New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-up - 27th October 2017
Quatuor Mosaïques mark their thirtieth birthday with late Beethoven, Steven Isserlis performs on an improvised cello with an extraordinary history, and the Sistine Chapel Choir mine their archives in a new collection of music for Advent.
The first instalment in a complete Beethoven cycle from two musicians praised by Classical Source for their ‘superb collaborative relationship’; the recordings capture the duo’s live performances for BBC Radio 3, the last of which took place just ten days ago.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Veni Domine: Advent & Christmas At The Sistine Chapel
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo), Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Based on original manuscripts (spanning six centuries) from the Sistine Chapel Choir Archive, this Advent collection includes music by Palestrina, Victoria, Mouton and Josquin; Cecilia Bartoli makes a guest appearance in Pérotin’s Beata viscera, becoming the first female singer to record with the choir.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The multi-tasking French contralto sings and directs a programme of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works, based on Alessandro Parisotti’s collection of 24 Italian Songs and Arias which continues to be widely used by singing students and teachers today. Includes music by Pergolesi, Caccini, Scarlatti, Porpora and Handel.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Dance Suite; Rhapsodies Nos. 1 & 2
James Ehnes (violin), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Four years after the success of his Miraculous Mandarin recording with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Gardner returns to Bartók with his Bergen players; reviewing a live performance of the Concerto for Orchestra, The Arts Desk enthused that ‘[Gardner] has a vision for this music…that can easily accommodate the distinctive Bergen sound, and show it off to its best.’
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (1920 version)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal College of Music Brass Band, Martyn Brabbins
Brabbins presents Vaughan Williams’s own favourite of his symphonies in its rarely-recorded first version; the companion-pieces (especially the beautiful setting of Sound sleep for three female voices) are a real delight.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following acclaimed recordings of the Mazurkas in 2010 and the Ballades in 2006 (described as ‘state-of-the-art Chopin…lucid and beautifully poetic’ by BBC Music Magazine), the French pianist takes on the Marche funèbre Sonata and Preludes Op. 28.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This extraordinary project sees Isserlis performing on an improvised instrument with a remarkable history: originally designed for holiday music-making, Harold Triggs’s portable ‘trench cello’ survived the horrors of Ypres and was played by Isserlis at the Westminster Abbey Remembrance Service in 2014.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Their barnstorming account of Belshazzar’s Feast was one of the highlights of this year’s Proms season, so the prospect of Karabits and his Bournemouth orchestra in Walton’s two symphonies (recorded at Poole Lighthouse last year) promises a great deal!
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The effervescent South African soprano shines in arias from Roméo et Juliette, Linda di Chamounix, Dinorah, La sonnambula, La straniera and Lucia di Lammermoor (which she sings at the Metropolitan Opera next spring).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The King’s Singers celebrate their fiftieth birthday in style with this deluxe 3-disc set, which includes a new book about the group’s history, a USB memory stick of all the recordings in HD, plus a signed letter from the current members of the group and a copy of Gordon Langford's hand-written score of Bobby Shaftoe.
Available Format: 3 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
