Today's new releases include the world premiere recording of Clémence de Grandval's 1892 opera Mazeppa (starring Tassis Christoyannis as the eponymous Cossack general and Nicole Car as his beloved Matréna) on Bru Zane, Mahler's Symphony No. 7 from Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on Alpha, six new works by Nico Muhly from The Tallis Scholars on Linn, and Telemann's solo cantata Ino and two double concertos from Florilegium with Elizabeth Watts, Rachel Podger and Hannah Parry on Channel Classics.
Clémence de Grandval: Mazeppa
Tassis Christoyannis (Mazeppa), Nicole Car (Matréna), Ante Jerkunica (Kotchoubey), Paweł Trojak ( L’Archimandrite), Julien Dran (Iskra); Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mihhail Gerts
A pupil of Chopin, Flotow and Saint-Saëns, Clémence de Grandval won the inaugural Prix Rossini in 1881 and composed six operas, of which Mazeppa (1892) is the last; composed eight years after Tchaikovsky's opera on the same subject, it was warmly received at its premiere in Bordeaux, with one critic describing it as 'a truly remarkable score, the success of which will cause a great stir in the music world'. The recording was made from a live concert performance in Munich in January.
Available Formats: CD2 + Book, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mahler: Symphony No. 7
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi
The Estonian conductor observes that 'the Mahler we encounter in the Seventh is more complex, darker and more philosophical than the Mahler we know from his previous works'; his recent recordings of two earlier symphonies with his Swiss orchestra have been applauded for their 'sense of live electric charge' (BBC Music Magazine on No. 5) and 'ripe and vivid' playing (Gramophone on No. 1).
Read James's 2025 interview with Paavo Järvi about his relationship with Mahler's music.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Nico Muhly: No Resting Place
The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips
The Tallis Scholars' recordings of English polyphony were an integral part of Muhly's childhood, and this album features world premiere recordings of six works which he composed for the group over a ten-year period: the title-work is a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah woven together with interviews with members of the Windrush Generation. The programme also includes Prosperitie (a seventieth-birthday present for Phillips) and Rough Notes, which draws on diary-entries made by Captain Scott during his doomed Antarctic mission.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Telemann: Ino and Double Concertos
Rachel Podger (violin), Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Hannah Parry, Florilegium, Ashley Solomon
The centrepiece of this programme is the dramatic solo cantata Ino, based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which Semele's sister is driven to madness by a vengeful Juno in the wake of Jupiter's seduction of Semele. The cantata is bookended by two concertos for violin and flute (TWV 52: E1 and E3); the album also includes the Sonata in G for the same instruments from Der getreue Music-Meister.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Reines
Véronique Gens (soprano), Ensemble Les Surprises, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas
Gens joins forces with Les Surprises to present a gallery of queens from French Baroque opera, including Déjanire from Antoine Dauvergne's Hercule mourant, Armide from Henri Desmarest's Renaud, Erinice from Rameau's Zoroastre, Joseph-François Salomon's Médée, and Pancrace Royer's Zaïde. Also includes instrumental interludes from André Cardinal Destouches's Callirhoé, Rameau's Dardanus, and Monteclair's Jephté.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 6, 8 & 18
Olga Pashchenko (fortepiano), Il Gardellino
This is the third instalment of the Russian keyboard-player's historically-informed Mozart series, the first volume of which was hailed as 'the most exhilarating “authentic” Mozart I have ever heard' by The Spectator's Damian Thompson; Gramophone was similarly enthusiastic, declaring that Pashchenko 'identifies and homes in unerringly on the operatic inspiration that lies behind so much of Mozart's music'. Pashchenko uses two contrasting instruments here: an Anton Walter fortepiano (ca. 1792) by Paul McNulty and a copy of a Spath & Schmahl tangent piano (Regensburg, 1794) by Chris Maene.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Franck, Boulanger, Debussy & Vermeulen: Works for Cello and Piano
Lidy Blijdorp (cello), Tobias Borsboom (piano)
This recital exploring the world of the Société Nationale de Musique is the Chamber Choice in the March issue of BBC Music Magazine, with Jo Talbot enthusing that 'by turns dramatic and ethereal, Blijdorp insists you listen'. The programme opens with Jules Delsart's composer-sanctioned arrangement of Franck's Violin Sonata, and also includes Nadia Boulanger's Trois pièces plus the cello sonatas of Debussy and Matthijs Vermeulen.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Prokofiev
Nemanja Radulović (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Laure Favre-Kahn (piano), Johan Dalene (violin)
Radulović's all-Prokofiev programme opens with the Violin Concerto No. 2, conducted by Rouvali; reviewing their 2023 performance of the work in New York, BachTrack deemed his playing 'technically immaculate, with phrases elegantly shaped'. The rest of the album is given over to chamber music and transcriptions, including Heifetz's arrangements of the Gavotte from the Classical Symphony and the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the Sonata for Two Violins from 1932, and excerpts from Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Dialogos
Holland Baroque, Constantinople
Weaving together Persian, Ottoman and early Western Baroque traditions, this programme is inspired by the meeting between Saint Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade in 1219. Curated by Iranian singer-composer Kiya Tabassian and Holland Baroque founders Judith & Tineke Steenbrink, it was described as 'timely, hopeful and sumptuous' in the latest edition of Gramophone.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Nimrod Borenstein: Shakespeare Songs, Mandolin Concerto and Oboe Concerto
Sarah Fox (soprano), Alon Sariel (mandolin), Sanja Romić (oboe), English Chamber Orchestra, Nimrod Borenstein
Premiered last March at Cadogan Hall to mark the ECO's 65th birthday, the Shakespeare Songs comprise settings of five sonnets; reviewing the performance, PlaysToSee observed that 'Fox points the text admirably, and finds a sustained lyricism in the writing, even at tricky high levels in the register'. The Mandolin Concerto was premiered by Sariel in 2023 and utilises techniques adapted from Paganini's violin writing, whilst the Oboe Concerto 'Légende' was written for Sanja Romić (who also commissioned Borenstein's Duo concertante back in 2015).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Divine Impresario
Randall Scotting (countertenor), Mary Bevan (soprano), Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Scotting pays tribute to the remarkable career of Naples-born mezzo-soprano castrato Nicolò Grimaldi, who became a huge success on the London opera scene and created the title-roles in Handel's Rinaldo and Amadigi. The programme includes arias from both of those operas, as well as excerpts from Ariosti's Tito Manlio, Porpora's Siface, Gasparini's Tomiri and Antioco, Giai's Mitridate and Mancini's Idaspe Fedele.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Many Pupils of Antonín Dvořák
Václav Talich, Jaroslav Vogel, Karel Šejna, Karel Nedbal, Alois Klíma, Václav Neumann, Libor Pešek, Josef Suk, Karel Šroubek, Ivan Moravec, Suk Quartet, Vlach Quartet, Richard Novák et al
Focusing on the music of composers who studied in Dvořák’s class at the Prague Conservatoire during the 1890s and early 1900s, this sequel to The Many Loves of Antonín Dvořák includes Julius Fučík's Entry of the Gladiators, a chorus from Rudolf Piskáček's Bernard Žár, Rudolf Karel's Revolutionary Overture, and generous selections of works by Josef Suk, Vítězslav Novák, and Oskar Nedbal.
Available Format: 3 CDs
