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

Purcell’s The Fairy Queen is based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play not frequently performed in the late 17th century, nor very well regarded (“the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life” – Samuel Pepys’ diary, 1662). Despite this, the play would go on to work well within an opera, as the characters of Pyramus and Thisbe could conjure up singing and dancing accomplices. Purcell’s masterful composition, Gabrieli’s first-class performance, and McCreesh’s superb interpretation demonstrate why their recordings are seen as some of the best in classical music today. Gabrieli are world-renowned interpreters of great vocal and instrumental repertoire, from the Renaissance to the present day. Founded by Paul McCreesh in 1982, Gabrieli have both outgrown and remained true to their original identity: whilst the ensemble’s repertoire has expanded beyond any expectation, McCreesh’s ever-questioning spirit, expressive musicianship and a healthy degree of iconoclasm remain constant and are reflected in the ensemble’s dynamic performances. Gabrieli’s repertoire includes major works of the oratorio tradition, virtuosic a cappella programmes and mould-breaking reconstructions of music for historical events. Above all, Gabrieli aims to create thought-provoking performances which stand out from the crowd. © Signum Records

This admirable Harmonia Mundi release presents Franz Josef Haydn's two cello concertos and the Cello Concerto in G minor by Georg Matthias Monn with the luster of period instruments; refined, idiomatic playing; and exceptional sound quality, with full resonance; and cellist Jean-Guihan Queyras and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, directed by Petra Müllejans, render these works with exquisite details and emotional depth. In a real sense, their performances are acts of rediscovery, for Haydn's cello concertos have become routine fare from too many modern renditions, and Monn's piece is unfamiliar from too few performances. Indeed, all three concertos have suffered the vagaries of preservation and interpretation. Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major was once considered lost until its discovery in 1961; the Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major suffered false attribution and its authorship was debated until the appearance of the manuscript in 1954; and Monn's concerto survived only in an arrangement for harpsichord and strings until Arnold Schoenberg edited it in 1912. To set the record straight, this disc presents the concertos intelligently refurbished, with appropriate eighteenth century style and color. Through their insightful scholarship and sensitive performances, Queyras and Müllejans have produced a fine alternative to the less authentic mainstream recordings.© TiVo

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

We’d been waiting for it for a long time, too long in fact: after having brilliantly and repeatedly interpreted the works of the American composer Eric Whitacre, the Voces8 chamber choir have now devoted an entire recording to him. This has now been accomplished with Home, which illustrates Whitacre’s musical portrait and the entire evolution of his language. Here, the selection brings together works from his youth (even his very first composition, Go, Lovely Rose), to other pieces finalised just a few months before the recording. With its harrowing light and overwhelming theme, The Sacred Veil, as a central piece, probably stands out as one of the greatest vocal works of our time - here, Eric Whitacre delivers the story about the death of his friend's wife in heart-wrenching deferential modesty. As always, it's hard to find anything wrong with a Voces8 release: the timbre is unique and it reaffirms the humble strength of the collective beyond the dissonance of individualistic voices. The purity of the breaths, the melismas’ caresses, the sound recording’s closeness; it all plunges us into a soothing bath of humanity. While the Voces8 early work is exquisite, they become almost unsurpassable in the contemporary repertoire, and leave an invaluable gift for future generations. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz

The last time cellist Yo-Yo Ma teamed with bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin player Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers fame) for a classical/bluegrass hybrid, the result was the gold-selling Songs of Joy & Peace. Here, Ma, Meyer, and Thile are joined by fiddler Stuart Duncan in a different kind of string quartet. The slang phrase "goat rodeo," according the Urban Dictionary, "is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it." That may be overstating the case for a group of musicians most of whom have worked together and succeeded before, but it also carries a rural connotation that is appropriate for music that is, for the most part, closer to bluegrass than classical. The tunes were written by Duncan, Meyer, and Thile, and Ma's role is largely supportive. After the fast pieces "Attaboy" and "Quarter Chicken Dark," "Helping Hand" is the first slower number, with Thile switching to guitar and Duncan taking over the mandolin for a musical conversation between the two instruments. "Where's My Bow?" is a violin/cello/bass trio with Thile sitting out, and it is one of the few tracks that leans more toward the classical side, boasting a big, dramatic finish. The more exotic "Here and Heaven" finds both Thile and Meyer at times playing the Renaissance instrument the gamba, as Duncan picks up a fretless banjo, all of them backing a vocal duet between Thile and Aoife O'Donovan of Crooked Still. Meyer moves to piano for the slow, thoughtful "Franz and the Eagle," another piece that has more of a classical bent. The rest of the album is in a progressive bluegrass mode, "Less Is Moi" mixing several short themes and allowing room for improvisation, and "13:8" taken quickly, with Duncan and Thile interacting briskly. It doesn't really seem as if 100 things had to go right for The Goat Rodeo Sessions to work; it only required four or five talented musicians to play and sing in sympathetic unity, and that they did, making this a satisfying experience for more adventurous classical and bluegrass fans.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

In the year of his 90th birthday (which he would have celebrated on the 23rd of September 2020 had he not died in 2004), Ray Charles is honoured with a new 90-track compilation box set. Just another compilation like all the rest? Yes and no. Ray Charles is undoubtedly one of the most-compiled artists in the history of music. Published by Tangerine, the label that the musician set up at the end of the 50s to keep the rights to his songs, this box set starts out like all the others: with the post-Atlantic hits, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, One Mint Julep, Busted... These are timeless treasures of proto-soul, but there doesn't seem to be much novelty here. The rest is much more interesting, and much rarer: tracks recorded between the second half of the 1960s and the 2000s, many of which were only released on vinyl, never reissued on CD and until now unavailable on digital. This is the first time that Ray Charles' lesser-known years have been given the compilation treatment in this way, and it is a revelation. In the 90s and 2000s, the production of his songs had a synthetic feel, and they did not age too well. These rarer songs are often hidden gems of southern soul, flavoured with country and wrapped in sumptuous symphonic orchestrations. Whether he is singing the Muppets (It's Ain't Easy Being Green) or Gershwin (Summertime, a duet with Cleo Laine), Ray Charles is always deeply moving. Now, the dream is to hear reissues of all these albums in their entirety. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

This admirable Harmonia Mundi release presents Franz Josef Haydn's two cello concertos and the Cello Concerto in G minor by Georg Matthias Monn with the luster of period instruments; refined, idiomatic playing; and exceptional sound quality, with full resonance; and cellist Jean-Guihan Queyras and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, directed by Petra Müllejans, render these works with exquisite details and emotional depth. In a real sense, their performances are acts of rediscovery, for Haydn's cello concertos have become routine fare from too many modern renditions, and Monn's piece is unfamiliar from too few performances. Indeed, all three concertos have suffered the vagaries of preservation and interpretation. Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major was once considered lost until its discovery in 1961; the Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major suffered false attribution and its authorship was debated until the appearance of the manuscript in 1954; and Monn's concerto survived only in an arrangement for harpsichord and strings until Arnold Schoenberg edited it in 1912. To set the record straight, this disc presents the concertos intelligently refurbished, with appropriate eighteenth century style and color. Through their insightful scholarship and sensitive performances, Queyras and Müllejans have produced a fine alternative to the less authentic mainstream recordings.© TiVo

The Mozartists and their director, Ian Page, have made a career of exploring the music of Mozart in the context of his musical surroundings, and their recordings have been of uniformly high quality. Now, they have turned to the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") movement of the late 18th century, which featured minor keys, highly dramatic contrasts, and, in general, a subjective intensity that reacted against the balance characteristic of Classical-era music. This movement was more associated with instrumental music than with opera, and it might be asked whether the minor-key operatic arias like those here from Anton Schweitzer and Giovanni Paisiello really qualify as Sturm und Drang; these had different sources from the literary ones, the early writings of Goethe among them, that inspired Sturm und Drang composers of instrumental music. This said, this album has a lot of music that even serious Classicism buffs may not have heard, beautifully performed. In the operatic excerpts (Schweitzer is all but unknown, but these pieces from his opera Alceste will make one wonder why), rising soprano Emily Pogorelc has a fine sense of dramatic involvement with the text. The Symphony in G minor of Leopold Koželuch is another standout, in the same ballpark as, if not Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, at least the so-called "Little" Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183. Mozart himself is present only in the Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, usually played by a string quartet, but taking on an exceptionally dark, agitated quality here with a full string group. The program ends with Haydn's Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Hob. 1/44, which offers a good example of the general style. The Mozartists' series is projected to reach seven volumes, and one is excited to think about what new finds may emerge in the later ones.© James Manheim /TiVo

The performance here of the familiar String Quartet No. 1 in E minor ("From My Life") of Smetana has everything one could ask for: adept playing and ensemble work, broad expression, sensitivity to the piece's deep autobiographical symbolism. It has everything you'd expect to hear if you went to a concert hall in Prague on a weekend afternoon for one of the city's leading chamber ensembles. It doesn't really break new ground, but that's left to the remainder of the album. The noteworthy entry here is the much-less-often-performed String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, written in 1882 and 1883 as Smetana suffered from deafness and what was probably the syphilis that killed him the following year. The work mystified Smetana's contemporaries, was not published until after his death, and was not properly edited until the middle of the 20th century. (Among its champions was Arnold Schoenberg.) It's concise and rather abrupt: compared with Beethoven's string quartet output, it might be the String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, to the String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, Op. 74 ("Harp") of the From My Life quartet. The piece's rather fragmentary nature has been held to be a reflection of the fits and starts in which Smetana, under doctor's orders not to compose, worked on it, but the Pavel Haas Quartet puts it together and makes of it the inward music it ought to be, its flashes of light coming through as bits of hope in a deteriorating life. The quartet is not quite like any other work of the 19th century, and the Pavel Haas Quartet succeeds in taking it on its own terms. Highly recommended.© TiVo

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vaughan Williams, we are proud to reissue this outstanding symphony cycle. Started in 1999 by Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra, this was the first Vaughan Williams symphony cycle to be recorded in Surround Sound and released on Hybrid SACD. Tragically, Richard Hickox died before he was able to complete the project - a task that was undertaken by Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. © Chandos

From the opening rumble of John Lennon's "Come Together" leading into George Harrison's seductive "Something," Paul McCartney's tuneful doowop ballad "Oh Darling," and Ringo Starr's charmingly goofy "Octopus Garden," (all progressing to the nearly side-long medley that appropriately closes with "And in the end/the love you take/is equal to the love you make") Abbey Road—renowned as the final golden moment in The Beatles’ otherwise unpleasant demise—is arguably the band's masterpiece. The latest in a systematic remixing and reissuing of the Beatles catalog directed by original producer George Martin's son Giles, Abbey Road has been remixed and reissued in various configurations including 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the album's release. The 96 kHz/24-bit high resolution stereo remix adds space and dynamics to deepen and brighten the original. The allure for those already familiar with the original album are 23 alternate takes and demos meant to shed light on the band's famed creative process. The revelations are subtle but telling. Lennon's wit shows through on a bit of studio patter left into an alternate take of "I Want You" (he responds to a noise complaint from Soho neighbors of Trident Studio with "What are they doing here at this time of night?" and his impassioned vocals on "Come Together (Take 5)," where at the end he can be heard saying "I'm losing my cool," speaks to the enthusiasm that the band had for these sessions. The nearly-there 36th take of "You Never Give Me Your Money," and the 20th takes of "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard," are examples of how the material evolved and was sharpened in the studio. Conversely, McCartney's piano and plaintive singing on "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" (Takes 1-3), a tune whose line, "Once there was a way to get back homeward," often cited as an expression of regret over the band's crumbling—shows how the band sometimes had a concept firmly in mind before the tape began to roll. Although the previously recorded Let It Be would be released six months later (and just a few weeks after the Beatles' break-up), Abbey Road is the sound of the most unique creative force in the history of popular music bidding farewell; those incredibly talented parts become a fabulous whole for the last time. © Robert Baird / Qobuz

This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023. It might seem that few listeners would be moved to add yet another version of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, to their collections, but this is one of the strongest readings to come along in some years. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony have specialized in big, bold interpretations of traditional Romantic repertory, and this one is no exception. It is an intense, brooding Tchaikovsky Fifth in the vein mined by the great Russian conductors of the middle 20th century (Honeck is not afraid to let the brass blare), and parts of it are really transcendent. After a bleak, moody first movement, hear the perfectly suspended horn solo in the second movement, sneaking in quietly at first, almost beneath notice. This is a virtuoso piece of playing, and even those not enamored of everything Honeck does will be hard-pressed to contend that he has not raised the Pittsburgh Symphony, which he has led since 2008, to the top rank of American orchestras. The work that rings down the curtain of this live recording is also unusual; the orchestration of Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet is by Honeck himself, with Tomás Ille. Another draw here for physical album buyers is the set of detailed booklet notes by Honeck; few conductors do that, and they offer plenty of insight into his interpretations. Top it off with clean live sound from Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall (no audience noise or applause), and the result is a superior Tchaikovsky recording.© James Manheim /TiVo