Voice Recital

This Island / Susan Narucki; Donald Berman

GRAMMY Award winning American soprano Susan Narucki, “one of the great practitioners of contemporary vocal music” (Opera News) presents This Island, a specially curated, unique set of 21 art songs written in the first half of the 20th century, chiefly by women and some receiving their world premiere recordings. (Avie)

1CD# AV2592 $17.99

Mahler, Strauss: Befreit – A Soul Surrendered

Having won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately writes of this project: ‘It has been my great pleasure to record with Joseph once again. We have long shared a mutual passion for early-twentieth-centuryromantic Lieder and talked of making a disc including songs by Mahler and Strauss. (Chandos)

1CD# CHAN 20177 $20.99

Jonathan Dove: Sappho

Sings

“It’s testament to the force of Sappho’s art that, even though practically all that remains of her work is, tantalizingly, just fragments, those fragments of her work still have the power to move, intrigue and inspire us. Huge thanks to Ralph Woodward for giving me the opportunity to set Alasdair Middleton’s wonderfully immediate translations.” (Convivium)

1CD# CVI076 $11.99

Über Glaube – Ein Portrait / voicemade

“Über Glaube – Ein Portrait” (About Faith – A Portrait) – This is the title of the debut CD of voicemade – the outstanding Leipzig a cappella ensemble. With their program, the six young musicians span centuries to combine music of the Renaissance with modern times. The track list includes music by William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 23798 $18.99

Aperghis:

14 Récitations

Soprano Stephanie Lamprea releases her performance of Georges Aperghis’ genre defining 14 Récitations for solo voice, highlighting her precise approach to the notation. These works, written in 1977–78, stretch the voice into fertile extended technique territory, mixing sensuality with virtuosity in ways that had a profound impact on the solo vocal repertoire. (New Focus)

1CD# FCR361 $16.99

Berg, Domin & Heucke: Dennoch

A live recording from Leipzig featuring soprano Anne Schwanewilms, pianist Manuel Lange and actor Wolf-Dietrich Rammler is now being released by Genuin. The program of this top-class evening included the Seven Early Songs by Alban Berg, the poems of Hilde Domin, and the song cycle Dennoch by Stefan Heucke. (Genuin)

1CD# GEN 23808 $18.99

Argentina Songs / Soledad Cardoso

Two composers born in the second half of the 19th century in Argentina are combined with others born around 1910 whose works came to fruition in the 1940s. Thus, the Santa Fe-born Carlos Guastavino opens this record; after him, the focus is on the Buenos Aires-born Gilardo Gilardi; this is followed by a sample of the work of composers Lía Cimaglia Espinosa and Emilio Dublanc. (IBS Classical)

1CD# IBS-132022 $15.99

Milhaud: Melodies et Chansons, Vol. 1

The song oeuvre of Darius Milhaud is almost unmanageable. Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher approach this huge convolute with a first selection that already shows the entire breadth of Milhaud’s compositions. Holger Falk knows excellently how to shape this expansion of meaning, and he is supported by Steffen Schleiermacher, who is as sensitive to sound as he is expressive on the contemporary Steinway. (MDG-Scene)

1CD# 6132271 $19.99

Hans Gál: Music for Voices, Vol. 2

This second album of Hans Gál’s choral music offers a vivid crosssection of his music for chamber choir, featuring mixed voices, women’s voices and male-voice choir, both a cappella and with piano, and ranging across five decades. (Toccata Classics)

1CD# TOCC0644 $18.99

Bach: Collegium Vocal Gent [10 CDs]

Founded by Philippe Herreweghe at a time when the Baroque revival was still a matter for specialists, Collegium Vocale Gent has been at the heart of the rediscovery of Bach’s sacred music. This ten-album set brings together some of his finest sacred vocal works, from a selection of Leipzig cantatas (Gramophone Editor’s Choice) to the St. John Passion by way of the Mass in B minor. (Phi)

10CD# LPH038 $41.99

Caruso: His Songs [2 CDs]

A symbol of Italianism and bel canto singing, Enrico Caruso moved from provincial Neapolitan stages to the world’s most prestigious opera houses, and as naturally as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, he could return to being the scugnizzo or street urchin of popular songs. A little-known repertoire that deserves today, 150 years after Carusiell’s birth, to be rediscovered by a new audience. (Urania)

2CD# LDV14096 $29.99

Strauss: Four Last Songs

The second album from the impressive American soprano after her critically acclaimed debut album, Rachel includes Richard Strauss’ most renowned song-cycle for soprano plus the final scene from his last opera, ‘Capriccio’. Rachel’s glistening tone, faultless technique and expressiveness make her the perfect interpreter of Strauss’s works and she is joined by fellow “Strauss-officionado” Andris Nelsons. (Sony)

1CD# 19439921722 $13.99

Hans Sommer: Orchestral Songs

Pentatone presents a new album full of world-premiere recordings of orchestral songs by Hans Sommer, sung by an excellent quartet of soloists together with the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Guillermo García Calvo. Sommer was a Liszt student whose operas were performed and praised by Richard Strauss. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187023 $15.99

Echo – Songs Across the Ages / Ruby Hughes

Huw Watkins’ song cycle Echo, composed for soprano Ruby Hughes and premiered in 2017 at Carnegie Hall, is at the center of this artfully crafted recital. Setting texts by five different poets, the cycle is a work centered on melancholy –on transience, remembrance, and in the final song a numbed cry of inconceivable loss. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2568 $19.99