Today's new releases include William Grant Still's Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 and Margaret Bonds's The Montgomery Variations from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Deutsche Grammophon, Bach albums from Mahan Esfahani and Isabelle Faust on Hyperion and Harmonia Mundi, and the world premiere recording of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's new opera Intelligence from Houston Grand Opera on the company's new label.
William Grant Still: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 and Margaret Bonds: The Montgomery Variations
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Following their GRAMMY-winning recording of Florence Price's Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, the Philadelphia Orchestra and its Music Director present Price's pupil Margaret Bonds's Montgomery Variations (a set of seven variations on the spiritual 'I Want Jesus to Walk with Me' composed in the aftermath of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham) and two major works by William Grant Still: Symphony No. 2 'Song Of A New Race' (1937) and Symphony No. 4 'Autochthonous' (1947).
Available Formats: Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
JS Bach: Sonatas For Violin and Continuo
Isabelle Faust (violin), Kristin von der Goltz (cello), Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord)
Faust and Bezuidenhout won widespread praise for their 2018 recording of Bach's six sonatas for violin and harpsichord in 2018, which was described as 'probing and intelligent' by The Guardian and applauded for their 'consummate sense of partnership' by BBC Music Magazine. Now they team up with German-Norwegian cellist Kristin von der Goltz (sister of the violinist and conductor Gottfried) for the sonatas for violin and continuo BWV 1021, 1023 and 1024, the Fugue in G minor BWV 1026, and the sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1019A and 1029. Faust plays a modern copy of Stradivari's 'Sleeping Beauty', and Bezuidenhout a 2004 harpsichord by Jonte Knif and Arno Pelto (after eighteenth-century German models).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)
Described as 'freshly, indeed forensically reconsidered' (BBC Music Magazine), ' lively and subtle' (Sunday Times) and 'full of rhythmic intensity and tenderness' (MusicWeb International), Esfahani's Bach series continues with this recording of a work which he began exploring thirty years ago and which he likens to 'a perfectly crafted piece of theatre.' Esfahani plays an instrument by Huw Saunders: 'a harpsichord with which I have a relationship as meaningful to me as any personal friendship, and somehow more than any instrument it is able to sense what I wish to express before I can understand it myself.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Jake Heggie: Intelligence
Janai Brugger (Mary Jane Bowser), J'Nai Bridges (Lucinda), Jamie Barton (Elizabeth Van Lew), Caitlin Lynch (Callie Van Lew), Michael Mayes (Travis Briggs), Nicholas Newton (Henry), Joshua Blue (Wilson); Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Kwamé Ryan
This is the world premiere recording of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's new opera about two women who spied for the Union during the American Civil War: the privileged Elizabeth Van Lew, and Mary Jane Bowser (who was born into slavery in the Van Lew household and is sent to work as a mole in the Confederate White House by her employer). First performed at Houston Grand Opera in October 2023, Intelligence was described by the Houston Chronicle as 'a gorgeous, nuanced, layered and suspenseful masterpiece that deftly balances drama and wit', whilst the British Theatre Guide predicted that it was 'likely to prove another standard work in the 21st-century operatic repertory'.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Siena Tapes
Julius Asal (piano)
Recorded at the Chapel of the Sun on American producer Rick Rubin's estate in Tuscany, the young German pianist's second album for Deutsche Grammophon features Ravel's Jeux d'eau, À la manière de Borodine and Menuet sur le nom de Haydn, three 'Cascades' by Asal himself, and the first recording of Christian Badzura's Ravel'-inspired Petites Vagues; Badzura signed Asal to the label several years ago, and produced the album himself. Asal reflects: 'Ravel had access to all sound colours. Even his more subtle works for piano contain shades and forces that you would usually find only in a complex symphony. His music doesn’t need a framework, but I’ve had the time of my life creating one.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Resonance
Piatti Quartet, Emmanuel Despax
This album opens with Louise Farrenc's own piano quintet arrangement of her Sextet for Winds and Piano (in its first outing on record) - the original work was written shortly after the successful premiere of her Nonet, which featured Joseph Joachim among the performers. The recital also includes Robert Schumann's Piano Quartet from 1842, and three pieces by French composer and violinist Lucien Durosoir (1878-1955): 'Prière à Marie' for violin and piano (1945), the 'Chant élégiaque' which was composed in memory of Ginette Neveu in 1950, and the 'Berceuse' for cello and piano.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Solo Violin
Roman Simovic (violin)
After his acclaimed recording of concertos by Miklós Rózsa and Bartók (which prompted Gramophone to declare that 'there is real fire in his bow'), the LSO's leader tackles the set of unaccompanied sonatas which Ysaÿe composed in 1923 for six of his most illustrious contemporaries: Joseph Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, Mathieu Crickboom and Manuel Quiroga. An early appraisal from Midlands Music Reviews applauds Simovic's 'extrovert panache' and the 'perfect sound balance' of the recording, which was made in Jerwood Hall at LSO St Luke's.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Libro primo
Rolf Lislevand (archlute)
The Norwegian lutenist presents a sequence of Baroque works for archlute and chitarrone, largely found in the composers' first printed books: Kapsberger dominates a programme which also includes music by Diego Ortiz, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini and Geminiano Giacomelli, plus Lislevand's own 'Passacaglia al modo mio'. Lislevand notes that the new style exemplified in these pieces is characterised by 'unusually dissonant and bold harmonic idioms as well as an altogether newfound ability to express the emotional content of text accompanied by previously unheard notions of rhythmical intricacy.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
A Short Story of Falling
Harriet Burns (soprano), Ian Tindale (piano)
This recital on the theme of falling takes its title from a poem by Alice Oswald, set by Christopher Churcher as part of his new song-cycle Skysongs (which was written for Burns and Tindale, and receives its world premiere recording here). The programme also includes Cheryl Frances-Hoad's Star Falling for piano, Judith Weir's 'grand opera in three acts for unaccompanied soprano' King Harald's Saga and The King of France, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 'Thou hast bewitched me', Donald Swann's 'The Whale (Mopy Dick)', Maude Valérie White's 'The Throstle', and the first recording of Derri Joseph Lewis's Three Secret Songs
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Morales: Requiem a 5 - Officium Defunctorum
De Profundis, Eamonn Dougan
Two years on from their recording of the Missa Mille regretz and Missa Desilde al cavallero (which was nominated for an International Classical Music Award and led Gramophone to assert that 'the future of this bold project is in the best possible hands'), the all-male vocal ensemble turn to the Missa pro defunctis . Thought to have been written during the composer's time in Rome, the work was described by nineteenth-century musicologist August Wilhelm Ambros as 'unique in its terrible magnificence, gloomy and bleak, as if one were walking among dark tombs under heavy vaults supported by massive pillars'. The album also includes a selection of motets for the dead, and a setting of Ave verum corpus which has been attributed to Francisco de Peñalosa.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Händel
Xavier de Maistre (harp), Julien Quentin, Martynas (accordion), Festival Strings Lucerne
This all-Handel programme from the French harpist includes the Harp Concerto HWV 294 (originally for performed as part of Alexander's Feast), de Maistre's own arrangement of the Organ Concerto in D minor HWV 309, Álmos Tallós's transcription of the Organ Concerto in F HWV 293, the Tema con Variazioni which was attributed to Handel and published in the early nineteenth century, the Passacaglia from the Suite No. 7 in G minor, and a new arrangement of the Air from the Water Music Suite No. 1 (for which the harpist is joined by Opus Klassik Award-winner Martynas).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Andreas Scholl: The Legendary Harmonia Mundi Recitals
Andreas Scholl (countertenor), Andreas Martin, Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin, Accademia Bizantina
To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the German countertenor's first recording for Harmonia Mundi, the label presents this anthology of six outstanding albums: Deutsche Barocklieder, English Folksongs & Lute Songs, a disc of cantatas by Buxtehude, Tunder, Schütz and JC Bach, the Handel recitals Il duello amoroso and Ombra mai fù, and Crystal Tears (featuring music by Dowland and his contemporaries William Byrd, Robert Johnson, John Ward, and John Bennet). BBC Music Magazine described Ombra mai fù as showcasing 'Scholl at his inimitable best: superbly accomplished and fully inside each character in turn', whilst the Sunday Times enthused that 'Handel doesn't come lovelier than this.'
Available Format: 6 CDs
