New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 6th July 2018
Today’s new releases include the seventh instalment of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s outstanding Haydn Piano Sonatas series on Chandos, La clemenza di Tito from Yannick Nézet-Séguin (with Rolando Villazón as the merciful Roman emperor and Joyce DiDonato as the friend whose betrayal he forgives), a collection of English song from Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton, and the first recording of Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
Rolando Villazón, Marina Rebeka, Joyce DiDonato, Tara Erraught, Regula Mühlemann, Adam Plachetka; Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
The fifth volume of the Canadian conductor’s Mozart opera project was recorded live in concert in Baden-Baden last summer; Marina Rebeka (a late replacement for Sonya Yoncheva) makes a formidable series debut as the scheming Vitellia, whilst Joyce DiDonato (who made a stunning Donna Elvira on the 2012 Don Giovanni) sings her first Sesto on disc.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Previous volumes of Bavouzet’s Haydn series have been praised for their ‘technical perfection and probing instincts’ (Gramophone), ‘stylistic command and sheer delight in the music’ (Financial Times) and ‘crisp articulation’ (Sunday Times); this seventh instalment includes several sonatas of doubtful authenticity as well as Sonata No. 13 in G major.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Britten’s complete Charm of Lullabies and Tippett’s Songs for Ariel are flanked by songs by composers including Ivor Gurney, Rebecca Clarke, Herbert Howells, Frank Bridge (who supplies the title-track!) and Mark-Anthony Turnage in this nocturnal programme of English song, which Connolly and Middleton will perform at the BBC Proms on 6th August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
Howard McGill (tenor saxophone), Gordon Rigby (timpani), Scott Dickinson (viola), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, John Wilson
The second instalment of Richard Rodney Bennett’s orchestral works includes Symphony No. 2 (commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1968), the Concerto for Stan Getz (scored for tenor saxophone, timpani and strings), the Partita for Orchestra (a British Telecom commission from 1995), and the Serenade from 1977, which was written to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Mass for the Assumption of Christ is the centrepiece of this collection of sacred music by the Spanish priest and composer (1551-1622), believed to have been a childhood friend of Tomás Luis de Victoria; also includes the motets O sacrum convivium, Veni dilicte mi and Assumpta est Maria. Look out for David’s interview with Robert Hollingworth about the project next week.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Whilst Telemann’s sets of 12 Fantasias for solo flute and solo violin are among his best-known and most frequently-recorded works, the manuscript for this group (which Telemann self-published in 1735) was only discovered in 2015. Boothby describes the works as ‘by turns virtuosic and expressive…satisfyingly complete Fantasias that are full of diversity’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Denoth’s exploration of South American guitar music includes Piazzolla’s Verano Porteňo, Adios Nonino, Libertango and Oblivion, plus works by Carlos Gardel, Eladia Blazquez, Ángel Villoldo, Antonio Lauro, and Abel Fleury.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Premiered by Dinnerstein (for whom Glass was inspired to write after hearing her play Schubert) and A Far Cry last September, Glass’s Third Piano Concerto receives its first recording; The Boston Globe described it as ‘beguiling’, whilst The New York Classical Review praised its ‘atypical sense of uncertainty’ and ‘new vocabulary’. It’s paired here with Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 7.
Available Format: CD
Despite the title, this 12-CD box includes a comprehensive selection of Reger’s compositions for solo voices/chorus and orchestra (such as the Requiem, Psalm 100, Die Weihe der Nacht and Gesang der Verklärten) as well as the Variations and Fugues on Mozart, Hiller and Beethoven, Eine romantische Suite, Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy, the Sinfonietta, and the violin and piano concertos.
Available Format: 12 CDs
Verbier Festival: 25 Years of Excellence
Yuja Wang (piano), Martha Argerich (piano), Truls Mørk (cello), Ilya Gringolts (violin), Daniil Trifonov (piano), Verbier Festival Orchestra
This set of previously unreleased live recordings from the Swiss festival includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Martha Argerich, Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 with Truls Mørk, Ilya Gringolts and Daniil Trifonov, and Act Three of Die Walküre with Iréne Theorin, Bryn Terfel and Eva-Maria Westbroek, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
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