Today's new releases include French orchestral mélodies from Cyrille Dubois, the Brussels Philharmonic and Pierre Dumoussaud on Alpha, Semyon Bychkov's complete Mahler cycle with the Czech Philharmonic on Pentatone, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 from Isata Kanneh-Mason, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft on Decca, and Steve Reich's sextets from the Colin Currie Group on the percussionist's own label.
So Poétique!
Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Brussels Philharmonic, Pierre Dumoussaud
Three years on from his traversal of the highways and byways of opéra-comique in So Romantique!, Dubois explores a fascinating selection of French mélodies with orchestra, many of which receive their world premiere recordings. Highlights include Gounod's setting of Théophile Gautier's 'Ma belle amie est morte' (which was also set by Berlioz in Les Nuits d'été), Fauré's 'Les roses d'Ispahan', Massenet's 'Le poète et le fantôme', Fernand de La Tombelle's 'Berceuse pyrénéenne', and Vierne's 'Chanson d'automne'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov
The first five symphonies in Bychkov's Mahler cycle were released individually between 2022 and 2025, and have been praised for the 'superlative individual and collective quality in every orchestral department' (BBC Music Magazine on No. 2) and 'the orchestra’s magical combination of richness, precision and nuance' (The Times on No. 1). Symphonies Nos. 6-9 are released for the first time here; soloists in No. 8 include Kateřina Kněžíková, Jennifer Johnston and David Butt Philip.
Available Formats: 11 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano), Philharmonia Orchestra, Ryan Bancroft
Kanneh-Mason made her solo BBC Proms debut with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in 2023, when Classical Source declared that she 'fearlessly navigated Prokofiev’s labyrinthine score, delivering the composer’s most challenging passages with deft precision' and The Guardian observed that 'there was so much to enjoy in her liquid pianism'. The album also includes the March & Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges, selections from Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, and the Piano Sonata No. 3.
Available Formats: CD, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Steve Reich: The Sextets
Colin Currie Group
In advance of the American minimalist's ninetieth birthday this October, the Colin Currie Group (which turns twenty this year) presents four pieces for different instrumental combinations: the Sextet from the mid-1980s, Double Sextet from 2007, Six Marimbas (transcribed from Six Pianos by James Priess), and Dance Patterns from 2002. The composer endorses the recordings here as representing 'an absolutely top level of performance'.
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mentor: Britten & Oldham
Nick Pritchard (tenor - Serenade), Annemarie Federle (horn), Archie Inns (tenor), Carolyn Sampson, Rachel Ambrose-Evans, Sumei Bao-Smith (sopranos), James Orford (organ), London Choral Sinfonia, Michael Waldron
Born in 1926, Arthur Oldham was the only acknowledged private pupil of Benjamin Britten; a brilliant choir-master, he also founded the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and spent seven years as director of the London Symphony Chorus. The album includes the first recording of his large-scale cantata Laudes Creaturarum ('The Canticle of All Creatures') alongside Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Te Deum in C.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
The Romantic Piano Concerto
1991 - 2007 Edition
Spanning the first twenty-six years of Hyperion's landmark series, this collection features 130 works, 59 composers and 19 pianists, with highlights including Scharwenka, Mendelssohn and Saint-Saëns from Sir Stephen Hough, Henselt, Korngold, Busoni and Alkan from Marc-André Hamelin, and Moszkowski, Paderewski, Parry and Delius from Piers Lane. A second volume covering 2008-present will be released in the autumn.
Available Format: 50 CDs
Dave Soldier: Vipers at the Onyx
Jan Voboril, Curtis J. Stewart (violin), Adam Klemens, FILMharmonic Orchestra, Prague, Paul Schrage
Described as an 'iconoclast' by The New Yorker, American composer Dave Soldier has a parallel career (as Dr. David Sulzer) in neuroscience and is currently a Professor at Columbia University Medical Center. This collection of his symphonic works centres on the world premiere recording of Stuff Smith’s Unfinished Violin Concerto, inspired by a home tape of themes which the eponymous jazz violinist gifted to Soldier. The album also includes New York Bars at Dawn, Lorette Velvette, and SamulNori: rain, lightning, wind and clouds.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Blackbirds
Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor/piano), Thomas Dunford (lute/vocals)
Two works composed for great cellists are the mainstays of this album of music from the 1960s: Grażyna Bacewicz's Cello Concerto No. 2 (written for Gaspar Cassadó in 1963) and the Cello Sonata which Benjamin Britten dedicated to his friend Mstislav Rostropovich after hearing him in the British premiere of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. The programme also includes Sándor Veress's 1967 Sonata for Solo Cello, and an arrangement of Paul McCartney's 'Blackbird' (which was released the following year).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Haydn: The Complete Piano Trios, Vol. 5
Trio Gaspard
Launched in 2022, the Gaspard's Haydn series has been welcomed for its 'lively and spontaneous' energy (BBC Music Magazine on Vol. 1), 'freshness, warmth and sense of humour' (Gramophone on Vol. 2) and 'apparently flawless playing' (The Strad on Vol. 3). This fifth instalment features Piano Trios Nos. 5, 6, 22 and 44, followed by the world première recording of Helena Winkelman’s Threesome in a High-den - a warm, witty 'homage to Joseph Haydn' which draws on the latter work in particular.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Ad Nos
Thomas Kelly (piano)
British pianist Thomas Kelly recently took second prize at the International Liszt Utrecht Competition, and was a finalist at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021. He makes his recording debut with a programme of organ works arranged for piano, including Busoni's transcription of Liszt's Fantasia and Fugue on 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam', Franck's Chorale in A minor (arr. Stephen Hough), Reubke's Organ Sonata in C minor (arr. August Stradal), and Alkan's Prière No. 11 (arr. José Vianna da Motta).
Thomas visited us in Leamington last month to give a preview of the album - look out for highlights on our YouTube channel next week...
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Cecilia McDowall: A Tree is A Song
The Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood
This collection of recent secular choral works by British composer Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) takes its title from a setting of a new poem by Heather Lane (former librarian of the Scott Polar Institute) which explores the connections between trees, paper, books and knowledge. The album also includes the set of three Shakespeare songs When Time is broke, the award-winning Night Flight (on poems by Sheila Bryer) and On the Air: Dear Vaccine, premiered in 2022 in response to a global community project which took place during the later stages of the COVID lockdowns.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Raff: Dame Kobold
Lukas Krimmel, Gustav Wenzel Most, Lara Rieken, Matthias Lika, Julia Surushkina, West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Mariánské Lázně), Choir of the Theatre of the City of Ústí nad Labem, Dario Salvi
This is the first commercial recording of Swiss composer Joachim Raff's comic opera, which was premiered in Weimar in 1870 and centres on a Spanish widow's scheme to elude her brother's watchful eye and seduce a new lover by disguising herself as a phantom princess. Primarily self-taught, Raff was highly regarded by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, and spent several years working as an assistant to Franz Liszt.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Halévy: La Juive
Ambur Braid (Rachel), John Osborn (Éléazar), Gerard Schneider (Léopold), Monika Buczkowska (Eudoxie), Simon Lim (Cardinal Brogni); Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Tatjana Gürbaca, Henrik Nánási
Filmed in Frankfurt in July 2024, this contemporary staging of Halévy's 1835 opera about the forbidden love between a Jewish woman and a Christian prince was praised by Frankfurter Rundschau for Braid's 'luminous' account of the title-role and by Concerto.net for Osborn's 'immensely moving' performance as her adoptive father Eléazar.
Available Format: Blu-ray
