Era

Debussy, Prokofiev, Barber / Konstatin Emelyanov

This album of works by Debussy, Prokofiev and Barber aims to show not only the fascination of the increasing complexity of musical language in the 20th century but also the desire to preserve the ideas and achievements of previous musical epochs. The stunning fugue that concludes the sonata sounds like a manifesto. (Fuga Libera)

1CD# FUG812 $18.99

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10; Balakirev: Islamey

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, written in 1953, is regarded by many as his greatest work. The composer said of it, ‘I wrote it right after Stalin’s death and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It’s about Stalin and the Stalin years. The short filler is a performance of Balakirev’s Islamey, who recorded the entire cycle of the composer’s symphonies with the Moscow Philharmonic. (ICA Classics)

1CD# ICAC5171 $14.99

Rachmaninov: Etudes;Tableaux – 3 Pieces / Nikolai Lugansky

Following on from his formidable complete recording of the Preludes, Nikolai Lugansky now immerses us in two more major cycles by Rachmaninov, the Études-Tableaux. Like Chopin and Liszt, the Russian composer here transcends every technical difficulty to make room for emotion alone.

(Harmonia Mundi)

1CD# MOB946282 $19.99

Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch

Wolf (1860–1903) had a genius for the piano accompaniment regarding sensibility for the text and colorful, even illustrative composing: commenting, caricaturing, sometimes warm-hearted, sometimes quipping and full of humor. (Querstand)

1CD# VKJK 2111 $18.99

Late Romantic In Brief

Balakirev: Orchestral Works

Lincke: Overtures, Vol. 1

Composer Edmund Nick, wrote: “Only a genuine Berliner like Lincke was capable of making a declaration of love to his father city in this way. All the softer emotions that move the Berlin heart are included in it.” Irrespective of such clichéd attributions, Paul Lincke founded something with works like this that had never existed before: Berlin’s own popular music. (CPO)

1CD# 555428-2 $16.99

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Symphony No. 2

A program of works by Sergei Prokofiev performed by Dmitry Liss and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra in Yekaterinburg in June 2021 caused the audience to react with extraordinary enthusiasm and a storm of emotion. This is yet another acknowledgment that this orchestra should now be classified as one of the best performing today.

(Fuga Libera)

1CD# FUG798 $18.99

Korngold, Mahler, Strauss: Seelenübervoll

The debut album of pianist Friederike Sieber Seelenübervoll is featuring lieder from the late Romantic period and works by Alma Mahler, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Richard Strauss, and Alexander von Zemlinsky are performed. This production of five outstanding young singers resurrects the musical salon’s idea and gifts us a wealth of rarely performed songs. (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 23811 $18.99

Bosnar, Koechlin, Ritter & Saint-Saëns:: Form and Function

Ivan Bosnar, the 2020 First Prize Winner in the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation (AGO’s NCOI), makes his debut album on the Pro Organo label, with a program that combines symphonic – romantic organ literature by Saint-Saëns, August Ritter and Charles Koechlin, with 6 improvisations (4 intermezzi, a set of variations on Regina Coeli, and a passacaglia and fugue). (Pro Organo)

1CD# PO7301 $17.99

The 1st Piano Concerto with Dinara Klinton as soloist, plus the 2nd Symphony and two highly original overtures attest to Miry Balakirev’s special place in music history. (MDG-Scene)

1SACD# 9522236-6 $19.99

Glazunov: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 5

“I commend this inexpensive disc to explorers of the string quartet who know and love their Smetana and lateDvořák Quartets.” – MusicWeb (Alto)

1CD# MOB414442 $10.99

Ole Hjellemo: Orchestral Works

The works presented here, which range from first recordings of relatively unknown pieces to staples of the concert canon, focus on the viola, an instrument long neglected but rediscovered during the 20th century. (Sterling)

1CD# CDS1128 $18.99

Wolf: The Complete Songs, Vol. 11

This disc is the final disc in Oxford Lieder’s complete Hugo Wolf song series – the first ever complete recording of Hugo Wolf’s songs. (Stone Recordings)

1CD# 5060192780932 $17.99