September 2018 Catalogue Issue 29 Prices valid until Friday 26 October 2018 unless stated otherwise 0115 982 7500 Image taken from Berlin Classics 0301116BC ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ - arrangements of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov performed by the Faure Quartett [email protected] Your Account Number: {MM:Account Number} {MM:Postcode} {MM:Address5} {MM:Address4} {MM:Address3} {MM:Address2} {MM:Address1} {MM:Name} 1 Welcome! Dear Customer, The annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards will be handed out this month: the ten main category winners have already been announced (see opposite page), with the ultimate ‘Recording of the Year’ being revealed at the ceremony in London on 13 September. We have managed to secure special prices on all of the winning discs for you, making it a great opportunity to hear any of the recordings that you may have missed when first released. As you will be aware, the autumn is the time when record labels traditionally release what they consider to be their best recordings, largely down to a mixture of people spending more time indoors over the winter months and an expectation that we spend more money in the run up to Christmas! September usually sees the first seeds of this and 2018 has proved to be no exception, as you will discover from how much we have had to squeeze in this month. Highlights include: Orchestral Songs by Elgar on Somm (our Disc of the Month below); Janacek from the late Jiri Belohlavek on Decca; two discs of British music on Chandos, focusing on works by Gerald Finzi and Ruth Gipps; a new recital from superb soprano Barbara Hannigan on Alpha, exploring lieder from the turn of the 20th Century; another soprano performance, this time live from the Wigmore Hall, by Joyce DiDonato on Erato; and two intriguing opera recordings: Rossini’s Semiramide (his final Italian work, thereafter living and working in Paris) from Opera Rara, and Gounod’s Le Tribut de Zamora from Bru Zane (rebranded from Ediciones Singulares and named after the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, with whom several of the recent productions have collaborated). There are also further Bernstein centenary issues, most notable perhaps being a brand new recording of his second symphony from the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, with the piano part performed by Krystian Zimerman (DG). Rattle also conducts the new LSO performance of Wonderful Town (LSO Live), plus there are several boxsets, including a gathering together of Bernstein’s recordings as conductor with the Orchestre National de France (Warner), and four new anthologies from Sony. Many of you have been enquiring about the new Birgit Nilsson Live Recordings boxset ever since BBC Music Magazine featured a sampler disc earlier this year. We are pleased to say that this will finally be making its appearance on 7 September and further details can be found on p8. Finally, a quick summary of this month’s new special offers: BIS is our core catalogue promotion, with 25% discount now available on all titles. We have filled 12 pages with a selection of their titles and hundreds more can be found online! Channel Classics, Capriccio, Arcana, Albion and First Hand Records also have their complete catalogues reduced. A selection of 120 recordings from DG are now half-price in celebration of their 120th birthday, plus there is a small selection of titles from ECM New Series with big reductions, and 20% off all DVDs and Blu-rays from the excellent Accentus label. Best regards from, The Europadisc Team DISC OF THE MONTH Elgar The Hills of Dreamland: Orchestral Songs £12.25 Kathryn Rudge, Henk Neven, BBC Concert Orchestra, Barry Wordsworth or pay just Somm SOMMCD 2712 (2CD) Somm is delighted to present a revelatory collection of orchestral songs by Sir Edward Elgar £9.95 performed by two of today’s most exciting young singers – mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge if your order value and baritone Henk Neven – accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry exceeds £50* Wordsworth. The Hills of Dreamland takes its title from a line in Elgar’s well-known setting, beautifully still and beseeching, of Arthur L Salmon’s Pleading. * to qualify for the special price, your order value must exceed a Historically the least regarded part of Elgar’s output, his songs contain a treasure-trove of total of £50 excluding this vocal gems and here receive performances of insight, imagination and emotional directness. recording and before any applicable carriage charges. The Op.59 Song Cycle is an exemplary case in point, by turns quietly radiant, touchingly Offer available while stocks last. nostalgic and achingly melancholic. Two settings of poems by Elgar’s wife – the richly orchestrated The Wind at Dawn and celebratory The King’s Way – show Elgar at his most evocative and ebullient. Sombre and powerful, The Pipes of Pan boasts colourful imagery and driving rhythmic energy, The River and The Torch wholly Elgarian in their wonderful sonorities. A first recording of the orchestral version of the marching song Follow the Colours shows Elgar at his most patriotic. The complete incidental music for a 1901 staging of WB Yeats’ Grania and Diarmid offers a rare opportunity to experience the full gamut of Elgar’s moving and dramatic evocation of a timeless tale of love in the ancient Irish myth. A bonus disc of recordings made under the auspices of the Elgar Society showcases soprano Nathalie de Montmollin and pianist Barry Collett in a collection of piano- accompanied songs. It includes first recordings of the piano version of ‘Winter’ from The Mill Wheel (with its churning left-hand patterns and a text by the composer’s wife) and the world-weary tread of Muleteer’s Serenade, setting words from Cervantes’ Don Quixote. 2 GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNERS 2018 Below are details of the 10 category winnners in the 2018 Gramophone Awards. The ultimate Recording of the Year will be revealed at the ceremony on 13 September, alongside other special awards including Artist of the Year, Young Artist of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Label of the Year and Orchestra of the Year. CHAMBER CHORAL Dvorak Quintets opp.81 & 97 Part Magnificat & Nunc dimittis Giltburg, Pavel Haas Quartet Schnittke Psalms of Repentance £10.50 Supraphon SU 41952 Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Putnins ... the Pavel Haas Quartet ... are joined by Pavel £9.95 BIS BIS 2292 Nikl, the quartet’s founder viola player. It is the … a warm, rich sound & perfect blend… guided by happiest of reunions and their sense of shared the utterly precise & dynamic Kaspars Putninš they purpose is evident from the very start. ... Another triumphant give here a truly outstanding rendition that picks up every emotional addition to the Pavel Haas’s already Award-laden discography. & spiritual nuance with no sacrifice of technical perfection. CONCERTO CONTEMPORARY Bartok Violin Concertos 1 & 2 Dusapin Quatuor VI, Quatuor VII Tetzlaff, Finnish Radio SO, Lintu Arditti Quartet, Radio France PO, Rophe £9.95 Ondine ODE 13172 £9.95 Aeon AECD 1753 Tetzlaff’s account of the First Concerto elevates Both pieces reaffirm Dusapin’s quartet cycle as this work to a whole new level of musical among the most significant now emerging... excellence, so much so that I’m inclined to place spacious and lifelike sound, notably in the his expertly recorded CD of the two concertos ahead of all rival frequently intricate textures of the quartets...warmly versions. It’s that good! recommended. EARLY MUSIC INSTRUMENTAL Missa sine nomine Brahms Piano Works opp.76, 117, 118 Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks v.5 Volodos Blue Heron, Metcalfe £11.50 Sony 88875 130192 £9.95 Blue Heron BHCD 1007 …whatever he does, you can’t imagine the music ...the Mass in particular is superb. Whoever going any other way, which is perhaps the wrote it almost certainly knew Taverner’s Gloria definition of a great artist. ... Comparisons tibi Trinitas, for echoes of it abound, yet it is no slavish imitation. become irrelevant in interpretations of such mesmerising honesty. For this piece alone the disc is worth owning... An award-winner if ever I heard one. OPERA ORCHESTRAL Berlioz Les Troyens Ravel Daphnis & Chloe (complete) DiDonato, Spyres, Lemieux, Nelson Les Siecles, Roth £21.95 Erato 9029 576220 (4CD + DVD) £9.07 Harmonia Mundi HMM 905280 What is immediately apparent is what splendid We don’t know what the orchestral sound was results the engineers have achieved... the casting like at its 1912 Paris premiere…but many of the minor roles is jaw-dropping... a peach of a listeners will be familiar with the 1959 LSO recording, with the strongest cast across the board of any Troyens recording by the original conductor, Pierre Monteux… comparisons recording setting a thrilling new benchmark for this epic opera. are instructive… this new recording is highly recommended. RECITAL SOLO VOCAL Agitata Baroque Arias Secrets French Melodies Galou, Accademia Bizantina, Dantone Crebassa, Say £9.95 Alpha ALPHA 371 £8.95 Erato 9029 576897 This is a treasure trove… Galou is a perfect singer With her warm tone and remarkable way with to introduce us to this music, thanks to an agile both vocal colour and verbal inflection, Crebassa and comfortable technique (hear the way she is outstanding in this repertory, and in Fazıl Say sails effortlessly through her full compass in a single phrase in the she has an accompanist whose direct yet subtle approach matches first aria of the Porpora)… A lovely disc of discoveries. 3her own… one of the finest French song recitals of recent years. PRIORITY NEW RELEASES DG and Decca