Today’s new releases include the penultimate instalment of the Elias Quartet’s excellent Beethoven series on Wigmore Hall Live, two of Mendelssohn’s best-known works in their original incarnations from Anima Eterna Brugge and French violinist Chouchane Siranossian, and a lovely collection of chamber works and songs by the Russian-British composer Alissa Firsova (who herself performs in several pieces).
In Time - Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto & Octet
Chouchane Siranossian (violin), Anima Eterna Brugge, Jakob Lehman
Like Isabelle Faust on her recent recording for Harmonia Mundi, the French violinist Chouchane Siranossian uses fingerings and bowings by Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim, both of whom prepared the Violin Concerto with the composer. Both works here are presented in their original versions: a few surprise twists in the Octet in particular caused ears to prick up in the Presto office!
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Israeli cellist’s new album is something of a family affair, with cameos from his pianist daughter Lily and violinist son Sascha as well as his great friend Martha Argerich; the programme includes transcriptions of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, arias from Samson et Dalila and Die Zauberflöte, the Méditation from Massenet’s Thaïs, and Solveig’s Song from Grieg’s Peer Gynt.
Available Formats: FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Described by Gramophone as ‘a young ensemble with its priorities so evidently in the right place’, this Munich-based quartet won the Twentieth Century Prize at this year’s International Wigmore Hall String Competition for their interpretation of Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 4; for their debut recording on Berlin Classics they turn their attention to two earlier twentieth-century works which they found to be ‘very rich in contrasts, right from the word go’.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Shostakovich also features on the debut album from the Briggs Piano Trio, who couple the Second Piano Trio of 1944 with the First Piano Trio of Hans Gál: pianist Sarah Beth Briggs and conductor and cellist Kenneth Woods are no strangers to the Austrian composer’s music, having recorded his Piano Concerto together with the Royal Northern Sinfonia two years ago on Avie.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Before teaching himself the theorbo, Helstroffer trained in classical and electric guitar, and his first solo album mingles old and new: variations, toccatas and dances by composers including Kapsberger, Piccinini and Castaldi are interspersed by his own music, Satie’s first Gnossienne, and a collaboration with Rosemary Standley, vocalist and guitarist with the French blues rock group Moriarty.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Alissa Firsova: Fantasy
Alissa Firsova (piano), Mark Van De Wiel (clarinet), Tim Hugh (cello), Tippett Quartet
Six chamber works and two songs by the Russian-British composer (b.1986), including the 20-minute Tennyson Fantasy (commissioned by the Tippett Quartet), the piano duet Bride of the Wind (inspired by a billet-doux to Alma Mahler, and performed by Firsova and her teacher Simon Mulligan), and Expressions for clarinet and piano. The album was an Editor’s Choice in this month’s edition of Gramophone.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
