Today’s new releases include Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and orchestral works by Khachaturian, Kabalevsky, Shchedrin and Rachmaninov from Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann in songs from her homeland, and an arresting debut recording from early music collective Solomon’s Knot, exploring Christmas music from the three ‘Johanns’ - JS Bach, Kuhnau and Schelle - who held the position of cantor at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche.
Luigi Rossi: La Lyra d’Orfeo & Arpa Davidica
L'Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar
Following research in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Vatican Library, Pluhar presents 21 world premiere recordings of arias and cantatas by a composer whom she describes as 'one of the shining lights of seventeenth-century Italian vocal music' - including excerpts from L’Orfeo, one of the first operas to be staged in France. Soloists include Véronique Gens, Philippe Jaroussky, Jakub Józef Orliński and Valer Sabadus.
Available Formats: FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Magnificat - Christmas in Leipzig
Solomon's Knot, Jonathan Sells
Recorded live at the Barbican’s Milton Court last December (a concert which prompted The Times to describe the ensemble as a ‘crack team of musicians, each with their individual colour and voice, yet always in sync as a group’), this debut album from British early music collective Solomon’s Knot features Magnificats by JS Bach and Johann Kuhnau, his predecessor at St Thomas’s Leipzig.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
Back in 2017 when the final instalment of Petrenko’s Tchaikovsky cycle appeared on Onyx, Gramophone observed that the RLPO ‘must rank as one of the finest ‘Russian orchestras’ in the UK today’, and here they show their mettle with an all-Russian programme featuring Shchedrin’s Concerto for Orchestra ‘Naughty Limericks’, Kabalevsky’s Overture Colas Breugnon, excerpts from Khachaturian’s Spartacus, and Ravel’s orchestration of Pictures.
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Langgaard: Prelude to 'Antichrist' & R. Strauss: An Alpine Symphony
Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard
The American orchestra and their Danish music director explore two works inspired (albeit in very different ways) by the figure of the Antichrist; reviewing the live performance of the Strauss in 2017, BachTrack observed that ‘Dausgaard treated the vast ensemble like the rich palette it is, expertly contrasting grandiose climaxes with chamber-like subtleties.’
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Saint-Saëns: Ascanio - Ballet
Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Jun Märkl
Märkl’s survey of Saint-Saëns’s orchestral works continues with this collection of overtures and excerpts from operas and incidental music: the mainstay is the ballet music from the 1888 opera Ascanio (based on the same source-material as Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini), with other works including the Overture and act IV Prelude from the score for Racine’s Andromaque, the Prologue to the tragédie lyrique Les Barbares, and the Ouverture d'un Opéra-Comique Inachevé.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Une soirée chez Berlioz
Stéphanie d'Oustrac (mezzo), Thibaut Roussel (guitar), Tanguy de Williencourt (piano)
This delightfully niche contribution to this year’s Berlioz anniversary focuses on his early career as a guitarist and includes his arrangements of songs by composers such as Martini, Devienne, Meissonnier and Dalayrac for voice and guitar as well as several of his own original compositions for the same forces; Thibaut Roussel plays an instrument gifted to the composer by Paganini, which is currently housed in Paris’s Musée de la musique.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Kurt Weill: Street Scene (DVD)
Patricia Racette, Paulo Szot, Mary Bevan, Jeni Bern, Lucy Schaufer; Teatro Real de Madrid, Tim Murray, John Fulljames
Filmed in Madrid last February, this staging of Weill’s 1946 opera is an upcycled revival of John Fulljames’s award-winning Opera-Group/Young Vic production from 2008; reviewing one of the live performances, BachTrack praised American soprano Patricia Racette’s ‘warmly sympathetic’ Anna Maurrant and Eric Greene’s ‘mellow timbre and friendly acting’ as Henry Davis.
Available Format: DVD Video
Kurt Weill: Street Scene (Blu-ray)
Patricia Racette, Paulo Szot, Mary Bevan, Jeni Bern, Lucy Schaufer; Teatro Real de Madrid, Tim Murray, John Fulljames
Video: Colour, 16/9, Full HD
Audio: PCM 2.0, DTS HD Master audio 5.1
Available Format: Blu-ray
