Coming Soon,
Michael Spyres In The Shadows and other forthcoming releases
Highlights for early spring include a programme exploring the composers who influenced Wagner from Michael Spyres, Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset, Wagner transcriptions from Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky, and several family affairs: selections from Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (as arranged by violinist-composer Ferdinand David) from Michael Barenboim and Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim, Saint-Saëns's Le carnaval des animaux from Lang Lang and his wife Gina Alice, and Britten from Isabelle Faust and her violist brother Boris.
Released to coincide with his debut as Lohengrin in Strasbourg, the American tenor's programme sets excerpts from Die Feen, Rienzi and Lohengrin in context by preceding them with arias from operas by composers who inspired Wagner - including 'Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!' from Beethoven's Fidelio, 'Champs paternels' from Méhul's Joseph, 'Suona funerea' from Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto, 'Der Strom wälzt ruhig seine dunklen Wogen' from Spontini's Agnes von Hohenstaufen, and 'Spectacle affreux' from Auber's La muette de Portici.
Released 1st March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Britten: Violin Concerto, Chamber Works
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Boris Faust (viola), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Jakub Hruša
In addition to the Violin Concerto (composed in 1939 whilst Britten was staying in New York and Quebec), this album includes the 1937 concert-study Reveille, the Two Pieces for Violin, Viola and Piano from 1929, and the complete Suite for Violin and Piano Op. 6 - written in the mid-1930s, the latter work remained unpublished until the year before Britten's death, when he revised three movements for Boosey & Hawkes. Faust's partner in the Two Pieces is her older brother Boris, who has been Principal Viola of the Bremen Philharmoniker since 1997.
Released 12th April.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Chinese pianist is joined by Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester for the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, and teams up with his wife Gina Alice for Le carnaval des animaux and Debussy's Petite Suite; the album also includes Émile Naoumoff's transcriptions of 'In Paradisum' from Fauré's Requiem and the Flower Duet from Delibes's Lakmé, and pieces by Charlotte Sohy, Mel Bonis, Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc and Germaine Tailleferre.
Released 1st March.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Perhaps best known today for her Keats-inspired symphonic poem Lamia (premiered under Sir Henry Wood at the Proms in 1919), Howell is one of the composers featured in Leah Broad's Presto Award-winning book Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World. In addition to Lamia, this album includes world premiere recordings of her Humoresque (also composed in 1919), The Rock (1928), Three Divertissements (1950), and the 1921 ballet Koong Shee.
Released 8th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte
Michael Barenboim (violin), Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim (piano)
Following recordings of piano trios by Mozart and Beethoven with his father Daniel and friend Kian Soltani, the violinist joins forces with his wife Natalia for Ferdinand David's arrangements of selections from Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte. Born in the same house as Mendelssohn, David was the composer's concert-master at the Gewandhaus and gave the premiere of his Violin Concerto in 1845, having worked closely with Mendelssohn on the technical aspects of the solo part during the work's genesis.
Released 8th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Russian pianist's programme comprises The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla from Das Rheingold (arranged by Louis Brassin and Lugansky), Brassin's transcription of the Magic Fire Music from Die Walküre, Lugansky's own arrangement of music from Götterdämmerung (including Siegfried's Rhine Journey & Funeral March and the Immolation Scene), the Transformation Scene from Parsifal (arr. Felix Mottl, Kocsis & Lugansky), and Liszt's transcription of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde.
Released 8th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This programme of Marian music from the Italian Baroque includes Porpora's Il trionfo della divina Giustizia ne' tormente e morte di Gesù Cristo, the Sinfonia from Leonardo Vinci's Maria dolorata, Pasquale Anfossi's salve Regina, Pergolesi's Violin Concerto in B flat, Vivaldi's Stabat Mater, and Angelo Ragazzi's sonata a quattro 'Imitatio in Salve Regina mater misericordiæ'.
Released 8th March.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vaughan Williams: Serenade To Music
Isobel Baillie, Elsie Suddaby, Walter Widdop, Heddle Nash et al; BBC Symphony Orchestra, Henry Wood
As well as the world premiere recording of the Serenade To Music (made just ten days after the first performance in 1938), this album from Albion includes solo recordings from the sixteen named soloists for whom Vaughan Williams wrote the work: highlights include Puccini's 'Vissi d'arte' from Eva Turner, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria from Isobel Baillie, Vaughan Williams's Linden Lea from Heddle Nash, and Margaret Balfour in The Angel's Farewell from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
