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Arne: Artaxerxes
The Mozartists
Classical - Released May 14, 2021 | Signum Records
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The discovery of Artaxerxes by Thomas Arne was a nice surprise for Joseph Haydn, who was unaware that such operas existed in England. Performed practically without interruption in London from 1762 to 1830, it was probably also seen by the young Mozart. At any rate, this is a likelihood suggested by the conductor Ian Page, a great connoisseur of British musical life in the eighteenth century, who has released this album with his ensemble The Mozartists.Adapted into English from the libretto of Metastasio's Artaserse, which was probably written by the composer himself, this 'opera seria' premiered at Covent Garden in 1762 to great acclaim before falling into obscurity until it was revived two hundred years later at the St Pancras Festival. The work is bursting with virtuoso arias, some of which have remained in circulation among singers.This recording was made in 2009 following a series of performances to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas Arne, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden where Artaxerxes was created. It was selected as record of the year by Audiophile Audition and BBC Radio 3's CD review, and was named record of the month by the UK magazine Opera. Thomas Arne wrote around 30 operas, and is seen as a representative of the "gallant style" that extended throughout Europe. His fame was somewhat overshadowed by the ubiquitous output of the "bulldozer" Handel, whose genius reigned over English opera for more than fifty years. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (Complete original score)
John Wilson
Theatre Music - Released September 15, 2023 | Chandos
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While the recordings of highlights and hits from Rodgers & Hammerstein's still-popular Oklahoma! have been issued over the years, the complete, as originally orchestrated score (by Richard Rodney Bennett) had yet to be recorded. However, following a live-staged performance at the 2017 BBC Proms, conductor John Wilson took it upon himself to deliver this premiere. He sticks with the original orchestra dimensions as well, which is a good thing since the handpicked members of his Sinfonia of London are powerful enough in this smaller group. Wilson also took advantage of the quality theaters around London, bringing in soloists and a cast ensemble of veterans from stages across England. He does well in selecting a cast here; while all are more than capable singers, they are also able to deliver the vocal acting that is necessary to pull this off. Leading the cast are Nathaniel Hackmann, reprising his role as Curly from the Proms performance, and Sierra Boggess as Laurey. The vocalists and orchestra take full advantage of the space and recording setup, which allows the orchestra to play full out while not overstraining the singers. The beauty of Rodgers' music paired with Hammerstein's book is evident, even if you are unfamiliar with anything but the titular state (if even that!); the imagery of ranches and open cattle land easily comes to mind. This recording should be welcomed with open arms by those who are familiar with the musical, be it either from a stage (generally edited and with cuts) or in its film version with its edits. Oh, what a beautiful mornin', indeed.© Keith Finke /TiVo
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Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens
London Mozart Players
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 8, 2023 | Chandos
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Gramophone: Recording of the Month
Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, from 1880, here receives its world-recorded premiere. Perhaps recording companies thought there wouldn't be much of a market for a heavy 19th century choral work with, it must be said, a ponderous text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Prometheus was a play intended to be read, not performed, just to give an idea). How wrong they were. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023, and it is altogether enjoyable. At the time, Parry was under the spell of Wagner, whom he traveled to Bayreuth to meet. That influence certainly shows up in Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, with its basically declamatory text, partly through-composed music, wind-and-brass-heavy orchestration, and splashes of chromaticism. Yet what is remarkable is that the music does not come off as an imitation of Wagner at all. Rather, it uses elements of his style to match a specific kind of English literary text. The work gradually disappeared, but it would be surprising if Elgar, whom it clearly prefigures, did not know it well. The performances here are luminous, with William Vann using the lighter-than-expected London Mozart Players to create transparent textures against which he can set the substantial voices of Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, and other soloists. Parry did write some shorter pieces that remain in the repertory; one of these, Blest Pair of Sirens, is included here as a finale. However, the Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound are the main news here, and this performance, showing how this kind of thing should be done, may generate a new life for the work.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Maurice Yvain: Yes!
Les Frivolités Parisiennes
Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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Shostakovich & Kondrashin: Complete Symphonies
Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released January 1, 2006 | JSC Firma Melodiya
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Atys
Christophe Rousset
Opera - Released January 5, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Backed by the Sun King despite a lukewarm audience reception at first, Lully's Atys (1676) went on to become one of the composer's most successful operas, with revivals at French court theaters as late as 1753. In modern times, however, it is a considerably rarer item due to the massive forces and time required. Christophe Rousset was in the pit as harpsichordist when conductor William Christie gave the first modern revival of the work in the late '80s. That experience marks this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists at the beginning of that year. That is not common for a hefty five-act Baroque opera, but even a bit of sampling will confirm why it happened: Rousset, from the keyboard, brings tremendous energy to the opera. He pushes the tempo in the numerous dances and entrance numbers, and the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques and the singers of the Choeur du Chambre de Namur, all of whom have worked closely with Rousset in the past, keep right up. The singers in the solo roles are all fine; haut-contre Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role and Ambroisine Bré as the goddess Cybèle, who sets the tragic plot in motion, are standouts. The sound from the increasingly engineering-expert Château de Versailles label is exceptionally clear in complex textures, and the sensuous cover art (representing, it is true, not the Roman mythological figure of Atys but Hippomène and Atalante) is a bonus. In the end, this is Rousset's Atys, and that is a very good thing.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Signature Philip Glass
Angèle Dubeau
Classical - Released November 3, 2023 | Les Productions Analekta Inc.
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With the continuing popularity of Philip Glass' music, various performers have arranged it for new combinations. He hasn't been notably dismayed by this, and indeed, one might draw a comparison with Arvo Pärt, whose works, to some extent, come into their own as they are performed in different versions. This release by veteran violinist Angèle Dubeau and her ensemble La Pietà is unique thus far. Dubeau reduces some larger items, like an excerpt from the Koyaanisqatsi film score, to chamber ensemble dimensions while performing some of Glass' relatively sparse output of chamber music unaltered. This results in some interesting insights, for example, that the chamber music, although for the most part relatively recent, mostly sticks closer to the minimalist core of Glass' style than the larger pieces, which open that style up to harmonic motion on a bigger scale. Dubeau thus shines a novel lens on Glass' music as a whole. The performances are arresting, with the edge of tension that makes a strong Glass performance, and the Analekta label wisely departs from its frequent choice of Montreal churches for the Multimedia Room at McGill University, an ideal space. Even those with large Glass collections will want to add this unusual release.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris
Reinoud Van Mechelen
Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Diapason d'or
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Psyché
Christophe Rousset
Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Schubert: Lieder with Orchestra
Munich Radio Orchestra
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | BR-Klassik
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One might react to this album with initial annoyance and ask whether it is really necessary to hear orchestrated versions of Schubert's supremely pianistic songs. It may come as a surprise, then, to find that most of these Lieder with Orchestra were arranged by great composers. They include Benjamin Britten, Jacques Offenbach, and Max Reger, who took on the job because, he said, he hated to hear a piano-accompanied song on an orchestral program. Perhaps the most surprising name to find is that of Anton Webern, but his arrangements are not the minimal, pointillistic things one might expect; he wrote these arrangements as a way of studying Schubert's music, and they are quite straightforward. Indeed, it is somewhat difficult to distinguish the arrangers simply by listening to the music; Schubert's melodic lines tend to suggest distinctive solutions. Perhaps Reger's are a bit more lush than the others, although his version of Erlkönig, D. 328, is one of the few numbers here that just doesn't work (there is no way to replicate the percussive quality of the accompaniment). As for the performances as such, Benjamin Appl is clearly an important rising baritone, and he has a wonderful natural quality in Schubert. An oddball release like this might seem an unusual choice for a singer in early career, but he contributes his own notes, and he seems to have undertaken the project out of genuine enthusiasm for the material. At the very least, he has brought some intriguing pieces out of the archives and given them highly listenable performances. The Munich Radio Orchestra, under the young Oscar Jockel, is suitably restrained and keeps out of Appl's way. This release made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Machaut: The Fount of Grace
Orlando Consort
Classical - Released July 7, 2023 | Hyperion
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Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets
Smetana Quartet
Chamber Music - Released August 28, 2020 | Supraphon a.s.
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The Smetana Quartet are a true legend. For over four decades (1945-1989), the ensemble gained critical acclaim and enthused audiences all over world, particularly in the UK, USA and Japan. They attained perfect chime and extraordinary flexibility in voice leading, resulting in part from their playing the entire repertoire by heart. The quartet performed Beethoven’s works throughout their existence – following Smetana, he was the composer on whose music they focused the most and whose complete quartets were in their repertoire from 1974 onwards. They explored some of Beethoven’s pieces for several years before including them in their concert programmes. In collaboration with a Supraphon team, in 1976 the ensemble embarked upon a colossal project, which in 1985 came to fruition with the release on Nippon Columbia of a recording of the complete Beethoven string quartets. Even though the past decade has seen significant changes pertaining to interpretation and technology, the Smetana Quartet’s account of Beethoven’s works is by no means a “museum exhibit”, with their vivacity and dynamism still enthralling today’s listeners. The recording, carefully digitally remastered from the original analogue tapes, is the very first release beyond Japan. Lovers of perfect sound are afforded the opportunity to listen to it Hi-Res 24 bit/192 kHz. © Supraphon
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Janáček: Piano Works
Lars Vogt
Classical - Released February 5, 2021 | Ondine
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Pianist Lars Vogt’s new solo album release is dedicated to the piano works of Leoš Janácek (1854-1928), one of the most original voices among the 20th century composers. This album includes three of the composer’s most well-known and most extensive solo piano works. These works by Janácek are marked by deep melancholy and passion. They manifest the composer's rich inner world through a musical language that remains to be timeless. On an Overgrown Path is a piano cycle which took many shapes during a period of a decade when the composer was slowly sketching the work. The first book containing ten pieces was published in 1911. Already the same year Janáček started drafting a second book which was never completed during the composer’s lifetime: a collection of 5 pieces for the second book was published in the 1940s. These short and fragmentary pieces with evocative titles are filled with deep and mysterious atmosphere. Janáček’s popular In the Mists is a short cycle of piano pieces written in 1912, immediately after the completion of the first book of On an Overgrown Path. These melancholic pieces are hinting towards the harmonies of Debussy without ever losing their essentially Janáčekian characteristics. Piano Sonata, "1. X. 1905 - From the Street" is what remains of an originally three-movement piano sonata premiered in 1906. The work was inspired by the killing of a young worker during a demonstration in Brno on 1 October 1905. The composer was not satisfied with the score and destroyed it later regretting this impulsive act. Fortunately, first two movements of this deeply intensive work were re-discovered and published in 1924. © Ondine
![Russian National Orchestra TCHAIKOVSKY, P.I.: Swan Lake [Ballet] (Russian National Orchestra, Pletnev)](https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/22/67/0761195116722_100.jpg)
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TCHAIKOVSKY, P.I.: Swan Lake [Ballet] (Russian National Orchestra, Pletnev)
Russian National Orchestra
Ballets - Released February 23, 2010 | Ondine
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This 2010 recording of Tchaikovsky's eternally popular Swan Lake ballet, with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra might be ideal for dancing, but it is less ideal purely as a listening experience. On the whole, and in most of its parts, theirs is a highly dramatic and very fast-paced performance, filled with plenty of vigor, energy, color, and contrast. The score requires more pathos and bathos than depth and profundity, and Pletnev elicits from the Russian musicians a sweetly soulful and wholly polished performance. But this version misses the lightness and buoyancy of Gennady Rozhdestvensky's classic account of the work, a performance that sacrifices none of the work's drama, and allowing it space to dance. Pletnev's recording has many virtues, though, and the listener may find a place on the shelf for both his and Rozhdestvensky's versions. Ondine's sound is clean and lush, with plenty of detail.
© TiVo
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Janáček: Piano Works, Vol. 1
Radoslav Kvapil
Classical - Released January 1, 1993 | Supraphon a.s.
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In the Heat of the Night
Imagination
Soul - Released January 1, 1982 | R&B Division Ltd
Imagination's most substantial moments lie in this seamless sophomore effort. The formula is close to that of 1981's Body Talk: Lee John's angelic and serene falsetto surrounded by Ashley Ingram's voluptuous tenor vocals and darkly textured keyboard riffs and Errol Kennedy's steady, subtle, funky backbeat. Yet the tempo is varied a bit more with the onset of three ballads and some slightly more aggressive up-tempo tracks. Four singles were released to success in the U.K., with three crossing over to U.S. shores: the groovy, underground dance number "Changes" (R&B number 46) with a contagious chorus and nabbing percussion breakdown pattern used throughout the tune; the equally insidious "Just an Illusion" (R&B number 27); the moody title track; and "Music and Lights" (R&B number 52). In addition to these treats, the elegant slow-groover "All Night Loving" and the disco-influenced "Heart 'N' Soul," a softly splashy early house effort (check the colorful keyboard solo) that segues into "Music and Lights" are particularly notable. Interestingly, Kennedy stopped his involvement with writing on this set, but John and Ingram continued these duties, along with producers Tony Swain and Steve Jolley.
© Justin M. Kantor /TiVo
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Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (2011 - Remaster)
André Previn
Classical - Released March 9, 2012 | Warner Classics
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Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale (English version), Élégie. Duo concertant
Isabelle Faust
Classical - Released August 27, 2021 | harmonia mundi
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It's appropriate to have a performance of Igor Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat performed by an ensemble featuring violinist Isabelle Faust, for this little melodrama is a bit Faustian with its story of a traveling soldier who sells his fiddle to the Devil in return for economic gain. Faust leads a jazz-like septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, cornet, bassoon, and percussion. If it does not really succeed as jazz (Stravinsky apparently gave himself a crash course in the subject, and the Ragtime section in the second part is especially distant from its American models), the music is a lively and edgy potpourri of styles that, more than anything else Stravinsky wrote, looks forward to postmodern juxtapositions. The narration of Dominique Horwitz, playing the parts of the Narrator, the Soldier, and the Devil, lies a bit uncomfortably between French and English, and there are other points on which one might quibble. Overall though, this is a performance that captures exactly what Stravinsky was trying to accomplish, and it has the energy the work must have had in 1918. The use of the English language is a bonus, and the Teldex Studio sound is excellent.
© TiVo
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Handel: Finest Arias for Base (Bass) Voice, Vol. 1
Christopher Purves
Classical - Released December 2, 2012 | Hyperion
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There's no shortage of Handel aria recitals these days, especially in Britain, but this one by bass baritone Christopher Purves stands out from the crowd in several respects. First of all, it is rare in collecting arias for bass voice, which was, in Handel's time as it was later on, generally associated with a few fixed and generally negative character types (tyrants, rogues, repressive patriarchs). Second, it's a very pleasantly varied collection of tunes, including displays of brilliant passagework, out-of-the-norm writing in service of characterization (Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori, from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, track 4), and high climactic drama (the big, three-part Revenge, Timotheus cries, from Alexander's Feast, track 19, is a familiar example). Finally, Purves unearths some rarely heard pieces and programs them intelligently. When did anyone last year anything from Muzio Scevola, or Riccardo Primo, rè d'Inghilterra, which must have pleased London audiences in 1727 despite its Italian-language text. Purves does not have the biggest voice in the bass baritone universe, and there could be a bit more sound in the very low notes. But the dimensions of the music are right for the period. He's pleasingly accurate in the passagework, and he's a real actor who makes these potentially stilted characters come alive. Listeners will want to hear Purves in a small production of one of these operas after hearing this album, preferably accompanied by the strong historical-instrument group Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen, as he is here.© TiVo
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Bizet: Carmen, WD 31
Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Released January 1, 1964 | Sony Classical
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