Bach: Concerti
Beatrice Rana (piano), Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Eight years on from her recording of the Goldberg Variations (which was praised in The Sunday Times for its 'Orphic seductiveness [and] transcendent lightness of touch'), Rana teams up with the Dutch ensemble for Bach's keyboard concertos BWV1052, 1053, 1054 and 1056; she made her concerto debut with the latter work when she was just nine. Reviewing one of their live performances in 2019, BachTrack deemed the collaboration a match 'made in heaven': 'Whatever Rana did on the keyboard was echoed, when called for, precisely by the Sinfonietta's magnificent strings, and vice versa.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Shift
Peter Moore (trombone), Tredegar Band, Ian Porthouse
Belfast-born trombonist Peter Moore became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2007, at the age of just twelve, and was heavily involved in brass band culture whilst growing up in the North-West of England. His debut album on Chandos takes its title from a new concerto by Simon Dobson, and also includes Gordon Langford’s Rhapsody, Erik Leidzén's Concertino, Philip Sparke's Sambezi and Langford's arrangement of 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I See'.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven
Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)
The Japanese pianist (who has been blind from birth) makes his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with the formidably challenging Hammerklavier Sonata, coupled with Liszt's solo piano transcription of the song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte. 'Nobu' (as he is affectionately known) performed the 'Hammerklavier' at the Van Cliburn Competition in 2009, sharing the Gold Medal with Haochen Zhang; jury chairman John Giordano described his performance as 'flawless', observing that 'For anyone, it’s extraordinary. But for someone blind who learns by ear, it’s mind-boggling.' Cliburn himself deemed his playing 'absolutely miraculous'.
Available Format: CD
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, 'The Year 1905'
London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda
Composed in 1957 to commemorate the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 has been described as 'a film score without the film' and incorporates socialist revolutionary songs from Poland and Ukraine in its final movement. Recorded live at the Barbican in November 2022, this performance left The Times's Richard Morrison 'transfixed not just by the unfolding drama but by the technical virtuosity displayed' thanks to the 'scorching playing' of the LSO and Noseda's 'properly crazy speeds'.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 3
NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stanislav Kochanovsky
Kochanovsky was appointed Chief Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie last year, and makes his recording debut with an all-Russian programme comprising Nikolai Tcherepnin's Prelude to Edmond Rostand’s 1895 play La Princesse lointaine, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, and Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3 (premiered under Hans von Bülow in 1885). Trained in his home city of St. Petersburg, Kochanovsky has worked regularly with the Verbier Music Festival, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and was previously on the conducting staff the Mikhailovsky Theater in his home city.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Howard Shore: Anthology – The Paris Concerts
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, La Maitrise De Radio France, Le Balcon, Ludwig Wicki, Mike Schäperclaus, Bastien Stil
Recorded live across three concerts at the Maison de Radio France in the spring of 2023, this anthology includes suites from the scores for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), and David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986), Naked Lunch (1991) and Crash (1996); it was Cronenberg who invited Shore to compose his first film score, for The Brood (1979).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The World of Hans Zimmer Part II
A New Dimension
This sequel to A Symphonic Celebration (2019) includes orchestral suites on the soundtracks for The Prince of Egypt, Pirates of the Caribbean, Interstellar, Pearl Harbor, Inception, Kung Fu Panda, Gladiator and No Time To Die, plus new arrangements of themes from Man of Steel, Driving Miss Daisy and The Rock.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Młynarski: Symphony in F major, Op. 14 'Polonia'
Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, Łukasz Borowicz
A pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov, the Polish composer, conductor and violinist Emil Szymon Młynarski sought to paint a musical picture of 'a proud nation that will not be extinguished' in this symphony, published in 1912. Borowicz describes it as 'one of the most interesting symphonies of its time, an apex achievement (side by side with Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 2) of the post-Romantic vein in Polish music'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Concertos For Baroque Lute
Miguel Rincón (lute), Il Pomo d'Oro
Although the lute's popularity as a solo instrument waned somewhat in the eighteenth century, a small group of composers across Europe continued to champion it throughout the high Baroque period: this album features concertos by Austrian diplomat and lutenist Karl Kohaut (1726-84), Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) and Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht (1722-94) plus a trio by Bernhard Joachim Hagen. Reviewing Rincón's all-Bach album from 2013, MusicWeb International observed that 'the playing here is as richly colourful and varied as you would expect, with contrasts of tonality and dynamic emphasised through a constantly changing touch'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Boulez: Livre Pour Quatuor
Quatuor Diotima
Formed by graduates of the Paris Conservatoire in 1996, Quatuor Diotima collaborated closely with Pierre Boulez and marks the centenary of his birth with this recording of the Mallarmé-inspired Livre Pour Quatuor - Boulez began work on the piece in the late 1940s but struggled to complete it to his satisfaction, effectively withdrawing it in the late 1960s. He worked on the piece with the Diotima and Arditti Quartets and composer Philippe Manoury between 2002 and 2012, with the two quartets giving the premiere of the completed work in Berlin and Paris in April 2018 (two years after Boulez's death).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Europolis
Maria Lettberg (piano)
The Swedish pianist presents a musical journey through all 27 countries of the European Union, including Pantscho Wladigerow's 'Quasi rapsodico' (Bulgaria), Dora Pejačević's 'Ruža' (Croatia), Jānis Ivanovs's 'Valsis' (Latvia), Lars-Erik Larsson's 'Croquiser' (Sweden) and Constantinos Stylianou's 'Composition with Yellow and Blue (Piet Mondrian)' (Cyprus), plus miniatures by Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and John Field.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
