New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-up - 20th October 2017
This week's stand-out releases include verismo from Angela Gheorghiu, a heady collection of French song from Marianne Crebassa and Fazil Say, and the first English-language recording of Martinů's mighty Epic of Gilgamesh from Manfred Honeck and the Czech Philharmonic.
The classy French lyric mezzo scored a palpable hit at the BBC Proms this summer with her mesmerising account of Ravel’s Shéhérazade, which forms the centrepiece (in the version for voice and piano) of her new recital with Fazil Say; the programme also includes songs by Duparc, Fauré and Debussy, plus Say’s own vocalise Gezi Park 3.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Eternamente (The Verismo Album)
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Joseph Calleja (tenor), PFK - Prague Philharmonia, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Emmanuel Villaume
For her first solo album in several years, the Romanian soprano tackles roles including Mascagni’s Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, Puccini’s Tosca, Boito’s Margherita (Mefistofele), and Giordano’s Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), plus music by Refice, Donaudy and Mascheroni.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Violin Concerto & Two Romances
James Ehnes (violin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
For his first recording of the Beethoven Concerto, Ehnes joins 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
Benjamin Godard: Dante
Edgaras Montvidas, Véronique Gens, Jean-François Lapointe, Rachel Frenkel Chor Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Ulf Schirmer
Ediciones Singulares continue their intrepid advocacy for little-known French Romantic opera with Benjamin Godard’s 1890 epic based (albeit it very loosely!) on the life of the great Italian poet and his beloved Beatrice, sung here by Véronique Gens who included music by the same composer on her recent album Visions.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Manfred Honeck presides over the first-ever commercial recording of the original English-language version of Martinů’s Babylonian oratorio (one of his last major works), with a starry line-up of English soloists and Simon Callow as the narrator. Watch this space for Katherine’s upcoming interview with the conductor about this extraordinary work in the next couple of weeks!
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Hot on the heels of his second recording of Winterreise (released last month on Hyperion), the charismatic Austrian baritone joins forces once again with his regular recital-partner Malcolm Martineau for this programme of Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39 and Lieder und Gesänge aus Goethes Wilhelm Meister, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For their eighth recording on Delphian, the award-winning vocal consort explore 'hymns to the Virgin' by contemporary composers including Gabriel Jackson, Judith Weir, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Cecilia McDowall, James MacMillan, and father and daughter Andrei and Roxana Panufnik.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
JS Bach: Du treuer Gott (Leipzig Cantatas BWV 101, 103 & 115)
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe
For the third instalment of his Bach cantatas series on the PHI label, Herreweghe focuses on cantatas written during the composer’s second year as Kantor at the Thomaskirche Leipzig: ‘Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott’, ‘Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit’, and ‘Ihr werdet weinen und heulen’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (DVD)
Cyril Auvity (Orfeo), Hannah Morrison (Euridice/La Musica); Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
The acclaimed tenor Paul Agnew (now Associate Musical Director of Les Arts Florissants, with whom he’s just completed a well-received set of Monteverdi’s madrigals) does double-duty as conductor and stage-director for this new production of Monteverdi’s 1607 opera, filmed at the Théâtre de Caen earlier this year.
Available Format: Blu-ray + DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
