Today's new releases include Brahms's Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 from Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on Chandos, a collection of Joan Sutherland's operatic recordings for Decca, Max Richter's score for the new film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite from Nobuyuki Tsujii on Deutsche Grammophon.
Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Gardner's previous Brahms recordings from Bergen have been warmly welcomed, with last year's Ein Deutsches Requiem receiving five stars in BBC Music Magazine for its 'dignified monumentality' and the 2019 accounts of Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 impressing Gramophone with his ability 'to make plain the tension between the composer’s Classical sensibility and Romantic impulses'. These recordings were made at the orchestra's home, the Grieghallen, in June 2023 (Symphony No. 2) and June 2024 (Symphony No. 4).
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Joan Sutherland - The Decca Recordings Volume 3
The Operas 1971-1988
This third and final volume of La Stupenda's recordings for Decca includes Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (in which she sings all four heroines), Puccini's Turandot and Suor Angelica, Bellini's I puritani, La sonnambula and Norma, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Anna Bolena, Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore and Esclarmonde, and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur. The set also features highlights from Lehár's Die lustige Witwe and a recording of Tosca's 'Vissi d'arte' with Richard Bonynge. Sutherland's co-stars include Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballé, Marilyn Horne and Sherrill Milnes.
Available Format: 46 CDs
Hamnet
Music by Max Richter
Starring Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife Agnes, Chloé Zhao's film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning 2020 novel about the death of the couple's young son and its impact on the genesis of Hamlet will be released in the UK next week; reviewing the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, The Guardian described the final stretch of the movie as 'a grand meditation on art’s great capacity'. Richter's score features his 2004 composition 'On the Nature of Daylight' (previously used in Shutter Island, The Last of Us and The Handmaid's Tale) alongside new material which draws on 'period instrumentation, grammar, and sensibility' to bring the emotional world of the Shakespeares to life.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 & Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Domingo Hindoyan
The Japanese pianist (who has been blind since birth) received a terrific reception when he performed Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Hindoyan and the Liverpool Philharmonic at the 2023 Proms, with The Guardian applauding the 'robust propulsion' of his playing and SeenandHeard International deeming the concert 'one of the great BBC Proms of recent times'. This recording was made at the orchestra's home the following spring and is preceded by a selection of solo pieces from the Russian Romantic repertoire, including Mikhail Pletnev's transcription of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Rachmaninoff's arrangement of the 'Flight of the Bumblebee' from Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and Arcadi Volodos's version of Rachmaninoff's 'How Fair This Spot'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Behlcanto!
Daniel Behle (tenor), Alliage Quintett
The German tenor presents a selection of popular opera arias and songs in new arrangements for saxophone quartet and voice by Alexander Krampe and Stefan Malzew; the programme includes German-language versions of Capua's 'O sole mio', Rossini's 'La danza' and 'Nessun dorma' from Puccini's Turandot, 'Ah, mes amis, quel jour de fête!' from Donizetti's La fille du régiment, 'Cielo e mar!' from Ponchielli's La gioconda, and 'Vesti la giubba' from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. At the heart of the album is 'I timori di domani', a pastiche Italian song by Behle himself (written under the name of his alter ego 'Linguini Passatelli').
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Nino Rota: Piano Works
Jacopo Salvatori
Best known for his work in cinema (which included the scores for The Godfather and numerous films by Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli), Rota also composed a huge body of orchestral and choral works, ten operas, and a significant amount of music for solo piano. This album features the Suite del 'Casanova' di Federico Fellini (arranged by the composer for piano), the Sette Pezzi Difficili per Bambini (composed around the same time that Rota was working on The Godfather), the early miniature Ippolito gioca, a Fantasia from the mid-1940s, and the 15 Preludes for Piano from 1964.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Onward
Elliot Wuu (piano)
This is the debut album from the US pianist, who is currently a Young Steinway Artist and was a finalist at the 2025 American Piano Awards; his programme comprises Debussy's Suite Bergamasque, Bach's Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo, Schumann's Kinderszenen, and Schubert's Wanderer-Fantasie. Wuu's schedule for the new year includes a masterclass and performance with Christoph Eschenbach as part of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester's piano festival in January.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Onutė Narbutaitė: Centones Meae Urbi
Gunta Gelgotė (soprano), Nerijus Masevičius (bass-baritone), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Kaunas State Choir, Robertas Šervenikas
Cast in six sections and depicting the history of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, this 1997 oratorio earned its composer the Lithuanian National Laureate; the piece sets extracts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and texts by Czesław Miłosz, Moshe Kulbak, Adam Mickiewicz, Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius and Eugenijus Ališanka (all of whom have connections with the city).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
O Maria, virgo pia
Oriel College Chapel Choir, Oxford; with David Maw, Alexander Pott, Tippett Quartet, Grace Davidson (soprano), Craig Ogden (guitar)
The Oxford college celebrates its 700th birthday with an album which reflects its founding dedication as 'the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Oxford’. The programme includes Judith Bingham's Magnificat (commissioned in 2015 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of female students at Oriel), Cheryl Frances-Hoad's O Maria (2025), the late James Whitbourn's Solitude (setting a text by Oriel Fellow John Henry Newman), David Maw's I sing of a maiden, and music by other composers connected with the college such as John Caldwell, Edmund Fellowes, Hugh Collins Rice, and Herbert Chappell.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Malcolm Binns - A 90th Birthday Tribute
Malcolm Binns (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Norman Del Mar
The Nottingham-born pianist turns ninety on 29th January, and APR celebrates the occasion with this collection of recordings from his early career (several of them drawn from Binns's own personal archive). Highlights include the UK broadcast premiere of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 from 1961, Proms performances of concertos by Beethoven and Liszt with Sir Malcolm Sargent, a recital of works by Rubinstein and Alkan on the Concert Artist label (previously only available on vinyl), the complete Chopin Études, and Lyapunov's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Norman Del Mar.
Available Formats: 4 CDs, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
