Hi-Res Highlights,
Hi-Res Highlights - October 2017
October highlights include impressive solo recording debuts from cellist Camille Thomas and prize-winning pianist Dmitry Masleev, the final instalment of Jonathan Plowright's cycle of Brahms piano works, and reissues of landmark recordings by Jordi Savall, Jacqueline du Pré, Walter Gieseking, and Montserrat Caballé.
The two countertenors (who previously appeared alongside one another on Glossa’s well-received recording of Gasparini’s Il Bajazet) explore little-known duetti da camera by Benedetto Marcello, Cristoforo Caresana, Giovanni Battista Bononcini, Agostino Steffani and of course Handel, several of them premiere recordings.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Camille Thomas plays Saint-Saëns & Offenbach
Camille Thomas (cello), featuring Nemanja Radulovic (violin) & Rolando Villazón (tenor)
The young Franco-Belgian cellist makes her Deutsche Grammophon debut with a programme centring on Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto; Rolando Villazón joins for ‘Je suis brésilien’ from Offenbach’s La vie Parisienne and violinist Nemanja Radulović for a delightful transcription of the Barcarolle from Les contes d’Hoffmann.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
Katrin Wundsam, Alexandra Steiner, Ricarda Merbeth, Albert Dohmen, Christian Elsner; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
Janowski presides over a suitably magical (and often genuinely nail-biting!) account of Humperdinck’s cod-Wagnerian fairy-tale, aided by the warmth and clarity of the recorded sound. In a strong ensemble cast, the dramatic tenor Christian Elsner (who sang Parsifal, Loge and Mime on Janowski’s much-praised Wagner cycle) is the stand-out as a wonderfully creepy Witch.
Available Format: 2 SACDs
Beethoven: Violin Concerto & Two Romances
James Ehnes (violin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
For his first recording of the Beethoven Concerto, Ehnes joins forces with a fellow violinist-turned-conductor and an orchestra with whom he was recently artist-in-residence; reviewing the live performance last September, the Liverpool Echo praised Ehnes’s ‘gorgeous soaring tone and silky smooth phrasing’ and the ‘perfectly pitched accompaniment'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
On this collection of Czech and Austrian works from the Classical period, the Hungarian trumpet virtuoso performs concertos by Neruda, Dittersdorf and Vanhal (these last two arranged from originals for oboe and double bass respectively!), plus transcriptions of shorter pieces by Dvořák and Hummel.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In Plowright’s end is Brahms’s beginning – the British pianist concludes his acclaimed survey of the complete piano works (‘set to be the benchmark Brahms survey for some time to come’ - Gramophone) with the Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 1, along with the 7 Fantasies Op. 116 and the Variations on a Theme by Schumann.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Shostakovich: Piano Concertos & Sonatas
Peter Donohoe (piano), Hugh Davies (trumpet), Orchestra of the Swan, David Curtis
Following on from the success of his recording of the complete Preludes and Fugues earlier this year (praised by The Guardian for its ‘immense dignity and power’ and by Gramophone for his 'clean-cut and perceptive keyboard workmanship'), Donohoe turns his attention to the concertos, supplemented by the first two Piano Sonatas.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Re-Issues
Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy
Montserrat Caballé, Luis Lima, Louis Quilico, Paul Plishka; New York Opera Orchestra, Eve Queler
Despite its popularity during the composer’s lifetime, Donizetti’s 1834 ‘tragedia lirica’ fell off the radar for almost a century before it was revived for Montserrat Caballé in Naples in 1975. This recording was made live in New York the following year under the direction of Eve Queler.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Dvorak: Cello Concerto (Original Jacket)
Jacqueline du Pré (cello), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim
This 1971 EMI recording (the cellist’s final concerto recording with her husband Daniel Barenboim) was hailed by Gramophone for revealing ‘Jacqueline du Pré masterful and supreme, totally individual in her expressiveness’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
"Gieseking’s exquisite, pellucid sonority mirrors the beauty and precision of Ravel’s sound world...his seasoned mastery is something from which all piano connoisseurs can learn." - Classics Today on an earlier remastering of the French-born German pianist's complete Ravel recordings from the early 1950s.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Alfonso X The Wise: Cantigas de Santa Maria
Hespèrion XXI & La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall
Originally released in 1993, Jordi Savall’s exploration of thirteenth-century monophonic songs in praise of the Virgin Mary really springs to life thanks to the new remastering.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
David Smith - Head of Digital
