Today's new releases include Neapolitan songs from Pene Pati and members of Il Pomo d'Oro on Warner, an eightieth-birthday celebration of John Rutter from the Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Telemann from Isabelle Faust and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (both on Harmonia Mundi), and Vaughan Williams's Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 from the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano on the orchestra's own label.
Serenata a Napoli
Pene Pati (tenor), Il Pomo d'Oro
The ebullient Samoan tenor is poised for a busy autumn (including La traviata and his debut in Les contes d'Hoffmann in Berlin), and recently won an Opus Klassik Award for his second album on Warner, Nessun dorma. This sequel is devoted to Neapolitan song, including Tosti's 'Marechiaro', 'A vucchella' and 'Inquietudine', Denza's 'Funiculì-Funiculà', and of course Capua's 'O sole mio'; Pati is joined by eight string-players and percussionists from Il Pomo d'Oro, led by Neapolitan guitarist Antonello Paliotti.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
John Rutter: A Clare College Celebration
The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Dmitri Ensemble, Graham Ross
Released to mark the composer's eightieth birthday (which fell on Wednesday), this album includes pieces which he wrote as an undergraduate at Clare and as the college's Director of Music in the late 1970s, plus works which were commissioned by the college later in his career. The Shakespeare trilogy Bard's Eye View and the chamber ensemble version of The Gift of Life receive their world premiere recordings; the programme also features the Clare Benediction (written at the request of former Director of Music Timothy Brown in 1998), 'The Lord Bless You and Keep You' and 'A Gaelic Blessing'. A deluxe version with additional Christmas pieces will be released on 12th December.
Watch David's birthday-interview with Sir John, filmed at his home in Cambridge last month.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Telemann: Violin Concertos
Isabelle Faust (violin), Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin, Bernhard Forck
As well as three of Telemann's 100-plus violin concertos (including 'The Frogs'), this album includes the Suite for Two Violins Without Bass which was inspired by Jonathan Swift's recently-published Gulliver's Travels, the Ouverture-Suite for Violin, Strings and Continuo in B minor, and the Circle Canon (aka 'Canone Infinito') which was published as part of Telemann's XVIII Canons mélodieux but is now attributed to Quantz. Faust plays Antonio Stradivari's ‘Sleeping Beauty’ violin, which she has described as 'an extremely elegant-sounding instrument, with lots of silvery colors to it'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano
This second instalment of Pappano's Vaughan Williams series with the LSO was recorded at the Barbican in April 2024 (No. 5) and December 2024 (No. 9); reviewing the latter concert, The Guardian observed that 'this performance’s real power lay in Pappano’s willingness to hold back, to expose raw sinew beneath the bombast.' The first volume (featuring Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6) was shortlisted for a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2022 after being described as 'electrifying and absolutely magnificent', and also featured as one of Record Review's Albums of the Year; Pappano spoke to Presto's David Smith about his perspective on Vaughan Williams shortly after the recording was released.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Iberia
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Domingo Hindoyan
Debussy's Jeux and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune featured on Hindoyan's debut recording from Liverpool (which won a Presto Award in 2022), and this Franco-Spanish programme includes 'Ibéria' from his Images alongside Chabrier's España, and Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Alborada del gracioso and Boléro. French repertoire figured prominently in Hindoyan's first season in Liverpool: speaking to Presto shortly afterwards, he enthused that 'it's been a great experience, and the orchestra plays French absolutely fluently!'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Anna Clyne: Abstractions
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
This album of Clyne's orchestral works takes its title from a suite which was commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony and premiered under Alsop in 2016; the five movements are inspired by paintings by Sara VanDerBeek, Julie Mehretu, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ellsworth Kelly, and Brice Marden (Clyne often uses painting as part of her own compositional process, creating a fifteen-foot mural for her 2012 work Night Ferry). The programme also includes Within Her Arms (written in memory of Clyne's mother), Restless Oceans (after a poem by Audre Lorde), and the Rothko-inspired Color Field (2020).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša
The Bamberger Symphoniker and its Chief Conductor present a triptych of works on the theme of heroism: Dvořák's final orchestral work A Hero's Song (premiered in 1898 under Gustav Mahler, who declared himself 'quite enchanted' by the piece), Glazunov's 1885 elegy To the Memory of a Hero, and Strauss's autobiographical tone-poem Ein Heldenleben. Hrůša celebrated the opening of his first season as Music Director of the Royal Ballet & Opera Covent Garden this week with an orchestral concert featuring Dvořák's Gothic cantata The Spectre's Bride, which prompted The Arts Desk to declare him 'the absolute master of everything he touches'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7 & Myaskovsky: Sinfonietta
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
This is the third instalment of a series from Oslo which couples works by the two compatriots and contemporaries - the first volume was described as 'powerful and revelatory' (BBC Music Magazine), and its sequel was nominated for an International Classical Music Award in 2022. Here they pair Prokofiev's final symphony (which was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize) with Myaskovsky's Sinfonietta (1946) for string orchestra, which draws on earlier works including his Frolics for piano. Petrenko served as the orchestra's Chief Conductor from 2013 until 2020, when he was succeeded by Klaus Mäkelä.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Dobrinka Tabakova: Sun Triptych
Maxim Rysanov (viola), Dasol Kim (piano), Roman Mints (violin), Kristina Blaumane (cello), BBC Concert Orchestra, Dobrinka Tabakova
The title-work on this second ECM New Series album by the British-Bulgarian composer (b.1980) was written for Gidon Kremer, Kristina Blaumane and Kremerata Baltica to celebrate the orchestra's tenth anniversary. The programme also includes Whispered Lullaby and Suite in Jazz (both for viola and piano), Spinning A Yarn for violin and hurdy-gurdy, the Fantasy Homage to Schubert for strings, and Organum Light; inspired by Gibbons and Purcell's music for viol consort, the latter work was originally scored for five voices but is given here in the version for string orchestra.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Russian Ballet Suites
Andrey Gugnin (piano)
For his fifth album on Hyperion, the Moscow-born pianist presents Mikhail Pletnev's arrangements of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty Suites, Guido Agosti's virtuosic transcription of Stravinsky's The Firebird, and the composer's own solo piano version of three movements from Petrushka. The winner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, Gugnin won a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2020 for his debut recording of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues and Piano Sonata No. 1 after being hailed as 'a ferocious new talent'; International Piano also praised his 'unfaltering assurance, vividness and command', and Gramophone his 'extraordinarily versatile and agile technique'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Donizetti: Songs Vols. 5 & 6
Ermonela Jaho (soprano), Carlo Rizzi (piano)
The Albanian soprano, who sang the title-role on Opera Rara's recording of Leoncavallo's Zazà, returns to the label for the latest instalment of their series of Donizetti's complete songs, with highlights including two settings of Metastasio's 'Che non mi disse un dì!', a ballad depicting the final hours of Lady Jane Grey, the Neapolitan spinning-song 'La conocchia', a New Year's greeting to one of the composer's friends, and an elegy for Donizetti's rival Bellini (composed in 1836, four months after his passing at the age of just 33).
Available Format: 2 CDs
Gluck Arias
Ann Hallenberg (mezzo), The Mozartists, Ian Page
Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg made several distinguished appearances on the late Alan Curtis's series of Gluck recordings, and here she joins forces with Page and his ensemble for a programme which features three scenes from Il trionfo di Clelia, plus arias from Orfeo ed Euridice, La Semiramide riconosciuta, Il Parnaso confuso, and Paride ed Elena; excerpts from Le nozze d’Ercole e d’Ebe and Ipermestra receive their first-ever recordings.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
