Today's new releases include a heady dip in the waters of fin-de-siècle Paris with star viola-player Timothy Ridout, the first recording of Charles Silver's opera based on the 'Sleeping Beauty' legend from the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under György Vashegyi, a Britten collection offering a rare chance to hear Les Illuminations sung by a soprano (as it was at the premiere) from Julie Roset, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Lawrence Foster, and Roderick Williams's triumphant album of Vaughan Williams arrangements and transcriptions for chamber string forces, featuring William Vann, the Sacconi Quartet and double bassist Levi Andreassen.
Alto Appassionato
Timothy Ridout (viola), Jonathan Ware (piano)
Ridout describes this album as 'a journey into a very tightly-knit musical world in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century'. The mainstay of the programme is his own arrangement of Franck's Violin Sonata, which is preceded by his transcriptions of six popular songs by Fauré, plus three pieces commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire under Fauré's directorship: Léon Honnoré's Morceau de concert, Enescu's Konzertstück, and Henri Büsser's Appassionato.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Charles Silver: La Belle au bois dormant
Thomas Dolié (Le Roi), Guylaine Girard (Aurore/La Reine), Kate Aldrich (La Fée Urgèle/Dame Gudule), Adrien Fournaison, Julien Dran (Le Prince/Le Chevalier errant), Matthieu Lécroart (Barnabé); Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, György Vashegyi
A student of Massenet and Dubois, Silver won the Prix de Rome in 1891 and composed this opera on Perrault's Sleeping Beauty four years later; it was premiered in Marseilles in 1902, with Silver's wife Georgette Bréjean-Gravière (who had created the role of La Fée in Massenet's Cendrillon) as Aurore/La Reine. The album is Recording of the Month in the May issue of Gramophone, where Mark Pullinger welcomes it as 'a notable reawakening'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Britten: Les Illuminations and other works
Julie Roset (soprano), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Lawrence Foster
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Britten's death, this album brings Les Illuminations back to its roots - originally sung by a soprano, despite today being mostly the domain of tenors. Julie Roset takes centre stage, with the ever-popular Young Person's Guide, the Choral Dances from Gloriana and the brooding, atmospheric Sinfonia da Requiem completing a well-rounded tribute to one of the UK's most influential twentieth-century composers.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Rise, Heart
Roderick Williams (baritone) with Sacconi Quartet, Levi Andreassen (double bass), William Vann (piano)
Fresh from their album-launch event right here at Presto (look out for video footage of their recital and Q&A early next week!), Roderick Williams and William Vann are joined by the Sacconni Quartet and Levi Andreassen for this gorgeous collection of chamber-ish arrangements of some of Vaughan Williams's most beloved works. The composer's own arrangement of the Five Mystical Songs is paired with (Roderick!) Williams's adaptations for string quartet of selected numbers from his huge array of folk song transcriptions.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Traetta: Ifigenia in Tauride
Rocío Pérez (Ifigenia), Rafal Tomkiewicz (Oreste), Suzanne Jerosme (Pilade), Alasdair Kent (Toante), Karolina Bengtsson (Dori); Les Talens Lyriques, Novo Canto, Christophe Rousset
Premiered at Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace in 1763 (sixteen years before Gluck's famous opera on the same subject): Rousset observes that 'standing at the crossroads of Neapolitan bel canto and Gluck’s dramatic reform, Traetta's vocal writing is never an empty display.' This world premiere recording was made after performances at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival last summer.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Sibelius: Violin Concerto & Lemminkäinen Suite
Ava Bahari (violin), Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Two dyed-in-the-wool Sibelians come together for this album - Santtu-Matias Rouvali caps off his Sibelius symphony cycle with the Lemminkäinen suite based on the central character from Finland's national epic the Kalevala, and is joined by Ava Bahari (ECHO Rising Star 2026-27) for the violin concerto, in which Sibelius processes his own thwarted dreams of forging a career as a concert violinist by instead creating a masterful solo work.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
William Mival: Vale - A Pastoral Symphony
Philharmonia Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Wales-born contemporary composer William Mival (currently a composition professor at London's Royal College of Music) sets out his stall with this triptych of large-scale orchestral works; one written as a companion-piece to the third act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and exploring the might-have-beens of an elusive string quartet, one composed as a birthday tribute to the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and one exploring an Anglo-Welsh take on the traditions of the pastorale.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Sir Donald Runnicles
Founded in 1962, the Grand Teton Music Festival takes place at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort each summer; this performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 was recorded live in July 2024, under the festival's long-term Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles. Reviewing the results last month, Classical Music Daily enthused that 'Runnicles forms part of the panoply of recordings that are almost as 'superhuman' in their achievements as the symphonies themselves.'
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven/5 Vol. 5
Jonathan Biss (piano), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malin Broman
The concluding volume of Biss's project to pair the five Beethoven piano concertos with new commissions that reflect them in some way. Here, No. 3 in C minor is juxtaposed with Caroline Shaw's Watermark, a work she describes as 'imagining Beethoven imagining it', and which incorporates quotations and harmonic touches from Beethoven's own concerto.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Byrd and the Bird
Sheng-Fang Chiu, Giovanni Antonini
An intriguing and wide-ranging album of music for recorder duo, incorporating borrowings from Bartók and a rarely-heard work from Amico Dolci as well as Baroque and Renaissance pieces by Hotteterre, Van Eyck and Telemann, plus anonymous works preserved in the Faenza Codex. The sopranino recorder (the second-highest of the family in terms of pitch) is the centre of attention, with Sheng-Fang Chiu's virtuosity highlighting the avian theme.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Schubert: Piano Trios
David Moreau (violin), Edgar Moreau (cello), Jérémie Moreau (piano)
A set of three brothers who also form a piano trio - sure the ne plus ultra of chamber music, with the closeness and mutual understanding that the genre demands written almost literally into their DNA. Here they make their recorded début with Schubert's three piano trios, complemented by a selection of arrangements of his Lieder including Du bist die Ruh and Ständchen.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mendelssohn: Works For Solo Piano, Vol. 3
Peter Donohoe (piano)
Early works from the composer's teens and twenties, these pieces - two sonatas, two capriccios and a fantasia - show the influence not just of Beethoven but of Hummel, Moscheles and Weber. Donohoe rounds out the album with a sparkling rendition of Liszt's paraphrase of motifs from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Furioso
Xavier Sabata (countertenor), Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, Franck-Emmanuel Comte
Where female operatic heroines may have their virtuosic 'mad scene', the myth of 'Orlando Furioso' allows for male characters to explore the less tethered side of the human soul. A wide-ranging story comprising elements of fantasy, proto-science-fiction, star-crossed lovers and more, it's inspired responses from many composers, and countertenor Xavier Sabata draws on this rich treasure-trove for this album dedicated to Orlando in all his chaotic guises.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
