New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 23rd June 2023
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Freddie De Tommaso (Riccardo), Saioa Hernández (Amelia), Lester Lynch (Renato), Elisabeth Kulman (Ulrica), Annika Gerhards (Oscar); Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Marek Janowski
Following recordings of Il tabarro and Cavalleria rusticana in 2020, this is Janowski's first recording of a full-length Italian opera for Pentatone - it also features British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso in his full-role recording debut as Riccardo, which he's due to sing in Barcelona next spring. Reviewing the recording earlier this week, MusicWeb International praised his 'lyric beautiful tone, elegant phrasing and special Italian warmth and youthfulness' as well as Gerhards's 'charming and glittering' Oscar and Kulman's 'solid chest notes' as Ulrica.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Capuçon and Armstrong made their debut together with a programme of Mozart sonatas at the Salzburg Mozartwoche in 2016, when the young American pianist stepped in to replace an ailing Menahem Pressler, and the works have featured regularly on their joint recital-programmes ever since. And there's more Mozart from Capuçon to follow, with the complete violin concertos (in which he directs the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne) planned for release at the end of September, and the piano quartets in the works for November...
Available Formats: 4 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Interspersed with short readings from the Book of Genesis, this eclectic programme exploring the themes of temptation and taboo includes songs by Grieg, Mahler, Wolf, Poulenc, Schoenberg, Eisler, Debussy and Heggie, plus a rare opportunity to hear Schubert's 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' sung by a male voice. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is Leonello Casucci's 'Just A Gigolo' - famously performed by Marlene Dietrich in the 1979 film of the same name, and also recorded by artists including Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk and Oscar Peterson.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Released to coincide with Pride month, the Welsh tenor's debut solo album celebrates queer composers and poets, and opens with Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (the first of many works written for his life-partner Peter Pears) in a new English translation by Jeremy Sams. The programme also includes Tippett's Songs of Achilles, premiere recordings of four Rupert Brooke settings by Ruth Gipps, and Thomas's own song-cycle SWAN - setting poems by Andrew McMillan and drawing inspiration from Matthew Bourne's all-male production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3 & 5 & Church Sonata No. 17
Robert Levin (harpsichord & organ), Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
This tenth instalment of Levin's survey of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra includes the three K107 concertos based on sonatas by Johann Christian Bach, plus his first original keyboard concerto (composed at the age of 17). Bookending the programme are a concerto movement from the notebook of his sister Nannerl and the Church Sonata No. 17, written in 1780.
Listen to David's podcast with Robert Levin here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Released in anticipation of the Swiss festival's thirtieth birthday, this latest addition to the Verbier Festival Gold series was recorded live over a period of thirteen years. Takács-Nagy observes that he 'somehow knew that magic was on the horizon' from his first rehearsal of Symphony No. 1 with the orchestra in the summer of 2009, whilst the festival's founder and director Martin T:son Engstroem enthuses that 'he manages to make the orchestra sound like a string quartet in their approach, playing with a level of sensitivity and tenacity that one rarely hears outside of chamber performances'.
Available Formats: 5 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Orchestral Anthems: Elgar, Finzi, Dyson, Howells
Britten Sinfonia, Choir of Merton College Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas
Though more usually heard in versions for choir and organ, all of the works here were either originally intended to be performed with orchestra, or were subsequently orchestrated by their composer or a close colleague; the programme includes Bairstow's Blessed City, Heavenly Salem, Finzi's Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice, Dyson's Evening Service in D, and Vaughan Williams's Te Deum in G. The recording has already received a five-star review in Choir & Organ, where it was noted that the Merton singers 'rise with aplomb to the challenge of matching the superb Britten Sinfonia'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Nielsen - Grieg
Daniel Ottensamer (clarinet), Christoph Traxler (piano); Wiener Philharmoniker, Ádám Fischer
The principal clarinettist of the Wiener Philharmoniker steps into the spotlight for the Nielsen concerto, followed by a selection of Grieg's Lyric Pieces (including 'Wedding Day at Troldhaugen', 'Erotikon' and 'March of the Trolls') with pianist Christoph Traxler. Ottensamer's discography to date includes two albums as one-third of The Clarinotts, alongside his younger brother Andreas and late father Ernst - who also occupied the principal chair in Vienna, and shared it with his son for several years.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This recording of Handel's Milton-inspired pastoral ode coincided with a run of live performances, including one at the Barbican last March: The Times declared that 'Christie’s energy throughout was infectious' and praised the 'incisive clarity and finesse' of the choir, whilst the Evening Standard described the American-French conductor's interpretation as 'a masterclass in the Handelian style'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Violin Conversations
Madeleine Mitchell (violin), Andrew Ball, Errollyn Wallen, Wendy Hiscocks, Nigel Clayton, Martin Butler, Kevin Malone, Howard Blake (piano)
Mitchell's love of collaborating with composers was sparked during her early days as a member of The Fires of London, and here she's joined by four composer-pianists in their own works: Errollyn Wallen in Sojourner Truth, Martin Butler in Barcarolles, Howard Blake in 'The Ice Princess and the Snowman', and Wendy Hiscocks in Dry White Fire. The programme also includes music by Thea Musgrave, Douglas Knehans, Joseph Horovitz, Kevin Malone, Richard Blackford and Alan Rawsthorne; look out for our interview with Madeleine about the project next week...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Boesch and Martineau won a BBC Music Magazine Award for their 'splendidly characterised accounts' of Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39 and Lieder und Gesänge aus Goethes Wilhelm Meister back in 2019 and this recording of the composer's most popular song-cycle plus the Zwölf Gedichte von Justinus Kerner is already receiving critical acclaim: last week The Guardian declared it to be 'as fine a recorded performance of Dichterliebe as any released in recent years' thanks to Boesch's 'stealthy, velvety tone and unfailing attention to words' and Martineau's 'ever meticulous' pianism.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Inspired by the work of Gustav Klimt, the British soprano's debut solo album centres on fin-de-siècle Vienna, and includes Alban Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder, selections from Joseph Marx's Lieder mit Klavier-Begleitung and the teenage Korngold's Sechs einfache Lieder, and songs by Richard Strauss, Alma Mahler and Johanna Müller-Hermann. Currently a principal artist at the Theater Münster, Parton will cover the role of Gilda in Covent Garden's production of Rigoletto later this year.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Franck: Hulda
Jennifer Holloway (Hulda), Guilhem Worms (Aslak), Judith van Wanroij (Swanhilde), François Rougier (Gunnard), Véronique Gens (Gudrun); Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Gergely Madaras
Composed between 1879 and 1885 and based on a play by Nobel Prize-winner Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Franck's grand opera about a young Norwegian woman's quest to avenge her family's death at the hands of an enemy clan remained unperformed during the composer's lifetime, and the work was premiered in its original version just four years ago. This recording was made during concert-performances in Liège (Franck's home-town) and Namur in May 2022, which celebrated the composer's bicentenary.
Available Formats: 3 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
