Coming Soon,
Monteverdi from Raphaël Pichon and other forthcoming highlights
There are a couple of treats in store for opera fans, too, with DVD/Blu-ray releases of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (with Bryn Terfel in the title-role) from Covent Garden, and last summer's remarkable staging of Puccini's Il Trittico from Salzburg - with Asmik Grigorian triumphing in all three main soprano roles...
Reviewing the DVD of Pichon's 'assured, energetic and satisfying' account of the Monteverdi Vespers from Versailles back in 2020, Gramophone's Lindsay Kemp remarked: 'I feel sure a studio recording will be along, and that when it comes it will be well worth hearing'. There's still a couple of months to wait, but one will be along on 1st September, with soloists including Céline Scheen and Perrine Devillers.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Seven years on from their much-garlanded recording of the Mozart violin concertos (which was Gramophone's Recording of the Year in 2017), Faust and Antonini team up again to explore the solo concertos and concerti grossi of Pietro Locatelli, one of the most innovative composer-virtuosos of the early eighteenth century. At the heart of their programme is 'Il Pianto d'Arianna', which Antonini describes as 'a psychological exploration of the fluctuating states of mind of Ariadne after she has been abandoned by her beloved Theseus'.
Released 25th August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This first instalment of a series celebrating the Grammy-Award-winning American composer features the concerto for orchestra Cloud Slant (inspired by three of Helen Frankenthaler's paintings), the flute concerto Solitary the Thrush, the strings-only Pacific Visions, and the 'poem for orchestra' Quiet in the Land (reworked from a 2003 piece for flute, clarinet, cor anglais, viola and cello, which was composed in response to the invasion of Iraq that year).
Released 14th July.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Hahn's teacher Jascha Brodsky was a pupil of Ysaÿe, and she describes the experience of listening to the composer's own recordings as 'like rummaging around in your grandparents’ attic, opening a box of family photos, and seeing your own face gazing at you from the image of an ancestor'. Her recording of his six solo sonatas was made last autumn, and commemorates the centenary of their composition.
Released 14th July.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following several fascinating albums exploring the music of lesser-spotted Baroque composers (including several fascinating figures from his native Croatia), Čičić tackles one of the cornerstones of the solo violin repertoire. The recording was made in the spring of 2021 at Crichton Collegiate Church: Čičić was inspired by guitarist Sean Shibe's Bach album Pour La Luth Ò Cembal, which was captured at the same atmospheric venue two years earlier.
Released 28th July.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Trio Dichter (comprising violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, cellist Hanna Salzenstein and pianist Fiona Mato) make their debut with a programme charting an imaginary visit to the home of the two composers - featuring Robert's Piano Trio No. 2 and excerpts from Kinderszenen (in their own new arrangement), the first of Clara's Drei Romanzen, and shorter works by JS Bach, Brahms and Niels Gade.
Released 25th August.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Sounds and Sweet Airs
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)
Surely a contender for album-cover of the year, this 'Shakespeare Songbook' features Tippett's Three Songs for Ariel, Honegger's Deux Chants d'Ariel and Frances-Hoad's Rosalind, plus individual songs by composers including Ireland, Poulenc, Coleridge-Taylor, Beach, Sullivan, Schubert and Dring. Williams's own setting of 'Sigh no More, Ladies' from Much Ado About Nothing receives its world premiere recording.
Released 21st July.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Savall founded Orpheus XII to 'enhance the integration of professional refugee or immigrant musicians through the transmission and sharing of their culture' after visiting Calais in April 2016. The ensemble's debut recording sees them joining forces with Hespèrion XXI for a programme of music from Syria, Bangladesh, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Greece, Lebanon, Iraq , Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.
Released 4th August.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Puccini: Il Trittico (DVD)
Asmik Grigorian (Lauretta/Giorgetta/Suor Angelica), Misha Kiria (Schicchi), Karita Mattila (La Zia Principessa), Roman Burdenko (Michele), Joshua Guerrero (Luigi), Alexey Neklyudov (Rinuccio); Wiener Philharmoniker, Franz Welser-Möst, Christof Loy
Filmed at the Salzburg Festival last year, Loy's production reshuffles the three one-act operas to powerful effect, opening with the hi-jinx of Schicchi and ending with an especially heart-rending staging of Suor Angelica (with Karita Mattila stepping into contralto territory as Angelica's implacable aunt). The New York Times hailed Grigorian (who sings all three main soprano roles) as 'an intense actress with a voice of shivery directness', whilst The Telegraph described Loy's staging 'bizarre but brilliant...justif[ying] the re-ordering of Puccini’s works'.
Released 28th July.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (DVD)
Bryn Terfel (Boris), Kostas Smoriginas (Andrey Shchelkalov), John Graham-Hall (Shuisky), Ain Anger (Pimen), David Butt Philip (Gregory), John Tomlinson (Varlaam), Rebecca de Pont Davies (Hostess); Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, Richard Jones
This Covent Garden production from 2016 used the original 1869 version of Mussorgsky's score, and featured Terfel's debut as the eponymous tsar: Classical Source declared that the Welsh bass-baritone 'devours every scene he is in', whilst The Guardian noted that 'Terfel makes his character unusually sympathetic – and pathetic too'. The Evening Standard, meanwhile, observed that 'Jones’s psychologically probing production, laced with flashes of grim humour, superbly evokes the wild-eyed manic quality of this Boris'.
Released 28th July.
Available Format: DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
