New Release Round-up,
New Release Round-Up - 12th January 2024
![Variation[s], Charpentier's Médée, Reflet, Schumann & Grieg Piano Concertos](https://d2aoby98jiwt0t.cloudfront.net/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwcmVzdG8tY21zLWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImltZzYzNDQ4XzEzNDcwMTk0MDQuanBlZyIsInRpbWVzdGFtcCI6MTcwNDg5NTQwNSwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjozNjF9LCJ3ZWJwIjp7InF1YWxpdHkiOjc1fSwidG9Gb3JtYXQiOiJ3ZWJwIn19)
After a first instalment centring on the Eroica Variations and also featuring music by Mozart, Schumann and Webern, the second volume of Tiberghien's Beethoven project has a distinctly American accent: the 32 Variations on an Original Theme in C minor are complemented by works by John Cage, George Crumb and Morton Feldman. The programme also includes Sweelinck's Six Variations on ‘Mein junges Leben hat ein End’ and Brahms's transcription of the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Charpentier: Médée
Véronique Gens (Médée), Cyrille Dubois (Jason), Judith van Wanroij (Créuse), Thomas Dolié (Créon), David Witczak (Oronte); Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet
With much of Charpentier's sacred music under their collective belt, Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel turn their attention to his best-known opera: a 1693 tragédie mise en musique setting a libretto by Thomas Corneille (whose older brother Pierre chose the same subject for his first tragedy). In a four-star review earlier this week, the Financial Times noted that Gens 'rises to the dramatic heights of Medea’s all-encompassing role', and also praised Dubois's 'stylish' Jason.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, 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'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Schumann & Grieg: Piano Concertos
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Michael Sanderling
Following a superb set of the complete Mozart sonatas and Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4, Leonskaja's new project on Warner pays homage to her mentor and friend Sviatoslav Richter, who made a now-legendary recording of these two concertos for EMI in 1975; the pair frequently performed duets together, and recorded a disc of Mozart sonatas (arranged for two pianos by Grieg) two years before Richter's death in 1997.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
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.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Tellefsen & Kalkbrenner: Piano Concertos
Howard Shelley (piano/director), Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra
Born in Trondheim in 1823, Thomas Tellefsen studied in Paris with Chopin and became a highly respected interpreter of his music as well as a successful composer in his own right. His Piano Concerto No. 1 was dedicated to Oscar I (King of Sweden and Norway) and premiered by Tellefsen in Paris in 1852; No. 2 (composed the following year) was dedicated to the Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, who had facilitated Tellefsen's Paris debut at the Hôtel Lambert in 1851.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Behle's tribute to the two Richards includes a snapshot of Lohengrin (which he debuted to considerable acclaim in early 2020 and repeated at the Dutch National Opera last autumn) as well as excerpts from two roles which he's yet to sing on stage: Tannhäuser's Rome Narrative and Walther's Prize-Song from Die Meistersinger. Strauss is represented by six orchestra songs '(Cäcilie', 'Ruhe, meine Seele', 'Ständchen', 'Heimliche Aufforderung', 'Befreit' and 'Morgen!') and the 'Reverie by the Fireside' from Intermezzo.
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.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Briggs and Layton were both organ scholars at King's College Cambridge in the 1980s, and struck up a friendship based partly on their shared passion for improvisation and admiration for Pierre Cochereau. Recorded at Saint-Eustache in Paris, this programme includes settings of Surrexit Dominus and Vexilla regis (both composed for their alma mater in 2011), a Jubilate and Te Deum commissioned by St David's Cathedral, and The Trinity College Fauxbourdon Service - which Briggs described as a attempt to imagine 'what Byrd would write if he were living in New York in 2020’.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Lully: Atys
Reinoud Van Mechelen (Atys), Marie Lys (Cybele), Ambroisine Bre, Philippe Estephe; Les Talens Lyriques, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset
Rousset's consistently outstanding survey of Lully's complete operas nears the finishing-line with this account of his 1675 tragédie en musique (a favourite work of Louis XIV); the recording was made last year at the theatre in Versailles, where Rousset & Co. will perform the opera again later this month. Atys was Rousset's gateway to Lully's music, when he assisted on William Christie's production and recording of the work in the 1980s - look out for our in-depth interview with him on the composer next week...
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
Carolina López Moreno (Santuzza), Giorgio Berrugi (Turiddu), Domen Križaj (Alfio), Eva Zaïcik (Lola), Elisabetta Fiorillo (Lucia); Balthasar Neumann-Choir & Orchestra, Thomas Hengelbrock
Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in November 2022, this performance presents Mascagni's most popular work in its original incarnation: following the enormously successful premiere in Rome in 1890, the composer made various revisions to the score (including the downward transposition of the church scene, some simplification of the choral writing, and an 89-bar cut in the brindisi). Hengelbrock restores the original keys and excised material, with the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra performing on gut strings.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Thielemann made his second New Year's Day appearance in Vienna this year, conducting a programme which featured 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.
Due for release on DVD, Blu-ray and vinyl on 26th January.
Also due for release on DVD, Blu-ray and vinyl on 26th January.
Available Format: 2 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
