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New Release Round-Up - 13th January 2023
13th Jan 2023
Elgar's 'Viola Concerto' from Timothy Ridout, Beethoven from Midori and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lully's Psyché from Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset, and an album commemorating the 400th anniversary of the deaths of William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes from The King's Singers & Fretwork.
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Stravinsky from Isabelle Faust and other forthcoming highlights
11th Jan 2023
Other stand-out releases for early spring include a second album of English music for strings from John Wilson & Sinfonia of London, Schumann & Brahms from Benjamin Grosvenor, and world premiere recordings of Margaret Bonds's Credo & Simon Bore the Cross.
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New Release Round-Up - 6th January 2023
6th Jan 2023
Poulenc from Véronique Gens, Janáček, Brahms & Bartók from Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say, Malcolm Arnold from Michael Collins, and Reinecke from Simon Callaghan.
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Bojan Čičić on La Notte
5th Jan 2023
The Croatian violinist speaks to David and Katherine about his collection of 'Concertos and Pastorales for Christmas Night' with the Illyria Consort, released on Delphian in late November.
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La Notte
Bojan Čičić (violin), The Illyria Consort
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Schubert Revisited from Matthias Goerne
30th Dec 2022
The German baritone is on top form in this recital of nineteen Lieder in bespoke orchestrations by one of his regular recital-partners Alexander Schmalcz, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen responding to his simple eloquence in kind.
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New Release Round-Up - 30th December 2022
30th Dec 2022
A Purcell double-bill from Geneva-based ensemble Les Argonautes, an all-Mozart programme from French soprano Julie Fuchs, the conclusion of William Youn's Schubert piano sonatas project, and Italian baroque Christmas music from Dorothee Mields and Dorothee Oberlinger.
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Javier Camarena on Signor Gaetano
28th Dec 2022
The Mexican tenor discusses his recent Pentatone album exploring Donizetti's Italian operas (including rarities such as Betly, Maria de Rudenz and Giovedì Grasso), and explains why singing these works leaves him 'feeling satisfied and happy, rather than mentally exhausted!'.
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Presto Personal Favourites from 2022
23rd Dec 2022
Recordings of works by Coleridge-Taylor, Meyerbeer, John Williams and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson feature among the editorial team's individual picks of the year.
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Julian Marshall and James Gilchrist on The Angel in the Forest
22nd Dec 2022
The British composer discusses his atmospheric song-cycle for tenor and chamber ensemble (released as an EP on Orchid Classics last month) with its dedicatee.
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ATMA Classique's complete Massenet songs project
19th Dec 2022
The label's artistic director Michel Ferland talks to Katherine about one of the most ambitious recording-projects ever undertaken in Canada, featuring over 300 songs and a line-up of artists including Karina Gauvin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Julie Boulianne.
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Jules Massenet - Intégrale des mélodies pour voix et piano
Olivier Godin (piano, harmonium, harpsichord), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Antonio Figueroa (tenor), Anna-Sophie Neher (soprano), Karina Gauvin (soprano), Jean-François Lapointe (baritone), Magali Simard-Galdès (soprano), Marc Boucher (baritone), Joé Lampron-Dandonneau (tenor), Hugo Laporte (baritone), David Jacques (guitar), Florence Bourget (contralto, soprano), Julie Boulianne (mezzo-soprano), Emmanuel Hasler (tenor), Éric Laporte (tenor), Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano), Sophie Naubert (soprano), Stéphane Tétreault (cello), Frédéric Antoun (tenor), Jean Marchand (narrator), Antoine Bareil (violin), Valérie Milot (harp), Marie-Ève Pelletier (narrator), Antoine Bélanger (tenor)
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Mavra/Iolanta from the Bayerische Staatsoper
16th Dec 2022
The young artists of the Munich opera-house's training studio (including Mirjam Mesak and Freddie De Tommaso) shine brightly in Axel Ranisch's ingenious fusion of two contrasting one-act operas by Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky.
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Igor Stravinsky/Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Mavra/Iolanta (DVD)
Mirjam Mesak (Iolanta), Long Long (Vaudémont), Boris Prýgl (Robert), Markus Suihkonen (King René), Oğulcan Yilmaz (Ibn-Hakia); Anna El-Khashem (Parasha), Freddie de Tommaso (Vassili), Noa Beinart (Mother/Marta) Opernstudio der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Axel Ranisch, Alevtina Ioffe
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Christophe Rousset on Les Talens Lyriques at 30
15th Dec 2022
As his ensemble celebrates its thirtieth birthday, the conductor and harpsichordist talks about turning people onto Lully, venturing towards Wagner, and 'opening doors' for the next generation of young musicians and music-lovers in France...
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Véronique Gens in La Voix Humaine and other forthcoming highlights
14th Dec 2022
Other stand-out releases for early 2023 include Clara and Robert Schumann from Beatrice Rana, Mompou from Stephen Hough, Beethoven & Schubert from Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida, and Czech harpsichord concertos from Mahan Esfahani.
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BBC Music Magazine - December 2022 Choices
12th Dec 2022
Chris introduces this month's selection, headed by 'wonderfully refined orchestral playing' from the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jakub Hrůša on two discs of Brahms and Dvořák...
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Recordings of the Year 2022 - Our Top 10
9th Dec 2022
The winners revealed - ten fantastic recordings which really stood out from the crowd for us over the past twelve months, plus the results of our five special category awards...
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JS Bach: Matthäus-Passion
Julian Prégardien (Evangelist), Stéphane Degout (Christus), Sabine Devieilhe & Hana Blažiková (sopranos), Lucile Richardot (mezzo), Tim Mead (countertenor), Reinoud Van Mechelen & Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenors), Christian Immler (bass-baritone) Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
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New Release Round-Up - 9th December 2022
9th Dec 2022
A powerful debut solo album from American soprano Julia Bullock, a Vaughan Williams rarity from Mark Bebbington and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Fanny Hensel from German pianist Sontraud Speidel, and Solti's legendary 1965 Die Walküre in a new remastering.
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Christmas with Diana Damrau
2nd Dec 2022
The German coloratura soprano's festive album is definitely a cracker rather than a turkey, with a first half of traditional German songs and carol medleys followed by a disc of seasonally-appropriate Baroque and Classical arias.
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New Release Round-Up - 2nd December 2022
2nd Dec 2022
Late Beethoven from Maurizio Pollini, Mozart from the Chiaroscuro Quartet, Liszt from Leeds Piano Competition-winner Alim Beisembayev, and chamber works by Caroline Shaw.
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Presto Editor's Choices - November 2022
30th Nov 2022
Orchestral lieder by composer and mathematician Hans Sommer, a centenary tribute to George Walker from The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, warm and witty Poulenc from the late Bramwell Tovey, and a searing all-Russian recital from Gabriel Schwabe & Roland Pöntinen.
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International Opera Awards 2022 - The Winners!
30th Nov 2022
The results of this week's ceremony at the Teatro Real in Madrid, including the winning recordings in the complete opera and recital categories.
