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Schubert
Maurizio Pollini (piano), Daniele Pollini (piano)
Now released in memory of Maurizio Pollini (who died on 23rd March), this album was recorded in Munich during the summer of 2022, and sees the great Italian pianist joining forces with his son Daniele for the Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands D940. Father and son each contribute a solo piano work: Daniele plays the Moments Musicaux D780 and Maurizio the Piano Sonata No. 18 in G major D894. Daniele writes: 'Schubert was certainly one of my father’s most beloved composers. As a boy, listening to his beautiful performances of the Sonatas D960 and D894 made me understand the greatness of Schubert’s music.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
James Ehnes (violin), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Sibelius considered a career as a violinist himself throughout his student years, even auditioning (unsuccessfully) for a position with the Wiener Philharmoniker when he moved to the city as a postgraduate in 1890. As well as the Violin Concerto, this album features five shorter works for violin and orchestra: the two sets of Humoresques Opp. 87 and 89, the Two 'Earnest Melodies' Op. 77, the Two Serenades Op. 69, and the Suite for Violin & Strings in D minor Op. 117. In a five-star review this week, The Guardian hailed Ehnes as 'a flawless technician and a serious, ever perceptive musician' and praised the 'muscular but sensitive, with vigorous, well-shaped accompaniment' from the Bergen orchestra.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Merci
Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Kathryn Stott (piano)
The music of Gabriel Fauré is the lodestar of Stott's final recording, which sees her joining forces with her long-term friend and collaborator Yo-Yo Ma (with whom she first performed forty years ago). As well as Fauré's Sicilienne, Papillon, Berceuse and Élégie, the recital also features pieces by his teacher Saint-Saëns, his pupil Nadia Boulanger and her sister Lili, and his friend and champion Pauline Viardot.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mille Affetti
Bruno de Sá (soprano), Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Jarosław Thiel
Two years on from his debut album Roma Travestita (which earned him a nomination for Male Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards), the Brazilian male soprano switches his focus to the Classical period, with a programme featuring works by composers from Italy, Germany and Bohemia. The album includes world premiere recordings of Zingarelli's Salve Regina and arias from Cherubini's Il Mesenzio, rè d'Etruria, Reichardt's Andromeda, Caruso's Il fanatico per la musica, Seydelmann's Il turco in Italia, and Alessandri's Alessandro nell'Indie.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Golden Age of the Horn
Jacek Muzyk (horn primo), Daniel Kerdelewicz (horn secondo), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta
This programme of concertos for two horns comprises works by Friedrich Witt (an exact contemporary of Beethoven), František Xaver Pokorný, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, and Leopold Mozart; the Hoffmeister receives its world premiere recording here. Currently Principal Horn of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Jacek Muzyk's solo discography includes the complete Mozart concertos; Daniel Kerdelewicz has been Associate Principal with the orchestra since 2009. Falletta describes the album as 'a tribute to the Golden Age of the Horn – the extraordinary time in the classical period that celebrated extreme virtuosity on the instrument, unmatched before or since.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Freya Waley-Cohen: Spell Book
Manchester Collective, Héloïse Werner (soprano), Katie Bray, Fleur Barron (mezzos), Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Anne Beilby (viola), Nathaniel Boyd (cello)
Released just in time for Hallowe'en, this debut album from the British-American composer takes its title from a song-cycle for three soloists and chamber orchestra which was premiered in full earlier this year: setting poems from Rebecca Tamás's WITCH, Spell Book was described by The Times's Richard Morrison as 'fevered yet perfectly crafted...A remarkable achievement from a composer to watch'. The album also includes the string trio Conjure, Talisman (for thirteen solo strings), and Naiad - written in memory of Waley-Cohen's teacher Oliver Knussen.
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Voices For Solo Piano
Hanni Liang (piano)
Hanni Liang's discovery of Ethel Smyth sparked the idea for this recital of piano works by female composers, which includes Smyth's Sonata No. 2 and Variations on an Original Theme (of an Exceedingly Dismal Nature), Errollyn Wallen's I Wouldn't Normally Say, and Chen Yi's Variations on ‘Awariguli’. Sally Beamish's Night Dances and Eleanor Alberga's Cwicseolfor (named after the ancient spelling of 'quicksilver') receive their first recordings here; the latter work was premiered by Isata Kanneh-Mason in 2021.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Evening Songs
Adam Plachetka (bass-baritone), David Švec (piano)
The Czech bass-baritone presents a recital of songs by his compatriots Dvořák, Smetana, Fibich and Suk, all setting texts from Vítězslav Hálek's collection of love-poems The Evening Songs (written for his future wife Dorotka Horáčková, and published in 1859). Plachetka's previous solo album Molieri (a programme of opera arias by Mozart and Salieri rather than anything connected to the French dramatist!) was praised in BBC Music Magazine for his 'handsome, healthy tone, firm diction and sense of character.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mis amores son las flores
Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Hot on the heels of Juan Diego Flórez's zarzuela album on his own label, Cuban soprano Lisette Oropesa explores the genre with an programme of arias from Sorozábal's La tabernera del puerto, Roig's Cecilia Valdés, Penella's Don Gil de Alcalá, Torroba's Monte Carmelo, Luna's El niño judío, and Chapí's Las hijas del Zebedeo. Oropesa will also sing the role of Elvira on Euroarts's forthcoming recording of Bellini's I puritani, opposite Lawrence Brownlee as Arturo.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
That Sweet City
Rowan Atkinson (narrator), Nick Pritchard (tenor), Britten Sinfonia, Choir of the Queen's College Oxford, Owen Rees
Taking its title from Matthew Arnold's description of Oxford in his 1865 poem Thyrsis, this album pairs two works which received their premieres at Queen's College in the early 1950s: Kenneth Leighton's Veris gratia (setting poetry from Carmina Burana and written whilst the composer was a Classics undergraduate at the college), and Vaughan Williams's An Oxford Elegy (premiered just before his eightieth birthday and setting sections of Arnold's poem).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Handel: Jephtha
David Portillo (Jephtha), Lauren Snouffer (Iphis), Clara Osowski (Storgè), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Hamor), Neal Davies (Zebul), Katelyn Lee (Angel); Music of the Baroque Chorus and Orchestra, Dame Jane Glover
Recorded live in September 2022 to open Glover's twentieth season with Music of the Baroque, this performance of Handel's final oratorio was praised by Chicago Classical Review for Portillo's 'first-class vocalism and searing dramatic intensity' in the title-role, Snouffer's 'bright, youthful tone and easy agility' as his daughter Iphis, and the 'consistently committed and energized' orchestral playing.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Moniuszko: Paria
Matheus Pompeu, Marta Torbidoni, Aleksey Bogdanov, Germán Olvera, David Astorga; Europa Galante Fabio Biondi
Inspired by a play by French dramatist Casimir Delavigne, Moniuszko's opera was premiered in Warsaw in 1869, forty years after the first performance of Donizetti's opera on the same subject (which was recently revived by Opera Rara); set in ancient India, the opera deals with the persecution of pariahs by Brahmins, and centres on the illicit love between priest's daughter Neala and the warrior Idamore. Sung in Italian rather than the original Polish, the opera was recorded at the Chopin and his Europe Festival.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
