July 2017 Catalogue Issue 15 Prices valid until Friday 25 August 2017 unless stated otherwise 0115 982 7500 The new Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall in Hamburg - see DVD and Blu-ray of the Grand [email protected] Opening Concert on C Major Entertainment Your Account Number: {MM:Account Number} {MM:Postcode} {MM:Address4} {MM:Address3} {MM:Address2} {MM:Address1} {MM:Name} 1 Welcome! Dear Customer, The Europadisc offices happen to be situated above a laundrette, which is lovely in winter, but not quite so pleasant when the temperatures are already sweltering outside! As I write, forecasters are threatening thirty degrees once again, but we plough on, perhaps just a little thankful that business is slightly quieter at this time of year… Two eagerly awaited Elgar titles arrive this month: Barenboim’s Dream of Gerontius, recorded live in Berlin last September with the stellar cast of Andrew Staples (as Gerontius), Thomas Hampson and Catherine Wyn-Rogers; and another fascinating issue from Somm exploring his works for military band, once again including some on CD for the first time. Other July highlights for us include Brabbins’s second instalment of Walton for Hyperion (see ‘Disc of the Month’ below); a beautifully compiled set of Kurtag’s works for ensemble and choir on ECM New Series; a second volume of Haydn String Quartets from the superb Chiaruscuro Quartet on BIS; works for cello and piano by Faure, again on BIS; and a follow-up to Veronique Gens’s hugely successful recital disc, ‘Neere’, entitled ‘Visions’ and featuring French Romantic arias by the likes of David, Godard, Saint-Saens, Franck and Massenet. There appear to be rather a lot of new DVDs for July, of particular note being the Grand Opening Concert from Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie (hence our front cover this month!), a wonderful DVD/Blu-ray combo pack of Ravel from the LSO under their music-director-in-waiting Sir Simon Rattle, and two Wagner productions from DG in the shape of Lohengrin (Dresden/Thielemann) and Parsifal (Bayreuth/Haenchen). New boxsets are not quite so numerous but titles to point out include a set of Legendary Conductors in DG’s excellent ‘111’ series, Gieseking’s recordings of Bach compiled into a 7CD set on DG, early performances of Mozart from Glyndebourne for fans of Busch (Fritz) on Warner Classics, 33 CDs of live recordings from Gunter Wand on Sony/RCA, and collections of Frieder Bernius and Erick Friedman, also both on Sony/RCA. We are pleased to have a large number of DVDs reduced this month, split over a boxset promotion covering c.500 titles and a selection from Euroarts (now at a much better price point due to a new manufacturing agreement with Warner). The complete catalogue of Nimbus is also discounted by 20% (over 1000 titles in total - see website for full listing), plus we have offers on CDs from Delphian, RCO Live, Piano Classics and Cobra. Best regards from, The Europadisc Team DISC OF THE MONTH Walton - Violin Concerto, Partita etc £11.95 Anthony Marwood, BBC Scottish SO, Martyn Brabbins or pay just Hyperion CDA 67986 £8.95 Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra follow up their definitive account of the symphonies (on CDA67794) with another outstanding album of Walton. if your order value From the sunlit Mediterranean lyricism of the Violin Concerto to the rousing Spitfire exceeds £50* Prelude and Fugue, this is the composer at the height of his powers. In 1936 Jascha * to qualify for the special price, Heifetz commissioned a violin concerto from Walton - a remarkable tribute to the your order value must exceed a total of £50 excluding this composer’s stature at that time. Walton was to take his time over the concerto, not recording and before any beginning serious work on it until early 1938. The solo part, as edited by Heifetz, could applicable carriage charges. Offer available while stocks last. be by no other composer and the orchestration is masterly. The success of the 1942 film The First of the Few - dramatizing the race to design and construct the Spitfire aircraft and the RAF’s success in the Battle of Britain - was due in no small part to Walton’s music, and this encouraged him to fashion from his score a patriotic concert piece. The Spitfire Prelude and Fugue was premiered in Liverpool in January 1943, in an all-Walton concert he conducted. For their fortieth anniversary, in 1958, the Cleveland Orchestra commissioned a new work from Walton. The resultant Partita for orchestra, intended to ‘be enjoyed straight off’ as Walton explained, is in three movements, the titles of which reinforce the composer’s love of the Mediterranean. The Variations on a theme of Hindemith were commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, marking their 150th anniversary in 1963. The work fused a number of strands and formed one of Walton’s finest orchestral scores, but one whose subtleties doubtless led to it being misunderstood when it appeared. 2 PRIORITY NEW RELEASES DG and Decca Elgar Bach, JS The Dream of French Suites Gerontius Ashkenazy Wyn-Rogers, Staples, £11.50 Hampson, Staatskap 483 2150 Berlin, Barenboim £12.95 483 1585 (2CD) Classic FM 481 5680 Craig Ogden Summertime (deluxe reissue inc bonus tracks) £11.50 Decca 483 1494 Strauss, R Elektra 2CD + Blu-ray Audio Nilsson;Resnik;Collier;Stolze;Krause;VPO;Solti £24.95 Decca 483 1498 Strauss, R Salome 2CD + Blu-ray Audio Nilsson;Waechter;Stolze;Hoffman;VPO;Solti £24.95 111: The Conductors - Legendary Recordings £89.95 DG 479 7477 (40CD) Since its founding in 1898, Deutsche Grammophon has always stood for the highest standards of artistry and has been home to the greatest conductors in the world. Today, the label continues to be known for musical excellence, great orchestras led by legendary conductors, and for stunning recordings. Here, the Yellow Label proudly celebrates the greatest conductors of their age who shaped the musical landscape from the 1930s to the present day. Deutsche Grammophon presents 40 of the most outstanding orchestral recordings from 40 of the world’s greatest conductors in one essential box set. 111: The Conductors presents a wide breadth of repertoire from Haydn and Mozart to Mahler and Messiaen; legendary recordings from Kleiber’s immortal Beethoven 5 & 7 to Karajan’s sensational Beethoven 9 to Nelsons’s more recent Shostakovich Symphonies 5 & 9; and also rare gems either new to CD or never before released internationally in this format – recordings by Fritz Busch, Riccardo Chailly, Fritz Lehmann, Ferdinand Leitner and Carl Schuricht. Walter Gieseking: Complete Bach Recordings on DG £33.95 DG 479 7362 (7CD) Walter Gieseking’s Bach interpretations have long been celebrated and are still praised as being modern and contemporary. His legendary 1950 broadcasts, later released on the Heliodor label, included many of Bach’s important works such as The Well- Tempered Clavier, Partitas and Inventions. For the first time, Deutsche Grammophon presents all these recordings, newly remastered, in one original jackets collection. A number of these recordings have their first-ever CD release on Deutsche Grammophon or their first international release on Deutsche Grammophon. Also includes a bonus recording of Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Wilhelm Furtwängler (1948). 40pp booklet contains new liner notes by Gieseking scholar Frank R. Latino, previously unpublished photographs and excerpts from Walter Gieseking’s autobiography presenting his ideas on interpreting Bach. Oehms The world premiere of this operetta was conducted by Robert Stolz at the Theater an der Wien in 1909. An incredible success, it was then Lehar performed 300 times in a row at that same theatre. These are numbers Der Graf von Luxemburg that we usually only hear of today in connection with musicals such as Behle, Nylund, Alder, Bode, Geyer, Mamma Mia! Melodies including Lieber Freund, man greift nicht nach Neubauer, Frankfurt Opera, Kim den Sternen and Bist Du’s, lachendes Glück help to explain this success. This recording features the wonderful pairing of operatic stars Camilla £21.95 Nylund and Daniel Behle. 3 OC 968 (2CD) PRIORITY NEW RELEASES ECM New Series Kurtag - Complete Works for Ensemble and Choir Netherlands Radio Choir, Asko-Schoenberg Ensemble, Reinbert de Leeuw £26.95 481 2883 (3CD) Recorded in Amsterdam's Musikgebouw and Haarlem's Philharmonie between March 2013 and July 2016, this 3 CD set is a milestone in the documentation of Hungarian composer György Kurtág's work and also a labour of love. It brings together all of Kurtág's works for ensemble and for ensemble and choir. The insightful and precise performances bear witness to extensive preparation by the dedicated Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble. Conductor Reinbert de Leeuw speaks of “learning Kurtág's oeuvre step by step, and performing these pieces repeatedly over a period of twenty years.” Works heard here are presented in chronological order of composition, beginning with the Four Capriccios (1959-1970, rev. 1993) and continuing with Four Songs to Poems by János Pilinszky (1975), Grabstein für Stephan (1978-79, rev. 1989), Messages of the late Miss R. Troussova (1976-80), ...quasi una fantasia... (1987-88), Op.27 No.2 Double Concerto (1989-90), Samuel Beckett: What is the Word (1991), Songs of Despair and Sorrow (1980- 1994), Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova (1997-2008), Colinda-Balada (2010), and Brefs Messages (2011). The extensive CD booklet includes all song texts with translations, an interview with Reinbert de Leeuw, liner notes by Wolfgang Sandner and Paul Griffiths,