Today's new releases include music by Beethoven and his Italian contemporaries from the Münchener Kammerorchester and Enrico Onofri, Rameau from Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie (both on Harmonia Mundi), Mozart's Don Giovanni from Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra (with Andrè Schuen in the title-role and Luca Pisaroni as Leporello) on Channel Classics, and Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri from Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall on Alia Vox.
Beethoven & the Italians
Münchener Kammerorchester, Enrico Onofri
Released in anticipation of the bicentenary of Beethoven's death next year, this thrillingly red-blooded album sets Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 and 7 alongside works by three Italian contemporaries whom Beethoven admired for either their artistic vision or (in the latter case) sheer commercial acumen: Cherubini (Symphony in D and Overture to Médée), Spontini (Overture to Olimpie), and Rossini (Overture to Guillaume Tell).
Available Formats: 3 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Le Violon de Rameau
Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin), William Christie (harpsichord)
Although he wrote little for the instrument, Rameau was a fine violinist who earned his living with touring ensembles before channelling his energies into composition, and this 'imaginary concert' from Langlois de Swarte and Christie reworks popular excerpts from his operas for violin and harpsichord; the programme also includes music by his contemporaries Jacques Aubert, Jean-Baptiste Cupis, Toussaint Bourdet, and Théodore-Jean Tarade.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Andrè Schuen (Don Giovanni), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello), Miah Persson (Donna Elvira), Maria Bengtsson (Donna Anna), Bernard Richter (Don Ottavio), Samantha Gaul (Zerlina), Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer
Recorded live at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza last October, this is the first of a planned Mozart trilogy from the Hungarian conductor, with Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro to follow in the next few years. Reviewing a performance by the same cast in Budapest the previous month, BachTrack praised the 'sizzling chemistry and symbiotic sleaziness' of Schuen and Pisaroni as well as Fischer's 'light-footed, buoyant reading of the score'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Robert Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri
Lina Johnson (soprano - Peri), Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo), Kieran Carrel (tenor), Ferran Mitjans (tenor), Johanna Rosa Falkinger (soprano), Manuel Walser (baritone), Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, Jordi Savall
Composed in 1843, Schumann's secular oratorio was inspired by an episode in Irish poet Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh which centres on a fallen angel's quest for redemption after being cast out of Paradise. The recording is an Editor's Choice in the September issue of Gramophone (where Richard Wigmore noted that 'the period instruments of Le Concert des Nations make the most of Schumann's delicately imagined instrumental colours') and received five stars from BBC Music Magazine, who described it as 'a superb recording of an elusive work, making it sound coherent and approachable'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 On Period Instruments
Mahler Academy Orchestra, Philipp von Steinaecker
German conductor and musicologist Philipp von Steinaecker launched his 'Originalklang' Mahler project last year with a recording of Symphony No. 9 on instruments similar to those used in fin de siècle Vienna, observing that he was 'struck during rehearsals by the incredibly distinctive characterisation of the woodwinds, the shattering blare of the brass, the perfect balance between the instruments, and the pure and warm sound of the strings'. Steinaecker and the orchestra will perform Symphony No. 9 at the BBC Proms on Friday 11th September.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 ‘The Egyptian’
Simon Trpčeski (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Thomas Søndergård
These live recordings were captured at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in the spring of 2024, during Trpčeski's spell as Artist in Residence with the RSNO: reviewing the performance of No. 2, BachTrack enthused that the Macedonian pianist 'made the opening solo feel like an organ improvisation by Reger or Rheinberger, so rich and resonant did it sound' and noted that 'Søndergård and the orchestra matched him phrase-for-phrase with playing of colour and energy'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7
San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Payare
Recorded live at the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center in San Diego last May, this account of the 'Leningrad' Symphony has already received the strongest possible recommendation from Le Devoir, who hailed it as 'a magnificent achievement in the precision of its engineering, its dynamic range, and the richness of its sonic spectrum' as well as applauding the interpretation itself: reviewer Christophe Huss declares that 'Payare's Shostakovich is not one that shouts or tears at the listener - it crushes'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Metanoia
Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
The Russian pianist describes her new Liszt album as 'a tribute to the enduring power of his music and the transformative journey of a maestro who dared to follow his inner voice': her programme includes the Piano Sonata, St François de Paule: Marchant sur les flots, La lugubre gondola II, and R.W. – Venezia (a memorial to Liszt's son-in-law Wagner, who had recently died in Venice). Reviewing a live performance of this programme last year, The Boston Musical Intelligencer praised her 'unfailingly beautiful' sound and 'stupendous' technique.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Brahms & Reger: Clarinet Quintets
Michael Collins (clarinet), Escher String Quartet
Following a superb recital of trios by Mozart, Bruch, Schumann and Stravinsky as part of the Wigmore Soloists, Michael Collins's second chamber music album on BIS brings together two late Romantic pieces which were written towards the end of the composers' lives: Brahms had officially retired from composition when he was inspired to write his Clarinet Quintet for Richard Mühlfeld, whilst Reger's 1915 contribution to the genre (which itself pays homage to Brahms) was his final completed work.
Available Format: SACD
Song & Dance
Jacques Forestier (violin), Boris Kusnezow (piano)
A recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Canadian violinist Jacques Forestier came to international prominence after winning the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in 2024. For his debut solo recording on Warner Classics, he presents a programme inspired by voice and movement, including Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances, Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 1, Jascha Heifetz's arrangements of three songs from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, and Heinrich Ernst's fiendish Grand Caprice after Schubert's 'Erlkönig'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Melancolie
Konstantin Krimmel (baritone), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)
Two years on from their much-praised Schubert/Loewe recital Mythos, Krimmel and Bushakevitz present another programme which couples songs by a very well-known composer and a less familiar contemporary: Johannes Brahms and Bukovina-born Eusebius Mandyczewski (1857–1929). The pair met in Vienna in the late 1870s and maintained a warm friendship, with Brahms appointing the younger composer as curator of his estate. Published in a bilingual edition in 1885, Mandyczewski's Eighteen Romanian Songs receive their first recording in Romanian here - Krimmel himself is German-Romanian, and fluent in both languages.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
JS Bach: The Motets
Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann
Having recently finished their survey of Bach’s first Leipzig cantata cycle, the Stuttgart chamber choir presents a recording of the composer's six surviving motets BWV 225–230, made last November at the TauberPhilharmonie Weikersheim under their Artistic Director Hans-Christoph Rademann (who succeeded founder Helmuth Rilling in 2013).
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Alexis Weissenberg: The Complete Warner Classics Edition
Alexis Weissenberg (piano)
The Bulgarian-French pianist Alexis Weissenberg began his relationship with EMI in the mid-1960s, shortly after taking a long sabbatical from performing in order to focus on teaching and reconstructing his own technique. This 37-CD collection brings together all of his recordings for the label, with highlights including two accounts of Bach's Goldberg Variations (recorded in 1967 and 1981 respectively), the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Karajan (who deemed him 'one of the best pianists of our time'), the Brahms violin sonatas with Anne-Sophie Mutter, and a recital of Rachmaninoff songs with Nicolai Gedda.
Available Format: 37 CDs
