Today's new releases include Piazzolla from Argentine mezzo Daniela Mack on Pentatone, the world premiere recording of Olli Mustonen's Heavenly Lights from the composer, Ian Bostridge and Nicolas Altstaedt on Alpha, an eclectic recital on the theme of light from Simone Kermes on Prospero, and Julius Katchen’s complete Brahms recordings on Eloquence.
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Daniela Mack (mezzo), JP Jofre Quartet
The Buenos Aires-born mezzo Daniela Mack fell in love with the music of Astor Piazzolla on a childhood car-journey with her father, and makes her debut on Pentatone with a programme which includes new arrangements of 'Dulce sueños', 'Yo Soy Maria' (from the 1968 tango-opera María de Buenos Aires), 'Los Pajaros Perdidos, 'Chiquilin de Bachin', 'Oblivion', and 'Jacinto Chiclana'. Mack writes: 'These songs feel like home in my voice and body, in part because I am Argentine and carry a healthy dose of nostalgia about my home country'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Heavenly Lights
Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Ian Bostridge (tenor), Olli Mustonen (piano)
This is the first recording of Finnish composer Olli Mustonen's Heavenly Lights ('Taivaanvalot'), which was premiered by these performers in 2016; described by Mustonen as 'a symphony for tenor, cello and piano', it sets fragments of a story from the Kalevala and was expanded for orchestra (as Symphony No. 3) in 2020. The album also includes Mustonen's Sonata for Cello and Piano (2006), plus Kodály's Sonatina and Sonata for the same forces.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin
Georg Nigl (baritone), Alexander Gergelyfi (square piano)
A year on from their all-Mozart programme recorded on the composer's domestic clavichord, Nigl and Gergelyfi present a new perspective on Die schöne Müllerin with the help of a 'Tafelklavier' (square piano) built around 1810 by Carl Withum: Nigl reflects that the instrument's unique sonorities have 'renewed his experience of singing the Lied', and has also chosen to intersperse the songs with recitations of poems from Wilhelm Müller's cycle which Schubert did not set.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Julius Katchen: The Brahms Recordings
Julius Katchen (piano)
This limited-edition box-set features unreleased recordings of the clarinet sonatas with Michel Portal (made in 1967), and the Cello Sonata No. 1 with János Starker (captured at Aldeburgh the following year). Other highlights include the Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux and János Ferencsik, the Piano Trios with Starker and Josef Suk, and sets of the Violin Sonatas with Suk and Ruggiero Ricci.
Available Format: 17 CDs
La Luce
Simone Kermes (soprano), Choir and Orchestra Macv of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Julien Salemkour
Conceive as 'a panorama of light and shadow', the German soprano's first recording in six years encompasses Baroque rarities, a spectacular coloratura aria from Ditters von Dittersdorf's oratorio Giob, Mozart's Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!, 'Glitter and Be Gay' from Bernstein's Candide, music by the Polish composers Krzysztof Penderecki, Wojciech Kilar and Zbigniew Preisner, and the Vocalise from Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Cipriani Potter: Complete Symphonies Vol. 4
Julian Trevelyan (piano), Alican Süner (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Howard Griffiths
British conductor Howard Griffiths continues his advocacy for the orchestral works of Cipriani Potter (1792-1871), who studied with Thomas Attwood and William Crotch and received compositional advice from Beethoven. The two symphonies here both date from the mid-1830s, shortly after Potter's appointment as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music (where his students included William Sterndale Bennett); the album is rounded off by the earlier Duo concertant for violin, piano and orchestra.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Auber: Overtures, Vol. 9
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Dario Salvi
This ninth volume in Slavi's Auber series features the overtures for Le Domino noir and La Sirène, orchestra excerpts from Gustave III, ou Le Bal masqué (which pre-dates Verdi's Un ballo in maschera by twenty-four years) and La Gitana, and the Marche funèbre pour la translation des Cendres de Napoléon (written to accompany the re-interment of Napoleon’s remains at the church of Les Invalides in Paris in 1840 after their repatriation from Saint Helena).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 & Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Rafał Blechacz (piano), Dresdner Philharmoniker, Kent Nagano
The Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz made history in 2005 when he swept the board at the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition, winning the overall First Prize as well as the polonaise, mazurka, concerto and audience prizes. On his first concerto recording in almost two decades, he joins forces with Nagano and the Dresdner Philharmoniker for two works which share the key of C minor, with Beethoven’s 32 Variations in the same key (WoO 80) completing the programme.
Available Formats: Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Spice of Italy
Duo Dorado
Following album devoted to the music of Gottfried Finger and William Croft, violinist Hazel Brooks and harpsichordist David Pollock turn their attention to Nicola Matteis (c.1650-after 1713) and his son of the same name (c.1675-1760). Mattheis Senior arrived in London from Naples in the early 1670s, and soon attracted attention for the virtuosity of his playing, which contrasted strongly with the French style then in vogue in the English capital: the celebrated diarist John Evelyn breathlessly described his musicianship as 'stupendious' [sic] in 1674. The album includes selections from the four 'Books of Ayres' which he published in London, plus two sonatas by Mattheis Junior.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Bedřich Smetana: Piano Works
Bogang Hwang (piano)
Best known today for his orchestral works, string quartets and operas, Smetana also composed a substantial body of work for solo piano: a fine pianist in his youth, he was inspired to pursue a career in music after hearing Franz Liszt give recitals in Prague. This album includes the early Piano Sonata in G minor (which failed to impress Clara and Robert Schumann when the young composer requested their feedback) and his last major works for the instrument: two books of Czech Dances, composed in the late 1870s.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Louise Farrenc: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 5
Maria Stratigou (piano)
This fifth volume in Stratigou's Farrenc series focuses on the French composer's fugues, mélodies and valses. Of particular note is a selection from the set of fugues Op, 22, which was unpublished in Farrenc's lifetime - in her teens Farrenc studied composition under Anton Reicha, who was then Professor of Counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris. Reviewing the third instalment of the project, American Record Guide noted that '[Stratigou] has a full mastery of Farrenc’s romantic style and a technique to match'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Anthony Hedges: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1
Adam Davies (piano)
This is the first of three albums from Divine Art exploring the solo piano music of British composer Anthony Hedges (1931-2019), best known for his light orchestral pieces and choral works such as the cantata Bridge for the Living (setting a text by Philip Larkin, whom Hedges knew personally). Spanning thirty years, this inaugural volume includes his first published piano piece (the Five Preludes from 1959) and the Five Aphorisms from 1990; many of the works receive their world premiere recordings here.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
James Weeks: Plain Air
Lucy Goddard (mezzo), Siwan Rhys (piano)
This new hour-long work by the British composer and co-founder of EXAUDI is a response to Scottish writer Nan Shepherd's memoir The Living Mountain, which recounts her experiences of walking in the Cairngorms; written in the 1940s and published in 1977, it was hailed by The Guardian was 'the finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain'. The piece was described by The Arts Desk's Bernard Hughes as 'an extraordinarily brave and self-confident piece of writing' which 'has something in common with the massive canvases of Morton Feldman'.
Available Format: CD
The Secret Letter
Cantus
This programme from the New York-based low-voice ensemble celebrates 'the love which dare not speak its name', weaving together music by composers including Libby Larsen, Poulenc, Janáček and Consuelo Velázquez with extracts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. The album also includes world premiere recordings of new pieces by Mohammed Fairouz, Saunder Choi, and Mari Esabel Valverde.
Available Format: CD
