Today’s new releases include the first instalment of Auber’s complete opera overtures from the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, a third album of classical compositions by Genesis founder Tony Banks, Berio transcriptions from Daniel Ottensamer, Ivor Bolton and friends, and a documentary charting the early career of French pianist Lucas Debargue.
Auber: Overtures
Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, Dario Salvi
This first volume of a projected series which will encompass the overtures to all of the prolific Parisian’s operas features music from the opéras comiques Le Maçon, Leicester, ou Le château de Kenilworth, La neige, ou Le nouvel Eginhard, La bergère chatelaine, Le séjour militaire, Emma, ou La promesse imprudente, and Le testament et les billets doux.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Tony Banks: Five
Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Nick Ingman
The third classical album by the founder member of the rock band Genesis comprises five new works orchestrated by Nick Ingman: Prelude to a Million Years (commissioned by the Cheltenham Music Festival in 2014) , Reveille, Ebb and Flow, Autumn Sonata and Renaissance. BBC Music Magazine praised Banks’s first such album for the ‘rhapsodic feeling and bold melodies’ on display.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Luciano Berio: Transformation
Sinfonieorchester Basel, Daniel Ottensamer (clarinet), Sophia Burgos (soprano), Ivor Bolton
Two discs of transcriptions by the Italian composer, including arrangements of songs by The Beatles as well as Boccherini’s Ritirata Notturna di Madrid, Falla’s Siete Canciones populares españolas, songs by Gustav Mahler, and Brahms’s Sonata Op. 120 No. 1 transcribed for clarinet and orchestra.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Souvenirs of Spain & Italy
Sharon Isbin (guitar), Pacifica Quartet
Isbin and Company’s Mediterranean postcard features Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Guitar Quintet, Turina’s La oración del torero, Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet La Fandango, and Vivaldi’s Lute Concerto in D RV 93 in an arrangement by Isbin and Emilio Pujol.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Baltic Inspiration: Piano Quartets
Ippolitov-Ivanov Piano Quartet
Pēteris Vasks's six-movement Piano Quartet of 2001 is preceded by world premiere recordings of three pieces by the Lithuanian composer Arvydas Malcys (b.1957): Blackthorn Eyes, Hyacinth of the Snowfields and Milky Way.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Dussek: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2
Marek Toporowski (piano)
Nominated for an International Classical Music Award last month, the Polish pianist’s tribute to the Czech composer and virtuoso Jan Ladislav Dussek features the three piano sonatas Op. 9 and The Sufferings of the Queen of France, a ten-piece cycle composed in memory of Dussek’s patron Marie Antoinette and published in 1793.
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Lucas Debargue: To Music (DVD)
A film by Martin Mirabel
Filmed on location in cities including Berlin, Moscow, Salerno, Chicago and Weimar between 2015 and early 2017, this documentary follows the award-winning young French pianist in the period immediately after his breakthrough performance at the XV Tchaikovsky Competition and features footage from studio sessions, concerts and rehearsals.
Available Format: DVD Video
Lucas Debargue: To Music (Blu-ray)
A film by Martin Mirabel
Picture format: HD 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Available Format: Blu-ray
