Catalog Summer 2023

Coronation – Music for Royal Occasions

Coronation – Music for Royal Occasions spans 500 years of royal music – for celebration, for prayer and for commemoration – varying in scale from private devotion to full state coronation. The collection, featuring Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, Tippett and Britten, looks to the coronation of Charles III, and back to the ancient rituals of royal ceremonial. (Coro)

1CD# COR16196 $19.99

Love at Last / Lara Downes

Love at Last is pianist Lara Downes’s first Pentatone album, inspired by the poem Sachki, Sachki by the Odessa-born Jewish writer Shaul Tchernichovsky. Downes presents 24 pieces, many of them in world premiere recordings, of works by living composers around the globe. Spanning generations, continents and cultures, these diverse voices are united in a stubborn belief in the possibility of humanity, brotherhood, peace, and compassion, and in the everlasting power of love.

(Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187018 $15.99

Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3

Friedrich Wührer was appointed Professor at the Vienna Academy of Music at the age of 28 but he did not confine his activities to teaching. He soon became increasingly active as a concert pianist. His concert tours led him to most countries in Europe, and earned him the reputation as one of the finest keyboard artists of his time. Conductor Walther Davisson leads the Pro Musica Orchestra Stuttgart in this recording of Beethoven's 2nd and 3rd piano concertos. (Vox)

1CD# VOX-NX-3003CD $16.99

Schubert: Symphonies Unfinished & Great / Marek Janowski

Marek Janowski presents his first purely-orchestral Schubert recording, together with the Dresdner Philharmonie, performing the composer ’s two final, groundbreaking and most famous symphonies. Working with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Janowski’s interpretation combines a sense of tradition with vitality and intensity. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187065 $19.99

Leshnoff: Elegy; Violin Concerto No. 2; Of Thee I Sing

This is Naxos’s fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. The themes of these recent works are remembrance, memorialization, and hopefulness. Elegy addresses ideas of harmony and discord through contrasting thematic ideas. The Violin Concerto No. 2 follows the ‘symphony-concerto’ model with a resonant and lyrical slow movement inspired by Jewish mysticism at its core. Pulsating harmonies eventually subside into serene and hopeful writing in "Of Thee I Sing," written to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. (Naxos)

1CD# 8559927 $13.99

C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin

The Baroque dream team of Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout interpret the astonishing music of C.P.E. Bachʼs Violin Sonatas in C Minor, B Minor, D Major and G Minor. The two early sonatas here from the 1730s resemble the older style of his father. Listening to these works, you can imagine J.S. Bach glancing over Emanuel's shoulders while he wrote them as a teenager at home in Leipzig. The later sonatas, written 30 to 50 years later, reveal the directly emotional and rhetorical style characteristic of north-German music of the time. (Channel Classics)

1CD# CCSSA41523 $21.99

Maria Mater Meretrix / Anna Prohaska; Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Soprano Anna Prohaska and violinist

Patricia Kopatchinskaja are both well known for their taste for eclecticism, experimentation and adventure. As they are also are friends, it was only to be expected that one day they would devise and record a program together, and here it is: Maria Mater Meretrix. The expression of two women musicians of today. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA739

$18.99

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2; Prelude in C# Minor

John Wilson and Sinfonia of London release their second album of Rachmaninoff. The Second Symphony was mostly composed in Dresden in 1906–07. An hour’s worth of music, the symphony is one of his largest works after the operas, and is widely viewed as one of his greatest works. It was possibly of some significance to the composer, following the less than auspicious début of his First Symphony. (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5309 $21.99

Saint-Saëns’: Cello Concerto in D Minor

Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto was composed in 1873; Lalo’s in 1876, meaning that they are both products of late French romanticism and, not by chance, both in minor keys. Maja Bogdanovic’s interpretation is imbued with her Slavic background, emphasising the passionate and tragic character of both works. (Challenge)

1CD# CC 72949

$16.99

British Invasion / Alexander String Quartet; William Kanengiser

The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser form a dynamic collaboration that explores the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland and The Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanovic and Leo Brouwer. All of these artists made a lasting impact far from the shores of their small island. (Foghorn)

Karl Böhm: The SWR Recordings (Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Mozart) [6

CDs]

The lasting fame of conductor Karl Böhm is based on qualities that were praised by listeners, musicians and critics throughout his long career: his discipline and meticulousness when rehearsing compositions as well as his modesty, his willingness to take second place to work and composer.

(SWR Classic)

6CD# SWR19123CD $44.99

Beethoven & Berwald: Septets / Wigmore Soloists

For their latest project on BIS, the Wigmore Soloists perform two works with unusual instrumentation: Beethoven’s and Berwald’s septets for violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn. In the tradition of serenade, this work in six movements represents Beethoven at his most warm-hearted and relaxed, yet his compositional craft and subtlety are typically sharp. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2707 $19.99

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4 / Boris Giltburg

Rachmaninov’s First Piano

Concerto was composed while he was a student at the Moscow Conservatoire, then fully reworked before he left Russia in 1917 and again in 1919. It is hard to explain why it never achieved a higher level of popularity – it has all of the melodic beauty, passion and brilliance found throughout the composer’s music. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574528 $13.99

Komitas, Aghabab, Aprikian & Ganatchian: Mayrig – To Armenian Mothers

1CD# FCL2023

Solo Cello / Nina Kotova

$16.99

Breathtaking performances of both unusual and beloved repertoire for solo cello. Works include Hindemith’s Cello Sonata, Op. 25, No. 3; Cassado’s Suite for Cello Solo; and Beethoven’s Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009. (Delos)

1CD# DE 3588

$16.99

Komitas is the voice of the land of Armenia, of its churches and its stones which remained silent for many centuries’, the violinist David Haroutunian tells us. Along with the mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik and the pianist Xénia Maliarevitch, he pays tribute to this great musician and to the French-Armenian composer Garbis Aprikian, now ninety-six years old. (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA947 $18.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

For the latest installment in their Mahler series, the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Osmo Vänskä presents what many consider to be the pinnacle of the Austrian composer’s entire work, the Ninth Symphony. To the bitter irony and anger of the third movement the last movement, a mystical Adagio, seems to respond with ineffable tenderness. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2476 $19.99

Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 & 41 [2 CDs]

For today’s musicologists, performers and concert-going audiences, Mozart’s final symphonies are still a veritable miracle. Why they were written remains a mystery, and no-one knows whether Mozart ever heard them performed during his lifetime. One thing is certain: Mozart created three individual, distinctive and unique works here, which complement each other despite their extreme diversity. (BR Klassik)

2CD# BRK900196 $21.99

Korngold: String Quartets Nos. 1–3 / Tippett Quartet

Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote a significant body of chamber music, with his three String Quartets reflecting differing periods of composition. The First marries impetuousness with enticing harmonies and rapt eloquence. The Second dates from 1933 and has great clarity and rhythmic impetus, with a full complement of Korngold’s lyricism. (Naxos)

1CD# 8574428 $13.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 2

After critically-acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov continue their Pentatone Mahler cycle with a rendition of the composer’s Second, nicknamed “The Resurrection”. They are joined by soprano Christiane Karg, alto Elisabeth Kulman and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186992 $15.99

Carl Maria von Weber: The Clarinet as Prima Donna

On this recording, Belgian clarinettist Roeland Hendrikx intends to rehabilitate Weber by playing his best music. Weber was an animal of the theatre in all his works: the Clarinet Concertos are increasingly recognised as early highlights in Weber’s career. (EPR Classic)

1CD# EPRC 0053 $16.99

Guðmundsson: The Gospel of Mary

The Icelandic composer, Hugi Guðmundsson, has penned a new oratorio infused with religious themes and featuring an ensemble of orchestra, choir, and soloists. The Gospel of Mary draws inspiration from a long-forgotten gospel written in the early centuries after Christ’s birth, which challenges the established narrative surrounding the role of Mary Magdalene. (Dacapo)

1CD# 8224736 $15.99

Holst: The Planets / Daniel Harding

Seven musical character images – each one immensely sensual and expressive, and standing on its own like a monument. The British composer Gustav Holst, fascinated by (esoteric) astrology, chose the planets of our solar system and the characteristics attributed to them as the basis for what he referred to as musical “mood pictures” or “embodiments”. (BR Klassik)

1CD# BRK900208 $17.99

Nikodemowicz: Piano Sonatas

Compositrices – New Light on French Romantic Women Composers

[8 CDs]

In this eight-CD set featuring several hundred performers, the Palazzetto Bru Zane present works by female composers from nineteenth-century France. They highlight twenty-one female creators, from already identified personalities like Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc,and Mel Bonis to such lesser known figures as Charlotte Sohy and Madeleine Lemariey. (Bru Zane)

8CD# BZ2006 $49.99

Révélations – Music for Flute & Piano

Over a century of captivating French music for the flute, from Mélanie Bonis (1858–1937) to Élise Bertrand (b. 2000), including a premiere on disc. From the shepherds-pipe dances of Lully to the pan-flute of Debussy’s faun and beyond, French music has always had a special affinity with the flute. Anna Wierer explores some lesser-known byways of this rich repertoire with her new album. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96743 $14.99

Andrzej Nikodemowicz (1925–2017) was a versatile composer. The piano was a particularly important instrument for the composer. He knew how to extract from it a cosmos of colours, a condensed sonic matter, the spectrum of which contained a palette of orchestral-like sounds. Those qualities can be perfectly heard in the compositions presented on this album. (Dux)

1CD# DUX1896 $19.99

Schubert: In Memoriam I

The first of two discs by Pieter Wispelwey that will be released in this year is a re-assembling of previously released recordings of works by Schubert. This short series is titled In Memoriam I and is inspired by a grave loss Pieter suffered a few months ago. The disc includes Schubert’s masterpieces for violin and piano, transcribed for cello – and the most famous Trockne Blumen, originally for flute. (EPR Classic)

1CD# EPRC 0050 $16.99

Santtu Conducts Strauss / Philharmonia Orchestra [2 CDs]

Santtu Conducts Strauss is a 2-volume album featuring four works by Richard Strauss conducted by Principal Conductor SanttuMatias Rouvali, two of which are live recordings of Santtu’s 2021/22 opening concert and first concert as Principal Conductor at Royal Festival Hall. Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra are live recordings of Santtu’s opening concert of the 2021/22 season. (Signum Classics)

2CD# SIGCD720

$25.99

Renee Fleming – Greatest Moments at the Met [2 CDs]

Renee Fleming celebrates three decades at the Metropolitan Opera. This first-ever, specially remastered collection compiles highlights she has chosen of her "most magical experiences," captured live on stage in this pinnacle of opera houses featuring duets with Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel and more. Works are included from Otello, Peter Grimes, Don Giovanni, The Merry Widow, La Traviata, and more! (Decca)

$22.99

Price: Songs of the Oak – Orchestral Works

The rediscovery of Florence Price’s music has revealed one of the most significant bodies of work by an African American composer in the 20th century. The variety of genres represented on this release place Price’s immense artistic imagination on full display. (Naxos)

1CD# 8559920

$13.99

Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 / Julia Fischer

Pentatone re-issues Julia Fischer’s epoch-making Mozart Violin Concertos recordings, starting with her readings of the famous 3rd and 4th concertos, as well as the Adagio in E Major and Rondo in B-flat Major, first released in 2005. Fischer performs them together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Yakov Kreizberg. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187016 $15.99

Franz Schubert: Die Liebe liebt das Wandern –Audiobiography [4 CDs]

Admittedly, Franz Schubert’s biography offers little in the way of great adventures, love affairs, glamour and long journeys. Jörg Handstein devotes himself here to a composer with an altogether quieter life. Schubert’s unhappiness in love, his terrible illness, and probably also his early death were, ultimately, the price he paid for this unconventional life. (BR Klassik)

4CD# BRK900927 $34.99

Kapustin: Piano Concerto No. 5, Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion

10/10! “This splendid new release confirms the excellent impression made by its predecessors, especially the remarkable disc containing the Fourth Piano Concerto and other orchestral works. Kapustin’s jazzinflected style offers a full range of expressive nuance projected in a consistently kinetic, refreshing and melodically attractive language that is uniquely his own.” – Classics Today (Capriccio)

Beethoven

for Three – Symph. No. 6 / Yo-Yo Ma, Kavakos, Ax

Like their first Beethoven for Three release — Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5 — this recording challenges the traditional boundary between chamber and orchestral repertoire to offer the listener two very different sides of the composer using the same three voices. In the C Minor piano trio, we hear Beethoven’s brilliant exploration of three instruments’ essential expressive capabilities. (Sony)

1CD# 19658739372 $13.99

Wagner: Parsifal Suite / London PO; Andrew Gourlay

Andrew Gourlay conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his new Parsifal Suite, a finelywrought concert piece consisting of instrumental music from Wagner’s Parsifal. In keeping with the fluidity of Wagner’s score, Gourlay has carefully selected the order of the excerpts so that they flow into one another without breaks, using the tiniest tweaks to allow the instrumentation to connect. (Orchid Classics)

1CD# ORC100207 $16.99

1CD# C5495 $19.99

Donizetti: Signor Gaetano / Javier Camarena

“Above all, there’s simply an enormous amout to enjoy in Camarena’s singing, right from the ranz des vaches-like solo that opens the first track. But this album is so much more than a vocal showcase. All in all, this is a hugely enjoyable and unusually satisfying and engaging operatic recital....”

– Gramophone Recording of the Month (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5186886 $15.99

Vaughan Williams; Howells; Delius; Elgar: Music for Strings / John Wilson

“A new release from John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London – a well-known ensemble in the 1950s, relaunched in 2018 by Wilson for special projects – has become a redletter day in the recording calendar. As ever, the brilliance of the playing makes this essential listening, the precision and attention to detail alive and exhilarating.” – The Guardian (Chandos)

1SACD# CHSA 5291 $21.99

Dvořák: Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85 / Andsnes

A rare jewel among the piano repertoire, Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures, a cycle of piano solo works, is mostly unknown to the public. Following the great success of his Sibelius album in 2017, Leif Ove Andsnes once again brings lesser known piano music into the spotlight, delivering a treasure chest of accessible and romantic tunes performed with artistic brilliance.

(Sony)

1CD# 19439912092 $13.99

Pavarotti in Hyde Park – The Legendary 1991 Concert [DVD]

This legendary concert of Luciano Pavarotti in Hyde Park 1991, was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of Pavarotti’s operatic career. Luciano Pavarotti thrilled the electrified audience with a popular program from Verdi to Puccini, from Mascagni and Leoncavallo to Bixio and Di Capua, which is now available for the first time available here, digitally remastered! (C Major)

1DVD# 762404 $32.99

Godowsky in Asia / Charisse Baldoria

Philippine-born pianist, composer, and educator Dr. Charisse Baldoria draws upon Western pianism, her Southeast Asian and Hispanic heritage, and various art forms in her work. Her recently recorded all-Godowsky album features the complete Java Suite inspired by pianist-composer Leopold

Godowsky’s travels to the island of Java in 1923, as well as other pieces inspired by non-Western cultures. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3972 $15.99

Tom + Will – Weelkes & Byrd: 400 Years

400 years ago, in 1623, England lost two of its greatest composers, William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes. In a program marking this double anniversary, The King’s Singers and Fretwork turn their focus to the bold personalties of these two men, Will and Tom. This release unlocks the humanity behind these two giants of Elizabethan music. (Signum Classics)

1CD# SIGCD731 $17.99

Martinů: Cello Sonatas / Moser, Korobeinikov

Cellist Johannes Moser and pianist Andrei Korobeinikov present Bohuslav Martinů’s complete cello sonatas. These works belong to the most significant twentieth-century repertoire for cello and piano. After their award-winning recording of works by Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff from 2016, Moser and Korobeinikov demonstrate their congeniality once more. (Pentatone)

1CD# PTC5187007 $15.99

J.S. Bach: The Secrets of Harmony (Audiobiography) [4 CDs]

Bach’s biography also provides a fascinating insight into an age that is very distant and foreign to us today. This narrated biography includes 9 chapters on 3 CDs, featuring a large cast of notable speakers. Included are 140 musical examples from Bach’s great works as well as several rarely-heard pieces. Includes a bonus CD with recordings of one large choral work and one orchestral work. (BR Klassik)

4CD# BRK900936 $34.99

Great composers in words & music (Audiobiography)

Tchaikovsky

This narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 1, the 1812 Overture,The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, among others. (Naxos)

1CD# 8578369 $13.99

Debussy

Claude Debussy is regarded by many as the quintessential French composer, with music that invited both warm applause and frosty criticism in his day. (Naxos)

1CD# 8578364 $13.99

Chopin

This account of Chopin’s life and times separates myth and reality. Illustrated with musical examples, the narrative takes us from his youthful beginnings as ‘a second Mozart’. (Naxos)

1CD# 8578367 $13.99

Beethoven

Musical excerpts include the ‘Diabelli’ Variations, Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 9, ‘Emperor’ Concerto, Missa solemnis and Fidelio, among many others. (Naxos)

1CD# 8578363 $13.99

J.S. Bach

Discover this fascinating biography of a composer who, to Max Reger, represented ‘the beginning and the end of all music’. (Naxos)

1CD# 8578362 $13.99

Mozart

This narrative is illustrated with music from each stage of Mozart’s intense career, including the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and many more. (Naxos)

La Femme – Journey of Female Composers / Flaka Goranci

‘Flaka Goranci has showcased composers whom we should know better. I look forward to hearing more from her and from them. She is also the leading performer, and her stunning voice is ably and sympathetically accompanied by the World Chamber Orchestra conducted by Konstantinos Diminakis.’

– MusicWeb International (Naxos)

1CD# 8551470

$13.99

Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright

Named ‘2022 Composer of the Year’ by Musical America, Missy Mazzoli inhabits an exquisite and mysterious sound-world in which indie-rock sensibilities meet American minimalism, European modernism and classical traditions. Through her music, she reaches to the roots of tradition, inhabits and renovates older forms while using every resource at her command. (BIS)

1SACD# BIS-2572 $19.99

The Passionate Amy Beach / Solungga Lui

Solungga Liu has been acclaimed as a pianist of great breadth. She is a champion of early twentiethcentury American music and underrepresented works of the standard repertoire. She is also known as an uncanny interpreter of new music. (Centaur)

1CD# CRC3990

$15.99

Bonds: Credo & Simon Bore the Cross / The Dessoff Choirs

New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs, instrumental in re-establishing the music of 20th-century African American composer Margaret Bonds, present two more Bonds premieres: new orchestrations of her cantata, Simon Bore the Cross, created with long-time collaborator and friend Langston Hughes, and the largescale Credo set to prose by W.E.B. Du Bois. (Avie)

1CD# AV2589 $17.99

Three Centuries of Female Composers / Various [10 CDs]

Ranging from the 18th century to the music of our time, this collection of critically acclaimed recordings explores the significant contribution to solo piano repertoire made by a wide variety of women composers. Tanya Ekanayaka continues the lineage in her own diverse and hybrid pieces. (Grand Piano)

10CD# GP897X $54.99

Boulanger, Schumann: Two Columbines / Bols & Bjørkøe

Clara Schumann and Lili Boulanger – Duo Bols & Bjørkøe – The Duo Bols and Bjørkøe have their fifth anniversary in 2022. In 2020, the Roskilde Music Association encouraged the duo to perform a program consisting only of female composers, a program that was also recorded for the Danish National Radio. This program became the basis for the repertoire on this CD. (Danacord)

1CD# DACOCD959 $16.99

Brouwer: Reactions, Songs & Chamber Music

Margaret Brouwer’s music has for decades been admired for “inhabiting its own peculiarly bewitching harmonic world”(New York Times). These recently composed pieces reflect her musical representations of particular events: Rhapsodic Sonata charts an internal journey of love, whereas Declaration is a set of songs that addresses ideas of violence and war. (Naxos)

1CD# 8559904 $13.99

Martinaityte: Hadal Zone

Hadal Zone, written by composer Žibuokle Martinaityte for bass clarinet, tuba, violoncello, contrabass, piano and electronics, seeks to plumb the lower ranges of these instruments, shaping a listening environment that is defined as much by sound and vibration as it is by the musical intent of the composer. Performed by the adventurous Lithuanian ensemble Synaesthesis. (Cantaloupe)

1CD# CA21182 $19.99

Musickè – Harpsichord Music by Contemporary Female Composers

A transcontinental exhibition of modern female composers writing for the harpsichord in a dazzling array of styles, featuring many first recordings. Ursula Mamlok’s Three Bagatelles are miniatures characterized by a free application of serial technique, courting expressionist parallels with rhetorical, concentrated gestures. (Brilliant Classics)

1CD# BRI96476 $14.99

Bacewicz: Piano Concerto

This album includes some rarely recorded gems: Grazyna Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto together with the late Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in its first digital recording. Also included is the composer’s homage to Bartók, Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, as well as the composer’s early exuberant Overture written during the German occupation of Poland. (Ondine)

1CD# ODE 1427-2 $16.99