Coming Soon,
Puccini from Angela Gheorghiu and other forthcoming highlights
Angela Gheorghiu, Charles Castronovo and Carlo Rizzi are among those marking the centenary of Puccini's death next year, with other stand-out releases for the beginning of 2024 including Tosti songs from Javier Camarena and Ángel Rodriguez on Pentatone, Lalo from Neeme Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra on Chandos, and Richard Jones's new production of Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila from Covent Garden on DVD & Blu-ray (starring Seokjong Baek and Elīna Garanca in the title-roles).
To mark the centenary of Puccini's death, the Romanian soprano presents a recital of his art-songs, including the world premiere recording of the recently-rediscovered 'Melanconia'; other highlights include the title-song (written when the composer was just sixteen), and 'Sole e amore', 'Mentia l’avviso', 'Sogno d’or' and 'Morire?' (which the composer revisited in La boheme, Manon Lescaut and La rondine respectively.)
Released 26th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The latter four songs also feature on the American tenor's tribute to Puccini (alongside twelve others including 'Casa mia, casa mia', 'Terra e mare' and 'Inno a Roma') in orchestrations by Johannes X. Schachtner. The album also features string orchestra arrangements of the Preludio sinfonico and Capriccio sinfonico which Puccini composed whilst a student at the Milan Conservatory, and Cristantemi (written in memory of Amadeo di Savoia, Duke of Aosta in 1890).
Released 5th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Inspired by his experience of conducting the orchestral suite from Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Rizzi spent much of his time during the 2020/2021 lockdowns crafting similar suites on material from Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Tosca. Reviewing the live premiere of the latter suite (which took place as a curtain-raiser to Leoncavallo's Zingari two years ago), The Arts Desk's David Nice observed that 'Too often Puccini as one of the great orchestrators passes people by in the opera house, but you couldn’t ignore the skill and kaleidoscopic variety here.'
Released 9th February.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The two suites and the 'Valse de la cigarette' from the 1882 ballet Namouna (based on episodes from the memoirs of Casanova) sit at the heart of this album, which also includes Lalo's only surviving symphony and the Overture from Le Roi d'Ys - the only opera to be performed during the composer's lifetime, the latter work enjoyed considerable popularity around the turn of the century, but is now best known for its Overture and the tenor aria 'Vainement, ma bien-aimée'.
Released 19th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Thielemann makes his second New Year's Day appearance in Vienna, conducting a programme which will feature Bruckner's Quadrille WAB 121 (orchestrated by W. Dörner) in tribute to the composer's bicentenary, alongside the usual favourites by the Strauss Family, Carl Michael Ziehrer, Hans Christian Lumbye and Josef Hellmesberger.
Released 12th January; out on DVD, Blu-ray and vinyl on 26th January.
Available Format: 2 CDs
Three years on from their widely acclaimed recording of the Martinů concertos (which was shortlisted for the Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Awards), Zimmermann and Hrůša turn to the composer's Suite concertante and Méditation, preceded by Stravinsky's Violin Concerto from 1931 and the two Bartók Rhapsodies - dedicated to Joseph Szigeti and Zoltán Székely respectively.
Released 12th January.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Uzbek pianist's programme centres on his compatriot Dilorom Saidaminova's evocative The Walls of Ancient Bukhara, composed in 1973 and inspired in part by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (which Abduraimov recorded to considerable acclaim three years ago, receiving a Gramophone Award nomination). It's flanked here by Prokofiev's 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet and Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit.
Released 12th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: Choral Works
Julia Doyle (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), Mark Le Brocq (tenor), Ashley Riches (baritone), Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, David Temple
This quartet of choral works by the siblings comprises Felix's Christmas cantata Vom Himmel hoch & the Goethe setting Die erste Walpurgisnacht (given here in its 1843 version), and Fanny's Gartenlieder for unaccompanied choir & the cantata Hiob; based on the Book of Job, the latter work was composed in 1831 but remained unpublished until 1992.
Released 12th January.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following his Pentatone debut Signor Gaetano, the Mexican tenor turns to the songs of Francesco Paolo Tosti for his second album on the label; the programme features rarities including three French-language mélodies as well as favourites such as 'Marechiare', 'A vucchella', 'L'ultima canzone' and 'L'alba sepàra dalla luce l'ombra' (from the Quattro canzoni d'Amaranta, which are included complete).
Released 19th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This sequel to the 2021 Strauss/Berg/Zemlinsky recital Clair-Obscur is described by the French soprano as 'a clash of deceptive mirages, a kaleidoscope of senses and flashes of light'; her programme includes 'Le spectre de la rose' from Berlioz's Les nuits d'été, Ravel's Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Britten's Quatre Chansons Françaises, two songs from Koechlin's Quatre Poèmes d'Edmond Haraucourt, and Duparc's 'Chanson triste' and 'L’invitation au voyage'.
Released 12th January.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Louise Bertin: Fausto
Karine Deshayes (soloist), Thibault de Damas (soloist), Ante Jerkunica (soloist), Karina Gauvin (soloist), Diana Axentii (soloist), Marie Gautrot (soloist), Nico Darmanin (soloist) Les Talens Lyriques, Flemish Radio Choir, Christophe Rousset
A pupil of Reicha and a friend of Hugo and Berlioz, the French composer and poet Louise Bertin was just twenty-one when she began working on Fausto, a setting of her own Italian-language libretto. The opera was eventually staged in 1831, with the tenor Domenico Donzelli (who would create the role of Pollione in Bellini's Norma a few months later) as Fausto; this period-instrument recording presents the opera as Bertin originally intended, with the title-role taken by a mezzo.
Released 26th January.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila
Seokjong Baek, Elīna Garanca, Lukasz Golinski, Blaise Malaba; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano
Filmed at Covent Garden last spring, this Richard Jones production of Saint-Saëns's Old Testament opera was remarkable chiefly for the house-debut of Seokjong Baek, who had only recently transitioned from baritone to tenor and replaced an injured Nicky Spence at a month's notice: The Stage declared that 'his thrilling vocalism confirms that a new tenor star is born', whilst The Arts Desk noted that his voice was 'wielded with technical perfection from stentorian battlecries to tenderest soft singing'.
Released 26th January.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
