The following classical CD titles are due for release / re-release in the near future.
GEORGE WALKER
Walker: Complete Piano Works Vol 1 Alexandre Dossin (piano) [ Naxos American Classics / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] George Walker's unique collection of piano music ranges across his long career. The three sonatas heard here, in this the first of two volumes of Walker's complete piano works, offer compelling contrasts. Sonata No. 1 is his longest and utilizes folk... |
LUKAS FOSS
Foss: Ode / Renaissance Concerto / Three American Pieces / Symphony No. 1 in G major Amy Porter (flute) Nikki Chooi (violin) / Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta [ Naxos American Classics / CD - due 24/May/2024 ] Berlin-born Lukas Foss studied music in Paris before settling in Philadelphia in 1937. Though he freely explored diverse compositional styles, three of the works in this recording fall into his early neo-Classical period and exemplify his dictum that... |
EDVARD GRIEG
Grieg: Holberg Suite, Ballade & Lyric Pieces Andrey Gugnin (piano) [ Hyperion / CD - due 3/May/2024 ] Andrey Gugnin presents a wonderful all-Grieg recital, the elegant neo-classicism of 'From Holberg's time' (a rare and welcome opportunity to hear the original version for solo piano) contrasting with the brooding magnificence of the 'Ballade'. |
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto Nos. 2 & 3 Anna Federova (piano) / Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Laërcio Diniz & Gerard Oskamp [ Brilliant Classics / CD - due 12/Apr/2024 ] The Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova is renowned for her playing of Rachmaninoff, and in particular the four concertos which she has performed across the world. She made these recordings in 2014, at a relatively early stage in her career. |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: La Favorite (complete opera recorded in 2022) Annalisa Stroppa (mezzo-soprano) Javier Camarena (tenor) Florian Sempey (baritone) Evgeny Stavinsky (bass) / Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Riccardo Frizz [ Naxos / 3 CD Box Set - due 19/Apr/2024 ] Written for the Opéra in Paris, Gaetano Donizetti's La Favorite contains some of his most famously enthralling arias. While its much-reduced Italian version has continued in popularity, this superb production from the Donizetti Opera Festival in... |
C. P. E. BACH
Bach, (C.P.E.) - Instrumental Theatre of Effects Arte dei Suonatori, Marcin Świątkiewicz (harpsichord, pianoforte, conductor) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - due 5/Apr/2024 ] Subversive music by C.P.E. Bach that surprises, moves and speaks to us |
MARCELLE de MANZIARLY
Marcelle de Manziarly - Chamber Works Cecilia Zilliacus (violin) Kati Raitinen (cello) Bengt Forsberg, Peter Friis Johansson (piano) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] De Manziarly - a major musical force to rediscover |
ANNIBALE PADOVANO
Padovano: Missa A la dolc' ombra & Missa Domine a lingua dolosa Cinquecento [ Hyperion / CD - due 3/May/2024 ] Celebrated in his time as a 'man of great worth', who 'really knew how to play well and compose well', Annibale Padovano's modern-day neglect doesn't reflect the high regard in which he was held. Cinquecento deliver flawless accounts of two major... |
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Piazzolla: Buenos Aires - arrangements for Violin and String Orchestra Tomás Cotik (violin) / Martingale Ensemble, Ken Selden [ Naxos / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] Astor Piazzolla's Nuevo tango transcends categories and represents an amalgam of international influences. All the arrangements in this album are of instrumental works that Piazzolla composed for his Quinteto Nuevo Tango. |
JOAQUIN TURINA
Turina: Works For Strings Concerto Málaga, Gil de Gálvez [ Naxos Spanish Classics / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] To commemorate the 75th anniversary year of Turina's death, this album presents some of the composer's most admired works heard in arrangements for strings that honour the colour, richness and vivacity of the originals. Two of his best-known works -... |
ERICH J. WOLFF
Wolff: Complete Songs Vol 1 Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Samantha Gaul (soprano), Klaus Simon (piano) [ Naxos / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] Erich J. Wolff's name will be unfamiliar to many but in the 1920s an authoritative reference book on popular art song ranked his compositions fourth, behind Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. The first volume in this series of Wolff's... |
ALBERT ROUSSEL
Roussel: Violin Sonatas Nos 1 and 2 / String Trio David Bowlin (violin), Tony Cho (piano), with Kirsten Docter (viola), Dmitry Kouzov (cello) [ Naxos / CD - due 24/May/2024 ] Although he is best remembered for his highly regarded stage and orchestral works, Roussel also composed a significant body of masterful yet relatively unknown chamber music. The Romantic early First Violin Sonata is an epic journey of soaring... |
FRANCO ALFANO
Alfano: Suite Romantica Davide Vendramin (accordion) Vittorio Rabagliati (piano) / Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Giuseppe Grazioli [ Naxos / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] Franco Alfano is remembered today for his completion of Turandot after Puccini's death. His catalogue of works, including operas, orchestral and chamber music, reveals him to be a sophisticated and original composer. Alfano possessed an innate... |
DARON HAGEN
Hagen: Heike Quinto Duo YUMENO / Yoko Reikano Kimura (voice) [ Naxos American Classics / CD - due 24/May/2024 ] Daron Hagen is a multi-award-winning creative polymath whose work is internationally acclaimed for its impeccable craftsmanship, social conscience and emotional accessibility. Embracing the Japanese medieval text The Tale of the Heike, Hagen has... |
GEORGE DE LA HELE
La Hèle: Missa Praeter rerum seriem & works by Manchicourt, Payen & Rogier El León de Oro / Peter Phillips [ Hyperion / CD - due 5/Apr/2024 ] A collection of works representative of a school of Flemish composers living in Madrid towards the end of the Renaissance and all employed by Philip II of Spain, who held composers from the Low Countries in particularly high regard. La Hèle's Mass,... |
FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor / etc Emmanuel Despax, piano [ Signum / CD - due 7/Jun/2024 ] Emmanuel Despax's eighth release for Signum Classics delves into the dramatic and visionary world of Franz Liszt, from the great Sonata in B minor to the celestail Benediction de Deur dans la solitude. |
ALBERIC MAGNARD
Magnard: Cello Sonata Op.20 / Piano Trio Op.18 Camilla Patria (cello) Elena Ballario (piano) Franco Mezzena (violin) Sergio Patria (cello) [ Brilliant Classics / CD - due 12/Apr/2024 ] Albéric Magnard, born in Paris in 1865, was a pupil of Dubois, Guiraud, Massenet and D'Indy at the Paris Conservatoire, and he frequented the circle of César Franck. In 1896 he became a teacher at Paris's Schola Cantorum. |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Guitar Recital Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo (guitar) [ Naxos Guitar Laureate Series / CD - due 19/Apr/2024 ] Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo, winner of the 2022 European Bach Guitar Award, presents a selection of works transcribed for guitar from the rich repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach. Arrangements made for different instruments were customary during the Baroque... |
FRANK BRIDGE / JOHN IRELAND / REBECCA CLARKE / RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS / etc
Folk Tales Vol 2 - British and Irish Miniatures Gerald Peregrine (cello) Antony Ingham (piano) Lynda O'Connor (violin) [ Naxos / CD - due 24/May/2024 ] Following the success of the first volume of Folk Tales (8.574035), Gerald Peregrine and Antony Ingham go further into their explorations of British and Irish music. These include rarely recorded works and new interpretations of traditional Irish... |
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Armida (complet opera recorded in 2022) Moisés Marín, Michele Angelini, Jusung Gabriel Park, Ruth Iniesta / Krakow Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Jose Miguel Perez-Sierra [ Naxos Rossini in Wildbad / 2 CD - due 24/May/2024 ] The story of Armida had already inspired around 70 composers by the time Rossini took it on both as an opportunity to measure himself against his colleagues, and as a special role for soprano Isabella Colbran with whom he had recently started a... |