Today's new releases include a Huw Watkins triptych from the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder on the orchestra's own label, Lise Davidsen's 2023 recital with James Baillieu from the Metropolitan Opera on Decca, solo piano transcriptions of music by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson from Alice Sara Ott on Deutsche Grammophon, and the final volume of Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov's survey of the Mozart violin sonatas on Harmonia Mundi
All of these works were commissioned and premiered by Elder and the Hallé between 2020 and 2025, with Watkins writing with the orchestra's specific sound in mind. The Fanfare for eleven brass instruments was written to celebrate their return to the stage following the first COVID lockdown, whilst Symphony No. 2 was premiered during one of the orchestra's virtual concerts in 2021 and won the South Bank Sky Arts Classical Music Award in 2022. Elder premiered the Concerto for Orchestra in his first concert as Conductor Emeritus, with The Times hailing it as 'a classy instant classic' which 'sounds as if it has always existed'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Lise Davidsen: Live at the Met
Lise Davidsen (soprano), James Baillieu (piano)
Released to coincide with Davidsen's first performances of Isolde at the Met, this recital was recorded live on 14th September 2023, and was rapturously received by The New York Times thanks to the Norwegian soprano's 'ideal balance of warmth, penetration and power'. The programme includes her signature aria 'Dich, teure Halle' from Tannhäuser, excerpts from Tosca, Un ballo in maschera and Die Csárdásfürstin, songs by Schubert, Sibelius, Strauss and Grieg, and 'I could have danced all night' from My Fair Lady (which was also a favourite encore of Birgit Nilsson).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano Works
Alice Sara Ott (piano)
Described by Gramophone as 'a timely overview of the composer’s appealing ambient-minimalist style', this collection includes solo piano arrangements of music from Jóhannsson's studio albums Englabörn (2002) and Orphée (2016) plus themes from his soundtracks for Personal Effects, Copenhagen Dreams and The Theory of Everything; Jóhannsson (who died in 2018 aged just 48) won a Golden Globe for the latter score, which was also nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA in 2015.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mozart: Sonatas For Fortepiano & Violin, Vol. 4
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano)
Comprising the Sonatas Nos. 17, 20, 28 and 33, this is the final instalment of Faust and Melnikov's Mozart survey, which has been applauded for its 'great subtlety and flexibility' (BBC Music Magazine), 'consummate wit, rainbow colours and ensemble panache' (The Times), and sense of 'style and fantasy' (Gramophone). Faust plays the 'Sleeping Beauty' Stradivarius, and Melnikov a Christoph Kern fortepiano from his private collection, modelled on an Anton Walter instrument from 1795.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 12
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Manchester Camerata, Gábor Takács-Nagy
This is the final instalment of the French pianist's Mozart cycle, which has been praised for its 'crystal clarity and ensemble spirit' (The Times), 'sheen and brilliance' (International Piano), and sense of 'vigour and engagement' (Gramophone). As well as the Rondos K382 and 386, the programme includes the overtures to Idomeneo and La finta semplice; Andrea Nemecz joins Bavouzet for the Concerto for Two Pianos K365, with Rose McLachlan coming on board for the Concerto for Three Pianos K242.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5 ‘Spring’, 9 ‘Kreutzer’ & 3
Alena Baeva (violin), Vadym Kholodenko (piano)
Baeva and Kholodenko embark on a new historically-informed survey of the Beethoven sonatas, using the 2020 Bärenreiter edition of the scores and incorporating their own primary-source research on phrasing, ornamentation and tempi. The recording was warmly received in this month's Gramophone, with David Threasher noting that Baeva 'is very much her own woman', and revelling in their 'mesmerically shaded' account of the Spring Sonata in particular.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Barbara Strozzi: A portrait in Five Acts
Dorothee Mields (soprano), Hana Blažiková (soprano), Hathor Consort, Romina Lischka
Born 'Barbara Valle' in Venice in 1619, Strozzi was the adopted (possibly illegitimate) daughter of the eminent poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi, who recognised her gifts as a singer and composer from a young age and arranged for her to study with Francesco Cavalli; her biographer Beth L. Glixon describes her as 'the most prolific composer – man or woman – of printed secular vocal music in Venice' of her era. This album tells her story through a five-part sequence of her many duets for two sopranos, including 'Moralità amorosa', 'Sospira, respira', 'La vendetta', and 'I baci'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Michael Finnissy: Piano Works
Ian Pace (piano)
The British composer Michael Finnissy will celebrate his eightieth birthday later this month, and this collection of recordings by one of his most ardent champions centres on piano works which were inspired by music of the past: the programme includes the four-book cycle of Verdi transcriptions, English Country-Tunes (previously recorded only by the composer himself), the set of seven fantasias on Beethoven's 'Robin Adair', Romeo and Juliet Are Drowning, and paraphrases of Strauss waltzes and Brahms Lieder.
Available Formats: 4 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Josquin: Missa L’ami Baudichon - Motets milanais
Bradford Gleim, Cut Circle, Jesse Rodin
This latest release from the American early music vocal ensemble is an Editor's Choice in the laest issue of Gramophone, when Fabrice Fitch hailed the results as 'the finest singing in this repertory that I've heard in a while...It makes you feel more intelligent for having heard it.' As well as the Missa L’ami Baudichon (possibly Josquin's very first mass-setting), the album includes the motet cycles Vultum tuum deprecabuntur and Qui velatus facie fuisti.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Nicholas Scott-Burt: 24 Preludes for Piano
Da-Hee Kim (piano)
Composed during 2019/2020, the British composer's set of 24 Preludes draws inspiration from JS Bach, Chopin and Shostakovich in 'aiming to represent the innate expressive qualities associated with each key, while bringing a unique approach to the work’s architecture'; the cycle is grouped into four books, each with its own distinct colour and energy. Making her recording debut, the South Korean pianist Da-Hee Kim trained at the Paris Conservatoire, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Cocteau
Isabelle O’Connell (piano)
This enterprising recital explores the musical world of polymath Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), who had long-standing relationships with Les Six and the Ballets Russes and numbered Guillaume Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani among his social circle. The programme includes music by Stravinsky, Satie, Tailleferre, Honegger and Milhaud, plus a new twenty-minute work by Irish composer Rhona Clarke which pays tribute to Cocteau's 'overall aesthetic and personality, his quirkiness, modernism, sense of freedom, his mix of the sublime and the ridiculous'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
