You can listen to a selection of tracks from the most recent Team Choices in the playlist below.
Presto Team Choices | Updated Monthly
Curated by David Smith
Tracks from the recordings featured in the most recent Team Choices from the Presto Classical team. 2 hours 33 minutes
William Grant Still: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 and Margaret Bonds: The Montgomery Variations
Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
'It was the Philadelphia Orchestra (under Stokowski) which premiered Grant Still's Symphony No. 2 'Song of a New Race' in 1937, and they do this glorious score proud again here - the glossy string sound allows the long-breathed melodies to shimmer and sing, and there's bags of piquant brass and woodwind detail in both symphonies and in Bonds's spiritual-inspired Montgomery Variations from 1964. An important album, this - all three works are instantly appealing, but new layers are revealed on each hearing.' (Katherine Cooper)
Available Formats: Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Morales: Requiem a 5 & Officium Defunctorum
De Profundis, Eamonn Dougan
'The De Profundis lower-voice choir are something of a sleeper hit - their recordings of Renaissance polyphony in ‘chiavette’ pitches (usually down a fourth from what's usually heard) bring to light neglected gems, especially of Iberian repertoire, and throw new light (and shadow) on established works. Morales’ Requiem is a texturally simple but deeply moving work that benefits from the rich tones that this lower pitch unlocks. His Parce mihi, Domine (that formed the opening track to the Hilliards’ iconic Officium with Jan Garbarek all those years ago) and other motets round out this wonderful recording, which I think could well be their best yet.' (David Smith)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beauty Veil'd
The Berkeley Ensemble, Tom Wraith, Sophie McQueen, Simon Callaghan (piano)
'Previously unknown chamber music that deserves to be well known, in premiere recordings by musicians who so obviously believe in it. The centrepiece is a string quartet by Dorothy Howell, saved from obscurity by careful reconstructive work by the Berkeley Ensemble's viola player, Dan Shilladay. The other works on the album are by composers associated with Howell, and it's wonderful to hear the musicianship and pianism typical of Simon Callaghan alongside the Berkeley Ensemble players in works by Howell and Matthay. The movements of Nugae (McEwen) have descriptive titles, and whilst the music reflects them, it does so with originality and without cliché.' (Matthew Ash)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Divine Light: The Living Indian Choral Tradition
Somerville College Choir, Oxford, Will Dawes
'This album of beautiful choral singing is a heartening demonstration that not only is there a living tradition of Indian choral music, but also that the Somerville College Choir has the spirit to travel beyond the boundaries of its traditional liturgical repertoire to embrace new tonal colours and influences with the high standards with which Oxford choirs are synonymous. Rajasekar's Light Eternal is a highlight, drawing on the composer's dual-heritage to combine South Indian and Western influences, and the concept of enlightenment that is common to both Christian and Hindu faith. A thought-provoking and immersive collection, superbly captured by Resonus.' (Matthew Ash)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Max Reger: Four Tone Poems after Böcklin; Romantic Suite
Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín
'Having previously only been familiar with Max Reger principally as a composer of organ music, I was thrilled to discover the orchestral side of his output with this superb album from Jaime Martín and the Gävle Symphony Orchestra. The highlight is undoubtedly the set of four tone poems inspired by the Swiss painter, Arnold Böcklin: from the nods to the English pastoral style in The Hermit Fiddler, to the mischievous In the Play of the Waves sounding like a cross between Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Debussy’s La mer, and the depiction of The Isle of the Dead that is every bit the equal of Rachmaninoff’s imagining of the same painting, it’s a magnificent work.' (James Longstaffe)
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, 'Babi Yar'
Vitalij Kowaljow (bass), London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, Gianandrea Noseda
'The LSO’s Shostakovich series continues to impress. The spine-chilling opening has a suitable snarl from the trumpets which some accounts have lacked, and the rest of the performance lives up to that positive omen. Yevtushenko’s themes remain as urgent today as they were in 1961, and I don’t object to Noseda’s brisk tempi to give a sense of urgency bordering on panic in the first movement. Bass soloist Vitalij Kowalijow avoids the booming, hectoring tone of some other performances, though he has steel when necessary. The lower voices of the London Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir don’t quite lock into the dark Slavic vowel colours, but their clarity of diction more than makes up for it - previous recordings have suffered from a muddy and indistinct chorus, and this one certainly doesn’t.' (David Smith)
Available Formats: Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Giacomelli: Cesare in Egitto
Arianna Vendittelli (Cesare), Emőke Baráth (Cleopatra), Margherita Maria Sala (Cornelia), Filippo Mineccia (Achilla), Valerio Contaldo (Tolomeo), Federico Fiorio (Lepido); Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone
'Postdating Handel's setting of the same story by a decade, Giacomelli's Cesare could feasibly be called Cornelia - aided here by her would-be suitor Lepido rather than her son Sesto, the Roman matron is placed at the very heart of the drama, with the marvellous young Italian contralto Margherita Maria Sala supplying pathos and ferocity in spades. With plenty of swagger and metal in the sound, Vendittelli makes a fine showing in the soprano title-role, and Dantone directs with vitality and verve - even the long secco recitatives have drive and direction.' (Katherine Cooper)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Premières symphonies: Bizet, Gounod & Saint-Saëns
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Kazuki Yamada
'A delightful trio of early French symphonies from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and their Artistic and Music Director, Kazuki Yamada. The Symphony in C by a 17-year-old Bizet positively fizzles and bursts with energy in its outer movements, followed by a graceful account of his teacher Gounod’s Symphony No. 1. Completing the album is the Symphony in A major by Saint-Saëns, composed when he was just fifteen. Clearly indebted to Beethoven and Mozart (especially the latter’s Jupiter Symphony), it is nonetheless a remarkably assured and confident work, including a pleasing Larghetto and a charming Scherzo. All three symphonies are treated to stylish, refined performances by Yamada and his players.'
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
