Strauss: Salome
Malin Byström (Salome), Johan Reuter (Jochanaan), Katarina Dalayman (Herodias), Gerhard Siegel (Herodes), Bror Magnus Tødenes (Narraboth), Hanna Hipp (Page); Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
This recording captures a 'powerhouse of a performance' (BachTrack) of Strauss's Biblical one-act opera from the 2022 Edinburgh Festival; The Times noted that Gardner 'paced the score’s great span with an unerring sense of drama', whilst The Telegraph declared that 'the evening belonged to Byström, who – in rising to the great emotional heights and plumbing the soul-shuddering depths of Strauss’s opera – had the Usher Hall audience cheering her to the rafters.'
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
Miku Yasukawa (soprano), Jochen Kupfer (baritone), Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
This period-instrument recording of the German Requiem was made in Japan last year, and follows BCJ's widely accounts of Bach's St Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor and motets, Mozart's Mass in C minor, and Beethoven's Missa solemnis; the ensemble celebrates its thirty-fifth birthday this year.
Available Format: SACD
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
The Hallé, Kahchun Wong
Wong succeeded Sir Mark Elder as The Hallé's Principal Conductor last September, and their debut recording together (Britten's Prince of the Pagodas) was praised as 'frequently revelatory' by Limelight Magazine. This sequel was recorded live at Bridgewater Hall last October, and presents the symphony with the final movement as reconstructed by Nicola Samale, John Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Giuseppe Mazzuca (in the most recent revision by Phillips); the concert received five stars in The Times thanks to the 'blazing Hallé force' on display.
Download version will be available shortly.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Kurtág: Játékok
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
To celebrate György Kurtág’s 99th birthday earlier this year, Aimard presents a selection of his 'pedagogical performance pieces' Játékok ('Games'); inspired by watching young children exploring the piano as a toy, Kurtág began working on the collection in 1973 with the intention of fostering 'pleasure in playing, the joy of movement' in budding pianists. The recordings were made in the presence of the composer, who has enjoyed a close friendship with Aimard since the late 1970s.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos and Selected Solo Works
Yuja Wang (piano), Thomas Rolfs (trumpet), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
Made live at Boston's Symphony Hall in October 2022, these recordings were released at the end of last month as part of the Boston/Nelsons Shostakovich box-set comprising the complete symphonies, concertos and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and are now available separately. This individual release also includes a selection of the Preludes & Fugues, recorded last year.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
British Piano Concertos: Addison - Cannon - Chagrin
Simon Callaghan (piano), BBC NOW, William Boughton
Callaghan recorded John Addison's Wellington Suite for piano and orchestra back in 2022, when Gramophone praised his 'understated virtuosity'; now he presents the composer's Conversation Piece (1958) and Piano Concertino (1993) alongside Philip Cannon’s Concertino for piano and strings from 1951 and Bucharest-born film composer Francis Chagrin's Piano Concerto from 1943. All works receive their world premiere recordings here.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Viktor Kalabis: Duettina, Chamber Music & Diptych
Gidon Kremer (violin), Kremerata Baltica
Born in Červený Kostelec (now in the Czech Republic) in 1923, Kalabis studied at the Prague Conservatory in the aftermath of the Second World War and was taught keyboard skills by the pioneering harpsichordist and concentration camp survivor Zuzana Růžičková, whom he married in 1952. This album features his Chamber Music for Strings from 1963 (written shortly after the death of his father), the Diptych for the same forces from 1987 and the Duettina from the same year, which was commissioned by violinist Jana Vlachová and cellist Mikael Ericsson.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Franz Lachner: Symphony No. 4
Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Gernot Schmalfuss
This is the third instalment of the Taiwanese orchestra's survey of music by German composer Franz Lachner (1803-90), which has been praised by Gramophone for the 'commitment and affection' and 'lively, engaging playing' on display. Symphony No. 4 was written in Mannheim (where Lachner had recently taken up the post of Court Conductor) in 1834 and premiered the following year in Vienna, where the composer was 'received with the most heartfelt enthusiasm' according to the Theater-Zeitung. The album also includes the Andante for Brass Instruments from 1833, composed while Lachner was still living in Vienna.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Richard Flury: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Paul Mann
This fourth volume in Toccata's series celebrating the work of the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) features the 'Ticino Symphony' (Symphony No. 2), which was written after the break-up of his first marriage. Flury's ex-wife Lily Sollberger and their four children relocated from Solothurn in north-west Switzerland to the Italian-speaking region of Ticino, where the composer regularly visited them, and the work incorporates the carillon of the local church as well as three folksongs from the area. It is followed here by the Poème nocturne from 1939, which was compared to Wagner and Dukas by one contemporary reviewer.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Hans Christian Aavik Plays Max Bruch & Erkki-Sven Tüür
Hans Christian Aavik (violin), Odense Symphony Orchestra, Gemma New
Born in Tallinn in 1998, Hans Christian Aavik won the Carl Nielsen International Competition in 2002, and has been described as 'an extraordinarily accomplished violinist with a unique, musical personality and strong stage presence' by his compatriot Paavo Järvi. For his debut recording, he presents Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 (which he recently performed with Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival) and Erkki-Sven Tüür's Violin Concerto No. 2 'Angels Share'; the latter work was premiered by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and soloist Hugo Ticciati in 2018.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Prokofiev: War and Peace (Blu-ray)
Olga Kulchynska (Natasha), Andrei Zhilikhovsky (Andrei), Arsen Soghomonyan (Pierre), Violeta Urmana (Marya Dmitriyevna Akhrosimova), Olga Guryakova (Peronskaya), Bekhzod Davronov (Anatole), Christina Bock (Marya Bolkonskaya); Bayerische Staatsoper, Vladimir Jurowski, Dmitri Tcherniakov
Filmed at the Bayerische Staatsoper in March 2023, Tcherniakov's new staging of Prokofiev's opera was hailed as 'darkly urgent and sensitively executed' by The New York Times (there had been debate as to whether the planned production should go ahead in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine the previous year). The Financial Times was similarly affected, applauding the director's 'fanatically detailed and ferociously ambitious' vision and describing the whole as 'a monumental achievement' from all concerned.
Available Format: Blu-ray
