Today's new releases include the third instalment of Alpesh Chauhan's Tchaikovsky series with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on Chandos, a second helping of orchestral anthems from Britten Sinfonia and the Choir of Merton College Oxford on Delphian, Ligeti concertos from Isabelle Faust, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth on Harmonia Mundi, and an eclectic new album from organist Anna Lapwood (featuring music by Louis Vierne, Rachel Portman, Bob Dylan and Robbie Williams) on Sony.
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Alpesh Chauhan
The main event on this third instalment of Chauhan's Tchaikovsky series is the Orchestral Suite No. 2, written shortly after the opera Mazeppa and dedicated to the composer's sister-in-law; the suite includes a 'game of sounds', the strange lullaby 'Rêves d'enfant' and a finale which is subtitled 'Wild dance in imitation of Dargomyzhsky'. The album also includes the Waltz & Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, the 'Danse des histrions' from The Enchantress, the early overture The Storm (based on the Alexander Ostrovsky play which also inspired Janáček's Káťa Kabanová), and the Marche slave.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Firedove
Anna Lapwood (organ)
Taking its title from a new work by Julie Cooper, Firedove was recorded in overnight sessions at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim and includes Ola Gjeilo's Northern Lights, Rachel Portman's Flight (where Lapwood is joined by saxophonist Jess Gillam), Maurice Duruflé’s Prélude and Fugue dur le nom d'Alain, Louis Vierne's Naïades, and Lapwood's own arrangements of Bob Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love' (with The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge), Robbie Williams's 'Angels' and the theme from Hans Zimmer's score for Inception.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Ligeti: Concertos
Isabelle Faust (violin), Jean-Frédéric Neuburger (piano), Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
This Ligeti triptych comprises the early Concert Românesc (essentially a concerto for orchestra, inspired by the composer's childhood encounters with folk musicians in Transylvania), the Violin Concerto which Ligeti composed for Saschko Gawriloff in the 1990s and the Piano Concerto from the 1980s (which Ligeti described as a presentation of his 'artistic credo'). The concertos are interleaved with György Kurtág's Aus der Ferne III and V for string quartet; Kurtág and Ligeti met for the first time in Budapest in the immediate aftermath of World War II and were close friends for the rest of their lives.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Orchestral Anthems Vol. 2
Britten Sinfonia, Choir of Merton College Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas
The first volume of this series received four stars in The Times in recognition of the 'extra splendour' which is gained from hearing touchstones of the sacred choral repertoire in full orchestral clothing - all of the works here were either originally conceived in this form or subsequently orchestrated by their composers. This sequel includes Wesley's Ascribe unto the Lord, Ireland's Greater Love Hath No Man, Walton's The Twelve, Bairstow's Lord, thou hast been our Refuge, and Stanford's Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in A.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Bartók - Enescu - Kodály - Martinů
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Tenan
The Turkish orchestra's sixth recording on Onyx focuses on Eastern European music (much of it inspired by folk dances): the programme comprises Bartók's Dance Suite, Kodály's Dances of Galanta, Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 and Martinů's The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, which was written after the composer visited the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo to see the famous fifteenth-century paintings depicting ‘The History of the True Cross’. The orchestra has been praised for its 'precision of ensemble and intonation' (Gramophone on Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade) and 'characteristic vitality and freshness' (BBC Music Magazine on Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Romanza
Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet), José Gallardo (piano), Julien Quentin (piano)
The Austrian clarinettist (who recently stepped down from his principal chair with the Berliner Philharmoniker to pursue a conducting career) and his regular recital-partner present a programme which includes Ottensamer's own transcriptions of Debussy's 'Rêverie' and La fille aux cheveux de lin, the Adagio from Schubert's 'Arpeggione' Sonata, Gershwin's Prelude No. 2 and Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, plus 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' from Mahler's Rückert-Lieder (arr. Ronald Kornfeil) and music by Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Horovitz, Rota and Rachmaninoff.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Holst: The Planets & Deborah Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon (soprano), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín
Following recordings of works by Debussy, Strauss and Dvořák, the Australian orchestra's third release on its own label couples Holst's evergreen suite with the world premiere recording of a new work by the MSO's First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, which was originally envisaged as an addition to The Planets but morphed into a standalone piece; the composer herself is the soprano soloist, singing her own text 'Come, come shining world'.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
O Sacrum Convivium!
The Choir of Buckfast Abbey, Charles Maxtone-Smith, Matthew Searles
This programme of Music For the Solemnity of Corpus Christi includes Martin Baker's Missa O sacrum convivium! (commissioned and premiered by the choir last year), Anton Heiller's suite for solo organ In Festo Corporis Christi, Gregorian chant, and music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Laloux, Palestrina and Guerrero. Founded in 2009, the mixed-voice choir recently launched its own label and publishing-house Ad Fontes, and has been praised for its 'ease and naturalness of delivery' of chant (MusicWeb International) and 'subtle and effective' dynamic shading (Cathedral Music Magazine).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Miklós Rózsa: Complete Piano Works
Krisztina Fejes (piano)
Best known today for his film music (including the scores for Ben-Hur, Spellbound and King of Kings), the Hungarian-American composer also wrote a handful of characterful solo piano works: the suite of short pieces Kaleidoscope (which he subsequently orchestrated), six Bagatelles, the Piano Sonata from 1948, a set of variations written for Clara Haskil in 1931, and The Vintner's Daughter.
Available Formats: FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Schumann: Violin Sonatas No. 1 & 2; Fantasy, Op. 131
Joshua Brown (violin), Paolo Giacometti (piano)
This is the debut solo recording of American violinist Joshua Brown, who took second prize at last year's Queen Elisabeth Competition and has been praised by The Strad for his 'silky, weightless phrasing'. The album was warmly received in the latest issue of Gramophone, with Richard Bratby detecting 'an understated, rather touching sense that the two players really could finish each other’s sentences' and describing the whole as 'a brave debut, with much to admire'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Sviatoslav Richter: The Lost Tapes
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
Recently rediscovered and restored by Emil Berliner Studios, these live Beethoven recordings now see the light of day after sixty years in the label's vaults; Piano Sonatas Nos. 18, 27 and 28 were recorded at the Lucerne Festival in September 1965, whilst No. 31 was captured at La Grange de Meslay (the medieval barn just outside Tours where Richter launched an annual festival) earlier that summer.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
