Chopin: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)
Recorded at the new Lady Stringer Studio at Garsington Opera, Grosvenor’s ninth album for Decca includes the Ballade No. 1, Berceuse and the Nocturnes Nos. 15 and 16 as well as the two sonatas. Chopin has been central to Grosvenor’s repertoire since the beginning of his career: a selection of shorter works featured on his Decca debut in 2011, which won two Gramophone Awards and prompted The Observer to hail him as ‘a phenomenon’.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
If the Fates Allow
Helen Charlston (mezzo), Sounds Baroque
The Gramophone Award-winning mezzo makes her debut on BIS with a programme of music by Henry Purcell and his contemporaries, including 'If music be the food of love', 'I attempt from Love’s sickness', 'The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation' and 'Music for a While', plus John Eccles's 'Restless in thought', Daniel Purcell's 'Morpheus, thou gentle god' and instrumental interludes by Christopher Simpson and John Blow. (Download to follow shortly).
Available Format: SACD
Complete Works For Oboe By Madeleine Dring
Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Adam Walker (flute), Amy Harman (bassoon), Antonio Oyarzabal (piano)
A student of Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dring wrote a substantial amount of music for the oboe, much of it for her husband Roger Lord (who was Principal Oboe of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1953 until the late 1970s). Highlights on the album include the trios for oboe, bassoon & harpsichord and for oboe, flute & piano, the Three Piece Suite (arranged by Lord from the original harmonica version), the brief Danza gaya and Polka, an arrangement of Cole Porter's 'In the Still of the Night', and Daniel's transcription of 'My Heart Is like a Singing Bird'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 'Emperor' & Quintet for Piano and Winds
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Orchestre Francais des Jeunes, Michael Schønwandt
Last August, Leonskaja joined the French national youth orchestra for their summer school at the Royal Saltworks in Arc-et-Senans to work on what she describes as 'the pinnacle of all concertos'; this live recording was made when they came together again in Dijon for a concert at the end of the year. Leonskaja also recently recorded Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, winning praise from BBC Music Magazine for her 'total clarity and natural sense of phrasing'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Future Horizons
Francois Leleux (oboe), Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Hr-Sinfonieorchester, Andrés Orozco-Estrada
All three works were written for Leleux, who has worked closely with living composers throughout his career; the opening piece, Nicolas Bacri's Notturno for Oboe and Strings, was first recorded by him in 2004, when Gramophone observed that it showcased his 'wonderful depth of tone'. It's followed here by Michael Jarrell's 2016 concerto Aquateinte, after which Leleux's wife Lisa Batiashvili joins him for Thierry Escaich's Double Concerto (written in 2014 as a companion-piece for JS Bach's work for the same forces).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 'Scottish'
Rotterdam Philharmonic, Lahav Shani
In addition to the 'Scottish' Symphony (conceived during the composer's first visit to Britain in 1829), this all-Mendelssohn programme includes the Goethe-inspired 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage' Overture and Shani's own orchestral arrangements of three Songs Without Words: 'Lost Happiness', the 'Venetian Gondola Song' and 'Spinning Song'. Shani's recent recordings of Bruckner with the orchestra have been welcomed for 'the expressiveness of the playing and the refinement of the brass' (Gramophone) and for the conductor's 'masterly sense of pacing' (BBC Music Magazine).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Somnia
Denis Kozhukhin (piano)
Dedicated to the memory of his parents, Kozhukhin's programme explores the themes of dreams and childhood comprises Prokofiev's Music for Children, Alexey Shor's Piano Sonata No. 2, and Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young (written in 1878 as an homage to Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen). In the latest issue of Gramophone, Stephen Cera observed that the Russian pianist 'vividly communicates the childlike inspiration of these vignettes with poignant artistry, even though the pieces are ‘child’s play’ for such a virtuoso.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
CPE Bach: Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord
Ryo Terakado (violin), Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord)
An Editor's Choice in the June edition of Gramophone, this album was described as 'absolutely stunning' by reviewer Mark Seow, who noted that 'Terakado and Bonizzoni answer each other with poise and attentiveness, yet their phrases are held together with a shared sense of breath and bloom.' Formerly concert-master of Masaaki Suzuki's Bach Collegium Japan, Terakado has appeared as a soloist on the ensemble's recordings of Beethoven's Missa solemnis and JS Bach's A Musical Offering, and has also directed Flemish Baroque ensemble il Gardellino.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Images - Hommage à Marcel Tournier
Emmanuel Ceysson (harp), Véronique Gens (soprano), Quatuor Voce
The French harpist, teacher and composer Marcel Tournier (1879-1951) wrote a large number of solo works for his own instrument, later reworking some of them as chamber pieces; the four Images suites here are cases in point, as is the Sonatine from 1924 (to which Tournier added violin and cello parts fifteen years later). The album also includes three songs for flute and harp: 'La lettre du jardinier', 'Elle est venue, elle a souri', and 'Rèverie de Bouddha'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
My Days
Fretwork, Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Samuel Boden (tenor), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Jimmy Holliday (bass-baritone)
This album takes its title from a new work by Nico Muhly, which forms the centrepiece of the programme and is described by the composer as 'a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development'; the programme also includes fantasias and In Nomines by Gibbons, plus 'Go from my window' and 'Behold, thou hast made my days'. Reviewing the results this week, Gramophone's Alexandra Coghlan declared that 'Fretwork’s authority in this repertoire is beyond question'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Begin the Song!
Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian (countertenor), Le Consort
Subtitled 'A Purcell Academy', this debut recording from French countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian pays homage to Alfred Deller and includes excerpts from Purcell's King Arthur, Come, ye sons of art, Ode for Queen Mary's Birthday and The Fairy Queen, plus songs by John Blow, John Eccles, William Croft, Thomas Ravenscroft and Jeremiah Clarke. Bénos-Djian's discography to date includes the role of Didymus on Maxim Emelyanychev's award-winning recording of Handel's Theodora, Lully's music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme with Le Poème Harmonique, and Farnace on Marc Minkowski's account of Mozart's Mitridate.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Blu-ray)
Piotr Beczala (Riccardo), Keri Alkema (Amelia), Carlos Álvarez (Renato), Dolora Zajick (Ulrica), Katerina Tretyakova (Oscar); Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre Del Liceu, Vincent Boussard, Renato Palumbo
Filmed in Barcelona in 2017, Vincent Boussard’s minimalist, largely monochrome production features Piotr Beczala in one of his signature roles: BachTrack applauded the Polish tenor’s ‘noble and romantic characterisation of the tragic count’ and deemed him and Álvarez to have given ‘the outstanding performances of the evening’, whilst also praising the ‘rigorous energy and rhythmic flair’ of Palumbo’s conducting.
Available Format: Blu-ray
