Welcome back from the holiday period.
This year, our newsletters will bring you all sorts of music related information.
To begin with, we have this month's 3 CDs of the month from Universal Music.
CDs of the Month
These 3 titles have been selected from the great classical labels of Decca, Philips, and Deutsche Grammaphon. They are available at the promotional price of $20 for the duration of February.
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| A beautiful project with Italian flavour and an all-star cast: Placido Domingo performs a selection of to-date unknown Leoncavallo songs accompanied by Lang Lang. A dream recital pairing and Lang Lang's first collaboration with a singer in the recording studio. $20 | A sensational solo Chopin recital for Chopin Year 2010 - previously unreleased radio recordings from 1959 / 1967. Includes works new to the Argerich discography (Ballade no.1, 4 Mazurkas, C# minor Etude) Taken from radio recordings made in Berlin and Cologne in 1959 and (mainly) 1967, here is over an hour of newly-discovered Martha Argerich solo recordings of Chopin, all released for the first time and including works otherwise not recorded by her (Ballade no. 1, Mazurkas opp. 24/2, 33 /2,41/1&2, C# minor Etude). $20 | Principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic and a hugely successful recording artist in his native Germany. His latest Decca solo album is a celebration of the music of JS Bach. The album includes works written exclusively for wind instruments, as well as great melodies from the choral works, in new and authentic arrangements made for this recording. $20 WATCH Albrecht Mayer |
Classical New Releases
We present here the cream of the classical new releases for this month.
Included are titles being released during February, which may be pre-ordered now.
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| The first, and long-awaited, recording of the Goldberg Variations by leading harpsichord specialist, Andreas Staier. From his successful collaborations in the past with acclaimed tenor Christof Pregardien and conductor Rene Jacobs, Staier finally returns to what he does best in performing and interpreting Bach for the harpsichord. Includes a BONUS DVD performance. $35 | American clarinetist Jon Manasse delivers a buoyant reading of the clarinet concertos by W.A. Mozart and Ludwig Spohr. Manasse receives nimble support from the Seattle Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz. ‘At the centre was an absolutely first-rate clarinet soloist, Jon Manasse. He had the taste, the sound and the technique to project this most beguiling of wind instruments in one of its more beguiling repertory pieces’ – The New York Times $35 | The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra performs this popular coupling of two major works for their latest Chandos recording. The two works complement one another as they both incorporate interplay and dialogue between two or more solo instruments. Beethoven's Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano was written in 1804, and on many levels is a highly emotional work on. Beethoven had now accepted his deafness, and his desire to express himself through music had returned. This richly melodic and mature work has joyful as well as bleak moments, and might be described as a piano trio with orchestral accompaniment. In the case of the Double Concerto of Johannes Brahms, here large stretches can be considered as a piano trio in which the orchestra takes on the role of the piano. Only $20 (Limited Offer) |
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| Arthur Sullivan's grand historical opera - based on Ivanhoe, the most popular novelby Sir Walter Scott - launched D’Oyly Carte’s ambitious English Royal Opera, where it was performed on consecutive nights for 155 performances, one of the most extraordinary runs ever achieved by any opera. In 1891, anyone in London wishing to experience some music would have had a remarkable choice. Ivanhoe was playing at the Royal English Opera, The Gondoliers was still drawing the crowds at the Savoy, and there was a performance of The Golden Legend at Covent Garden. It is hard to think of another musical personality in the history of British music, other than Handel, who had dominated London in this way. The sheer breath and variety of invention in Ivanhoe is astonishing, and it is one of the most significant operatic works to have originated in Britain. It was written when Sullivan was at the height of his powers, with his typical fluency in word-setting and mastery of orchestration, and it breathes his natural empathy and humanity. This is the first professional commercial recording of Ivanhoe, dedicated to Richard Hickox who was instrumental in bringing the work once again into the light. Only $45 (Limited Offer) | Kathryn Stott is an internationally renowned specialist in Fauré’s piano music. BBC Music Magazine recently wrote, ‘Kathryn Stott reinforces her position as one of the finest Fauré interpreters of her generation’. For her involvement in ‘Fauré and the French Connection’ she was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French government. She has long wished to record Fauré’s hauntingly beautiful two piano quartets, and has at last drawn together the ideal ensemble: the Hermitage String Trio, a group she has toured with on a number of occasions. The Strad recently wrote of the group, "This ensemble will do much to put more string trio repertory on the musical map" The quartets are presented with the solo piano work, Nocturne No.4; a unique combination and fresh interpretations, recorded in warm Chandos sound. Only $25 (Limited Offer) | This month Delos Music releases Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s new solo recording, Tchaikovsky: Romances. With this new album, the baritone further cements his reputation as one of the premier interpreters of the Russian recital repertoire. His musical collaborator for this recording is pianist Ivari Ilja. The two-disc set includes twenty-four romances. $30 Watch Hvorostovsky |
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In this much anticipated release from the ever-soloistic sound of the Labeque sisters, comes a fresh take on Erik Satie. Satie was a fascinating and intriguing composer, and one to whom Katia and Marielle Labèque have always been attracted. For their first recording of his music, the piano superstars have deliberately chosen the best-known pieces, those which, after having been thundered against when first they appeared before a public, are now in constant demand a hundred years later. $35 | Pianist Imogen Cooper follows her critically acclaimed ‘Schubert Live' Volume One (AV2156), with the second 2-CD release in her ongoing series of Schubert’s late piano music, recorded live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The first volume was a runaway success both critically and commercially, particularly well received by the Australian press during her national Schubert and Mozart tour. Her selection for Volume Two reflects the public appetite, in the late 1820s, for shorter piano pieces, which resulted in Six Moments Musicaux, D780 and Four Impromptus, D935. These works also featured in Cooper's Australian recitals. $50 | Joining together for the first time on CD, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Itzhak Perlman bring Mendelssohn's two piano trios to vibrant life. The eminent cellist, pianist, and violinist first performed this music at Carnegie Hall in April 2009 $35 |
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| Chopin’s unique style of piano writing was to utterly transform the way in which composers wrote for and thought about the instrument. Few escaped some aspect of that legacy until the early years of the twentieth century; and few pianists have not had Chopin’s music in their concert repertoire. Small wonder that so many composers and pianistcomposers—major and minor—have felt moved to pay their respects to a musician for whom there is almost universal approbation. A fascinating selection of hommages are represented here. Jonathan Plowright has recently been described as ‘one of the finest living pianists; the possessor of qualities that should no longer remain a secret’ (Gramophone). His formidable technique and musical integrity combine in a disc which is a must for any pianophile. $35 | The Cardinall’s Musick’s award-winning Byrd series reaches its final volume, which includes some of the composer’s most sublime music, drawn in the main from the 1591 Cantiones Sacrae collection. Throughout this series it has become evident that a comprehensive survey such as this shows the genius of the composer in a uniquely effective way: by demonstrating the extraordinary variety and unsurpassable quality of his musical and liturgical achievements. Andrew Carwood defines Byrd as the greatest composer of the age in his booklet note—as he writes: ‘If there is an English musician who comes close to Shakespeare in his consummate artistry, his control over so many genres and his ability to speak with emotional directness it must be William Byrd.’ The ‘title track’ of this volume, Infelix ego, is the crowning glory of Byrd’s achievement as a composer of spiritual works. $20 (Limited Offer) | Lawrence Power, Britain’s acknowledged greatest living viola player, continues his fascinating and acclaimed series of Hindemith’s complete viola music. This second disc features Hindemith’s solo viola sonatas. These works were all written for Hindemith himself to perform, and are thus are of special significance—as near to a personal testament, an intimate soliloquy, as exists in his multifarious and genre-spanning output. The shadow of Bach lies over any composer writing a solo string sonata, and this is clear in the Passacaglia Op 11 No 5 Sonata, where Hindemith’s ultimate model is unmistakably the famous D minor Chaconne from Bach’s second violin partita. $35 |
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| With choral music at the heart of the musical life of the Baltics it is not surprising that the medium has been a central preoccupation for many of their composers. A degree of isolation from international trends in new music meant that the centre of gravity for composers in the west of the Soviet Union was very different from that of their colleagues beyond the Iron Curtain. And while there is certainly no such thing as a pan- Baltic style—this recording offers only a glimpse of the choral riches to be found in these three tiny countries—all the composers on the disc share a number of characteristics: a sure-footed handling of choral orchestration, lucidity of texture, a fondness for cluster-chords and diatonically saturated harmony, and the frequent use of ostinatos. Stephen Layton has single-handedly brought many of these composers to the attention of audiences and choirs in the West—and through his sensitive and inspirational direction, has won many fans for this repertoire. $35 | In choosing to cover the music of John Dowland (1563-1626), who is known as the "melancholy madrigalist" from his output of cheerful ditties like "Flow My Tears," Police bandleader Sting has entered into a whole new realm of austere eeriness. Originally inspired by the gift of a lute, the rock superstar and activist sings the songs, deliciously sweet and tender or spirited by turn, accompanying himself, with Edin Karamazov sitting on lute and archlute. Sting's wonderful tribute to the music of John Dowland, avilable for a limited time, at the special price of $15 | Brilliant as both a conductor and composer, Bernard Herrmann is arguably the most innovative film composer of the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. He provided background music for 47 feature films released between 1941 and 1976, including such cinema classics as Citizen Kane, Psycho, and Taxi Driver and is especially recognised for his work with Alfred Hitchcock. Herrmann rejected the term ‘film composer’; rather, he thought of himself as a composer who worked on films. He admired Vaughan Williams, Walton and Prokofiev who were able to compose great works for films as well as for the concert hall. Often cited as the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane was Herrmann’s first film score. Much has been made of Orson Welle’s influence over cinema history but Bernard Herrmann’s score plays no small part in the film’s incredible success. The film noir Hangover Square is enriched by a dark score influenced by Richard Addinsell’s success with the Warsaw Concerto, and its final scene features the famous virtuosic piano concerto 'composed' by the main character and played by him as he is consumed by flames . $25 (Limited Offer) |
