April classical releases

harmonia mundi UK

Classical new release LSO LIVE commemorates SIR COLIN DAVIS in the 100TH RELEASE

DISTRIBUTED LABELS:

ACCENT RECORDS, ACTES SUD, AGOGIQUE, ALIA VOX, AMBRONAY, APARTE, ARTE VERUM, AUDITE, BEL AIR CLASSIQUES, THE CHOIR OF KINGS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, CONVIVIUM, CHRISTOPHORUS, CSO RESOUND, DELPHIAN, DUCALE, EDITION CLASSICS, FRA MUSICA, GLOSSA, harmonia mundi, HAT[NOW]ART, LA DOLCE VOLTA, LES ARTS FLORISSANTS EDITIONS, LSO LIVE, MARIINSKY, MIRARE, MODE, MUSO, MYRIOS, NAÏVE, ONYX, OPELLA NOVA, ORFEO, PAN CLASSICS, PARADIZO, PARATY, PEARL, PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE, PHIL.HARMONIE, PRAGA DIGITALS, RADIO FRANCE, RAM, REAL COMPAÑIA ÓPERA DE CÁMARA, RCO LIVE, SFZ MUSIC, SIGNUM, STRADIVARIUS, UNITED ARCHIVES, WAHOO, WALHALL ETERNITY, WERGO, WIGMORE HALL LIVE, WINTER & WINTER, YSAYE

available 7th April, call-off 28th March

APRIL 7 2014

APRIL GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE RECORDING OF THE MONTH MARIINSKY MAR0548 Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos No 1 and 2 Denis Matsuev/Valery Gergiev APRIL GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE harmonia mundi HMC902167 CPE Bach Magnificat RIAS Chamber Choir, AAM-Berlin/Rademann APRIL GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE LSO LIVE LSO0746 Bruckner Symphony No 9 LSO / Bernard Haitink APRIL GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE DELPHIAN DCD34123 Sheppard Sacred Choral Music Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, Duncan Ferguson GRAMOPHONE Reissue of the month SIGNUM SIGCD367 Tavener The Veil of the Temple Patricia Rozario, Holst Singers, ECO / Stephen Layton IRR Outstanding, March issue DELPHIAN DCD34119 Ronald Stevenson Passacaglia on DSCH James Willshire BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE OPERA CHOICE, April AGOGIQUE AGO015 Scarlatti Carlo Re d’Alemagna Fabio Biondi BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE CHAMBER CHOICE, April harmonia mundi HMC902125 Beethoven Piano Trios Faust, Queyras, Melnikov

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

MOZART: Adagios & Fugues [after JS Bach] Fugue arrangements for strings

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin Prelude & Fugue in D minor K405/4 after J.S. Bach, BWV 877 [WTC Bk 2] Larghetto cantabile in D major & Fugue K405/5, BWV874 [WTC, Bk 2] Adagio & Fugue in A minor, BWV 867 (WTC Bk 1] Allegro in C minor K Anh 44 & Fuga a due Cembali K426 Adagio cantabile & Fugue in E flat major, BWV 876 [WTC Bk 2] Adagio & Fugue in C minor K546 Adagio & Fugue in E major K405/3, BWV 878 [WTC Bk 2] Adagio & Fugue in B minor 6’08 after J.S. Bach, BWV 849 [WTC Bk 1] Adagio & Fugue in D minor, BWV 849 [WTC Bk 1]

Label: harmonia mundi File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: HMC902159 Barcode: 3149020215920 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

It has often been overlooked that, between Bach’s death (1750) and the triumphant revival of his 'St Matthew Passion' by Mendelssohn in 1829, other composers had already investigated the œuvre of this ‘old master’. Mozart was the most fervent among them; thanks to the discoveries of Baron van Swieten, he had the opportunity to explore 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' and make the string arrangements from it featured on this disc.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin add to their extensive Bach discography with Stephan Mai as konzertmeister. His note on the scoring explains that "In K426, K426a, and K546 we follow Mozart’s own indications as to scoring. The other study works that have come down to us in manuscript scores (for string quartet) offer scope for instrumentation in different textures: string orchestra, string quartet, wind alone, and a combination of strings and wind, as in the last work on the programme, serve the dramaturgical conception of this CD and follow no particular principle apart from that of feasibility.

It goes without saying that the contrapuntal unfolding of the lines in J. S. Bach’s fugues was not to be altered for the sake of the instrumentation, for example by redistributing the voices."

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Thomas LARCHER: What Becomes Smart Dust, Poems, What Becomes, A Padmore Cycle

Mark Padmore

Label: harmonia mundi File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: HMU907604 Barcode: 093046760427 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: slipcase Tamara Stefanovich [piano] Mark Padmore [tenor] Thomas Larcher [piano] Mark Padmore appears at the Wigmore Hall on 18th May and 7th July [BBC lunchtime concert]

Thomas Larcher’s sound world is both original and captivating in its fusion of contemplative harmonies with innovative performance techniques. Written for and performed by tenor Mark Padmore, 'A Padmore Cycle' features the composer at the keyboard. Works for solo piano performed by Tamara Stefanovich round out this programme of first recordings.

Born 1963 in Innsbruck, composer Thomas Larcher studied piano and composition in Vienna. He first gained renown primarily as a pianist, performing with major orchestras and prominent conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez and Franz Welser Möst. In 1998, he began to define himself more clearly as a composer. Since then he has composed works for the San Francisco Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Belcea Quartet, and for Leif Ove Andsnes, Matthias Goerne, Mark Padmore and Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley.

He has recorded five CDs with ECM, most recently 'Madhares' with Kim Kashkashian, Till Fellner and Dennis Russell Davies. Thomas Larcher has won numerous distinctions, including the Choc de la Musique and the British Composer Award (International category) 2012. The UK premiere of A Padmore Cycle, orchestrated version will be in November 2014 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

“His extraordinary, arresting, communicative music is one of this century’s wonders...” The Times "Leif Ove Andsnes, who had initially inspired me to write What Becomes, set conditions for me in composing it. His requirement was that the piece must fit into a recital program that pianists would consider “normal” (although, in truth, such “piano recitals” are anything but “normal”; most are little more than geriatric museum tours by candlelight)...

In Mark Padmore I found a companion willing to accompany me into remote musical territory, someone with the courage and openness to hold back his voice at many stages so that it would sound brittle and fragile as well as very exposed, yet all the while his voice remained extremely precise and present. Only that enabled me to draw a musical arc through the disparate texts." Thomas Larcher

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Marie et Marion Motets & Chansons from 13th-century France

Anonymous 4

Label: harmonia mundi File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: HMU807524 Barcode: 093046752460 NORMALPrice: Format: 1 SACD Packaging: digipack Anonymous 4: Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek

Marie: Mater dei plena, Mater virgo pia EIUS (Mo 66), He mere diu, La virge marie (Mo 146) A la clarte qui tout (Mo 189), Marie assumptio afficiat, Hujus chori suscipe (Mo 322) Chanson: De la gloriouse fenix, Ave lux luminum, Salve virgo rubens (Mo 56) The Song: Plus joliement c’onques, Quant li douz tans (Mo 257) Reverdie: Volez vous que je vous chant, J’ai les biens, Que ferai biau sire (Mo 138) Que ferai biaus sire, Ne puet faillir (Mo 77) Marion: Pensis chief enclin (Mo 239), L’autre jour par un matinet , Hier matinet trouvai (Mo 261) Quant florist la violete, El mois de mai (Mo 135), Sans orgueil et sans envie (Mo 225), Trois serors (Mo 27) Chanson: Amors me fait commencier, En mai quant rosier, L’autre jour par un matin, (Mo 269) The Sorrow: Pucelete bele et avenant, Je languis des maus (Mo 143) Diex qui porroit, En grant dolour (Mo 278), Pour chou que j’aim, Li joli tans (Mo 299) Marie-Marion: Chanson: J’ai un cuer trop lait, Par une matinee, Mellis stilla (Mo 40) Or voi je bien / Eximium decus (Mo 273), Plus bele que flor, Quant revient et fuelle, L’autrier joer (Mo 21) Returning to the Montpellier Codex for this programme of motets and chansons from 13th-century France, Anonymous 4 explores two dominant themes of the period: love and longing for the earthly/earthy Marion and the heavenly/virginal Marie.

The Montpellier Codex, from which Anonymous 4 draw all these motets, was collected in Paris around the year 1300 and is the richest single source of 13th-century French polyphony. With a repertory spanning the entire 13th century, it contains polyphonic works in all the major forms of its era: organum, conductus, hocket and, primarily, motet (315 motets in all).

Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, Anonymous 4 combine historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition to create their magical sound. Enchanted by live performances and 20 albums of medieval, contemporary and American music, Anonymous 4’s listeners have bought nearly two million copies of the group’s recordings for harmonia mundi.

“From the opening ‘Gaude, Virgo, Salutata’ chant sequence to the final ‘Ave Maris Stella’ hymn, the performance had all the polish, dynamic suppleness and warmth of tone that have always been Anonymous 4’s hallmarks.”

The New York Times

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

HAYDN: Scottish Airs Piano Trio Hob. XV:27

Werner Güra The Lea-Rig, Morag, Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou (Deil tak’ the wars), O wise and valiant Willy (Rattling roaring Willy), Trio in C major Hob. XV:27 - Allegro Twas at the hour of dark midnight (Barbara Allan), Jenny’s Bawbee, Mary’s Dream, Trio in C major Hob. XV:27 - Andante The night her silent sable wore (She rose, and let me in), William and Margaret, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray Trio in C major Hob. XV:27 - Presto There was a lass (Willie was a wanton wag), Highland Air: The Lone Vale, My Love she’s but a lassie yet

Label: harmonia mundi File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: HMC902144 Barcode: 3149020214428 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Werner Güra [tenor] Christoph Berner [fortepiano] Julia Schröder [violin] Roel Dieltiens [cello]

These arrangements of Scottish traditional melodies are among the little-known gems of Haydn’s later years. Nearing the end of his long career but still at the height of his powers – these settings are contemporary with 'Die Jahreszeiten' and his last two masses – Haydn responded to the commission with arrangements full of life and wit.

The process of adapting the airs for drawing-room performance was not limited to the provision of new words: early 18th-century anthologies usually equipped the melodies with a figured bass to enable keyboard accompaniment, with optional cello support. By the end of the century, it had become customary to add an obbligato violin part too. This was the scoring Haydn used in his first arrangements of Scottish songs, made for William Napier. According to his biographers, Griesinger and Dies, the composer provided the first batch of 100 settings free of charge to help the publisher out of serious financial difficulties [most un-Scottish, Ed.]. The present disc, however, offers a selection from the more ambitious arrangements, 208 in all, that Haydn made for George Thomson (1757-1841), an ardent collector of old Scots airs who published them fully scored for piano trio. These he commissioned not from minor local musicians, but from the foremost European composers of the day; just as the new poetic texts, when he judged these were required, were sought from leading Scottish writers. Burns began to write for him in 1792, and continued till his death in 1796, the collections from first to last containing about 120 of his songs.

George Thomson relates that he was first inspired to dedicate his life’s work to these national melodies when he heard them sung by two Italian artists: Signora Corri and the celebrated castrato Tenducci. Hence their execution here by a distinguished team of lieder and historically-informed performance specialists, who introduce artful variations (birdsong imitations, pizzicato, drone effects) into the settings much as their most accomplished predecessors would have done.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

POULENC: Les Anges musiciens Sophie Karthäuser Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon FP 122, “Bleuet” FP 102 (Apollinaire) Voyage à Paris FP 107 n°4 (Apollinaire) - n°4 de “Banalités" Montparnasse FP 127 no.1 (Apollinaire) - n°1 de “Deux mélodies de Guillaume Apollinaire” Hôtel FP 107 no.2 (Apollinaire) - n°2 de “Banalités” “Trois poèmes de Louise Lalanne” FP 57, Ce doux petit visage FP 99 (Paul Éluard) Main dominée par le coeur FP 135 (Paul Éluard), Vocalise-Étude FP 44 Tel jour telle nuit FP 86 (Paul Éluard), Fiançailles pour rire FP 101 (Louise de Vilmorin) La courte paille FP 178 (Maurice Carême), Deux chansons pour Yvonne Printemps

Label: harmonia mundi File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: HMC902179 Barcode: 3149020217924 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Sophie Karthäuser [soprano] Eugene Asti [piano] CONCERT: Wigmore Hall 30th June Mozart & Schumann

Francis Poulenc’s corpus of songs is one of the most generous and accomplished in the French repertoire. Born in 1899 and living until 1963, he inherited the art of the 19th century, which he succeeded in renewing while remaining within the bounds of tonal language, setting mostly contemporary poets (Apollinaire, Éluard, Aragon, Louise de Vilmorin). He drew his inspiration from the atmosphere specific to each text, but also from listening attentively to the timbre and rhythm of the poet reading his or her own works. This was, in the composer’s view, an essential key to penetrating the mystery of their creations. Associating the specific experience of the poet with his own personal memories, Poulenc created an expressive aura unique in the song output of his time.

Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser studied with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

She is now in great demand in the foremost international venues, especially as a Mozart singer. She sang her first Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) under René Jacobs and her first Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) under William Christie. She has especially close relationships with the Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels) and the Theater an der Wien (Vienna) in Baroque and Classical roles.

Since winning the Audience Prize at the Wigmore Hall Song Contest she has developed an acclaimed career as a recitalist, enjoying a particularly close artistic partnership with the distinguished American pianist Eugene Asti. [This is his first appearance on the harmonia mundi label.]

Her extensive discography includes successful releases of aria and song recitals and complete operas. She may be heard in the harmonia mundi recordings of Mozart’s 'La finta giardiniera' and Pergolesi’s 'Septem verba a Christo' under the direction of René Jacobs. This is her first recital programme for harmonia mundi.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Richard STRAUSS: Also sprach Zarathustra Op. 30, Don Juan Op.20, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Op. 28 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons

Label: Orfeo File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: C878141A Barcode: 4011790878126 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons Lots of UK concerts in May & June

In this year of Richard Strauss’s 150th birthday, it seems natural that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons should add the ultimate candle to the birthday cake, as it were, given that their previous recordings of Strauss's works for Orfeo ['Ein Heldenleben' C803091A, 'Alpine Symphony' C833111A) have been amongst the label's most successful of recent years. Here, the CBSO and its music director offer us a selection of the early tone poems: 'Don Juan', 'Till Eulenspiegel' and 'Also sprach Zarathustra'. In 'Don Juan', Strauss combined big tunes and orchestral virtuosity with a dash of immorality and wacky humour. Nelsons and the CBSO delight in the Don’s life of adventure and conquest that comes to a sticky end. The macabre climax to 'Till Eulenspiegel', with the hanging of the protagonist, is preceded by a witty exploration of just about every possible orchestral timbre, with Strauss pulling out all the stops to depict Till’s merry pranks. The world-class CBSO, homogenous across all the sections of the orchestra, is just what’s needed for the great 'Also sprach Zarathustra'. “Freely based on Friedrich Nietzsche” (as Strauss himself wrote), Nelsons and the CBSO do equal justice to Zarathustra’s address to the sun and to the mysterious close in which the motives of Man and Nature alternate in their respective keys. This new recording undoubtedly counts as one of the most awaited highlights of #Strauss150. recorded Birmingham Symphony Hall Sept. 2011, Jan. 2012, Jan. 2013

ADVERTISED IN THE BBC PROMS GUIDE

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Sir Colin Davis Anthology Sir Colin Davis London Symphony Orchestra

Label: LSO Live File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: LSO0766 Barcode: 822231176626 SPECIAL Price Format: 8 SACD, 4 CD, 1DVD Packaging: box set Sir Colin Davis London Symphony Orchestra ADVERTISED IN BBC, IRR, Barbican Concert Series Documentary on Sky Arts in April Cover artist, interviews in Classical Music Magazine Full page feature in Gramophone Expect media attention!

BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique (SACD for the first time) DVORAK: Symphony No 9 (SACD for the first time) BERLIOZ: Overture Les Francs Juges, Te Deum (Previously unreleased) SIBELIUS: Oceanides (Previously unreleased) VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No.4 (Previously unreleased) BERLIOZ: Les Troyens ELGAR: Enigma Variations, Introduction & Allegro SIBELIUS: Symphony No 2, Pohjola’s Daughter TIPPETT: A Child of our Time WALTON: Belshazzar, Symphony No 1 Moritz documentary DVD – Previously unreleased Sir Colin Davis was instrumental in the success and development of LSO Live, including the label’s first Grammy Award.

He also played a huge part in the pre-eminence of the LSO across the globe for more than 50 years.

This unique collection of 13-discs is the 100th release on LSO Live, and will be a limited edition release. The collection pays tribute to not only Sir Colin’s work with LSO Live, but more specifically his relationship with LSO through the decades.

The collection includes previously unreleased material from the LSO Live archive, and two much loved recordings on high-resolution SACD for the first time, Dvorak Symphony No 9 and Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. Never before seen private correspondence and photos from Sir Colin’s archives accompany the discs.

The anthology is completed with a bonus DVD documentary by Reiner Moritz. This portrait includes his last public statements, and contributions from Sir David Attenborough, Sir Simon Rattle and Roger Wright. The documentary highlights his work in masterclasses, opera, concerts and to-camera talk which reveals the man behind the musician.

13-disc set: 8 SACD, 4 CD & 1 DVD [60 min] in rigid box with lift-off lid+commemorative book incorporating photo postcards Total audio playing time 11 hours, 75min, 45s Notes in English, French and German, DVD subtitles in French, German, Italian, Spanish & Japanese

L I M I T E D E D I T I O N OF 5000

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

STRAVINSKY: Oedipus Rex, Apollom Musagète Jennifer Johnston Stuart Skelton Gidon Saks Fanny Ardant Monteverdi Choir London Symphony Orchestra Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Label: LSO Live File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: LSO0751 Barcode: 822231175124 MID Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: cristal Jennifer Johnston [Jocasta] Stuart Skelton [Oedipus] Gidon Saks [Creon] Fanny Ardant [narrator] Gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir London Symphony Orchestra Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the LSO on this his first release for LSO Live, Stravinsky’s 'Oedipus Rex' and 'Apollon musagète'. Also featured on the release are the gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir, considered one of the world’s leading choirs, and a mix of international and home-grown soloists including Jennifer Johnston and Stuart Skelton. French actress Fanny Ardant, who has appeared in more than 50 motion pictures, takes the rôle of narrator.

'Oedipus Rex' and 'Apollon musagète' are both ancient Greek-themed works by Stravinsky. The rich string harmonies and textures in the ballet score of 'Apollon musagète' are pleasantly mesmerising, expressive and calmly indulgent. In contrast, the dramatic and hauntingly compelling opera-oratorio 'Oedipus Rex' is composed of an assemblage of monumental and powerful sounds, such as playful woodwinds, robust brass and agile strings, with magnificent vocals from the choir and soloists.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is touring a programme of Mendelssohn Symphonies with the LSO to France and Switzerland during January and March, after which the orchestra head, with Daniel Harding, to the Far East. Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2014 in March with concerts in France and Spain, performing Monteverdi’s 'Vespers'.

"An electrifying LSO performance under John Eliot Gardiner, who obtained razor-sharp rhythms and cracked-ice wind and brass sonorities from his players" The Evening Standard "Stuart Skelton was the suavely plausible Oedipus, perfectly calibrating his change from swaggering self-confidence, to horror-struck despair. Jennifer Johnson was a formidable Jocasta, venomously spitting out her dismissal of the oracles while Gardiner thrillingly energised the cascading wind instruments beneath her; Gidon Saks was an oleaginous Creon, ratcheting the drama up another notch in his only aria. Not a single dramatic detail was missed; Gardiner ensured that everything was vividly present and straight to the dramatic point." The Guardian ADVERTISED IN BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, APRIL ISSUE

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

HANDEL: Tamerlano HWV 18 Dramma per musica in 3 acts | 1731 version

Xavier Sabata Max Emanuel Cencic John Mark Ainsley Karina Gauvin Ruxandra Donose Pavel Kudinov Il Pomo d'Oro Riccardo Minasi

Label: NAÏVE File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: V5373 Barcode: 822186053737 3 FOR 2 Price Format: 3 CD Packaging: box set Xavier Sabata [Tamerlano] Max Emanuel Cencic [Andronico] John Mark Ainsley [Bajazet] Karina Gauvin [Asteria] Ruxandra Donose [Irene] Pavel Kudinov [Leone] Il Pomo d'Oro Riccardo Minasi

Following the recording of several complete Baroque operas: Faramondo, Farnace, Artaserse, Alessandro, all received with unrestrained critical enthusiasm eg Gramophone Editor's Choice, BBC Music Magazine CD of the Month, Handel Recording Prize, Max Emanuel Cencic once again brings together a fine group of singers and orchestra for the rarely recorded Handel opera, 'Tamerlano'.

The title role is taken by the exceptional counter-tenor, Xavier Sabata. A remarkable boxed-set released simultaneously with an extensive concert tour in Europe.

ALSO AVAILABLE: APARTE AP048 Handel Bad Guys / Xavier Sabata, Il Pomo d’Oro, Riccardo Minasi Finalist, International Opera Awards 2014 "Sabata’s recital is rewarding. His technique and intonation are flawless. His ornaments are tastefully discreet and he seems to effortlessly surmount Handel’s exacting coloratura."

Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine – July 2013

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

VIVALDI: L’incoronazione di Dario Dramma per musica Libretto di Adriano Morselli Venezia, 1717 Edizione a cura di Stefano Aresi (primo atto) e Giovanni Andrea Secchi (secondo e terzo atto)

Anders Dahlin, Sara Mingardo Delphine Galou, Roberta Mameli Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone •• WORLD PREMIERE COMPLETE RECORDING ••

Label: NAÏVE File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: OP30553 Barcode: 709861305537 MID Price Format: 3 CD Packaging: box set Anders Dahlin [Dario] Sara Mingardo [Statira] Delphine Galou [Argene] Riccardo Novaro [Niceno] Roberta Mameli [Alinda] Lucia Cirillo [Oronte] Sofia Soloviy [Arpago] Giuseppina Bridelli [Flora]

'L'incoronazione di Dario', composed in 1717, is the Vivaldi Edition's 16th opera and its 53rd release. It marks the halfway point in a bold enterprise launched by Naive in 2000: the recording of the 450 works in Vivaldi's personal library. In the footsteps of the Mozart and Bach revivals 30 years ago, this is the most ambitious recording project of the century.

'L’incoronazione di Dario' must be considered one of Vivaldi’s most successful operas. Immediately opening with exceptional arias, it moves at a rapid pace, holding the listener’s attention throughout. Recitatives are interspersed with arioso interludes and there no less than eight 'big' numbers sure to join the ranks of 'Vivaldi’s best opera arias'.

The excellent cast acts out this drama with conviction: Anders Dahlin’s sings Dario, with impeccable intonation and stunning coloratura passages; Sara Mingardo, as Statira, brings great depth and beauty, most especially in her Act 2 solo Cantata accompanied only by viola da gamba. Delphine Galou sings with an impressive natural ability and passion and two of her arias in particular are sure to remain benchmarks: 'D’un bel viso' and 'Ferri, ceppi, sangue, morte'; Roberta Mameli, Riccardo Novaro, Sophia Soloviy and Lucia Cirillo are all excellent and each of them has at least one star aria.

Ottavio Dantone’s conducting is marked by his ability to bring out the many subtilties in this music and by his profound understanding of recitativos which he is able to bring fully to life as theatre.

[Live recording, a co-production with Deutschland Radio] “going way beyond a mere accompaniment of recitatives and arias. It was a veritable coronation.” •• Weser Kurier “Best of all, Delphine Galou was bewitching everybody in the manner of a singing sexus. Sara Mingardo however is singing her guile-less elder sister Statira with the wonderful softness, pleasure and rich deepness of a baroque mother.”

•• Concert Ottavio Dantone conducts Handel's 'Rinaldo' at Glyndebourne this August

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Songs by Schubert Ian Bostridge Julius Drake Der Strom, D565, Auf der Donau, D553, Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren, D360 Nachtstuck, D672, Viola, D786, Abendstern, D806, Gondelfahrer, D808, Auflosung, D807 Widerschein, D949, Alinde, D904, Rastlose Liebe, D138, Geheimes, D719, Versunken, D715 Der Winterabend, D938, Die Sterne, D939, Strophe aus ‘Die Gotter Griechenlands’, D677 Encores: An den Mond, D259, Spoken introduction, An den Mond, D296

Label: Wigmore Hall Live File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: WHLIVE0067 Barcode: 5065000924690 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Ian Bostridge [tenor] Julius Drake [piano] Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, on 13 September 2013

From the wild energy of ‘Der Strom’ to the rapt contemplation of the sublime ‘Die Sterne’, this varied and sensitively crafted programme explores a great range of psychological insights in the composer’s Lieder.

Ian Bostridge's eloquent feeling for words and music in Schubert, developed and refined over more than two decades, runs deep. His acclaimed interpretations strike a balance between the formal craft and concision of Schubert’s writing and its parallel qualities of spiritual vision and philosophical reflection. Bostridge's Wigmore Hall Schubert series will continue in May 2014 and Season 2014/15.

CONCERT: Thursday 22 May 2014 - Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, Wigmore Hall, Schubert, 7:30 PM

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Stradivarius in Rio Viktoria Mullova Matthew Barley Paul Clarvis Songs by Claudio Nucci, Caetano Veloso, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Pixinguinha, Arnaldo Baptista, Zequinha de Abreu, Marisa Monte, Waldir Azevedo, Henrique Vogler, Sueli Costa

Label: Onyx Classics Catalogue No: ONYX4130 Barcode: 880040413028 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Viktoria Mullova [violin] Matthew Barley [cello] Paul Clarvis [percussion] Luis Guello [dr, perc] Carioca Freitas [guitar]

Brazil and everything Brazilian is going to very much in the news in 2014 with the World Cup taking place there. Brazilian music and the spirit of Rio will be everywhere, so Viktoria Mullova’s new album ‘Stradivarius in Rio’ arrives at just the right time!

Working with musicians from Rio and London, Viktoria has selected 13 wonderfully evocative songs from some of the great composers of Brazilian popular music including Caetano Veloso and Antonio Carlos Jobim to name just two. All the songs are heard in stunning new arrangements and you will be surprised at how many you know.

'Stradivarius in Rio' is a wonderfully evocative album that captures the sound and spirit of Rio and its unique music.

ADVERTISED IN CLASSICAL MUSIC PRESS

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

HANDEL: Duetti da Camera Roberta Invernizzi, Marina De Liso La Risonanza / Fabio Bonizzoni Sono liete, fortunate (HWV 194) Troppo cruda, troppo fiera (HWV 198) Beato in ver chi può (HWV 181) Tanti strali al sen mi scocchi (HWV 197) Langue, geme, sospira (HWV 188) Conservate, raddoppiate (HWV 185) Se tu non lasci amore (HWV 193) A mirarvi io son intento (HWV 178) No, di voi non vuo’ fidarmi (HWV 190) Fronda leggiera e mobile (HWV 186)

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: GCD921516 Barcode: 8424562215160 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Roberta Invernizzi [soprano] Marina De Liso [mezzo-soprano] La Risonanza Caterina Dell’Agnello [cello] Craig Marchitelli [archlute & theorbo] Fabio Bonizzoni [harpsichord]

George Frideric Handel’s 'Duetti da camera' from La Risonanza represent a welcome extension of the ensemble’s award-winning series of Handel solo cantatas on Glossa, and come with the luxurious vocal pairing of Roberta Invernizzi and Marina De Liso.

These chamber duets, scored for soprano and alto, were written across a period spanning four decades: first, after Handel’s move to Hanover in 1710, following his remarkable Italian compositional apprenticeship which yielded quantities of cantatas, motets and instrumental chamber works; next in the 1720s, when he was writing Italian operas and music for the Court in London; and lastly when he was composing English oratorios in the 1740s. Such vocal duos had become part of an established tradition, especially in Italy, during the late 17th century.

Soprano Roberta Invernizzi who has applied Italian grace and charm to many Glossa recordings (most recently 'La bella più bella') is ideally matched by Marina De Liso, whose rich mezzo tones have made her another firm audience favourite across Baroque and Classical repertories. Fabio Bonizzoni provides luxurious continuo support on the harpsichord with the assistance of cellist Caterina Dell’Agnello and theorbo player Craig Marchitelli.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

ARRIAGA: Complete String Quartets on period instruments

La Ritirata Quartet No. 2 in A major, Quartet No. 1 in D minor Quartet No. 3 in E flat major, Tema variado en cuarteto Op. 17

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Chamber music Catalogue No: GCD923102 Barcode: 8424562231023 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack La Ritirata: Hiro Kurosaki, Miren Zeberio [violins] Daniel Lorenzo [viola] Josetxu Obregón [cello]

It is no real surprise that Josetxu Obregón’s La Ritirata has recorded the string quartets of Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga to follow up its earlier Early Baroque programme of 'Il Spiritillo Brando', also on Glossa. Cellist Obregón’s principal teacher is Anner Bylsma and the two musicians share a deep fascination with the music of an earlier Classical composer in Luigi Boccherini.

In this new recording the Bilbao-born Obregón is joined by violinists Hiro Kurosaki and Miren Zeberio, and viola Daniel Lorenzo: the underlying spirit of La Ritirata being of an intensive consideration of musical (and other) sources before attempting fresh interpretations of scores. They have also included the 'Tema variado en cuarteto' Op 17 – in order to get closer to the sound world of the Spanish composer, who left his native Basque Country at the age of 15 to study and compose in Paris in 1821. Five short years of life remained to him before an untimely death ended a hugely promising career.

Original scores, a violin treatise by Arriaga’s teacher in Paris and the use of period instruments for the first time on a recording of the Arriaga works, all form the backbone of the critical apparatus for La Ritirata’s new and vital approach to these portentous works. Arriaga's significance in music is currently being shorn of its romantic legend and replaced by an assessment which is still intriguing but greatly more realistic.

ALSO AVAILABLE: GCD923101 Falconieri Il Spiritillo Brando, Dance Music /La Ritirata, Josetzu Obregon “Its unearthing and bringing together into a highly intelligent programme has been a major work of scholarship in itself…This is a CD full of wonderful music-making and with charming discoveries to be made round every corner.” Early Music Review, August 2013

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

MENDELSSOHN: Complete Chamber Music for Strings, Vol. 4 String Quintet No. 1 Op. 18*, String Quintet No. 2 Op. 87*, Four pieces for String Quartet Op. 81

Mandelring Quartet Gunter Teuffel [viola]*

Label: Audite File Under: Classical/Chamber music Catalogue No: AUDITE92659 Barcode: 4022143926593 NORMAL Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: cristal Mandelring Quartet Gunter Teuffel COVER ARTISTS OF THE STRAD, APRIL ISSUE

This album brings to a close Audite’s complete recordings of Mendelssohn’s Chamber Music for Strings with the Mandelring Quartett. Sitting alongside the better-known, substantial body of eight works for string quartet and the Octet Op. 20, Mendelssohn’s quintets for two violins, two violas and cello are often overlooked. This recording proves that this is mostly to do with the genre, and less so with the works themselves, both of which are significant compositions.

The Quintet in A major Op. 18 was written in 1826, during Mendelssohn’s period of apprenticeship in Berlin, which provided the atmosphere and venue, not only for Lea Mendelssohn’s famous salon, but also for musical performances.

Mendelssohn was mostly guided by Mozart for his first quintet; in the charm of his melodic ideas, in the transparent sonorities of an ensemble with double violas, and in the contrapuntally concentrated network of themes and motifs.

It would take nearly two decades for Mendelssohn to return to the string quintet genre. The Quintet in B flat major reflects his symphonic experience. The first violin opens the piece, soaring with orchestral might over the trembling lower voices into a jubilant first theme – this atmosphere is maintained in the outer movements and, in the inner movements, contrasted with more intimate colours.

The two single movements for string quartet from the posthumous collection of 'Four Pieces for String Quartet' Op. 81 – the Capriccio of 1843 and a youthful Fugue – complete this estimable recording series.

ALSO AVAILABLE: Complete Chamber Music for Strings vol. I audite92656 (SACD) "Of particular delight is their Minuetto … Throughout, the playing is technically immaculate and the whole disc is recorded with absolute clarity. One looks forward to the promised continuation of this complete edition of Mendelssohn’s string chamber music." THE STRAD RECOMMENDS – September 2012 Complete Chamber Music for Strings vol. II audite92657 (SACD) Complete Chamber Music for Strings vol. III audite92658 (SACD) "The outstanding German group the Mandelring Quartet have the attributes Mendelssohn demands: great virtuosity, evenness of tone, precision, expressive intensity, and force combined with the light touch needed to capture the composer’s effortless sense of movement...The Mandelring/Cremona performance of the Octet’s presto finale is dazzling." David Carins, The Sunday Times - October 2013

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

COPLAND: Piano Concerto, El Salón México Appalachian Spring, Old American Songs Maurice Abravanel Antal Dorati William Warfield Leonard Bernstein Aaron Copland

Label: Praga Digitals File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: DSD350086 Barcode: 3149028028324 NORMAL Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: cristal Aaron Copland [piano], New York Philharmonic Orchestra/ Leonard Bernstein Utah Symphony Orchestra/Maurice Abravanel London Symphony Orchestra/Antal Dorati William Warfield [baritone], Columbia Symphony/Aaron Copland

'Appalachian Spring' and 'El Salón Mexicó' are archetypical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast landscapes, cowboys and pioneer spirit. Yet, in the 20th century perhaps only Stravinsky was as adept in as many styles as Aaron Copland [1900-1990]. His Piano Concerto, first performed by Serge Koussevitsky, is a good example of Copland the modernist but he also wrote chamber music, ballets, operas and film scores, as well as teaching, writing and latterly conducting. The winter of 1950 saw Copland take a break from writing his superlative 'Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson' and, inspired by a Pears and Britten recital in late 1949, he took five of his favourite American songs and arranged them for voice with piano. Pears and Britten liked them so much that they gave the premiere together at the Aldburgh Festival in 1950. The distinguished black singer William Warfield and the composer gave the American premiere at Town Hall, New York in January 1951. They were so popular that Copland made a second set for Warfield and himself, changing some of the words to avoid racist implications. Both sets are given here.

El Salón México RTV1 Salt Lake City 10 Feb 1959, Utah Symphony Orchestra/Maurice Abravanel Appalachian Spring Watford Town Hall, 15-16 June 1961, London Symphony Orchestra/Antal Dorati Old American Songs New York Manhattan Center, 10-12 January 1962, William Warfield [baritone], Columbia Symphony/Aaron Copland Piano Concerto New York old Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, 13 January 1964, Aaron Copland [piano], New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Richard STRAUSS: Don Juan Op. 20, Till Eulenspiegel Op. 28 Four Last Songs, Tod und Verklärung Op. 24 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Wilhelm Furtwängler Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Philharmonia Orchestra Otto Ackermann Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts three of Richard Strauss' symphonic poems in Vienna reproduced in the best possible sound, and paired with the first recording in London of the 'Vier Letzte Lieder', under the supervision of Walter Legge [Mr Schwarzkopf]. A homage to Richard Strauss for his 150th anniversary. One of the best recordings of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at her peak.

Label: Praga Digitals File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: DSD350100 Barcode: 3149028029727 NORMAL Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: cristal Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Wilhelm Furtwängler [conductor] Elisabeth Schwarzkopf [soprano] Philharmonia Orchestra Otto Ackermann [conductor]

Don Juan, Musikvereinsaal Vienna, March 2-3 1954 Tod und Verklärung Musikvereinsaal Vienna, 21, 23-24 March 1950 Till Eulenspiegel Musikvereinsaal Vienna, March 1954 4 Last Songs, London, Waldorf Town Hall 25 Sept 1953

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Richard WAGNER: Orchestral Music Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Wilhelm Furtwängler Der fliegende Holländer -Overture Lohengrin -Prelude Act 1 Tannhäuser -Overture Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg -Overture, Dance of the Apprentices Die Walküre -Ride of the Walkyries Die Götterdämmerung -Siegfried's Rhine Journey, Siegfried's Funeral Music

Label: Praga Digitals File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: DSD350107 Barcode: 3149028038026 NORMAL Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: cristal Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Wilhelm Furtwängler

Not until 1949 did Wilhelm Furtwängler invest in the Germanic interpretation tradition initiated by Wagner himself and continued by Hans von Bülow and Arthur Nikisch. His 'subjective' style of interpretation, deeply influenced by the theories of Jewish Viennese musicologist Heinrich Schenker was diametrically opposed to the more 'objective' Arturo Toscanini.

Yet here we have the stunning lyricism contained in these grandiose pages that create the magic of the Wagnerian epic, illustrated by the incomparable Vienna Philharmonic in all its splendour. dates tbc, etc

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

The Garden of Mr. Rameau Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau

Les Arts Florissants William Christie

Label: Les Arts Florissants Editions File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: AF002 Barcode: 3149028052824 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD+ 2 BOOKS Packaging: digipack Daniela Skorka [soprano] Emilie Renard [mezzo-soprano] Benedetta Mazzucato [mezzo-soprano] Zachary Wilder [tenor] Victor Sicard [baritone] Cyril Costanzo [bass] Les Arts Florissants William Christie [direction]

MONTÉCLAIR: Jephté - Ouverture - Rigaudon I, Riez sans cesse - Menuet I - Dans ces beaux lieux, Symphonie, De quels nouveaux concerts DAUVERGNE: Hercule Mourant - Quelle voix suspend mes alarmes? La Vénitienne - Prélude - Pour braver les périls, Ciel, ilme laisse, Livrons-nous au sommeil RAMEAU Hippolyte & Aricie: Quels doux concerts, Ah! loin de rire (Canon), Réveillez-vous, dormeur sans fin (Canon) RAMEAU Les Fêtes d’Hébé: Première Entrée: La Poésie, Air puis Choeur: Revenez, tendre amant, Je vous revois, Sans cesse les oiseaux font retentir, Ariette vive: Fuis, porte ailleurs tes fureurs RAMEAU Dardanus: Hâtons-nous, courons à la gloire (IV, 4), Voici les tristes lieux, Monstre affreux (IV, 4-5), Mais un nouvel éclat (V, 3), Des biens que Vénus nous dispense RAMEAU Les Indes galantes: Troisième Entrée: Les Fleurs, Quatuor: Tendre Amour GRANDVAL: Cantate Rien du tout GLUCK: L’Ivrogne corrigé - Trio Maudit ivrogne, Quatuor Il est mort, L’Ivrogne corrigé Terzetto Rendez mon époux à la vie (II, 5), L’Ivrogne corrigé - Quatuor Que de plaisirs l’Amour nous donne CAMPRA: L’Europe galante – La France Gayment, Quoi! Pour l’objet de votre ardeur, L’Amour, en comblant nos désirs, Paisibles lieux, Marche Rondeau, Que vois-je, quel spectacle! Aimez, belle Bergère, Que je sache du moins, Voyez à vos genoux, Lorsque Doris me parut belle, Que n’adressez-vous mieux, Quel funeste coup In this new album, William Christie invites us to a wander in the vocal art of the 18th Century, at the time of Rameau and his contemporaries. These musical treasures, as with the famous gardens ‘à la française’, are closely linked to these times of splendour. The soloists come from the Jardin des Voix, the Arts Florissants’ Academy for young singers in which the most promising talents of the upcoming generation had the priviledge to work with the ensemble, before starting a worldwide tour of the most prestigious venues. This recording crowns their work.

A deluxe illustrated boxed set with two booklets including an unreleased short-story commissioned by Les Arts Florissants written by Adrien Goetz, the French writer, journalist and Art historian.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

A Purcell Collection VOCES8 Les Inventions Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, To the Hills and the Vales, By Beauteous Softness Mix’d with Majesty, O God, Thou Art my God, How Happy the Lover, ‘Cold Song’ (What Power Art Thou...), Behold, O Mightiest of Gods, My Heart is Inditing of a Good Matter, Bid the Virtues, Hail! Bright Cecilia, Strike the Viol, Second Dirge Anthem (Morley) / Thou Knowest Lord, Fairest Isle, Full Fathom Five The young, virtuoso a cappella ensemble VOCES8 return to disc on Signum with a sumptuous collection of early works

by Henry Purcell, one of England’s greatest composers. Joined by the specialist early music ensemble ‘Les Inventions’, the group explores Purcell’s astoundingly diverse output. There is hardly a genre in which he did not express himself: anthems, odes, funeral music, semi--operas, masques, sonatas, consort--music, songs and catches populate his extraordinarily multifaceted œuvre. It is this astonishing diversity that Signum and VOCES8 celebrate.

Label: Signum Classics File Under: Classical/Choral Catalogue No: SIGCD375 Barcode: 635212037522 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal VOCES8 Les Inventions

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

VIVALDI: Four Seasons Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Kati Debretzeni [director, violin]

Label: Signum Classics File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: SIGCD377 Barcode: 635212037720 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Kati Debretzeni director / violin

With its vivid poetry and technical ingenuity, Vivaldi’s 'Four Seasons' was ground-breaking at the time of its composition and to this day remains as influential and transfixing as ever. In this recording, violinist Kati Debretzeni directs the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment based on the energetic, historically-informed performances given last February when, with renowned choreographer Henri Oguike, the OAE fused authentic performance with contemporary choreography.

The booklet includes a ‘Guided tour of the Four Seasons’, allowing listeners to follow the poetry that inspired Vivaldi as they hear the performances on the disc, including additional composer’s notes from Vivaldi’s own scores.

Born in Transylvania, Kati Debretzeni studied with Ora Shiran and Baroque violin with Catherine Mackintosh and Walter Reiter at the Royal College of Music in London. Since the year 2000 she has led the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and since 2008 is one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which she has directed and lead in the UK, Europe and the US. Kati features as soloist on two versions of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos, with the European Brandenburg Ensemble under Trevor Pinnock (Gramophone Award, 2008), and again with the English Baroque Soloists. She has directed from the violin various ensembles in Israel, Poland, Norway, Iceland and the UK, and teaches the Baroque and Classical violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

Video clips on the OAE's website [and vimeo] of 'V4 Seasoned': http://www.oae.co.uk/event/four-seasons/.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

1917: Works for Violin and Piano Tamsin Waley-Cohen Huw Watkins CD1: DEBUSSY: Violin Sonata in G minor, L.140, RESPIGHI: Violin Sonata in B minor, P.110 CD2: SIBELIUS: Five Pieces for Violin & Piano, Op.81, ELGAR: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op.82

Label: Signum Classics File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: SIGCD376 Barcode: 635212037621 2 FOR 1 Price Format: 2 CD Packaging: cristal Tamsin Waley-Cohen [violin] Huw Watkins [piano]

Rising-star violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen is joined by the eminent pianist-composer Huw Watkins in a diverse programme of works that were all influenced in different ways by the era in which they were composed. The works were concieved at four very different points in the composer’s lives: Debussy, at the end of his life; Respighi in the first flush of fame; Elgar, although not old, enjoying his last creative period; and Sibelius in his prime, composing prolifically.

These four contrasting works were all composed as the Great War drew to a close, but none of them specifically attempts to conjure up images of the conflict, nor act as any kind of programmatic memorial to its victims. Rather, these works are all conceived as absolute music, albeit, in the case of the Elgar and Debussy sonatas, imbued with a melancholy regret that may have been a reflection of those tragic four years.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

The Merton Organ Benjamin Nicholas BACH / DUPRE: Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29 (‘Wir danken dir, Gott’) BACH / DURUFLE: Ertödt uns durch dein’ Güte from Cantata No. 22 (‘Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe’) FRANCK: Pièce héroïque, SYANLEY: Voluntary in A minor, Op. 6 No. 2 MESSIAEN: Prière après la Communion, BACH: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV565 MENDELSSOHN: Andante with Variations in D, LANGLAIS: Dialogue sur les mixtures DUPRE: Cortège et Litanie, VIERNE: Clair de lune, Carillon de Westminster

Label: Delphian File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: DCD34142 Barcode: 801918341427 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Benjamin Nicholas [the new Dobson organ of Merton College, Oxford]

In a golden age of organ-building, Merton College’s new Dobson instrument stands out as exceptional. It is only the third American-built organ sent to the UK since the Second World War, a bold commissioning choice which Benjamin Nicholas, Reed Rubin Organist and Director of Music in Merton’s recently established choral foundation, and his colleagues made after considering three factors. The College required an instrument that could sympathetically accompany its daily choral services – with sufficient flexibility to accommodate the works of many eras – and that honoured the Chapel’s ancient architecture. The instrument also had to be equipped to perform a large part of the solo repertoire, and it is the success of this third aim that Benjamin Nicholas sought to demonstrate when putting together the programme for the instrument’s first outing on disc. From the pre-pedalboard sophistication of native Stanley, to the mesmerising hues of Messiaen – and encompassing snapshots from the instrument’s vast literature in between – no inquisitive listener will feel short-changed by the gluttony of textures and colours on display here.

In his debut appearance on disc as a soloist, Benjamin Nicholas combines flair and intelligence as he presents the stunning instrument he helped mastermind.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

DESENCLOS: Messe de Requiem, Salve Regina, Motets POULENC: Litanies à la vierge noire de Rocamadour, VILLETTE: Motets

The Choir of King’s College London David Trendell Alfred DESENCLOS: Messe de Requiem Pierre VILLETTE: O sacrum convivium, Hymne à la Vierge, Attende Domine DESENCLOS: Salve regina, Nos autem Francis POULENC: Litanies à la Vierge noire

Label: Delphian File Under: Classical/Choral Catalogue No: DCD34136 Barcode: 801918341366 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal The Choir of King’s College London David Trendell

Winner of the coveted Prix de Rome, Alfred Desenclos remains an almost unknown figure in 20th-century music. His contribution to the distinguished French tradition of Requiem Mass settings dates from 1963; incorporating influences from Gregorian chant as well as rich harmonies based on added-note chords, this piece with its passionate outpourings is a revelation. It forms the centrestone of David Trendell’s programme, which also features music by Villette – who shared Desenclos’ interest in jazz – and Poulenc, whose return to Catholicism in 1936 initiated a line of pieces, beginning with the 'Litanies à la Vierge noire de Rocamadour', that represent some of the most significant religious choral music of the 20th century.

Trendell’s choir is on ravishing form, and the organ at his alma mater, Exeter College, Oxford, partners this music like a velvet glove.

"David Trendell’s fine choir glows with warmth and commitment" The Observer, May 2012 "Credit to David Trendell for eliciting sustained intensity of expression … youthful timbre imparts a freshness to the interpretation" BBC Music Magazine, August 2013

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

FAURE: Requiem Op. 48, Cantique de Jean Racine Op. 11 Ave Verum Corpus, Tantum Ergo Op.55, SAINT-SAËNS: Ave Verum Corpus, DE SEVERAC: Tantum Ergo

Convivium Singers

Label: Convivium Records File Under: Classical/Choral Catalogue No: CR016 Barcode: 700153370028 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Georgina Stalbow [soprano] Johnny Herford [baritone] Convivium Singers Neil Ferris [conductor] Quintet: Helen Davies, Rosie Tompsett [violins] Amy Stanford [viola], Leonie Adams [cello] Alice Kent [double bass]

This new arrangement of Fauré's Requiem, for string quintet and organ by Michael Higgins, was first performed on Remembrance Sunday in 2007 in the intimate setting of the choir stalls at St. John’s Church, Wimbledon.

By using a small number of singers, similar to the 20 or so in Fauré’s choir at the Madeleine, added to the chamber music quality of the strings, unique colours and textures are created which breathe new life into an otherwise familiar but continually evolving work.

Fauré’s 'Ave verum corpus' is written in a style that recalls his Requiem – simple and emotional. The text, attributed to Pope Innocent VI, is a prayer for the Feast of Corpus Christi and in just five lines covers the Incarnation, the Passion, the Eucharist and the Last Judgement. The 'Cantique de Jean Racine' is an early work, winning first prize from l’Ecole de Musique Classique et Religieuse of Paris where he was a student of Camille Saint-Saëns. Scored originally with harmonium and string quartet accompaniment, recorded here in a new arrangement for string quintet, one can hear rhythmic triplets contrasting with the steady declamation of Racine’s text.

Convivium Singers is an award winning, critically acclaimed choral ensemble, providing opportunities for young singers at the early stages of performing careers, as well as for talented musicians who have chosen not to pursue careers in music. The ensemble specialises in performing and recording sacred and secular music by living British composers. They were described as "an extraordinarily good choir to listen to" by BBC Radio 3’s ‘CD Review’, with reference to the recently released [Naxos] disc of music by Jonathan Dove.

Convivium Singers have also delved into early music, and their CD of motets by Peter Philips (Convivium Records) received a five-star review in Choir & Organ.

Johnny Herford won the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier Song Prize and of the Jean Meikle Duo Prize at the 2013 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

SCHUBERT: Sonata D821 'Arpeggione' String Quartet D810 'Death & the Maiden' [trans Mahler] Accademia di Santa Cecilia Luigi Piovano Recently appointed chief conductor of the string orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Luigi Piovano has put together a dramatic programme for their CD debut on Eloquentia. He has arranged Schubert's 'Arpeggione' Sonata for piccolo cello solo 5-string, to get as close as possible to the original instrument and to allow execution in the original octaves. The addition of orchestra gives a new dimension to the work and seems a natural progression. The string quartet 'Death & the Maiden' is given here in Mahler's overwhelming orchestral version of 1896.

Label: ELOQUENTIA File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: EL1446 Barcode: 3760107400468 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Luigi Piovano [cello, conductor] Strings of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia

ALSO AVAILABLE: EL1233 Mahler Kindertotenlieder / Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen wt Sara Mingardo "...both beautiful and uncomfortable. It's also absolutely riveting. Originally scored for medium voice and orchestra, the Kindertotenlieder appear on this disc in their incarnation for chamber orchestra...,this tautly expressive interpretation pushes the sense of grief and loss to an almost palpable level. Add Sara Mingardo to the mix, and it's pretty much unimprovable ... In fact, as programmes go, this is one of the most expertly compiled and emotively performed you'll find around. If perhaps not the cheeriest."

Charlotte Gardner 23/3/2012- BBC Review EL1024 Saint-Saens Cello Works “Luigi Piovano’s outgoing performances of the two Saint-Saëns concertos perfectly illustrate the spontaneity that happens in live concerts” David Denton, The Strad, August 2011 EL1021 Bach Cello Suites "I rate his account of the suites very highly as he exudes a feeling of being totally at ease with the music." The Strad, September 2010

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

CPE BACH: Gamba Sonatas Trio in sol minore Wq 88/H 510 Sonata à Viola da Gamba Solo e Basso in Do Wq 136/H 558 Solo, a Viola di Gamba è Basso in Re Wq 137/H 559

Alberto Rasi

Label: Stradivarius File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: STR33975 Barcode: 8011570339751 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Alberto Rasi [viola da gamba] Patrizia Marisaldi [harpsichord] Claudia Pasetto [viola da gamba]

The last decade of the 18th century was the last of the viola da gamba: this is confirmed in the registers of musical chapels around mid century which clearly show the progressive reduction, to the point of disappearance, of viola da gamba players, while the number of cellists grew. Nonetheless, the viola da gamba could count on very fertile ground like that of Frederick II’s court at Potsdam, already identified at the time as the 'School of Berlin'. By the 1780s this group produced a viola corpus of about 50 works attributable to seven composers. Among these was the violist Ludwig Christian Hesse, who joined Potsdam in 1741, together with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and whose father, Hernst Christian, a famous virtuoso, had learnt French viola playing directly from Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray during a stay in Paris from 1698 to 1701. The stylistic metamorphosis of the viola da gamba would find its most complete and definitive realisation in the berlin setting.

These sonatas are in three movements, in the order slow-fast-fast, based on the Italian model; very different in style from the French pièces produced until the middle of the century. Above all, it is music which was born in a restricted professional context and not conceived, like the French music, for the vast number of amateurs (none of these works appears in contemporaneous printed form). Moreover, the chronological, environmental and cultural consistency of the 'Berlin School', which in Frederick II had its strong figure of reference, enabled this viola centre to maintain a constant and exclusive uniformity of style.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

CPE BACH Project Sonata 'Sanguineus et Melancholicus', Sinfonia in B min Cello Concertos WQ 172 & 170

Ophélie Gaillard A portrait, on the tercentenary of the composer's birth, of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), probably the most gifted of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach. Highly admired in his own century by Haydn, Gluck and Mozart, he stands out today as a brilliant and highly original composer. For CPE Bach, music had to be an expression of personal feelings and to achieve his aim, he revolutionised the established principles of form, harmony and rhythm. The Trio Sonata 'Sanguineus und Melancholicus' is a rarity in the composer's output in that it is a quasi-programmatic work. It presents a conversation between one sanguine (first violin) and the other melancholic (second violin). The same duality is found throughout the recordings presented here, from the well-known Sinfonia No. 5 to the two brilliant cello concertos. Under the bow of cellist Ophélie Gaillard, at the head of the Pulcinella Orchestra, these pieces come as a revelation!

Label: Aparté File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: AP080 Barcode: 3149028042221 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Ophélie Gaillard [cello] Pulcinella Orchestra

ALSO AVAILABLE: AP001 Dreams "This is much more rewarding than traditional crossover fare and left me wanting to hear Gaillard’s seductive tones in more traditional cello repertoire." TheArtsDesk.com, 21 August 2010 AP017 J S Bach Cello Suites “Gaillard always retains the underlying pulse while projecting an elegant and well-shaped view of the invention, with careful voicing of different melodic strands that highlights the counterpoint…an artist who truly goes beyond the notes.”

The Strad, August 2011 AP045 Bach Arias Sandrine Piau, Pulcinella/Ophélie Gailard AP053 Brahms Cello Sonatas wt Louis Schwizgebel-Wang “some exceptional ensemble playing… Ophélie Gaillard voices the melodic lines perceptively… there’s a marvellous airy elegance… brilliantly surmounted in the high-voltage finale delivered here with great fervour.” The Strad – August 2013 “Ophelie Gaillard has always displayed an extraordinary palette of colours and these come alive more than ever on this recording...One of her strengths lies in her unobtrusive but deliberate phrasing, which, makes sense of the music without labouring it. She demonstrated the power of this approach with great skill in her elegant second recording of the Bach Cello Suites but now exhibits it in Brahms’s sonatas.” Caroline Gill, Gramophone- November 2013

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

RAVEL: Piano Works Pavane pour une infante défunte, Valses nobles et sentimentales Gaspard de la nuit, Ma Mère l'Oye

Vanessa Wagner 'Pavane pour une infante défunte', an early work, takes us into the world of dance that perfumes the musical world of Ravel. 'Gaspard de la nuit' in the French Romantic tradition, is a triptych inspired by three of Aloysius Bertrand's prose-ballads: Ondine, the water nymph; Le Gibet (Gallows), paints a gruesome picture of 'a bell tolling from the walls of a city, beneath the skyline, and the body of a hanged man, reddened by the setting sun'; Scarbo, depicts the night-time mischief of a mocking dwarf. We return to the dance with the bold 'Valses nobles et sentimentales', a series of waltzes written in 1911. Finally, 'Ma Mère l'Oye' (Mother Goose), shows Ravel's affection for his childhood days.

Vanessa Wagner brings out the modernity of these scores, their sudden movements of violence, their moments of ineffable sweetness. She plays with rigour, intensity and a velvet touch.

Label: Aparté File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: AP062 Barcode: 3149028040425 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Vanessa Wagner [piano]

ALSO AVAILABLE: Aparte AP008 Schubert Piano Sonatas Ambroisie AM134 Variations Actes Sud ASM09 Dubois - Piano Concerto No. 2 "Soloist Vanessa Wagner plays an 1874 Érard - the lighter, clearer sound perfectly foiled by Les Siècles; the concerto’s manic, chattering close sounding so, so French. Delicious." theartsdesk.com Actes Sud ASM08 Dusapin-Etudes Pour Piano Nos. 1-7

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Franz SCHMIDT: Works for piano left hand & orchestra written for Paul Wittgenstein

Karl-Andreas Kolly Sarastro Quartett Concerto in E flat (1934), Chaconne in C minor, for orchestra (1931) Concertante Variationen on a theme by Beethoven, Quintet in D major

Label: Pan Classics File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: PC10309 Barcode: 7619990103092 MID Price Format: 2 CD Packaging: digipack Karl-Andreas Kolly [piano] Sarastro Quartett Wiener Jeunesse Orchester • Herbert Böck (CD1) Musikkollegium Winterthur • Werner Andreas Albert (CD2)

Franz Schmidt was one of the most influential personalities in Viennese musical life during the first three decades of the 20th century. A cellist and pianist who was much sought after as a chamber music partner, he played with the Vienna Philharmonic (under Gustav Mahler, amongst others), was the solo cellist of the Vienna State Opera and a member of the same string quartet with Arnold Schoenberg. He later became a professor at the Vienna Music Academy, for his second instrument, the piano, and then rector of that institution.

After the deaths of Berg and Schreker and the departure of Schoenberg and Zemlinsky, he was considered the most important composer in the Vienna of the 1930s; his style can be classified as a late-romantic succession to Bruckner.

Schmidt wrote next to nothing for solo piano, for he "internally heard only grand symphonic music". Today, we can indeed consider ourselves fortunate that Schmidt met the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War and commissioned the most important composers of his time to write piano works for him for the left hand.

Schmidt's two great works for one-handed piano and orchestra – the Piano Concerto and the Beethoven Variations – are on this double CD alongside the Quintet for Piano and Strings composed for Wittgenstein. The programme is completed by the great orchestral Chaconne in C-sharp minor.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

ex Vienna: Anonymus Habsburg Violin Music from Manuscript XIV 726 of the Minorite Monastery in Vienna

Gunar Letzbor Ars Antiqua Austria Toccata (no. 94) in A minor Sonata (no. 87) Sonata (no. 74) in F major Musicalisch Urwerck (no. 68) in A minor Sonata (no. 4) in D major Sonata (no. 77) in A major Sonata (no. 73) in A minor Das Post-Horn (no. 69) in B major

Label: Pan Classics File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: PC10310 Barcode: 7619990103108 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Gunar Letzbor [violin] Ars Antiqua Austria: Erich Traxler (harpsichord, organ positive) Jan Krigovsky (violone) Hubert Hoffmann (lute)

Manuscript XIV 726 of the Minoritenkonvent in Vienna is one of the most important sources of Austrian baroque music.

From the over hundred sonatas contained in it, Gunar Letzbor has compiled the series "ex Vienna" consisting of three programmes which shed light on various aspects of Austrian violin music. In the first part of the series, 'Anonymus', Gunar Letzbor has recorded violin works from this Viennese manuscript, in which the names of the composers are not specified. The selected pieces reveal a broad expressive spectrum, also containing echoes of baroque dance music.

What all the works share is their high technical standard: high registers, unusual bowing, polyphonic passages, onomatopoeia and runs to be played at breakneck speed bearing witness to a high standard of violin playing north of the Alps: whoever wrote these works must have been an outstanding violinist.

Gunar Letzbor is the established specialist in performing Austrian baroque music; in particular, he has intensively grappled with works of Biber, Muffat and Schmelzer, to name but three examples. In so doing, he is constantly searching for an especially Austrian baroque string sound. On this recording, Letzbor is accompanied by Erich Traxler (harpsichord, organ positive), Jan Krigovsky (violone) and Hubert Hoffmann (lute) of Ars Antiqua Austria

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

American Journey BERNSTEIN: Serenade, BARBER: Adagio for strings HERRMANN: Psycho Suite, GERSHWIN: Three Preludes IVES: The Unanswered Question

Tai Murray Jean-François Heisser Whilst still influenced by the traditions of Western Europe, 20th century American music was also a testing ground for new techniques. From the neo-classicism of Bernstein's 'Serenade' to the outstanding professionalism of Bernard Herrmann's film scores, via the vitality of Gershwin and the innovations of Charles Ives, to the poetic lyricism of Barber's 'Adagio', this CD presents five very different facets of a journey into the New World.

Label: Mirare File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: MIR244 Barcode: 3760127222446 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Tai Murray [violin] Orchestre Poitou-Charentes Jean-François Heisser [conductor, piano]

ALSO AVAILABLE: HMU907569 Ysaÿe 6 Sonatas for violin solo “the perfection of Murray’s intonation has tipped so far over into another league of accuracy that it adds an extra dimension of enjoyment to an already superlative disc.”

Gramophone Editor's Choice, May 2012 “It is without doubt that Murray’s style of playing is more mature than that of many seasoned players; and, with a debut record this outstanding, it can safely be assumed that she will exceed many expectations – she’s certainly exceeded mine.” Muso, February/March 2012

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

BEETHOVEN: Trio in Emin Op. 70 No. 2 SCHUMANN: Trio No. 3 in G min Op. 110

Trio Les Esprits Every composer of piano trios has tried to achieve the perilously difficult task of balancing three dissimilar voices: Beethoven, at the height of his mastery, produced a refined, delicate work; Schumann, in the autumn of his life, seeks new paths to express his tormented universe.

With this debut CD, the youthful Trio Les Esprits, with Adam Laloum on piano, presents a poetic manifesto.

Label: Mirare File Under: Classical/Chamber music Catalogue No: MIR241 Barcode: 3760127222415 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Trio Les Esprits: Adam Laloum [piano] Victor Julien-Laferrière [cello] Mi-Sa Yang [violin]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Francisco Correa de ARAUXO: Tientos Libro de tientos y discusrsos de musica practica theorica de organo intitulado Facultad organica Alcala de Henares 1626

Louis Thiry Patrick Bismuth Francisco Correa de Arauxo, who deserves to be better known, was probably of Portuguese origin but became one of the greatest Spanish organists of the famous Golden Age [el siglo de oro] of the 17th century.

In the musical transition between Renaissance and Baroque, Tientos were the most commonly employed genre of Spanish musicians of the time and these were written particularly for the Iberian organ which has a unique keyboard, divided at middle C in two equal registers.

Label: Paraty Productions File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: PTY411116 Barcode: 3760213650047 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Louis Thiry [organ] Patrick Bismuth [violin, viola, viola da spalla]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

COUPERIN: Portrait d'Iris Suites pour viole de gambe et pièces de clavecin

Emmanuelle Guigues Bruno Procopio Pièces de violes avec la basse chifrée par Mr F.C.: 1st & 2nd suites Les Goûts-Réunis ou Nouveaux Concerts: 14th Concert & last in this oeuvre Pieces de clavecin: La Manon, La Garnier, Les Ondes, Les Graces Incomparables ou La Conti, L'himen-amour, L'Amazône, Les Bagatélles, Les Baricades mystérieuses, Le Tic-Toc-Choc ou Les Maillotins

Label: Paraty Productions File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: PTY409212 Barcode: 3576074092120 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Emmanuelle Guigues [viola da gambe] Bruno Procopio [harpsichord, direction] Sylvia Abramowicz [viol] Rémi Cassaigne [theorbo, baroque guitar]

Following an album dedicated to J.S. Bach, Emmanuelle Guiges and Bruno Procopio have dedicated their latest album to François Couperin, 'the great', for the Paraty label.

The 'Pièces de violes avec la basse chifrée par Mr FC ' published in 1728 and cited by the Mercure de France in August 1729, had long been considered lost . It was only in the 1930s that Charles Bouvet discovered them by chance, thanks to research in the archives of the National Library. One may wonder about the reasons that convinced François Couperin not sign this collection with his name in full, as he did for his other compositions. The mystery remains but it is the timbre of the instrument that transcends.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

J.S. BACH: The Goldberg Variations Duo Mélisande Like many others during his time, Bach practiced adaptation and transcription of his own music as well as that by his contemporaries. He did not hesitate to have his own work undergo a metamorphosis proper to breathe new life. The 'Goldberg Variations' in particular, have led to many transcriptions for many instruments or combinations of instruments.

However, from the picked strings of the harpsichord to the guitar, the distance in this case is fairly minor. Inexhaustible masterpieces reworked ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpPRQu7O68I

Label: Paraty Productions File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: PTY113215 Barcode: 3760213650122 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Duo Mélisande: Sébastian Llinares Nicolas Lestoquoy [guitars]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Rome • Paris • Madrid European Baroque Guitar Music Pierre Pitzl ROME Michelangelo BARTOLOTTI Secondo libro di chitarra, c 1655: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Brando, Sarabande, Gigue, Passacaglie Giovanni Battista GRANATA Soavi concenti di sonate, 1659: Allemanda, Balletto, Passacaglia, Sarabanda, Allemanda, Passacaglia PARIS Francisque CORBETT La guitarre royalle, 1670: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Chacone Robert de VISEE Livre de pièces pour la guittarre, 1686: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Bourée

Label: Accent Records File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: ACC24287 Barcode: 4015023242876 NORMAL Price Packaging: digipack Pierre Pitzl [guitar]

MADRID Gaspar SANZ Instrucción de musica, 1674/97: Preludio o Capricho arpeado por la X, Passacagles por la X Francisco GUERAU Poema harmonico, 1694: Canario, Passacaglia de 7.° tono, Passacaglia de 8.° tono, Marionas After the guitar had just recently been more or less "invented" in Spain (for this reason it was called guitarra espanola or chitarra spagnuola), it did not take long for it to start its trium-phal march through all of Europe in the mid-17th century.

The guitarist Pierre Pitzl presents this development on his first solo CD for Accent in exemplary fashion, using the examples of three musical centres and composers active there: Granata and Bartolotti in Rome, De Visée and Corbetta in Paris as well as Sanz and Gerau in Madrid. The image resulting from this is a highly variegated one: only a strummed instrument in the beginning, the guitar soon devel-oped a highly differentiated technique consisting of both strumming and plucking. In this way, a new style of composition and sound was created hand in hand with a previously un-heard-of, bold treatment of dissonances.

The attraction of this CD is found precisely in this variety and high technical standard. Pierre Pitzl satisfies these demands with impressive bravura, for he is a master - more so than hardly any of his peers - of the "mixed style" with its subtle alternation between strumming and plucking.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Francesco RATIS: Dialoghi con l’Angelo Dramatic cantatas & popular songs

Nuovo Aspetto Michael Dücker

Label: Accent Records File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: ACC24290 Barcode: 4015023242906 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack L’Angelo: Cornelia Samuelis [soprano] L’Anima: Chiyuki Okamura [soprano] Il Mondo, La Coscienza: Franz Vizthum [countertenor] La Carne, Il Musico: Christian Dietz [tenor] Il Demonio: Yorck Felix Speer [bass]

The famous 'Passacalli della Vita' aria, a genuine hit on the Early music scene, has been rumoured not to be an original composition from the 17th century at all, but the work of a present-day musician. Lutenist Michael Dücker has attempted to get to the bottom of this story, and obtained a copy of the printed edition ostensibly containing the song. As things turned out, not only was the sought-for aria original, but there were many other musical treasures hidden in this bundle of approximately 200 pages.

In this printed edition of 1657, of which only a few copies survive today, Francesco Ratis, organist of the Oratorium Order at Chiavenna, compiled numerous popular and folkloristic canzonette and provided them with spiritual texts. The aim of this music was to convert the listeners with catchy melodies to dialect texts, thereby encouraging them to be pious. The most exciting and interesting item in the bundle is a type of miniature oratorio hidden at the end of the collection. It consists of four dialogues featuring angels, demons and musicians who, in each case, confront personified figures such as the soul, the world, the conscience and the body. Ratis primarily transformed the dialogues in a songlike fashion.

Through richly-coloured instrumentation (e.g. psalterium, harp, trombone and baroque guitar) the Ensemble Nuovo Aspetto brings out the various characters in a particularly vivid manner. Several instrumental works of this period have also been included as a supplement.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

STRAVINSKY: Histoire du Soldat A Soldier's Tale

Carole Bouquet Gérard Depardieu Guillaume Depardieu Sergio Azzolini Shlomo Mintz Recorded in 1997, this jewel of Naïve Classique catalogue has been unavailable for several years. As the work is performed at Paris Opéra Comique in April 2014, Naïve is happy to reissue that title featuring prestigious actors and musicians.

Label: NAÏVE File Under: Classical/Secular Vocal music Catalogue No: V5371 Barcode: 822186053713 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Carole Bouquet [the narrator] Gérard Depardieu [the devil] Guillaumepardieu [the soldier] Pascal Moraguès [clarinet] Sergio Azzolini [bassoon] Marc Bauer [cornet] Daniel Breszynski [trombone] Vincent Pasquier [double bass] Michel Cerutti [percussion] Shlomo Mintz [violin & conductor]

'Histoire du Soldat' (The Soldier’s Tale) came about in a difficult economic context: Diaghilev’s Ballets were no longer touring, due to the war, and the Russian revolution had deprived Stravinsky of his remaining savings. As for Ramuz, some of whose works had been published in France, he was no longer receiving any royalties. Thus, the two friends wondered “Why not write something together which would entail only a limited number of instruments and two or three characters?”

And so Histoire du soldat come into being. Its musical forces were limited: an ensemble of seven instruments representing all the sections of the orchestra plus a highly developed percussion part. The first performance brought together friends and well-known artists, Ernest Ansermet conducted. Initially, their grand project included touring with a portable stage, like the itinerant players of the Middle Ages, but the devastating Spanish influenza epidemic and the armistice of November 1918 put an end to that idea.

Nonetheless, 'Histoire du soldat' would later be performed regularly, featuring famous names eg Jean Cocteau in the role of the reader (Geneva, 1934), celebrity couple Carole Bouquet and Gérard Depardieu in 1997...

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Concert for harmonica & orchestra Gianluca Littera Graham WHETTAM: Concerto scherzoso for harmonica and small orchestra Gabriel FAURE: Pavane (arr. Gianluca Littera) Alan HOVHANESS: Seven Greek Folk Dances Op. 150, for harmonica and string orchestra (based on Greek folk tunes) Astor PIAZZOLLA: Oblivion Vilém TAUSKY: Concertino for Harmonica and Orchestra

Label: Stradivarius File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: STR33875 Barcode: 8011570338754 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Gianluca Littera [harmonica] Orchestra Stesichoros Francesco Di Mauro [conductor]

“When Stradivarius proposed that I myself present the discographic project that they had finished recording I immediately accepted with great enthusiasm. I must say that this task for me is easy in some ways, since a CD for harmonica and orchestra has the advantage of being something extremely rare. In addition, the repertory here proposed enables me to illustrate the possibilities of the instrument in sound, in a broad and varied way. In fact, this recording includes three original compositions written for Harmonica and Orchestra and two transcriptions that I myself have arranged. These transcriptions, although they were not originally for the Harmonica, further contribute to emphasising the timbric characteristics of this instrument. When one listens to 'Oblivion' by Piazzolla one can clearly hear the timbric similarity to the bandoneón, the instrument that Piazzolla composed and performed on. In fact the two instruments belong to the same family, that of the free reeds..." Gianluca Littera, in the liner notes

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Ivan FEDELE: Two Moons Suite Francese, Etudes borĂŠales, Two Moons, Due Notturni con figura

Maria Grazia Bellocchio The Royal Academy of Music paid tribute to charismatic Italian composer Ivan Fedele in a mini-festival only this February. Director of the Venice Biennale, Fedele, b.1953, is a well-known and influential figure across Europe, however his music has rarely crossed the channel until now, with the first ever UK festival dedicated to his music: a 3-day celebration that included UK premieres of works large and small, masterclasses and an interview with the man himself.

One of his greatest admirers is Pierre Boulez and it is in France that Ivan Fedele consolidated his reputation as a composer [hence 'Suite francese'] whose opus amounts to nearly 100 titles and includes composition of every type: orchestral pieces, works for the theatre, electro-acoustic and chamber music. This survey of Fedele's piano music is well worth exploring: for all those in need of sun-drenched spectralism!

Label: Stradivarius File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: STR33936 Barcode: 8011570339362 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal Maria Grazia Bellocchio [piano]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Hungarian Diary LIGETI: Musica Ricercata, KURTAG: Játékok [selection] LISZT: Bagatelle sans tonalité, Nuages Gris, Resignazione

Teodoro Anzellotti

Label: Winter&Winter File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: 910212-2 Barcode: 025091021222 NORMAL Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Teodoro Anzellotti [accordion]

György Kurtág heard Teodoro Anzellotti play and was sufficiently inspired to adapt his 'Játékok' [a work in progress since 1973] for accordion. From this the idea was born of creating an album with the title 'Hungarian Diary'. Kurtág's 'Games', originally inspired by the spontaneity of playing children, is joined by Ligeti's 'Musica ricercata', composed by Ligeti in Budepest 1951-3, before he left communist Hungary to live in the Western world, is a highly radical oeuvre, an experiment of minimalistic sound-and rhythm structures. Finally 'Hungarian Diary' is completed with the inclusion of works

by Franz Liszt: in Hungarian 'Liszt Ferencz'. Liszt composed these compositions during the last ten years of his life and his pioneering innovations in the resolution of tonality in his late works created the impetus for Teodoro Anzellotti to record these pieces together.

Teodoro Anzellotti is one of the most important accordion players in the contemporary music scene. His musicality, virtuosity, and almost unlimited pleasure in discovery of new sounds, have inspired composers like Luciano Berio, Heinz Holliger, Mauricio Kagel, Matthias Pintscher, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino, Dieter Schnebel and Jörg Widmann to create new works for the accordion.

ALSO AVAILABLE: 910170-2 Bach: The Goldberg Variations Gramophone Critics’ Choice "So here’s this masterpiece transcribed for, err, accordion. Does it work? It does – there’s a wheezy intimacy about the instrument which suits this piece well, and everything sounds so very human, so very alive. The aforementioned slow variation 25 is heavenly – Teodoro Anzellotti’s restraint and control are breathtaking, and the flourish opening Variation 16 Overture is dazzling. The accordion’s colours occasionally prompt more outré associations, with Spongebob Squarepants and Parisian holidays coming to mind more than once. But no matter – this is a supremely entertaining disc, played with virtuosity and good humour. Plus I’m a sucker for Winter and Winter’s deluxe presentation". Graham Rickson, TheArtsDesk.com, 21 August 2010

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Requiem for trombone and organ Hansjörg Fink Elmar Lehnen • Introitus: Requiem aeternam • Kyrie • Sequenz: Dies irae, Dies illa • Offertorium: Domine, Jesu Christe • Sanctus / Benedictus • Agnus Dei • Lux aeterna • Libera me • In Paradisum

Label: Audite File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: AUDITE92660 Barcode: 4022143926609 NORMAL Price Format: 1 SACD Packaging: digipack Hansjörg Fink [trombone] Elmar Lehnen [organ]

The form of the requiem is an ideal breeding ground for musical adventures, as music history has shown. It knows all facets of sorrow and death: gentle death, mourned death, unrelenting death, transfigured death. This recording adds another piece to the mosaic. Here, the age-old tradition of the requiem mass and the vibrant joie de vivre of jazz elements meet combining liturgy, pirituality and sensuality.

Hansjörg Fink and Elmar Lehnen add their own, liberal figures to the existing foundations. They prove to be successful border-crossers [!].

Hansjörg Fink performs as ensemble player and soloist in the most diverse music styles and feels equally at home in big bands, theatre and musical productions, pop bands and the great jazz festivals as he does in symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles and solo projects. He is first trombone of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, touring regularly. As a freelance musician he frequently appears in concerts and on CD, radio and television recordings with renowned European big bands, including the WDR Big Band and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Following studies in Aachen and Paris, where he graduated with distinction, Elmar Lehnen was organist and choirmaster in Mönchengladbach for ten years. He was appointed to succeed Wolfgang Seifen as organist of the papal basilica of St. Marien in Kevelaer in 2000. In addition, Elmar Lehnen devotes himself to a busy international concert schedule.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Giovanni ZAMBONI: Sonate d'intavolatura di leuti, Lucca 1718 Sonatas 1-4, 6, 7, 9

Luciano Contini Luciano Contini provides ample evidence of the lute tradition which continued far into the Baroque period with his recording of the Sonate d’intavolatura di leuto by Giovanni Zamboni, which now makes a welcome return to the catalogue as part of Glossa’s Cabinet treasure trove. Even well into the 20th century, the Italian tradition was thought to have ceased around 1650, yet Zamboni’s collection was printed in 1718, and his music calls to mind – for Dinko Fabris in his booklet note – the influence of Corelli and Weiss as much as it does that of Piccinini. Contini – who is an ensemble player with many leading groups – is here a virtuoso soloist on the archlute, an admirable advocate for a style of playing and for a neglected composer.

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: GCDC80008 Barcode: 8424562800083 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Luciano Contini [archlute]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Johann Christoph Friedrich BACH: Sonatas for traverso and fortepiano Marcello Gatti Giovanni Togni Giovanna Barbati Another reason to take a look into the Glossa Cabinet series comes with the reappearance of Marcello Gatti’s delightful interpretation of transverse flute Sonatas by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (son number 9 of JS), who worked in the courtly surroundings of Bückeburg in central Germany in the last part of the 18th century. These sonatas were composed around the time of JCF’s visit to see his brother Johann Christian in London in 1778 and combine the Italian galante style with the sensitivity of the Empfindsamer Stil. Elegantly performed by Gatti and Giovanni Togni, fortepiano, with cellist Giovanna Barbati joining for a Trio in D major (from the middle of the 1780s), the recording was captured in sound by Sigrid Lee and Roberto Meo.

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: GCDC80009 Barcode: 8424562800090 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Marcello Gatti [transverse flute] Giovanni Togni [fortepiano] Giovanna Barbati [cello]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Seconde Stravaganze: Venetian & Neapolitan music for viol consort L'Amoroso Guido Balestracci Guido Balestracci’s passion for extending the repertoire of the viol consort, especially with Italian music, took flight with this 1999 recording of Seconde Stravaganze (made originally for Symphonia) and now available on Glossa Cabinet.

Happy to push boundaries in an “extravagant” but well thought-through way Balestracci – with his ensemble L’Amoroso of gambas, harp, keyboard instruments and percussion – conjured up an entertainment of Venetian and Neapolitan music for viol consort. Whether these 16th and 17th century pieces (Gesualdo, Trabaci, Del Buono, Montalbano, Legrenzi, Storace et al) were originally scored for voices, organ, harpsichord or viols, Balestracci and his musicians create transformations which remain true to the first composers’ intentions, and which sound as fresh today as when they were first recorded.

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Instrumental Catalogue No: GCDC80010 Barcode: 8424562800106 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack L'Amoroso Guido Balestracci [viola da gamba, direction]

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 5 & 6 Orchestra of the 18th century Frans Brüggen It was but a few years after founding the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in 1981 that Frans Brüggen first turned his attention to the music of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies and endeavoured to perceive that special orchestral landscape, in order to transform it into musical sound, with the use of period instruments rediscovering historical tonal colours. The indefatigable Dutch conductor returned to immerse himself anew in this glorious music with a complete cycle made in the autumn of 2011 and released by Glossa in the following year. From this new survey, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies are now appearing on Glossa Cabinet, and continue to demonstrate the rapport he shares with his orchestra for one of classical music’s greatest challenges of realising the intimate and the familiar in these symphonies, a challenge achieved here on record by way of concert performances (Brüggen has long distanced himself from studio recordings).

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Orchestral Catalogue No: GCDC81118 Barcode: 8424562811188 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Orchestra of the 18th century Frans Brüggen

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

STRADELLA: La Susanna Oratorio per musica (1681)

Emanuela Galli Barbara Zanichelli Roberto Balconi Luca Dordolo Matteo Bellotto Ensemble Aurora Enrico Gatti

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Choral Catalogue No: GCDC81201 Barcode: 8424562812017 MID Price Format: 2 CD Packaging: digipack Emanuela Galli [Susanna] Barbara Zanichelli [Daniele] Roberto Balconi [Testo] Luca Dordolo [Secondo Giudice] Matteo Bellotto [Primo Giudice] Ensemble Aurora Enrico Gatti

A few years after the assassination of Stradella, Pierre Bourdelot and Pierre Bonnet-Bourdelot included a story of the episode in their Histoire de la Musique in 1715, and consequently the ‘legend of Stradella’ was born. According to the legend, Stradella had disappeared with the lover of a Venetian noble, who in response hired a band of assassins to pursue the lovers from city to city. In the booklet of this CD – with its recording from Enrico Gatti, his Ensemble Aurora and Emanuela Galli in the title role – are contained the latest results of Carolyn Gianturco’s investigation into the life and works of Stradella, including some completely new information. 'La Susanna', an erotic oratorio, was written by Stradella in 1681 on commission from Francesco II, Duke of Modena, who was very fond of the genre. A fine summary of the oratorio’s noteworthy qualities was put forth in a letter by a gentleman who had been present at rehearsals of its first performance. He wrote that he was ‘estatic about the sinfonias, about the variety of the arias, about the exquisiteness of the recitative and about the diversity and unexpectedness of the subjects and about the rarity of the basso continuo’.

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Sebastian de VIVANCO: Missa in manus tuas Choir & Orchestra of the Renaissance Richard Cheetham Michael Noone Sebastián de Vivanco stands, without doubt, as one of the most neglected composers of the Spanish Golden Age. Ironically, the greatest contribution to this neglect is the accident of his having been born in Ávila at about the same time as that other colossus of Spanish music from Ávila, Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Blinded, perhaps, by the stunning brilliance of Victoria, scholars and performers alike have been slow to discern an equally bright star sparkling in the same constellation. This important recording from The Orchestra of the Renaissance, directed by Richard Cheetham and Michael Noone, first released by Glossa in 2002 and now happily incorporated into the Glossa Cabinet collection, captures the music of Vivanco – and, in particular his 'Missa In manus tuas', in all its splendour.

Label: Glossa File Under: Classical/Choral Catalogue No: GCDC81405 Barcode: 8424562814059 MID Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: digipack Choir & Orchestra of the Renaissance Richard Cheetham Michael Noone

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Wolfgang von WALTERSHAUSEN: Oberst Chabert Colonel Chabert Music tragedy in 3 acts after the novel La Comtesse à deux maris by Honoré de Balzac Otto Wiener [Graf Chabert] Julius Patzak [Graf Ferraud] Gertraud Hopf [Rosine] Franz Fuchs [Derville] Franz Bierbach [Godeschal] Kurt Equiluz [Boucard Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester F. Charles Adler [conductor] 14/3/1956

Label: Walhall File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: WLCD0379 Barcode: 4035122653793 BUDGET Price Format: 2 CD Packaging: cristal

Hermann Wolfgang Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen (Göttingen, 12 October 1882 - Munich, 14 June 1954) German composer, conductor, teacher and writer.

Dating from 1912, this version of a Balzac story, set in Paris in 1817, is one of the earliest attempts to fuse verismo with post-Wagnerian German opera and is notable for its harmonic adventurousness (Opera Grove). It is the only one of Waltershausen’s five stage works to do so. By the time it was revived in March of 1933, shortly before the Hitler regime stripped the composer of his post as director of the Music Academy of Munich, it had received over 100 performances across Europe before vanishing into the same post-war avant-garde inspired void as did most of the music of his contemporaries. The music should delight anyone interested in conservative, post-Wagnerian German opera.

FIRST RELEASE ON ANY FORMAT

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

VERDI: Macbeth Hans Braun [Macbeth] Walter Kreppel [Banquo] Christel Goltz [Lady Macbeth] Anton Dermota [Macduff] Erich Majkut [Malcolm] Vienna Radio Choir & Orchestra Argeo Quadri [conductor] Vienna 1960, sung in German, in good sound.

First release on any format.

Argeo Quadri (1911–2004) was an Italian conductor best known for his work with Italian and French opera. From 1957 he was largely resident at the Vienna State Opera

Label: Walhall File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: WLCD0380 Barcode: 4035122653809 BUDGET Price Format: 2 CD Packaging: cristal

RELEASE DATE 7TH APRIL 2014

Giovanni Battista BONONCINI: Polifemo Herbert Alsen [Polifem] Jetty Topitz-Feiler [Galathea] Anton Dermota [Acis] Alfred Poell [Glaukus] Fritzi Margaritella [Silia] Emmy Funk [Circe] Maria Kytka [Venus] Grosses Orchester der RAVAG / Max Schönherr Vienna 1944 First release, sung in German

Label: Walhall File Under: Classical/Opera & Vocal Catalogue No: WLCD0381 Barcode: 4035122653816 BUDGET Price Format: 1 CD Packaging: cristal

“In 1702, following the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Bononcini moved to the court of Queen Sophia Charlotte in Berlin, where he became the queen's favourite composer and broadened his public reputation with a production of a new opera, 'Polifemo'.

From 1720 to 1732 he was in London, where for a time his popularity rivaled George Frideric Handel's, who had arrived in London in 1712. The tories favored Handel, while the whigs favored Bononcini. Their competition inspired the epigram

by John Byrom that made the phrase ‘Tweedledum and Tweedledee’ famous. Handel steadily gained the ascendancy, and Bononcini became a pensioner of the Duchess of Marlborough, who had led his admirers. Bononcini left London after charges of plagiarism were proven against him: he had palmed off a madrigal by Antonio Lotti as his own work.”

"Anton Dermota was one of the most musical tenors singing at his time. In Vienna, the highly-esteemed tenor was a leading representative of the lyric category. He was an outstanding figure in Austria’s musical life. It is a delight to hear his smooth line, his gleaming tone and his ‘slavic-elegiac’ vocalism. His smooth, honeyed mezza voce was marvellous.

He had an imaginative way with Italian and French music. Today, he is best remembered as a Mozartian tenor…whatever he sang was superbly chiselled and presented as precious musical gems!” Andrea Shum-Binder, subito-cantabile