October 2013 Representing Today’S Great Labels This Month's Highlights
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DEALER INFORMATION SERVICE: NO. 261 OCTOBER 2013 REPRESENTING TODAY’S GREAT LABELS THIS MONTH'S HIGHLIGHTS Select Music and Video Distribution Limited 3 Wells Place, Redhill, Surrey RH1 3SL Tel: 01737 645600 Fax: 01737 644065 V Antonín DVORÁK (1841–1904) Cello Concertos Steven Isserlis (cello) Mahler Chamber Orchestra Daniel Harding (conductor) Hyperion is delighted to present the world’s best-loved cello concerto performed by one of the world’s best- Highlight loved cellists: national treasure Steven Isserlis. Isserlis has waited 40 years to record this pinnacle of the of the month repertoire, and here with his regular collaborators, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding, this CDA67917 long gestation has proved to be overwhelmingly fruitful. Of the concerto, Isserlis writes that ‘the power of its emotional journey, expressed with Dvorvák’s characteristically folk-like simplicity and directness, offers an irresistible mix of the epic and the touchingly confessional’. George Frideric HANDEL (1685–1759) The King’s Consort, Robert King (conductor) Handel’s Ottone was one of the most popular operas of the composer’s career, with 34 known performances during his CDS44511/3 lifetime, beaten only by the 53 performances of Rinaldo. The premiere run in 1723 featured superstar Italian soloists £10.59 (3 CDs) including Senesino and Cuzzoni, and coincided with (and was perhaps the cause of) the height of London’s opera madness, with tickets changing hands for increasingly high prices on the black market. This recording of the 1723 version (Handel adapted the opera in later years for different singers) features James Bowman at the peak of his powers in the title role. Guillaume de MACHAUT (c1300–1377) Alexander TANEYEV (1850–1918) Songs from Le Voir Dit Anton ARENSKY (1861–1906) The Orlando Consort, Matthew Venner (countertenor) Mark Dobell (tenor), Angus Smith (tenor) Piano Quintets Donald Greig (baritone) Piers Lane (piano), Goldner String Quartet The Orlando Consort performs Two chamber masterpieces from the music of Machaut, the most nineteenth-century Russia, performed significant French poet and CDA67727 CDA67965 by Piers Lane and the Goldner String composer of the fourteenth century. Quartet. Taneyev has been known as the ‘Russian Brahms’ and this Sometimes described as ‘the last of the trouvères’ because of his dual epithet is particularly apposite when considering his Piano Quintet talents as poet and musician, Machaut built on past traditions yet in G minor, especially as regards both its instrumental writing and its spearheaded a new school of lyric composition. intellectual passion. César FRANCK (1822–1890) Frank BRIDGE (1879–1941) Symphonic Organ Works Phantasy Piano Quartet & Sonatas Simon Johnson The Nash Ensemble, Organ of St Paul’s Cathedral Marianne Thorsen (violin), The Grand Organ (and massive acoustic) of St Paul’s Cathedral Laura Samuel (violin), brings the symphonic organ works of César Franck to life, played Lawrence Power (viola), by Simon Johnson, the current Paul Watkins (cello), Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. CDA68046 Ian Brown (piano) CDA68003 He plays his own transcription of Franck’s Symphony in D minor, a troublesome work which was despised by critics at its premiere. The The Nash Ensemble presents a fascinating compendium of Frank Bridge’s paradox of the Symphony was memorably defined by Norman Demuth: chamber music, demonstrating the composer’s developing style. ‘Never was there such magnificent music so badly written.’ Francis POULENC (1899–1963) William BYRD (1539/40–1623) The Complete Songs Consort Songs Various singers Robin Blaze (countertenor) Graham Johnson (piano) Concordia Here is a fine recording to draw the Graham Johnson is simply the listener into the richly layered world greatest living authority on CDA68021/4 of Queen Elizabeth I. William Byrd’s CDH55429 French song; an artist whose innate feeling for the music ‘consort songs’ tell of courtly love; Sir Philip Sidney’s demise in battle is combined with prodigious scholarship. He also has the becomes an eloquent lament; an old woman tumbling down amid a ability to discover and nurture singers who here prove to flurry of human skulls represents contemporary desires for freedom of speech; moral temptations are likened to a storm-tossed ship; and a be matchless performers of this repertoire. hymn to the Muses is inspired by the death of Thomas Tallis. Francis POULENC Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD (1899–1963) (1897–1957) Mass & Motets Arnold SCHOENBERG Westminster Cathedral Choir (1874–1951) Iain Simcock (organ) James O’Donnell (conductor) String Sextet • Verklärte Nacht A generous selection of Poulenc’s The Raphael Ensemble wonderful and varied liturgical works has been recorded here by Westminster Cathedral Choir, whose These two works, so eminently suited as concert partners, disappeared natural and unforced style of singing is perfectly suited to the CDH55448 after Hitler came to power. Korngold and Schoenberg were both CDH55466 composer’s ‘naïve’, spontaneous outpourings. The Mass in G major is victimized for being ‘non-Aryan’ and their works were banned. Verklärte one of the most important a cappella works of the twentieth century, Nacht quickly reestablished itself, but the Korngold had to wait for its and includes some of Poulenc’s most beautiful and tender music. reappraisal until it was discovered in 1987 by The Raphael Ensemble, who gave its first public performance in the United Kingdom at The Purcell Room in London that year. 2 OCTOBER 2013 Gustav HOLST Highlight Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 of the month The Mystic Trumpeter, Op.18 First Choral Symphony, Op.41 Susan Gritton (soprano), BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis CHSA 5127 This is our third CD devoted to orchestral works by Gustav Holst. The series was inaugurated by Richard Hickox who sadly passed away in 2009 after having completed only Volume 1. Fortunately, Chandos was able to secure the services of its exclusive artist, the acclaimed conductor Sir Andrew Davis, for the second volume. TCHAIKOVSKY Swan Lake James Ehnes (violin), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi This is the second instalment in our series devoted to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets. The first recording of The Sleeping Beauty, was praised upon its release, described by a reviewer in American Record Guide as ‘one of the finest I’ve heard’. Here Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra present the complete CHSA 5124(2) version of Swan Lake, with the pre-eminent James Ehnes lending his magic to the violin solos. On this disc we present Tchaikovsky’s original Bolshoy score of twenty-nine numbers across four acts, along with two supplementary numbers which Tchaikovsky provided not long after the premiere. American Piano Concertos Xiayin Wang (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Peter Oundjian The young Chinese-born pianist Xiayin Wang, now resident in the USA, has been enthralling audiences worldwide and gaining ever greater international acclaim with her winning combination of consummate technical brilliance, fine musicianship, and CHSA 5128 personal verve. Here she is the soloist in three great American piano concertos and is joined by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Peter Oundjian. The 20th-century Concerto Grosso Karl-Heinz Schütz (flute), Christoph Koncz (violin), Roger Nagy (cello), Maria Prinz (piano), Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner On this disc, we feature the works of three composers – Vincent d’Indy, Ernst Krenek, and Erwin Schulhoff . D’Indy wrote the Concert, his last orchestral piece, at the age of seventy-five. It combines a lean scoring and strong, lucid instrumental lines with romantic harmonic colouring. The disc also features the world premiere recording of CHAN 10791 the Concertino that Krenek wrote before he was forced, as a ‘degenerate’ artist, to leave Austria in 1938. In the Concerto doppio, Schulhoff turns to the concerto grosso because of its affinity with jazz, a musical genre that greatly influenced him, allowing him to break free from more conventional musical forms. British Works for Cello and Piano, Vol. 2 BOWEN, York: Cello Sonata, Op. 64, IRELAND, John: Cello Sonata, BAX, Arnold: Cello Sonata in E flat Major Paul Watkins (cello), Huw Watkins (piano) Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as both a cellist and conductor. York Bowen was very nearly forgotten after his death in 1961 but his music, CHAN 10792 traditional in form, romantic in expression, and confidently idiomatic, has recently undergone a revival. Arnold Bax was at the height of his powers when, in 1923, he wrote his Cello Sonata in E flat, and John Ireland’s Cello Sonata, is tautly constructed and full of passionate intensity. As in the case of the other two sonatas, it places great virtuosic demands on both performers. Liszt at the Opera LISZT, Franz: Réminiscences de ‘Don Juan’ [Mozart] ‘Rigoletto’: Paraphrase de concert [Verdi] Valse de l’opéra ‘Faust’ de Gounod Transcriptions of works by WAGNER, Richard: Overture, Recitative and ‘Evening Star’Aria from ‘Tannhäuser’ / Prelude and ‘Liebestod’ from ‘Tristan und Isolde’ / Spinning Chorus from ‘Der fliegende Holländer’ Louis Lortie (piano) In this new release, the exclusive Chandos artist and award-winning pianist Louis Lortie continues his exploration of piano works by Franz Liszt. His previous Liszt releases have been critically acclaimed, Gramophone describing his performance of CHAN 10793 the complete Années de Pèlerinage as ‘spellbinding’. Here Lortie turns his hand to the composer’s opera transcriptions and paraphrases, works that revolutionized composition for the piano with their unheralded technical innovation. Verdi & Variations Philippe Magnan (oboe), Alexander Trostiansky (violin), Musici de Montréal, Yuli Turovsky The works on the record are performed by Canadian ensemble I Musici de Montreal under the direction of the late lamented Yuli Turovsky. Verdi’s String Quartet represents the great operatic composer’s only chamber work and was written, by Verdi’s own admission ‘in the hours when I had nothing to do’.