New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 1st June 2018
Today’s highlights include Elgar’s Second Symphony from Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a trio of live Strauss recordings from Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Claus Guth’s powerful staging of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito from the 2017 Glyndebourne Festival, and a Schubert recital with a difference from Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton.
Hot on the heels of their final Walton recording together (you can read David’s interview with him about the project here), Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra return to Elgar following a Symphony No. 1 that attracted attention for the conductor’s ‘feeling for pace and colour’ (Classical Music) and the ‘special splendour of the brass and strings’ (The Sunday Times).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
He’s since triumphed at Glyndebourne with a glorious Ariadne auf Naxos (available on Opus Arte), but these live excerpts from Die Frau ohne Schatten in 2012 constitute Jurowski’s earliest Strauss recording; Eine Alpensinfonie dates from 2016 and the Dance of the Seven Veils from 2013.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Wagner: Das Rheingold
Samuel Youn (Alberich), Iain Paterson (Wotan), Susan Bickley (Fricka), Will Hartmann (Loge), Nicky Spence (Mime); The Hallé, Sir Mark Elder
Recorded live at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in November 2016, Elder’s account of the Vorabend to Wagner’s epic drama features Iain Paterson (who will sing the role at the 2020 Bayreuth Festival) as Wotan; the cast also includes Samuel Youn and Will Hartmann, who both won praise from The Guardian for their ‘malign plausibility’ as Alberich and Loge.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following In the Night from 2014, the pianist-composer offers another nocturnally-themed recital of his own transcriptions and compositions, including music by Liszt, Sibelius, Chaminade, Albéniz, Eric Coates and Julius Isserlis (the grandfather of Hough’s friend and regular collaborator Steven).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The seventh instalment in Hewitt’s ‘quietly dazzling’ (International Record Review) Beethoven series includes the Tempest, the Quasi una fantasia Op. 27 and the Sonata in E major Op. 109 – the final movement of which Hewitt describes as a counterpart of sorts to Bach’s Goldberg Variations (a work which she’s twice recorded, to great acclaim in each instance).
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For their fourth recording together, Sampson and Middleton focus on Schubert’s depiction of female characters (such as Mignon from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, Gretchen from his Faust, and Ellen from Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake) and his settings of texts by women, including Helmina von Chézy and Marianne von Willemer.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Savall and his ensemble explore two centuries of music for viol consort, taking in the courts of Rome, Venice, Madrid, Versailles and London and including music by Dowland, Gibbons, Scheidt, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Legrenzi, Pedro de Araújo and Juan Cabanilles.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
To celebrate the centenary of Polish independence (and the composer’s fiftieth birthday) Tenebrae give the world premiere recordings of Łukaszewski’s Responsoria Tenebrae, Shakespeare Sonnets, Lamentations, and the title-track (which sets text by the sixteenth-century Polish poet Wacław z Szamotuł). Read David's interview with him below...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The third volume of this idiomatic survey of Zelenka’s Psalm settings (thought to date from the late 1720s) includes five world premiere recordings: Confitebor tibi Domine, In convertendo, Confitebor Angelorum, Da pacem domine, and Domine probasti me.
Available Format: CD
Handel: Acis and Galatea
Lucy Crowe, Allan Clayton, Benjamin Hulett, Jeremy Budd, Neal Davies; Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn
The Early Opera Company perform Handel’s popular pastoral in the original Cannons version of 1718, in which the five soloists also serve as the chorus (though here soprano Rowan Pierce stands in for Lucy Crowe, who contributes a more lyrical and voluptuous Galatea than one often hears). Allan Clayton sings Acis with a thrilling heroic edge – watch out for him in the title-role of Brett Dean’s Hamlet, out later this month on Opus Arte.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (DVD)
Richard Croft (Tito), Anna Stéphany (Sesto), Alice Coote (Vitellia); Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Robin Ticciati, Claus Guth
Two outstanding mezzos dominate this contemporary staging of Mozart’s final opera from last year’s Glyndebourne Festival: Alice Coote takes a break from her usual trouser-roles as a ‘magnificently dramatic’ (The Stage) Vitellia, whilst Anna Stéphany (who took over the role from Kate Lindsey at relatively short notice) makes a powerful and assured debut as Sesto.
Available Format: DVD Video
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (Blu-ray)
Richard Croft (Tito), Anna Stéphany (Sesto), Alice Coote (Vitellia); Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Robin Ticciati, Claus Guth
LPCM 2.0, DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
Available Format: Blu-ray
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