New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-up - 16th March
Today’s highlights include Bernstein centenary tributes from Yannick Nézet-Séguin (plus 250-odd musicians!) and Liza Ferschtman, Juan Diego Flórez venturing into heavier territory as Massenet’s Werther, a riveting portrait of composer Brian Ferneyhough, and the recording premiere of Hieronymus Praetorius’s mighty Missa Tulerunt Dominum meum.
Nézet-Séguin presides over massed forces (including stage and pit orchestras, a rock band, a marching-band, and a boys’ choir armed with kazoos!) for one of Bernstein’s least-recorded major works, recorded live during staged performances in Philadelphia in spring 2015.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Massenet: Werther (DVD)
Juan Diego Flórez (Werther), Anna Stéphany (Charlotte; Oper Zürich, Cornelius Meister
In a departure from his trademark high-wire bel canto roles, Flórez takes on Massenet’s Byronic anti-hero for only the second time in his career in this appropriately claustrophobic contemporary staging by German director Tatjana Gürbaca, recorded at Zurich Opera House last spring. Look out for our interview with Anna Stéphany (making a spellbinding debut as Charlotte here) about the production later this month!
Available Format: DVD Video
Massenet: Werther (Blu-ray)
Juan Diego Flórez (Werther), Anna Stéphany (Charlotte; Oper Zürich, Cornelius Meister
Picture Formats NTSC 16:9, Full HD
Sound Formats DTS HD Master Audio, PCM
Stereo Region Code 0
Running Time 137:36
Disc Format BD 25
Available Format: Blu-ray
Korngold: Violin Concerto and Bernstein: Serenade
Liza Ferschtman (violin), Prague Symphony Orchestra, Het Gelders Orkest, Jiri Malat, Christian Vasquez
Another tribute to the imminent Bernstein centenary comes from Dutch violinist Ferschtman, who pairs the Serenade with Korngold’s concerto: two works which she sees as ‘the very fine line between popular writing and immense musical sophistication’. Read her recent interview with Katherine about the recording here.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ferneyhough: La Terre est un Homme
ensemble recherche, BBC Symphony Orchestra, EXAUDI, Martyn Brabbins, James Weeks
The Guardian recently described the title-work on this recording (written in 1979 and reportedly sabotaged at its premiere by disgruntled performers!) as ‘one of the most remarkable orchestral achievements of the last half-century’; also includes Liber Scintillarum (2012), Plötzlichkeit (2006), and the early Missa brevis for twelve voices.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
The Cologne-based quartet make their debut on Pentatone with an all-Schubert programme centring on the String Quartets Nos. 8 and 13, supplemented by arrangements of lieder including Lachen und Weinen, Du bist die Ruh, Wandrers Nachtlied II and Die Götter Griechenlands by their viola-player Xandi van Dijk.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A collection of sacred and secular baroque cantatas for alto voice and obbligato instruments, including Handel’s Mi palpita il cor, JS Bach’s Ich habe genug and Vivaldi’s Pianti, sospiri e dimandar mercede, plus music by Melchior Hoffmann and Johann Christoph Bach.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
No relation to the better-known Michael Praetorius, this German composer (1560-1629) spent most of his career in his native Hamburg, where he composed this large-scale Mass for the Jacobikirche; its movements are interspersed with motets by his contemporaries including Lasso, Handl, Gabrieli and Hassler, as would have been typical in Praetorius's time.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bostridge and Drake have been performing Schubert together for twenty years now, and it shows in the best possible way on this fourth instalment of their Wigmore Hall series (recorded on 16th May 2015); includes Der Musehnsohn, An die Leier, Willkommen und Abschied, and a truly chilling performance of the macabre ballad Der Zwerg.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Meyerbeer: Le Prophète
John Osborn (Jean), Marianne Cornetti; Essener Philharmoniker, Giuliano Carella
Meyerbeer’s five-act grand opera on the life of John of Leiden contains some of his most innovative and dramatic music (indeed its success provoked Wagner into writing his notorious diatribe Das Judenthum in der Musik), but recordings are few and far between. Recorded at the Aalto Music Theatre in Essen last year, this version uses a new critical edition of the score.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Our dedicated Naxos New Release Brochure returns this week, where you can browse, read about, and listen to excerpts of all the exciting Naxos releases out this month. Highlights include a new volume in Marin Alsop's ongoing Prokofiev series, featuring the complete music to the ballet Romeo and Juliet, and new recordings of orchestral music from Wagner's Ring cycle, and works by Michael Daugherty and Kara Karayev.
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
