-debut as Didon, American tenor Michael Spyres (who also has a knock-out debut solo disc of French arias due out on Opera Rara in a month or two) as Énée, Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Cassandre, French baritone Stéphane Degout as Chorèbe, and new Erato signing Marianne Crebassa as Énée's young son Ascagne. Nelson has serious form when it comes to Berlioz, with a discography that includes much-praised recordings of the other two completed operas Benvenuto Cellini and Béatrice et Bénédict as well as fine accounts of the Te Deum, Grande Messe des Morts and Les Nuits d'été.

Due out this November.

Monteverdi Vespers from John Butt and the Dunedin Consort on Linn

Following their revelatory (and multi-award-winning) recordings of Bach and Handel, Butt and his Edinburgh-based ensemble turn their attention to Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 for their next release (marking the 450th anniversary of the composer's birth), for which they'll be joined by His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts.

Reviewing one of the live performances which Butt and the Dunedins gave in Scotland shortly before making the recording, The Guardian described the experience as presenting 'the Vespers at their most visceral, compelling and bold as, well, brass'.

Due out on Linn in the autumn.

Dvořák from the Pavel Haas Quartet on Supraphon

The Pavel Haas Quartet's recording of Dvořák's String Quartets Nos. 12 and 13 scooped the Gramophone Record of the Year Award in 2011, so their forthcoming release of the String Quintet No. 3 Op. 97 (with former PHQ viola-player Pavel Nikl) and the Piano Quintet Op. 81 (with Boris Giltburg, recently in the news for his accounts of the Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko on Naxos) promises much.

Recorded earlier this year in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, the disc is due out in October on Supraphon.

Verismo arias from Angela Gheorghiu

The Romanian diva's first new album in six years, Eternamente will include excerpts from two of her current signature-roles, Adriana Lecouvreur (with which she recently celebrated the silver anniversary of her Covent Garden debut) and Tosca as well as arias from three Leoncavallo operas (Zazà, La Bohème, and Gli Zingari), the great monologue from Ponchielli's La gioconda, songs by Refice, Donaudy and Angelo Mascheroni, and three scenes from Cavalleria rusticana, where she'll be joined by Joseph Calleja as Turiddu. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the Prague Philharmonia.

Due out on Warner Classics in late October.

Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream from Iván Fischer

After their widely acclaimed Mahler series (there's no No. 8 in the pipeline, we're sorry to report!), Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra's next recording project is a work which they've been performing together for over twenty years - a Los Angeles Times review from 1994 praised the 'spritely, electric rhythms' of a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl. More recently, they've received very positive notices for a series of American concerts pairing Mendelssohn with Das Lied von der Erde; a recording of the latter (with contralto Gerhild Romberger making a welcome return after her eloquent contribution to their recent Mahler 3) is also scheduled for release during 2018.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is due out on Channel Classics in October/November.

Debussy from Robin Ticciati and his new German orchestra

Following on from an outstanding series of discs with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on the label, Ticciati continues his relationship with Linn Records in his debut recording with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (he gives his first official performance as their principal conductor in September) - the all-French programme centres on Debussy's La mer, with Czech mezzo Magdalena Kožená (who can also be heard as Mélisande on LSO Live this autumn) joining for his Ariettes oubliées in a new arrangement by Brett Dean. Future plans from Ticciati and the DSO include recordings of the Brahms symphonies and more French repertoire in the form of Ravel and Duparc.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons from Rachel Podger

Her recordings of the "Red Priest"'s La cetra, La stravaganza and L'estro armonico were nominated for slews of awards, and this October the British baroque violinist will be back in the studio to record the composer's most popular set of concertos with Brecon Baroque, the South Wales-based ensemble which she founded in 2007.

First up, though, is a new album of trio sonatas by Corelli, Locatelli and Vivaldi, for which she'll be joined by cellist Alison McGillivray, theorbist Daniele Caminiti, and harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz - due out on Channel in September.

Handel Opera Arias from Philippe Jaroussky

The French countertenor will be joined by Ensemble Artaserse for a compendium of arias from Radamisto, Arianna in Creta, Rodelinda, Riccardo Primo, Flavio, Imeneo, Tolomeo, and Giustino - a programme with which he'll be touring Europe in the autumn, with venues including the Wigmore Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Berliner Philharmonie. We also hear rumours of an imminent Handel album on Deutsche Grammophon from Franco Fagioli, who'll be spending the autumn singing the title-role in Tamerlano under Diego Fasolis at La Scala - more details when we have them!

Philippe Jaroussky's Handel disc is due out in October on Erato.

Jaap van Zweden continues his Ring Cycle on Naxos with Siegfried

All of us in the Presto office (and judging from the frequent enquiries I've been getting about future instalments, quite a few of our customers!) have been hugely enjoying the 'Hong Kong Ring Cycle' so far, and the third instalment (recorded in January of this year) is due for release in November; Matthias Goerne returns as The Wanderer, with Simon O'Neill (Siegfried), David Cangelosi (Mime), Heidi Melton (Brünnhilde), Falk Struckmann (Fafner), Deborah Humble (Erda), Werner van Mechelen (Alberich), and Valentina Farcas (Woodbird).