New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 23rd March
Today’s highlights include the third instalment of Andrew Manze's superb Vaughan Williams cycle with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Robin Ticciati's complete Brahms symphonies with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, a scintillating Prokofiev double-act from Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan, and a vivacious Vivaldi Gloria from Diego Fasolis and two starry vocal soloists.
Ticciati's final recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (he's now at the helm of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) is already receiving rave reviews, with the Financial Times describing it as 'a living, breathing, younger man’s Brahms, ready to win new hearts'. Read Katherine's extensive interview with him about the project here.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Argerich joins forces with Armenian-American pianist Sergei Babayan for a programme of his own transcriptions of music by Prokofiev for two pianos including excerpts from War and Peace and Romeo and Juliet. We wondered at first whether Tchaikovsky also featured – but the Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades here are indeed Prokofiev’s, written for an abortive play and film-score respectively.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The third instalment of Manze's acclaimed Vaughan Williams cycle from Liverpool (which BBC Music Magazine has praised for offering 'expressive and atmospheric playing, rarely heard since Boult') pairs two contrasting symphonies from the mid-1940s: the serene, pastoral Fifth and the apocalyptic Sixth.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vivaldi: Gloria
Julia Lezhneva (soprano), Franco Fagioli (countertenor) I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Fasolis is one of the leading Vivaldi interpreters of today, and he imbues the ‘Red Priest’'s most popular choral work with his trademark vitality. The two star singers also contribute one solo work each: Fagioli takes the psalm-setting Nisi Dominus, and Lezhneva the luminous motet Nulla in mundo (heavily embellished by her trademark pearly coloratura!).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Captured live in concert, Järvi conducts Schoenberg’s orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor and Webern’s arrangement of the Ricercar a 6 from Bach’s A Musical Offering, plus Webern’s own Langsamer Satz in a transcription for string orchestra by the conductor Gerard Schwarz.
Available Format: CD
The second volume of Hanslip and Driver's Beethoven series (taken from live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3) presents the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Sonatas; the cycle has garnered praise from The Strad for the duo's 'warm and spirited' playing and from BBC Music Magazine for their 'sense of intimate responsiveness'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This French-themed programme from the Korean violinist, who turns seventy on Monday, includes the Franck Violin Sonata (a work which she's previously recorded to great acclaim with Radu Lupu), plus Fauré’s Sonata No 1 and transcriptions of smaller-scale pieces by both composers plus Debussy and Elgar.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A 13-CD celebration of the French violist (born 1948), including Berlioz's Harold en Italie (in both its orchestral and piano incarnations), Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio and Sinfonia Concertante K364, Hindemith's Trauermusik, and works by Hummel, Bruch, Hoffmeister, Liszt and more.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
