Alison Balsom / The Englsih Concert / Trevor Pinnock SOUND THE TRUMPET

An interview in the booklet for this disc takes a long time telling us why Alison Balsom has picked up a Baroque trumpet for this disc but EMI could have saved their ink, for when the instrument is played as fluidly agreeably as it is here, nobody could doubt that it is the right tool for the job (and it’s not, by the way, the first time she has recorded on one – in 2002 she made an admired debut with the Parley of Instruments for Hyperion.

Balsom’s real point, however, is that it was the valveless trumpet’s vocal quality, its ‘human characteristic’ that informed its music and it is this above all that she demonstrates through her choice of music for this album. For it is not fanfares and tattoos that dominate, nor even concertos, but a smartly selected sequence of trumpet cameos from the theatre scores and elegant social music of Purcell and Handel. Some are real, including symphonies from Purcell’s semi-operas or Handel’s Eternal source of light divine; in some, such as Purcell’s ‘Plaint’ and Handel’s Oboe Concerto No 1, she borrows other instruments’ lines; and others see her literally slip into the singer’s place, most strikingly in Purcell’s ‘Fairest Isle’ and ‘Sound the trumpet’.

And it all works. This is rattling good music, and so easily does the trumpet fit into it that often it is hard to recall what the original scorings were anyway. Balsom, too, sounds utterly at home, whether intertwining coolly spun traceries with oboe and violin in the wondrous Symphony from King Arthur or merrily disporting in Handel’s Water Piece. She’s ably partnered by two of the finest young Baroque singers in the business (Lucy Crowe especially impressive in ‘The Plaint’) and wonderfully backed by the English Concert and the bright natural musicianship of Trevor Pinnock. Never mind the whys and wherefores – just sit back and enjoy! (Lindsay Kemp / Gramophone)

Cecilia Bartoli / Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini FARINELLI

Renowned for portraying the music of the baroque like no one else, Cecilia Bartoli presents her new recording of arias famously performed by legendary castrato, Farinelli.

Exploring the complex gender roles of the world of baroque opera, and highlighting the phenomenon of the castrati, a horrifying practice which led to some of the most celebrated work of the period.

Featuring works by Farinelli’s brother, Riccardo Broschi, and his mentor, Nicola Porpora, as well as Hasse, Caldara and Giacomelli. Including two new world premiere recordings, from Porpora’s Polifemo and Broschi’s La Merope.

Fabiola Kim / Münchner Symphoniker / Kevin John Edusei 1939

The 1930s proved to be a bumper decade for violin concertos, and 1939 was the most productive year of all, with these three works seeing fruition (the Walton and Hartmann were both later revised), as well as concertos by Britten, Hindemith and Gál – any of which, incidentally, would have fitted on the rather skimpily filled second disc. Korean–American violinist Fabiola Kim proves an ideal exponent of all three concertos. There’s real warmth to her playing in the Walton, with some perceptive interplay between her and Kevin John Edusei’s Munich musicians. A particular strength is the variety of tone colours she displays, especially in the mercurial closing section of the central ‘alla napolitana’ Scherzo.

Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre is the only work of the three here that demonstrably reflects the wider state of the world in that fateful year, and Kim’s first entry is filled with fragile foreboding, matched with sombre retorts from the richly hued Munich strings. The main Allegro di molto has as much anger as vigour, and dissolves into the closing funeral march with a melancholy inevitability as Kim’s keening lines peal away into an uncertain future.

Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto was written as he faced the dilemma of whether to stay in Hungary or flee, and the result is one of the most overtly Magyar of his late works. Kim gives a heartfelt performance that taps its emotions as much as it exploits its unashamed playfulness, and again there’s vigorous, characterful orchestral support. This, then, is a highly satisfying concerto collection, all in excellently recorded sound.

Janet Sung / Simon Callaghan / BrittenSinfonia / JacvanSteen THE DEEPER THE BLUE...

SOMM Recordings’ The Deeper the Blue offers an intriguing exploration of colour and timbre in music and a revealing investigation of the connections between four very different composers over a near-100-year period.

Taking its title from painter Wassily Kandinsky’s assertion that a deepening colour ultimately “turns into silent stillness and becomes white”, the recording illuminates the intimate relationship between student and teacher: Vaughan Williams and Maurice Ravel, Kenneth Hesketh with Henri Dutilleux and the influence on Dutilleux of Ravel.

Hailed by The Washington Post for her “riveting” playing and “exquisite tone”, virtuoso violinist Janet Sung and the Britten Sinfonia – one of the UK’s “most flexible chamber orchestras” (Evening Standard) – make their SOMM debuts alongside long-time label artists, conductor Jac van Steen and pianist Simon Callaghan, the latter partnering Sung in Ravel’s jazz- and Blues-accented Sonata for Violin and Piano. The last chamber music Ravel composed, it is a colouristic extravaganza brimfull with joy and irrepressible energy.
The harmonic language of Dutilleux’s piano suite Au gré des ondes boasts a wide colour palette enhanced in brilliance and charm by his former pupil Kenneth Hesketh’s orchestral arrangement, here in its first recording. Harmonic and instrumental colour is central to Hesketh’s own music.
Also receiving its first recording, and composed in 2016 for Janet Sung, Hesketh’s Inscription-Transformation for violin and orchestra is a richly intricate weaving together of the textures and tones of violin and orchestra. Commemorating Dutilleux and Hesketh’s grandmother, who died during its composition, it’s a febrile, endlessly mutating work that pits stratospheric violin against agitated orchestra in music as complex as it is gratifying in the intensity of its expression.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ compact, muscular, Bach-influenced Concerto for Violin and Orchestra combines meditative repose with dance-like extroversion, Maurice Ravel’s ever-popular Tzigane a fiery, virtuosic homage to Hungarian folk music.

Samantha Ward / Murray McLachlan / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Charles Peebles DORA BRIGHT AND RUTH GIPPS Piano Concertos

Another disc of real artistic merit and technical and musical quality from Somm. For the curious, the "jump out" name here is that of Dora Bright. Two substantial concertante scores are presented of music by a composer whom even the most assiduous collector of British music is unlikely to know.
Certainly, I had never even heard the name. Robert Matthew-Walker's liner note is as detailed as it is enthusiastic and all the detail given here is drawn from his essay. As a pianist Bright was clearly a very talented player – performing at the Covent Garden Promenade concerts by the time she was 20 and even playing for Liszt four years later. The CD liner details various impressive "firsts" that Bright achieved through to the end of the 19^th century. She married an army officer 33 years her senior, which gave her financial security but seems to have caused a falling off in her creativity as both performer and composer. She lived until 1951 but apparently many/most of her scores are lost with the two works presented here among the few surviving examples of her music. (Nick Barnard)

La Serenissima / Adrian Chandler THE GODFATHER

La Serenissima explore the network of friendships and collaborations that helped bring together German and Italian styles during the Baroque, with concertos by Telemann, Pisendel, Brescianello and others.

The musical world of eighteenth-century Europe was a small one. Despite the problems presented by contemporary standards of transport, it was quite normal for composers in one part of Europe to be entirely au fait with what was happening elsewhere. This is borne out by the closeness of three German composers: Telemann, godfather to C.P.E. Bach; Pisendel; and J.S. Bach, who admired both his compatriots and composed some astoundingly difficult music for the violinist Pisendel. This programme celebrates their music as well as the music of those who contributed to their musical heritage. Included alongside the German triumvirate are works by Vivaldi who physically helped with the composition of Pisendel’s A minor concerto movement, Fasch who was a great friend of Pisendel and Telemann, and Brescianello, an Italian who helped the dissemination of Italian instrumental music throughout the German-speaking lands and whose concertos were played in Dresden by Pisendel.

Mishka Rushdie Momen VARIATIONS

Making an impressive solo debut on SOMM this month is the young, fast-rising pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen. No stranger to SOMM, she joined two of today’s finest pianists – Valerie Tryon and Peter Donohoe – in Mozart’s dazzling Piano Concerto for Three Pianos, K242 in 2018.

Mishka studied with Joan Havill, Richard Goode and Imogen Cooper and was mentored by Sir András Schiff, who presented her in recitals throughout Europe and in New York for his acclaimed Building Bridges series.

This superbly realised recital includes Variations by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn, and first recordings of two new works, specially commissioned by Mishka for this recording, by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer. A single theme from Robert Schumann’s Bunte Blätter is the prompt for completely different, sometimes opposing, sets of musical mutations, the result as exciting as it is intriguing.

A birthday gift for her husband, Clara Schumann’s Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann are “an outpouring of generosity and love” that inspired Brahms’s Op.9 Variations (Op.9), which Rushdie Momen describes in her booklet notes as “one of his most intimate and personal expressions”.

The “burst of harmonic and rhythmic invention” that are Robert Schumann’s Op.5 Impromptus, and Mendelssohn’s “concise, rigorously constructed” Variations sérieuses were both modelled on Beethoven’s Eroica Variations.
Completing a recital brilliantly illustrating Rushdie Momen’s conviction that “the possibilities of the variation form seem infinite” are two world premiere recordings: Nico Muhly’s Small Variations – “a five-minute chorale with an explosion halfway through it” – and Vijay Iyer’s Hallucination Party, a “fever dream” packed with surprises.
A Guildhall School of Music and Drama graduate, Mishka Rushdie Momen is also a committed chamber musician who has partnered Steven Isserlis, Midori and members of the Endellion, Belcea and Artemis String Quartets.

Gianluigi Giglio FERNANDO SOR The 19th-Century Guitar

The acclaimed Italian guitarist Gianluigi Giglio makes his debut on SOMM Recordings with The 19th Century Guitar, a scintillating recital of music by Fernando Sor, a pioneering champion of the guitar in the vanguard of raising its profile out of the tavern and into the concert hall.
Giglio’s wide-ranging recital explores Sor’s innate feeling for the guitar and charts the increasing demands he placed on the instrument in a body of work that transformed its standing with public and pundits alike.

Vasily Petrenko / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition

Vasily Petrenko is the Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Between 1994 and 1997, Petrenko was Resident Conductor at the St Petersburg State Opera and Ballet Theatre in the Mussorgsky Memorial Theatre. During this time he gained an enormous amount of operatic experience and he now has over 30 operas in his repertoire.

Petrenko is equally at home in symphonic and operatic repertoire. On the symphonic front, he has previously worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Swedish Radio, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and NDR Hanover, BBC Wales, Cadaques and Castille y Leon Orchestras in Spain.

A Russian orchestral showcase from Vasily Petrenko and the award willing Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra present a programme of Russian orchestral classics - with some surprises.

Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Khachaturian’s sumptuously romantic suite from his ballet ‘Spartacus’ with its famous ‘Adagio’ keep company with Kabalevsky’s fizzing overture to his opera ‘Colas Breugnon’ and Schehedrin’s ‘Naughty Limericks plus a wistful Rachmaninov song in beautiful orchestral arrangement.

Helga Váradi / Plamena Nikitassova / Jörg-Andreas Bötticher NANNERL MOZART

The music and personality of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have always been very close to my heart. I could not have predicted, however, that the late 18th century would become alive to me beyond his music and his life.

In 2017, the Swiss dressmaker Christian Tanner created a historical women’s collection in the style of the 1780s-90s that was completely sewn by hand and for which I became the face and the inspiration. The transformation that came through wearing these gowns, having historical “tower” hairdos created with my own hair, induced a feeling of magical connection between the past and the present that led me to wonder: What must have been the sense of self of a woman at that time? How must she have sat at her instrument, constrained by the tightness of her corset and how could she move her hands? By actively participating in historical reenactments like candle-light soirées, dances and leisurely walks, Mozart’s daily life as I imagined it to be, based on his surviving family correspondences, started to take a clearer shape. Through these experiences, I started feeling connected to the woman who in 1780 was the same age as myself today and who shared a most intimate relationship with Wolfgang, even before his first wife: His sister Nannerl.

Owing to these experiences, it became clear to me that I needed to let the world of Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart come alive on my next CD. The short film Name Day, that I realized after my own concept in the summer of 2018, visually accompanies the music of the CD. I thus created an additional connection for the music-loving listener by portraying a day in the life of the Mozart family in Salzburg as it was documented in authentic sources. Nannerl’s diary entries carry information about whom she spent the 30th of July 1783 – her Name Day – with and they describe the delicious culinary gifts she got from her brother in great detail.1

During the preparations, it became clear to me that the CD should focus not only on Nannerl’s personality, but also on the relationship between the siblings. Their closeness can be seen clearly in the way Nannerl’s extraordinary talent is reflected in her brother’s music that serves as a monument to both of them.

Paul Neubauer / Joshua Roman / Royal Northern Sinfonia / Rebecca Miller AARON JAY KERNIS Dreamsongs - Three Concertos

While Dreamsongs is a concerto for cello and chamber orchestra, it doesn’t take on the forms of older concerti. Rather than the almost ubiquitous three movement layout—Fast-Slow-Fast—it has only two movements, both of which mix slow and fast with dramatic and lyrical sections. The first, 'Floating Dreamsongs' is mostly slow and airy, and is built as a group of continuously developing variations on the intimate music from its opening and 1st variation with strings, harp and vibraphone. The consonant harmonies become spooked and furtive, building into tremulous marimba and vibraphone rolls with large orchestra chords, and only much later returns to a mostly peaceful character.

Much of the 2nd movement, 'Kora Song', is inspired by music of the African kora, a plucked gourd almost similar in sound to the harp and pizzicato cello combination that opens the movement and is often featured in it. I don’t know of many cello pieces that concentrate on pizzicato playing as much as this movement, and the playing style was developed in close collaboration with the soloist. The music frequently changes direction and features a number of cello cadenzas of smaller and larger size, sometimes with the West African djembe drum. Overall it has a gentle exuberance and is lighter in tone and more energetic than in the opening movement.

Dreamsongs is written for the generous and virtuosic playing of cellist Joshua Roman, who I’ve known for a number of years, and has been my neighbor in New York City until recently. It is dedicated to him. It was co-commissioned for him by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio, and the Bellingham Festival in Washington State.

Margarita Höhenrieder CLARA & ROBERT SCHUMANN Piano Works

Margarita Höhenrieder writes of her new release: "After just a few notes on this exceptionally fine Pleyel grand piano in Kellinghusen, north of Hamburg, in a collection of Eric Feller’s, I found myself plunged into a different century. This pianoforte was built in Paris in about 1855 and professionally restored using historical materials and methods. It is absolutely uniform with the instrument that Chopin possessed, and is of typically French elegance – in sound as well as in appearance. It reflects the soul of the Romantic era. Apart from that, it offers an authentic testimony to the sound of the instruments that Fryderyk Chopin and Robert and Clara Schumann played. Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck, gave his daughter a Streicher grand, built in Vienna. Personally, I saw this Pleyel as the ideal instrument on which to play the works of Robert and Clara Schumann as authentically as possible while also matching as precisely as possible the exacting demands they place on piano technique. The constant aspiration in today’s music world towards ever larger and more versatile instruments and architecturally and acoustically challenging auditoria meant that I was in search of a convincingly authentic sound for compositions written in and around the 1830s, while also looking out for a suitable performance location – comparable to a mid-19th-century salon and differing from today’s concert halls."

Düsseldorfer Symphoniker / Adam Fischer MAHLER Symphony No. 8

Mahler’s Eighth is a special challenge for all participants: in rehearsals, in performance, and, of course, when making a recording. The challenge lies in freeing the music from all of the technical and logistical problems that come with it. Whenever new possibilities emerged in music history (such as new musical instruments), composers tended to introduce the novelty quite frequently in the first phase to show its potential. A good example was the Mannheim School in the 1700s.

The crescendo had just been invented: musicians no longer had to play dynamics in “terraced levels”. Mannheim pieces from that period are thus brimming with crescendos: musicians reveled in the new possibilities. Mahler, later on, wanted to explore the possibilities of an orchestra of unprecedented size, particularly in the Eighth. The effects made possible by such an enlargement should not become an end in themselves. That is the special challenge we have faced. If on this recording we have over 500 people singing and playing together, that is only a means, not an end...

Ferio Saxophone Quartet REVIVE

For its second album on Chandos, the young Ferio Saxophone Quartet presents a set of unique arrangements of milestones from the baroque repertoire, from Corelli via Bach to Handel.
Including many premiere recordings, these fresh interpretations, full of flair and vitality, played on instruments that combine elements of brass and woodwind, bring the tunes and counterpoint to a fascinating new register. The Ferio Quartet plays with power, warmth, and dexterity.

Ensemble El Sol / Chloé Sévère REINAS

The queen is a female figure at once powerful and gentle. In chess, the Queen’s power is unequalled: she moves far afield and in all directions, whereas the King most often remains on his territory, moving little and slowly. One might see in this distribution of roles a resemblance to the political strategies employed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by nations, which sent their princesses to marry kings all over the world, while the latter married the princesses who were brought to them. The queen did not come to destroy, as in chess, but to marry and to love; she brought nations together, expanded territories and established peace. 

The Ensemble El Sol, directed by the harpsichordist Chloé Sévère, has devoted itself since its creation to Spanish and Latin American Baroque music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Founded in 2016, the ensemble consists of Dagmar Saskova and Angélique Pourreyron (voice), Ronald Martin (viola da gamba), Caroline Lieby (Baroque harp), Victorien Disse (Baroque theorbo and guitar), Laurent Sauron (Baroque percussion) and Chloé Sévère (harpsichord). The decision to use a continuo group combining several instruments offers the possibility of a wide range of bold transcriptions and a variety of colours in the accompaniment, in accordance with the types of instrumentarium employed in the Baroque period.

L'Arpeggiata / Christina Pluhar LUIGI ROSSI La Lyra d’Orfeo - Arpa Davidica

The latest album from Christina Pluhar and her instrumental ensemble L’Arpeggiata sheds new light on the chamber cantatas of 17th century Italian composer, Luigi Rossi. He wrote more than 300 of these works and Christina Pluhar’s new double album includes an impressive number of 21 world premiere recordings, which are the fruit of Christina Pluhar’s research among music manuscripts held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Vatican Library.

“These cantatas are works of rare beauty,” says Pluhar, who describes Luigi Rossi as “one of the shining lights of 17th-century Italian vocal music. Supremely inventive and extremely versatile, he juxtaposed styles within a single work, often shifting from intense recitative to mellifluous song, while also venturing into daring harmonic regions.”

She has assembled a dazzling line-up of singers to perform the cantatas: sopranos Véronique Gens and Céline Scheen, mezzo-soprano Giuseppina Bridelli, and countertenors Philippe Jaroussky, Jakub Józef Orliński and Valer Sabadus.

Luigi Rossi, born in Puglia in 1597, was highly successful in his time, serving three of the most illustrious Italian dynasties – the Borghese and Barberini families in Rome and the Medici in Florence – and subsequently France’s King Louis XIV. His L'Orfeo, which received its premiere in Paris in 1647, was among the first operas to be staged in France. Rossi is also associated with the first Parisian appearances by castrato singers – their voice-type was not integral to France’s musical traditions.

Rossi had gone to Paris in 1646, where he joined the Barberinis, exiled from Rome the previous year following controversy over their handling of Papal funds. Some of their other musicians, including several castratos, also went to France with them. In Rome they had been noted for marking important occasions with commissions for masses, oratorios and operas, among them Rossi’s Palazzo incantato (Enchanted Palace), inspired by Orlando Furioso, which enjoyed a great success in 1642.

At the time, the man who wielded the most power in France was not the King – just four years old when he came to the throne in 1643 – but his godfather and Chief Minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin, an Italian by birth, enjoyed close links with the Barberini family, which had played an important role in furthering his diplomatic career in the 1630s. He was also a great advocate of Italian style in the arts and it was thanks to him that L’Orfeo, a sumptuously scored work, was lavishly staged at the Palais-Royal before Louis XIV and his mother, Queen Anne of Austria. Rossi returned to Italy in 1650 and in due course another Italian-born composer of opera, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87), became the musical supremo at the court of the Sun King.

LUBOMYR MELNYK Fallen Trees

Erased Tapes present ‘Fallen Trees’ – the new album by singular talent and literal force of nature Lubomyr Melnyk – known as ‘the prophet of the piano’ due to his lifelong devotion to his instrument. 

The album release coincides with Melnyk’s 70th birthday, but despite the autumnal hint in its title, there’s little suggestion of him slowing down. Having received critical acclaim and co-headlining the prestigious Royal Festival Hall as part of the ErasedTapes 10th anniversary celebrations, after many years his audience is now both global and growing. The composer is finally gaining a momentum in his career that matches the vibrant, highly active energy of his playing. 

Cascades of notes, canyons and rivers of sound: there’s something about his music that channels the natural world at its most awe-inspiring. In ‘Fallen Trees’ the connection with the environment continues, taking its cue from a long rail journey Melnyk made through Europe. Glancing out of the window as the train passed through a dark forest, he was struck by the sight of trees that had recently been felled. “They were glorious,”he says. “Even though they’d been killed, they weren’t dead. There was something sorrowful there, but also hopeful.” That sense of sadness touched by optimism infuses the album, too: rarely has Melnyk made music so shot through with melancholy and regret, but which sounds so rapt, even radiant.
Drawing comparisons with Steve Reich and the post-rock group Godspeed You, Black Emperor!, Pitchfork praised his 2015 album ‘Rivers And Streams’ for it’s “sustained concentration andecstatic energy”. That energy is present in ‘Fallen Trees’ too, but at points the tone is quieter, the mood darker and more wistful. At points elsewhere on the album, despite being routed in the wonders of the natural world, there’s a kaleidoscopic quality in the fractal flurry of notes and the broad spectrum of colour they summon.

Ronald Brautigam / Die Kölner Akademie / Michael Alexander Willens BEETHOVEN The Piano Concertos

As one of the finest pianists of his era and an improviser of genius, Ludwig van Beethoven’s preferred vehicle for musical exploration was the piano. His earliest composition, from 1782, was a set of piano variations and he continued to compose for solo piano until the last years of his life. His interest in the concerto form diminished as his deafness forced him to retire from performing. Nonetheless, with his five piano concertos composed between 1788 and 1809, Beethoven not only achieved a brilliant conclusion to the Classical piano concerto, but also established a new model for the Romantic era: a sort of symphony with obbligato piano which remained a reference point well into the beginning of the twentieth.

Ronald Brautigam has already recorded these seminal works with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, in acclaimed performances released between 2008 and 2010. Since then he has also released all of Beethoven’s solo piano music on the fortepiano to universal praise. When Brautigam now returns to the concertos, it is in the company of conductor Michael Alexander Willens and Die Kölner Akademie playing on period instruments. The same team has previously partnered him in an 11-disc survey of Mozart’s piano concertos and it is plain to hear that all involved clearly relish the opportunity to congratulate Beethoven on the eve of his 250th anniversary.

Gewandhausorchester / Herbert Blomstedt BEETHOVEN The Complete Symphonies

In celebration of Herbert Blomstedt’s 90th Birthday in July 2017, Accentus Music releases a new Beethoven cycle that captures the spirit of the long-standing partnership between the legendary conductor laureate and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. All nine symphonies, released in a box set containing five CDs, are live recordings made at the Leipzig Gewandhaus between May 2014 and March 2017.

Blomstedt’s interpretations of Beethoven are based on a highly responsible handling of the scores and this conductor’s deep love of the truth, in which everything that is superimposed and overtly effective is fundamentally removed. At the same time however, the performances embrace the ethical conscience of the artist with his deep, almost seismographic musical sensibility and a high expressivity.

Stéphanie d'Oustrac / Thibaut Roussel / Tanguy de Williencourt UNE SOIRÉE CHEZ BERLIOZ

Another facet of Berlioz! We may find it hard to imagine that the composer of such epics as Les Troyens started out as a guitarist... and that his first compositional experience was to transcribe songs, inherited from the Ancien Regime, for voice and guitar.

The particular instrument that was given to Berlioz by Paganini survives to this day; here it brings us closer to the repertoire suitable for a musicale hosted by Berlioz: airs for voice and guitar, but also art songs (a genre which the composer pioneered), along with chamber music and pieces for solo piano. Another way of listening to Berlioz!

Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä MAHLER 1

The shimmering string harmonics at the opening of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony bring to mind the suspended breath of spring, and will have signalled even to the very first audiences that a new symphonic era was being ushered in. Soon enough the composer introduces some of the elements that would become key components of his musical language: sounds of nature (here cuckoo calls) are combined with quasi-militaristic fanfares and ‘high-art’ chromatic wanderings in cellos, as if to illustrate Mahler’s view of the symphony as an all-embracing art form. The symphony, which the composer originally gave the subtitle ‘Titan’, borrows extensively from the song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. But Mahler also incorporates elements of Moravian popular music (in the second movement) and – in the slow third movement – famously quotes a minor-mode version of the children’s rhyme Bruder Martin (also known as Frere Jacques). The finale transports the listener to a world of Gothic theatricality reminiscent of Grand Opera, before arriving – after a number of false starts – at the symphony’s heroic chorale-like ending.

Regula Mühlemann / Tatiana Korsunskaya LIEDER DER HEIMAT

With her first two albums, Ms. Mühlemann established her reputation as a rising opera star and concert singer. In 2016, the young Swiss soprano impressed with Mozart Arias (she won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik with her debut album). In her following album, Cleopatra, Ms. Mühlemann performed arias by Handel and Vivaldi brilliantly and was awarded an Opus Klassik for it. On her third album she presents herself as an artistically expressive Lieder singer with a rich repertoire. Born and residing in Switzerland, the musician has dedicated a large part of her new album, Lieder der Heimat, to unknown Swiss composers, along with well-known works by Franz Schubert.

As the album title suggests, the themes of home, nature, hiking, farewell and longing form the leitmotif of the programme, which Mühlemann recorded with her long-standing accompanist Tatiana Korsunskaya. It was clear to the interpreter from the start that Franz Schubert would play an essential role in this: “Schubert’s settings show that home and nature are inseparably linked. That the image of nature evokes a strong sense of homeland in people, no matter where they come from”. For the clarinet part in the famous “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen”, Daniel Ottensamer, solo clarinettist of the Vienna Philharmonic joined her, and Konstantin Timokhine, solo hornist with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, plays in “Auf dem Strom”.

The romantic and late romantic works in all four Swiss national languages have largely been recorded for the first time. Some of these songs were probably only now sung again since their creation. They are penned by the following Swiss composers: Wagner friend Wilhelm Baumgartner, Othmar Schoeck, Richard Flury, Emil Frey, Richard Langer, Friedrich Niggli, Marguerite Roesgen-Champion and Walther Geiser. The “Old Guggisberger song” is one of the most famous Swiss folk songs.

Katherine Watson, Les Ambassadeurs, Alexis Kossenko L'OPÉRA DU ROI SOLEIL

Built around the young soprano Katherine Watson and suggested by the conductor and flutist Alexis Kossenko, supported by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, this operatic program revives the splendor of Versailles.

Blending operatic airs and instrumental pieces, this baroque collection offers a selection of the major works of the Sun King’s court, from André Campra to Marin Marais, but rediscovers as well several long-forgotten works from this period, as Louis de Lully’s opera Orphée.

It also allows us to glimpse into the dramatic power of the rôles tendres, that mostly suit to women in love, leading roles of the tragédie lyrique, and for which Katherine Watson proves to be the ideal interpreter. The smoothness of her timbre and the clarity of the orchestra, under Alexis Kossenko’s sure direction, reveal all the treasures of these French airs that explore the depths of the human soul.

Often exposed to torments, victims of the avarice of the gods, suffering from love and cruelty, the heroines of the tragédie lyrique nevertheless embody tragic beauty and majesty.

ALMA DEUTSCHER From my Book of Melodies

Internationally renowned, British prodigy, Alma Deutscher returns with her sensational new album From My Book of Melodies. From My Book of Melodies comprises of melodies Deutscher has composed from the ages of 4 and 14 performed on the piano. Born in 2005, Deutscher is an incredibly gifted composer, violinist and pianist who has received critical and international acclaim for her compositions. She is often compared to many great composers including Mozart and Beethoven. Deutscher composed her first piano sonata at 6. This was followed by a short opera, called The Sweeper of Dreams, composed a year later. She has since written various works for piano, violin and chamber ensembles. Included in this album are melodies from Deutscher’s critically acclaimed opera titled Cinderella. Cinderella was written between the ages of 8 and 12. It has been performed in Austria, USA and Israel.

Peter Herresthal / Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / Clément Mao-Takacs KAIJA SAARIAHO Graal théâtre - Circle Map - Vers toi qui es si loin

Several of Kaija Saariaho’s works are named after natural phenomena that serve as a starting point to her compositional process. Composed in 1998, Neiges was inspired by various qualities of snow and explores instrumental languages and colours similar to those found in her earlier works. On the present album the piece is heard in its never-before recorded version for twelve cellos, performed by the cellists of the Oslo Philharmonic. Another source of inspiration has been medieval literature, which formed a point of departure for Graal Théâtre, the first concerto Saariaho wrote, as well as for the recent Vers toi qui es si loin (2018). Recorded for the first time here, the piece is a transcription, made for the violinist Peter Herresthal, of an aria from the opera L’Amour de loin. These two works for violin and orchestra bookend this amply filled disc, and frame Circle Map, a work in six movements for large orchestra. Permeating the work are six short poems by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, providing inspiration through their essence and vivid imagery, but also part of the musical material by way of a recording of them recited in Persian. This recording forms the raw material for the electronics included in the work, but also for much of the writing for the orchestra, for instance in terms of pitches and intonations. All four works are conducted by Clément Mao Takacs, who has collaborated extensively with Kaija Saariaho and conducted her music across Europe and in the U.S.A.

Gottfried von der Goltz TELEMANN Frankfurt Sonatas

Gottfried von der Goltz, first violin and conductor of the first-rate Freiburger Barockorchester comes back with a new album dedicated to the violin sonatas of a young - and already brilliant - Telemann. Rarely recorded, these works show a very surprising form as they allow the musician total freedom of expression and ornamentation. These features demonstrate also the unique creative inventiveness already in germ in Telemann’s music.

Telemann, a deep connoisseur of French an Italian tastes, puts a great delicacy in these sonatas (Francfort, 1715) as he deploys a quite outstanding melodic line and announces the galant style to come. With this release, Gottfried von der Goltz stands as an expert in Telemann as he provides an interpretation that reflects the main features of his works: vibrant and subtle.

New York Philharmonic / Jaap van Zweden JULIA WOLFE Fire in my mouth

Composer Julia Wolfe builds large structures out of propulsive musical materials that may often take on a sinister tinge. Her works are tremendous crowd-pleasers even as they take up often grim subject matter. Fire in My Mouth, an hour-long oratorio, is perhaps her most epic work yet. For two women's choirs and large orchestra, including a pair of scissors, the work involves a musical depiction of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, in which 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died after a fire broke out, and they found the building's doors locked. The fire itself, gripping indeed, comes in the final fourth movement, and the work is tightly constructed leading up to that terrifying moment. The first three movements mix the hopeful attitudes of the women with the maw of the industrial hell that awaits them. Wolfe's basic pulsing material is inflected in different ways as the music proceeds. The second movement, with a long percussion opening, represents the factory where the women would die, while in the third movement, they alternate between hopes of assimilation ("I want to talk like an American") and protest. It's an extraordinarily powerful work that will receive many future hearings, perhaps in observances of American labor history. Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, who commissioned the work, bring urgency to these live performances, and the choirs -- Philadelphia's The Crossing, and especially remarkably the Young People's Chorus of New York City -- have not a trace of rote drill in this powerful material. Highly recommended, and here's hoping the work comes to a symphony hall near you. (James Manheim)

Vilde Frang / Michail Lifits PAGANINI - SCHUBERT

“I have heard an angel sing,” wrote Schubert after he heard Paganini play in Vienna in 1828. Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, juxtaposes and links works by these two violinist-composers, who lived vastly different lives, yet are musically connected. Both found inspiration in the human voice and Frang sheds new light on Schubert’s demands for virtuosity and on Paganini’s sensitive musicality.

Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, has assembled a programme that juxtaposes music by two violinist-composers of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert and Niccolò Paganini. While they lived vastly different lives and inhabited diverse aesthetic worlds, there are links to be found between them.

Through the juxtaposition, Frang wants to highlight Schubert’s capacity for virtuosity and Paganini’s musicality and sensitivity. “It’s the contrasts that appeal to me,” she says. For her, the key connection between Schubert and Paganini is the inspiration they both found in the human voice. The album includes variations that Paganini wrote on themes from operas by Rossini (Tancredi) and Paisiello (La molinara), and the ‘grand caprice’ that the violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst – considered Paganini’s greatest successor – based on one of Schubert’s most thrilling songs, Erlkönig. It sets a poem by Goethe that tells of a frantic night-time horse-ride by a father and his young son, who is tempted by a wicked spirit, the Erlking. When they reach their destination, the child is dead. “This Erlkönig is a gift to the violinist. There is such precision and accuracy in Ernst’s transcription – it works so well that it sounds like it was written for the violin. And then there is the challenge of characterising the galloping horse, the father, the son and the Erlkönig himself.”

Paganini, born in 1782, achieved enormous success as a virtuoso performer. He lived until 1840, 12 years after Schubert’s death at the age of just 31. “There is an extreme contrast between Paganini, who became a living legend, and Schubert, who tragically did not achieve the fame he deserved,” says Frang. In Spring 1828, just months before his death, Schubert saw Paganini give a concert in Vienna, where the violinist was causing a sensation. He bought tickets for himself and two friends – probably with money that he had earned from a successful concert given in his benefit on 26th March. Unfortunately, Schubert’s concert received little coverage in the Viennese press, perhaps because Paganini was stealing the musical limelight at the time. After Schubert heard Paganini play in Vienna in Spring 1828, he wrote “I have heard an angel sing.”

Frang cites Paganini’s influence on Schubert in such works as the Rondeau brilliant in B minor, D 895, and the Fantaisie in C major, D 943, both of which were probably composed for the young violinist Josef Slavík. When Frédéric Chopin heard him play, he wrote: “He played like a second Paganini, but a Paganini rejuvenated, one who with time will surpass the first ... He makes the listener speechless and brings tears to one's eyes.” Sadly, Josef Slavík died in 1833 at the age of just 27.

“There is a lot of virtuosity to be found in Schubert’s music for violin, but it is also very finely and delicately made,” says Vilde Frang. “He can be five years old in one phrase and 75 years old in the next, or both ages in the same phrase. When you play his music, it can feel like walking on eggshells. Rather than trying to make the music happen, you have to let it happen.

“As for Paganini, he could be a very lyrical composer too. After all, he cherished the art of the song, and composers like Brahms, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Lutosławski all found inspiration in his work. I’d like to associate him with sincerity, purity and a sense of nobility. There’s an almost religious purity in some of his Caprices, and his Cantabile, which I play on this album, is a bit of a sacred moment: it’s rather like a prayer.”

Eric Lu BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 CHOPIN Sonata No. 2 - Balade No. 4

Warner Classics and Askonas Holt are proud to announce the signing of 20-year old American pianist, Eric Lu, winner and Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medallist at the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition 2018.

As part of this year’s coveted prize the winner receives worldwide management with Askonas Holt – one of the world's leading arts management agencies, and an international album release on Warner Classics – one of the foremost global classical music recording companies. This is the first time a record label and a management agency partner with ‘The Leeds’ to create a ground-breaking portfolio prize designed with long-term career development in mind.

The recording deal is a corner-stone of its new prize package, designed to redefine what a music competition can offer young performers. Both, Warner Classics and Askonas Holt, aim to ensure that the winner has the opportunities, support and advice to develop a significant long-term international career.

Violina Petrychenko UKRAINIAN MOODS

Violina Petrychenko decided to put together a program that would combine the musical traditions of Western Europe and Ukraine. The first part presents two composers, whose work is rooted in the classical traditions: Levko Revutsky and Viktor Kosenko. The remaining three, Kolessa as well as Igor and Juri Shamo, strove to draw on a greater number of folkloristic motifs. It was the piece Carpathian Fantasy by Juri Schamo, which gave her the idea to this program, because the work itself stands for the combination of musical traditions.

Violina Petrychenko SLAVIC NOBILITY

For her solo CD debut disc Ukrainian pianist Violina Petrychenko has chosen piano works by Scriabin and fellow Ukrainian Viktor Kosenko. Kosenko remains little known or recorded though the declared world première recording of his second piano sonata is in fact erroneous since its debut on disc was by another Ukrainian pianist Natalya Shkoda on Centaur Records back in 2011 on which all three of his piano sonatas are presented. That said this disc is interesting because of the similarities between the two composers: one born in Moscow, the other in St Petersburg, both of them admirers of Chopin, Kosenko also of Scriabin, and both of them dying at tragically young ages robbing us of so much more that they might have written.

Petrychenko’s programme is one that encourages comparisons with her playing similar works by each composer. The otherworldliness that characterises Scriabin’s music is immediately apparent in the first of the 2 Poèmes op.32. Its simple lines transport the listener away from the cares of the world while the second is much more powerful. The first of Kosenko’s two poems also embodies a dreamy quality with the second again a more striking affair.

We then have three mazurkas by each of them, both sets being their op. 3, in which Chopin’s influence is marked. That said, each of them stamps his own very different personality upon them even if Kosenko’s mazurkas are especially Chopinesque. The latter recall an age well before that of their composition.

Scriabin’s two movement piano sonata, dramatic and dreamlike by turns, is ‘classic’ Scriabin. Kosenko’s three movement work could also be thought to come from the same stable if we were not told of its composer’s identity. However, similar in nature though it may be to his idol’s work, Kosenko’s sonata has an originality that would surely have been further developed had he lived longer than his 42 years. Its central slow movement is an extremely affecting song without words.

The title of the disc — Slavic Nobility — refers to the fact that both composers came from noble families. It also alludes to the music which has a noble quality. I can take as much Scriabin as record companies can throw at me and now I find that Kosenko’s music is just as infectious. I’m hopeful we’ll have more such discs coming our way. From what I’ve read there’s plenty more to explore from this little known composer.

Petrychenko who has made her home in Germany is perfectly at home with all this music and plays it with both commitment and affection. The disc is very well recorded. (Steve Arloff)

Alfred Deller THE VOICE OF PURCELL

1979 saw the death of one of the leading players in the baroque revolution. Undoubtedly the most famous countertenor of the twentieth century, Alfred Deller's performances convinced audiences that, three centuries earlier, Purcell had somehow composed songs with him in mind. His inimitable timbre perfectly showcased repertory that had long been gathering dust in libraries. Now, 40 years after his death, harmonia mundi has meticulously remastered the original tapes, bringing the art of Alfred Deller's alive once more.

Thomas Zehetmair JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sei Solo

Composed three centuries ago, Johann Sebastian Bach’s set of six works for solo violin stands as one of the holy grails of the instrument’s literature – perhaps the holiest. Now the great Austrian musician Thomas Zehetmair makes his own mark in the rich history of this music, revisiting the repertoire on period instruments.
Zehetmair is an extraordinary violinist and a consistently inquisitive and self-questioning artist. He has not only played the big concertos but has given close attention to chamber music and new repertory, and has also found an extra calling as a conductor, channeling this varied experience into his return to the formidable cornerstone of Bach’s solo masterpieces.
As a young man Zehetmair worked with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in his period ensemble, working with him to prepare for his first recording of the sonatas and partitas on a modern instrument.  For this new recording, he draws out exquisite colours from two violins from Bach’s lifetime, both of them by masters in the German tradition, but there is nothing antiquarian in his approach – old instruments, for him, are tools with which to express a modern sensibility: alert, edgy, multivalent. His performance engages, too, with the superb acoustic of the priory church of St Gerold, in Austria where so many legendary ECM recordings have been made.
Peter Gülke, in his accompanying essay, refers to the “floating spirituality” of this music, and to how Bach here offers one side of a conversation with the performer, whom he leaves free to determine matters of dynamic shading, phrasing and bowing. Zehetmair brings vividness and intelligence to the conversation on a recording that, deeply steeped in the music and true, is at the same time powerfully original.

Apartment House OLIVIER MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps LINDA CATLIN SMITH Among the Tarnished Stars

The UK ensemble Apartment House performs two works: Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps in six movements, and Linda Catlin Smith's Among the Tarnished Stars, taking a fresh modern approach to the Messiaen, drawing out its experimental character, and the sense of drama and intricate gradations of sonority in Smith's rich and mysterious work.

The Orlando Consort GUILLAUME DUFAY

This isn’t the first recording of Dufay’s chansons to appear since the Medieval Ensemble of London’s complete survey nearly 40 years ago (L’Oiseau-Lyre, 12/81), but it’s the most rounded and satisfying view of him to be had from a single anthology (in that Cantica Symphonia’s 2006 Glossa survey focused on the early songs). I was happy to be reacquainted with a few personal favourites (the early ballade Mon chier amy, the late virelai Malheureux cueur and rondeau Vostre bruit and the cheeky drinking-song Puisque vous estez campieur), but having listened several times through I’m struck by several that had not quite done so before, which now speak very eloquently: Pouray je avoir, Belle, que vous ay je mesfait? and the understatedly perfect Par le regard. Like so many of the individual songs, the recital grows in stature with repeated listening.

The reason is that the Orlandos are so experienced in this repertory that, nearly always, the choice of tempo and tone is spot-on (and tempo is perhaps the most important decision, given that absolute tempos are never indicated), which maximises the music’s communicative potential and more than compensates for the occasional vocal blemish (that this is fiendishly exposed singing cannot be overstated). The programme takes a while to get going: the choice of O tres piteulx as an opener is curiously muted and downbeat, and thereafter En triumphant de Cruel Dueil, which seems to me a touch slow given the voices involved. I imagine some may find the Orlandos’ overall approach corseted and overly cautious, as though hearing Dufay through the prism of their recent Machaut recordings. I can understand this, but in singing of such insight there is so much to learn. And as to the music – did I mention it earlier? – Dufay is simply astonishing. (Fabrice Fitch / Gramophone)

Imogen Cooper plays BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations - Bagatelles, Op. 119 - Für Elise

Somehow it was a while since I had heard the Op 119 Bagatelles, and I’m grateful to Imogen Cooper for reminding me what treasures they have to offer, sometimes at moments towards the ends of pieces when you least expect them. It takes real artistry to apply such subtle variations of expressive pressure from phrase to phrase as Cooper delights in. Every detail here is patiently appreciated and gracefully addressed: neither self-regardingly spelt out nor diminishing pieces to the status of a mere appetiser.
Of course, the Diabelli Variations are still the main event, and here the demands are of a different order. The determined yet musically inflected Theme promises much. But the placing of its final cadence and the deliberate non-attacca into Variation 1 already seems to be making a point. Is Cooper deliberately going against the ‘normal’ modern way of dramatising the set, which stresses drive and continuity across groups of variations, in order to suggest a quasi-symphonic overall design? Is she suspicious of the tendency to cast the work in super-human terms? Certainly she is as responsive to Beethoven’s markings as she is in the Bagatelles, and as fleet-flooted as she needs to be in the presto variations (Nos 10, 15 and 19). But she does tend to shy away, it seems to me, from some of Beethoven’s wilder flights of fancy. Her tempo is unstable and her dotted rhythms curiously un-incisive in the eruptively comedic Var 13, for instance, while Var 15 is hardly sempre pp (by contrast, Var 16 is so much harsher than the designated single forte as to distort the tuning). And yet there are so many wonderful things in Cooper’s handling of the final variations that the abiding impression is of a high intelligence guiding the overall journey.

Not quite a top-drawer version, then, but only because that drawer is already so generously filled. Chandos’s recorded sound has a natural glow without ever compromising clarity. Authoritative booklet notes too (William Drabkin). (David Fanning / Gramophone)

Vilde Frang, Lawrence Power, Nicolas Altstaedt, Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas, Alexander Lonquich VERESS String Trio BARTÓK Piano Quintet

The Lockenhaus International Chamber Music Festival is regarded as one of Austria’s most prestigious festivals: it was created by the violinist Gidon Kremer to offer a new vision of chamber music and the opportunity to create musical exchanges in an intimate setting. The cellist Nicolas Altstaedt succeeded Gidon Kremer in 2012 and now continues the spirit of the festival. For this first recording in partnership with Lockenhaus, he is joined by experienced partners, including the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, the Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen, the German pianist Alexander Lonquich – whose Schubert double album was recently released on Alpha (Alpha 433) – and the British violist Lawrence Power. Together they have selected two works, the Piano Quintet of Béla Bartók, a demanding composition, rarely performed even though it is considered an intensely personal work, and the String Trio of Sándor Veress, a former student of Bartók. Nicolas Altstaedt has joined Alpha for several recording projects that will illustrate the full range of his talents, in a highly eclectic range of music.

"What makes this CD unmissable is the Veress Trio, a masterpiece and a performance to match. I’ve already pencilled it in as a potential contender for next year’s Gramophone Awards."  Gramophone

Lang Lang PIANO BOOK Encore Edition

Global superstar pianist Lang Lang has announced a new deluxe digital version of his chart-topping album Piano Book – the best-selling classical album worldwide released this year. Piano Book – Encore Edition, released on 15 November 2019, features six new additional tracks. Accompanying the release will be three performance videos and six short films in which Lang Lang talks about the pieces. 

Piano Book – Encore Edition is a collection of 47 tracks including brand-new recordings of ‘Sweet Dreams’ from Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, ‘Ivan Sings’ from Khachaturian’s Adventures Of Ivan, Christian Petzold’s ‘Minuet In G Minor’ from J.S. Bach’s Notebook For Anna Magdalena Bach and the three movements of Friedrich Kuhlau’s ‘Piano Sonatina In C Major, Op.20 No.1’. These are featured alongside favourites from the original album including Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’, Chopin’s ‘Raindrop Prélude’ and Bach’s ‘Prelude In C Major’ from The Well-Tempered Clavier. 

Lang Lang’s Piano Book has enjoyed huge success around the world since its release in March. It has topped the classical charts in the US, the UK, Germany, France, China and Japan and entered the pop charts in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. His recording of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ reached No.4 in the official Chinese pop single charts.

Wiener Philharmoniker / Franz Welser-Möst THE PEACE CONCERT VERSAILLES

A setlist like no other, a never-heard-before compilation of deeply moving musical pieces highlighting numerous aspects of war and peace. This is how the Wiener Philharmoniker, led by Franz Welser-Möst and supported by an all-star line-up, among them singular pianist Yuja Wang, tackled the highly anticipated concert in commemoration of the end of the 1st world war. 100 years after the first of the devastating humane catastrophes of the 20th century officially ended at Versailles, a group of inspired musicians gathered at the historic site for a concert that will live on in the memory of those who have seen or heard it.

GARETH MALONE Music for Healing

“After many years conducting choirs under extraordinary circumstances, I felt that I had neglected my first love: writing music. So I bought a new piano in 2016, began to

practice in earnest and to compose. Around that time I worked on the INVICTUS games choir, an incredible experience but an emotional one. I moved from that to work with

friends of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire: another life changing and life affirming project.

Before beginning my next challenge I took some time out. My wife had our third child and I was able to be at home, play the piano and write music for myself and my family

as she recuperated. This has been a very important and healing time.

The music is a personal journey through the year and is inspired by my own feelings about each month: birthdays of loved ones, marriages, funerals are all in this music.

I wanted to include the sound of a beautiful piano in a natural acoustic with the warmth of a choir and the energy of a string quartet. This music helped me to heal.”

Angela Gheorghiu / Alexandra Dariescu PLAISIR D'AMOUR

Angela Gheorghiu returns to Decca to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her legendary La Traviata with Sir Georg Solti.

This is a 23-track album featuring rare and classic songs never before recorded by Gheorghiu. She is the winner of five Gramophone Awards, twice recipient of Female Artist of the Year from the Classic Brits and in 2018 she received the 'Victoire d'Honneur' award in France.

Accompanied by her compatriot Alexandra Dariescu, the recital opens with Romanian songs and includes such classics as Apres un reve, Tosti's ideale, Strauss' Morgen and the Chopin Tristesse.

Nelson Freire ENCORES

Legendary Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire celebrates his 75th birthday with a new album, a delightful collection of personal piano favourites.

The new record, ‘Encores’, contains 30 tracks ranging from Purcell to Rachmaninov; Scarlatti to Shostakovich and 12 of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. It also includes such treasures as the Sgambati Mélodie de Gluck, Paderewski’s Nocturne and Albéniz’s Navarra.

An exclusive Decca artist since 2002, Nelson Freire won the 2006 Gramophone Recording of the Year and the Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album in 2013.

Europa Ritrovata AFFECT IS NO CRIME

Period instruments such as the traverso, the Baroque violin, the viola da gamba and the harpsichord offer an incredibly wide palette of new sound possibilities suited to contemporary ears. From the early 1960s an increasing number of postmodernist composers began looking at these instruments as perfect tools to reconnect with both their audience and the music traditions from the past. Contemporary experimental “effects”, through the use of extended techniques and electronics, are proven able to create a fruitful dialogue with the perennial “affects” that baroque instruments are capable of arousing. Based on the Ph.D research of Matteo Gemolo at Cardiff University (UK), Affect is no Crime explores the heterogeneity of this new path, presenting 5 world premiere recordings of 5 works written for these 4 instruments from 5 celebrated living composers, from 5 different countries: from Anspielungen by H.M. Linde, an atonal patchwork enriched with baroque quotations, to the ironic and microtonal Tiet/Lots by J. Tiensuu; from the neo-impressionistic La Fenêtre Ouverte by J. Fontyn to Revenant by J. Morlock, a modal and minimalist homage to Bach, passing through the experimental Sun Bleached with electronics, freshly commissioned from T. Polymeneas Liontiris.

Jupiter / Thomas Dunford VIVALDI

In founding the Jupiter ensemble, the lutenist Thomas Dunford wanted to ‘rediscover the spirit of chamber music in the Baroque repertory. Jupiter operates in a kind of fraternity, as if we had always known each other... Vivaldi’s highly contrasted music demands precisely this natural response – almost like improvisation’. Lea Desandre speaks of a ‘search for colour and almost limitless inflections. This music was the “pop” of the eighteenth century’. The Franco-Italian mezzo, named ‘Révélation lyrique’ (vocal newcomer of the year) at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2017, performs arias from operas including Il Giustino, Juditha triumphans, Il Farnace and Griselda, as well as the famous ‘Cum dederit’ from the Nisi Dominus. The programme also includes four concertos, for lute in D major, for lute and violin, for bassoon in G minor and for cello in G minor. In addition to Thomas Dunford on lute, Peter Whelan on bassoon and the cellist Bruno Philippe, also a ‘Révélation’ at the Victoires de la Musique (2018), this flamboyant programme features Jean Rondeau on harpsichord and organ, Cecilia Bernardini and Louis Creac’h (violins), Jérôme Van Waerbeke (viola) and Douglas Balliett (double bass).