Today's new releases include a gallery of piano heroines from Claire Huangci, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius from Martyn Brabbins in Huddersfield (with David Butt Philip in the title-role and Karen Cargill as The Angel), cello sonatas by Schumann and Moscheles from Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih, and Lully's Atys from Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie under Alexis Kossenko (starring Mathias Vidal, Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau).
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
David Butt Philip (Gerontius), Karen Cargill (The Angel), Roland Wood (Priest/Angel of the Agony), Huddersfield Choral Society, Orchestra of Opera North, Martyn Brabbins
The Huddersfield Choral Society's relationship with Elgar's masterpiece stretches back over a century: the choir performed it under the baton of the composer himself in 1917 (with their numbers depleted by the War, much like the fictitious Yorkshire choir depicted in Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner's recent film The Choral). Nearly three decades later, the choir took part in the first-ever complete recording of the piece for EMI, with Heddle Nash as Gerontius, Gladys Ripley as The Angel, and Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the Liverpool Philharmonic; this new recording was made in the same venue, Huddersfield Town Hall.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
1851: Schumann & Moscheles Sonatas
Steven Isserlis (cello), Connie Shih (piano)
Isserlis and Shih explore works which were all composed in the year of the Great Exhibition in London's Hyde Park, at which a display of Érard pianos attracted huge crowds including Queen Victoria herself; the instrument which Shih plays on the recording may well have featured among the line-up. Their programme includes Ignaz Moscheles's Cello Sonata in E, Isserlis's own transcriptions of Robert Schumann's Violin Sonata No. 2 and 'Sängers Trost', and shorter pieces by Gounod and Ferdinand David. The recording was made at the University of Birmingham's Elgar Concert Hall in 2015.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Lully: Atys
Mathias Vidal (Atys), Véronique Gens (Cybèle), Sandrine Piau (Sangaride), Tassis Christoyannis (Célénus), Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie, Alexis Kossenko
Hot on the heels of fine recordings of 'the King's opera' (Louis XIV adored it) from Christophe Rousset and Leonardo García Alarcón, this account of Lully's 1676 tragédie en musique was set down in Paris in April 2024, and was hailed as 'in some respects the best yet' by The Times this week, with Geoff Brown praising the 'vigour and thrust: key qualities if Lully’s music is to reveal its full potential and move beyond the decorative and courtly'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Piano Heroines
Claire Huangci (piano)
For her second solo album on Alpha, the American pianist celebrates female composers with a programme which includes excerpts from Clara Wieck's Soirées musicales and Quatre pièces caractéristiques, four movements from Fanny Hensel's Das Jahr, Amy Beach's 'Cradle Song of the Lonely Mother' and Four Sketches, and Florence Price's 'Waltz of the Spring Maid', 'Your Hands In Mine' and 'Cotton Dance'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Massenet: Songs With Orchestra – II
Orchestre de l'Opéra Normandie Rouen, Pierre Dumoussaud, Hélène Guilmette, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Julien Henric, Thomas Dolié
Highlights from this second instalment of Massenet's songs from the Bru Zane team include the Chansons des bois d'Amaranthe for vocal quartet, the Expressions lyriques (written in the final year of his life for the mezzo Lucy Arbell) and a setting of Victor Hugo's 'La Nuit', plus Massenet's arrangement of Schubert's 'Am Meer' for horn and orchestra. All songs are recorded in their orchestral versions for the first time.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Out of Vienna
Leonkoro Quartet
The award-winning quartet makes its debut on Alpha with a programme comprising Berg's Lyric Suite and works by Schulhoff and Webern. The recording was an Editor's Choice in the latest issue of Gramophone, with Christian Hoskins opining that 'their reading of Webern's Five Pieces here bears comparison with the finest on record...[and] left me admiring anew the originality and concentration of Webern's score'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Art Nouveau
Trio Wanderer
This programme of French music from around the turn of the twentieth century includes Debussy's Violin Sonata and Cello Sonata, piano trios by Lalo, Ravel and Debussy, Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello (dedicated to the late Debussy and premiered in 1922), and Mel Bonis's Soir, Matin and Barcarolle. The Wanderer's previous recording of the Ravel trio (released twenty years ago) received five stars from BBC Music Magazine, who observed that they 'make it all sound effortless - cool but not cold, nostalgic but not sentimental'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Bach Dialogues
Matt Haimovitz (cello), Christopher O'Riley (piano)
Comprising Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba and cembalo (BWV1027– 1029) and the Trio Sonata No. 5 (BWV529), this recording was made on a five-string cello piccolo and a modern copy of a Swedish Baroque clavichord at Skywalker Sound in California (which was founded by George Lucas in 1975). Haimovitz's discography includes two recordings of the Bach cello suites, with Gramophone noting that the most recent (released on Pentatone in 2015) 'achieves a genuine elegance that, although hard-won, is worth the investment.'
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Bizet: The Piano Works
Roberto Prosseda (piano)
A superb pianist in his youth, Bizet rarely played in public but continued to write for the instrument throughout his life: Bru Zane's Artistic Director Alexandre Dratwicki reflected last year that 'this side of Bizet’s output still gets overlooked because he’s seen as primarily an opera composer'. This collection features early works such as the two Caprices from 1851 (written when he was just twelve), Chants du Rhin, Chasse fantastique, the glittering 'Polka-Mazurka' Casilda, and the formidable Variations chromatiques from 1868.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Young Composers 7
National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Nicholas Chalmers, Will Roberts, Saleem Nassar, Emily Dickens, Phoebe Gault, Julia Curry, Laura Philips, Ann Middleton, Josephine Jeffers
This seventh instalment of the National Youth Choir's series in partnership with NMC showcases the work of four early-career composers taking part in the 2025 Emerging Professional Artist mentorship scheme: Fraz Ireland, Kornélia Nemcová, Esther Bersweden and Ryan Morgan. Founded in 2019, the programme numbers Joanna Ward, Jamie Powe, Ben Nobuto and Kristina Arakelyan among its alumni.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan
1970–1979 live in Berlin
This is the second instalment of the Berliner Philharmoniker's series of live recordings from the archives, capturing complete concerts and newly remastered from original analogue sources; much of the material has never been released before. The repertoire includes Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1 and 3, Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, Metamorphosen and Ein Heldenleben, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (with Agnes Baltsa and Hermann Winkler), and works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Dvořák, Bruckner, Mussorgsky, Berg, Webern and Penderecki.
Available Format: 20 SACDs
