Download not available

Casual buyers and browsers should note that the vocal works on this album, accompanied by orchestra, are not the original works of Debussy. They were made in 2012 by composer Robin Holloway at the request of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. They were performed at that time by Renée Fleming but have not been recorded until now. The settings are unorthodox and never boring, and they will probably strike different listeners in different ways. Holloway reorders the songs, believing that they were not intended as a sequenced set (probably debatable), inserts some of the composer's Verlaine settings in the new ordering, adds transitions between most of them, and tacks on a high-powered epilogue of his own. The end result, perhaps, is Debussy for the 21st century, amped up and intense, with hidden psychological themes and ideas wrung out and brought to the fore by the orchestration. There will be little disagreement, however, about two of the main attractions: soprano Vannina Santoni is a talented newcomer from whom one wants to hear more, and Mikko Franck, heard at the end in La Mer, is an excellent Debussy conductor; his rendition of this well-trodden work is full of detail and entirely absorbing. Santoni has a big voice that stands up to these orchestrations, and Alpha's sound from the Radio France auditorium keeps everything in balance. Nothing if not an intriguing Debussy release. © James Manheim /TiVo

Download not available

The star of Valentin Silvestrov was on the rise even before the 85-year-old composer fled his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion and settled in Berlin, and this release by baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Hélène Grimaud shot onto classical best-seller charts in early 2023. The impetus for the project came from Grimaud, who has championed Silvestrov's work. Indeed, she might have wanted to record these songs, for one of their attractive features is the way the piano and the voice interact on equal terms in simple textures, with the piano often doubling the vocal line. The Silent Songs were some of the first pieces Silvestrov wrote after abandoning modernist idioms in the 1970s, but they do not represent some kind of retreat into Soviet orthodoxy. They are simple but not minimalist, and they are uncanny. "We may feel we have always known these songs," Paul Griffiths wrote in the notes for an earlier recording of the Silent Songs, "and in a sense we have. The first hearing will not seem the first." The melodic material has the feel of late Beethoven in its almost naïve simplicity that seems to contain depths. Krimmel does very well in not oversinging these pieces, and his rapport with Grimaud is obvious. The texts are in Ukrainian and Russian, but "The Isle" is a translation of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and this makes a good place to start sampling (or else the translation of Keats' "La belle dame sans merci"). Yet, one can hear these songs without focusing too closely on the texts; they have a mysterious alchemy of voice and piano. This is a beautiful recording that will reveal much on multiple hearings. © James Manheim /TiVo

From Papillon et la fleur to L’Horizon chimérique, Gabriel Fauré has created some one-hundred melodies which have transformed this French art form into the very pinnacle of musical expression. Many musicians get caught up in the technicalities of his original works, often forgetting to perform, not just recite. Written for a plethora of voices and commonly transposed for convenience, Fauré’s melodies are never recorded solo. Yet this is the gamble that was taken—and successfully at that—by tenor Cyrille Dubois and Pianist Tristan Raës (who have been playing music as a duo for around fifteen years).Several tweaks were needed to undertake such a project. In collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane (Centre de musique romantique française), the pair made a series of difficult choices with regards to transpositions. These decisions were vital in respecting the tonal sequences between the opuses and during the cycles, without betraying Fauré’s harmonic plans. It was also necessary to select the order of the opuses, whose character has developed somewhat over a period of sixty years.   The complete works offered here (which are one of the most significant events of Spring 2022), consists of three recitals, each mixing styles and periods. Cyrille Dubois who expertly blends the style of lyrical song with French chanson, whilst injecting just the right amount of old-fashioned nostalgia. He’s supported by Tristan Raës’ fluid and bright piano. The French tenor’s perfectly controlled timbre does the text real justice, rendering it effortlessly intelligible. This delightfully simple and direct approach transports Fauré’s vast body of work into the 21st century, making it perfectly relevant to the contemporary. This recording will undoubtedly hold a special place in the hearts of those who will commemorate the centenary of the great composer’s death in 2024. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Through his “brilliance and maturity” (as described by The Guardian) the Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas has established himself on the international scene as one of the most interesting artists of his generation. He has appeared in London's Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Milan's Salle Verdi, Moscow's Conservatory and Roque d'Anthéron, and with orchestras such as the Philharmonique de Radio France, the National de Lyon, the NHK of Tokyo, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the list goes on... He has chosen here a Prokofiev programme combining early works from his younger years (the Ten Pieces Op. 12 which is a junior work and yet so intimately prokofievian already!) with the work from his first stage of maturity (Second Sonata from 1912) and the work from his full maturity (the Fifth Sonata). Even better, this Fifth Sonata was written "for the first time" in 1923 after his time in Paris, then revised three decades later under the constraint, undoubtedly, of the infamous Jdanov decree which had accused the composer of all anti-Soviet evils, but also due to a very personal concern (he wanted to purify the piano gesture). In a way this work seems almost "Parisian" as it has so many similarities with Poulenc's style. © SM/Qobuz

World premiere recordings of music by Charles Ives in 2023 are certain to draw considerable attention from those who have an affinity for music from the early-20th century composers. Beyond those looking to complete a collection of Ives' recorded works, this collection of mostly miniatures will likely pique the interest of instrumental ensembles seeking to expand their repertoire. There is a lot of humor in this music, for instance in "Calcium Light Night" from Set No. 1. The wind instruments represent different fraternities parading Yale's campus, singing their society songs as they pass each other in an attempt to drown the other out. A major benefit to this collection is the diversity of Ives' compositional range. There are sensitive, emotional tunes contrasted directly by marching and aggressive rhythms, and Naxos provides texts that the composer used as a basis for these purely instrumental works. The concluding Set for Theatre Orchestra was inspired by the makeshift and often extraordinarily flexible musicians that make up local or community theater orchestras. While this is the only set for "Theatre Orchestra," all of these works fall within the same proportions and variety in instrumentation. Ives wrote many of these with the idea of other instruments being substituted or added, often noting which instrument would be a good substitute. The first three sets and the Set for Theatre Orchestra were fully assembled and published, and credit to John Sinclair, Kenneth Singleton, and David Porter for the realizations provided here of the remaining sets, which were planned for assembly but never made it beyond that stage. This recording is likely to find an audience of more than just collectors, and one can imagine many college faculty recitals making use of the eccentric scoring to collaborate across departments. © Keith Finke /TiVo

Maurice Ravel's orchestral works are universally regarded as models of the art of orchestration, and this 4-CD box set from Deutsche Grammophon presents them complete, in stupendous live performances by Lionel Bringuier and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. These recordings, made between 2014 and 2015, capture every aspect of Ravel's genius, from the colorful transcriptions of his piano pieces to works composed specifically for orchestra. While the ever-popular Boléro is a textbook example of how to use tone colors for a cumulative effect, such lavish pieces as the ballets Daphnis et Chloé and La Valse are sumptuous in their lush textures and vibrant sonorities. Bringuier is an enthusiastic advocate for Ravel's music, and his expertise is apparent in his meticulous interpretations and in the precision of the musicians, who play with rhythmic accuracy and polished execution. Featured soloists in these performances are the virtuoso pianist Yuja Wang, who is exciting in the Piano Concerto in G major and the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major, and violinist Ray Chen, who delivers a compelling reading of Tzigane. In the remaining selections, the Tonhalle shines with brilliant luster, and Deutsche Grammophon's reproduction is first-rate, with its depth, detail, and dynamic range approaching audiophile quality.© TiVo

Few will dispute George Friderick Handel being one of the most accomplished composers of the Classical era, but it should also be noted he possessed to an equal degree, a perhaps less-than-esteemed-but-vital gift in those pre-copyright days, the art of self-promotion. Even in the early stages of his career Handel was well-aware of his prodigious talent and sought to promote it to the utmost. It was that ambition which led the young composer in 1706 to Florence, at the behest of one of the Medicis, to assist in establishing the opera in that city. Handel later decamped for Rome where, his reputation preceding him, he quickly made the acquaintance of leading patrons of the arts among the nobility and upper echelons of the Catholic Church, leading to many commissions.One of those commissions came from Cardinal Carlo Colonna for the major work on this recording, a setting of the Psalm, 109 in the Vulgate, 110 in the King James, Dixit Dominus (The Lord said unto my Lord). Regardless of the composer’s young age of 22, it is the work of a mature master. Even more remarkable, Handel, though from a strict and observant Lutheran upbringing, was able to work with his Catholic patrons, setting a Latin text suitable for use in Catholic worship.There are many recordings of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and this is certainly one of the finest, with brilliant performances by soloists, orchestra, and chorus. Conductor Bart Van Reyn’s tempos are on the sprightly side, but never seem excessive or rushed. There is a wonderful freshness and sparkle to this reading, both in performance and the superb high-resolution sound. Particular praise must be made of the three soloists, whose virtuosity and sensitivity to the text are exemplary.A welcome bonus is a much lesser-known masterpiece by a much lesser-known composer, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini: his Marian cantata (mistakenly attributed until recently to Handel), Il pianto di Maria. In the excellent program notes, Aurélie Walschaert writes this lament differs from earlier ones modeled after the medieval text Stabat Mater, where a narrator describes the sorrows of Mary. Most of the text in this composition is in the first-person, with Mary herself describing the sorrows she is witnessing, thus deepening even further the emotion. A prize should go to mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert, whose astonishingly empathetic delivery of the text will move any listener, whatever their religion. This is a must for every classical library.  © Anthony Fountain/Qobuz

The simple fact of the matter is that, compared with all previous releases of Ashkenazy's stupendous 1974-1975 recordings of Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes, this 96kHz 24-bit remastering is vastly better. Where the original LP release was warm and lush but a tad hazy, and earlier CD releases were warm and lush but a bit hard, this CD release is warm and lush -- but also clear and bright as polished crystal. Thus, while Ashkenazy's luminous lyricism, soulful sensuality, and blazing virtuosity are as manifest as ever -- and few pianists have ever matched him for these qualities in this repertoire -- what had previously seemed like his unfortunate tendency to overpedal in heavier textures is here shown to be a flaw in earlier releases, not his playing. More significantly, the remastering allows the colors and nuances of Ashkenazy's performances to sound more cleanly and accurately. In the hard-charging B flat major Prelude, the delicately radiant G sharp minor Prelude, even the played-to-death C sharp minor Prelude, Ashkenazy's playing seems much more subtle and dazzling -- which, considering his performances have long been considered among the deepest and strongest ever recorded, is quite an achievement. Everyone who treasures Rachmaninov's music should hear this release -- whether they've heard the earlier releases or not.© TiVo

Toscanini regarded this orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition as a genuine treatise on instrumentation, on a par with that of Berlioz: scored for the same instrumental forces as La Valse, Ravel’s version quickly established itself ahead of all the many competing orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s piano suite! In François-Xavier Roth’s view, La Valse and the Pictures together represent the peak of the composer’s output for the symphony orchestra of his time – that is to say, as the musicians of Les Siècles reconstruct it for us today. What a joy to get back to the original colours of this music! © harmonia mundi