New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 7th July 2023
The Takács couple Dvořák's String Quartet No. 13 (written in 1895, shortly after he returned to Europe from America) with a far less well-known work composed the same year: Coleridge-Taylor was just 21 when he wrote this set of five character-pieces, which draws inspiration from Schumann and Tchaikovsky as well as Dvořák himself. It received its first performance at the Royal College of Music, where Coleridge-Taylor was a student at the time, and is dedicated to his teacher Charles Villiers Stanford.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Szymanowski’s 1915 set of miniature tone-poems inspired by Greek mythology gives this album its title; the programme also includes Handel's Violin Sonata in D HWV371, James Newton Howard's '133... At Least', the 'Burleska' from Suk's Four Pieces, and arrangements of Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee', Ponce's 'Estrellita' and Grainger's 'Molly on the Shore'. The final instalment of Ehnes and Armstrong's recently-completed Beethoven sonatas cycle was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award, thanks to the pair's 'remarkable rapport'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Originally released in 2016 (and shortlisted for the BBC Music Magazine Awards two years later), this much-praised recording has been remastered to mark Les Siècles's twentieth anniversary; the programme comprises the Chamber Concerto for 13 Instruments, Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet and Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet. Roth had just spent five years as Music Director of the SWR Sinfonieorchester of Baden-Baden and Freiburg, an ensemble which worked directly with the composer and 'conserved something of his heritage within their own history'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14
Elizabeth Atherton (soprano), Peter Rose (bass), Jess Dandy (contralto), BBC Philharmonic, John Storgårds
The BBC Philharmonic and their Chief Conductor continue their survey of Shostakovich's late symphonies with this account of No. 14: scored for soprano, bass and small string orchestra with percussion, the work is dedicated to Benjamin Britten and sets poems by Federico García Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and Wilhelm Küchelbecker. It's preceded here by the Six Verses of Marina Tsvetayeva from 1973, originally conceived for contralto and piano and orchestrated the following year.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
For his second album on Decca, the fifteen-year-old Australian violinist takes his cue from Mendelssohn's journeys around Europe, presenting pieces written in Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Munich, Venice & London as well as works which inspired the composer on his travels. As well as the Violin Concerto and Rondo Capriccioso (in a version for violin and piano), the programme features Mozart's Violin Sonata No. 21 plus arrangements of 'Leise flehen meine Lieder' from Schubert's Schwanengesang and 'Erbarme dich' from Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Joachim Mendelson & Grażyna Bacewicz: Chamber Works
Silesian String Quartet, Karolina Stalmachowska (oboe), Piotr Salajczyk (piano)
The Silesians won a Gramophone Award for their survey of Bacewicz's complete string quartets in 2017, and their recording of her piano quintets was a finalist at the BBC Music Magazine Awards two years later. This new album sets two unpublished early quartets (both rejected by the composer) alongside the String Quartet No. 1 and Oboe Quintet by her compatriot Joachim Mendelson, a member of the Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonais who was murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto by a Gestapo officer in 1943.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
The first instalment of the Swedish ensemble's Schumann series (released in 2020) was described by Gramophone as 'a desirable set of this treasurable music', and received four stars in BBC Music Magazine. This second volume opens with the Piano Trio No. 3 from 1851 and also includes the Bach-inspired Six Studies in Canonic Form and the early Piano Quartet (for which the Kungsbackas are joined by viola-player Lawrence Power).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Last June, the South Korean pianist became the youngest person ever to win the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, with Jury Chair Marin Alsop declaring that 'Yunchan is that rare artist who brings profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together'; he also scooped the Audience Prize and the award for Best Performance of a New Work (Sir Stephen Hough’s Fanfare Toccata). This live recording captures his performance of Liszt’s complete Transcendental Etudes in the semi-final of the competition.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Born in Ferrara, Frescobaldi spent much of his life in Northern Italy but came into contact with a number of composers from the South (specifically from the Kingdom of Naples) in the course of his career: Corti's programme explores how he fused the styles of the two regions, and also includes music by Francesco Lambardo, Scipione Stella, Michelangelo Rossi, Rocco Rodio and Giovanni de Macque. (In an interview last summer, Corti informed us that 'I’ve done enough high Baroque for now, so I feel the need to go slightly backwards!').
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This is the tenth instalment of the Orlando Consort's acclaimed Machaut project on Hyperion, which was launched ten years ago with Songs from Le Voir Dit and has been praised for the ensemble's 'magnificent articulation of the texts' (Gramophone), 'exquisite balance' (Early Music Today) and 'eloquence and passion' (The Sunday Times). This volume focuses on motets addressing the Virgin Mary - the 'fount of grace' of the title - and pleading for intercession during The Hundred Years’ War.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Following their 'polished, passionate' (BBC Music Magazine) accounts of motets by Bruckner and Michael Haydn, the Leipzig choir turn their attention to Mendelssohn's a cappella works, including the Three Motets Op. 69, Three Psalms Op. 78, Zwei geistliche Männerchöre Op. 115, excerpts from Die deutsche Liturgie and 'Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen' (which was later incorporated into Elijah).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This programme of Romantic chamber-works inspired by the natural world comprises Weber's Trio in G minor for flute, cello & piano, Reinecke's Undine Sonata, Schubert's Introduction and Variations on 'Trockne Blumen' from Die Schöne Müllerin, and Hurel's own transcription of his Schäfers Klagelied for flute and piano. The recording is released to celebrate Hurel and Couvert's thirtieth anniversary as a duo; their discography together includes Haydn's flute sonatas, and an 'intelligently programmed, sensitively played' (BBC Music Magazine) collection of music by early twentieth-century female composers.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This first instalment of anthems from the Cambridge choir comprises Elgar's Great is the Lord and Give Unto The Lord, Wesley's The Wilderness, Howells's The House of the Mind, Paul Spicer's Come out, Lazar, Patrick Gowers's Viri Galilaei, James MacMillan's O Give Thanks Unto the Lord, and David Bednall's Everyone Sang. Francis Pott's Toccata (performed by Trinity's Associate Organist Harrison Cole) completes the programme.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
