Handel Duets
From Agrippina, Belshazzar, Sosarme, Ottone, Tamerlano, Ariodante, Radimisto, Theodora, Giulio Cesare Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Rosemary Joshua (soprano), English Concert, Harry Bicket (conductor) CHANDOS | CHAN0767 | CD | 095115076729
This new Handel collection features two great singers in an ideal partnership - Sarah Connolly and Rosemary Joshua - alongside the English Concert, one of the finest baroque orchestras in the UK. Sarah Connolly's acclaimed Handelian performances have included the title role in Giulio Cesare for the Glyndebourne Festival and in Agrippina, Xerxes, Ariodante and Ruggiero (Alcina) for the English National Opera. Rosemary Joshua, too, is well known for her Handel, having sung the title-role in Semele for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award and recorded for Chandos.
Wolkenstein Songs of Myself Andreas Scholl (countertenor) Schield of Harmonies, Crawford Young (conductor) HARMONIA MUNDI | HMC902051 | CD | 794881941025
Few composers can have boasted quite such a colourful life as the medieval poet Oswald von Wolkenstein. Raised in a Tyrolean castle, in a world ripped apart by the Black Death epidemic and by religious turmoil, Wolkenstein became something of a wandering knight with a complicated private life. If his travels enriched his writings, they also enriched the musical form, as he incorporated French songs into the German style. Andreas Scholl's creamy and communicative countertenor voice has greatly endeared him to critics and public alike.
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (conductor) LSO LIVE | LSO0682 | SACD2 | 822231168225
‘Rarely does a new recording supersede all before it, but that is the case with the London Symphony Orchestra's new performance of Prokofiev's ballet score, Romeo and Juliet…an indispensable release.’ (The Australian 5-star review). 'Most concert conductors only take bites out of Prokofiev's virile but lengthy ballet. Not Valery Gergiev. He knows that the complete score is a treasure chest of musical characterisation, orchestral colour, soaring melody and blasting drama: manna from heaven for himself and the London Symphony Orchestra' (The Times).
Impressions on Chopin Lesdek Mozdzer (piano) NAÏVE | V5229 | CD | 822186052297
To celebrate the bicentennial of Frederic Chopin's birth, Naive has re-issued Impressions on Chopin - a fascinating, charming and refreshing album that sees the internationally acclaimed Polish jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer perform his own arrangements of well known works by Chopin. In Mozdzer’s world of music without nationality, the Polish mazurka works alongside ragtime, flamenco and Cuban calypso and the typically Chopin rubato is occasionally replaced by a swing pulse. For fans of Chopin, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock!
value pick of the month - cheaper than a download!
Luciano Pavarotti – The ‘Signature’ Edition
Arias including: Nessun Dorma (Turandot) • Brindisi (La Traviata) Una Furtiva Lagrima (L’elisir d’amore) • O Soave Fanciulla • Che gelida manina (La Bohéme) • La donna e mobile (Rigoletto) • O sole mio • Caro mio ben • Schubert’s Ave Maria Conducted by Richard Bonynge • Sir Charles Mackerras • Maria Giulini • Claudio Abbado RED NOTE | RNCDBOX001 | CD10 | 5060214200219
The finest Pavarotti boxed set on the market, an ideal gift for collectors! This beautifully presented 'signature' edition (in a matte-finish clamshell box with silver-embossed detail) features almost 150 superb tracks from the world's most beloved tenor, on 9 DVDs with a bonus live concert DVD from the Gran Teatre Del Liceu in 1989.
Averaging roughly 40 cents per track, this lavish boxed set is cheaper than a download and looks spectacular on any collector’s shelf.
Stravinsky’s collaboration with the violinist Samuel Dushkin was a great artistic success, generating new works for the repertoire as well as arrangements of some of the composer’s most tuneful and popular works. Of these arrangements, Dushkin wrote that Stravinsky seemed ‘to go back to the essence of the music and rewrite or recreate the music in the spirit of the new instrument’. In the performing partnership of violinist Anthony Marwood and composer-pianist Thomas Adès, Hyperion has a combination that seems to reignite the original flames of inspiration, creation and re-creation.
2010 sees the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, and among the many celebratory recordings, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer’s extraordinary influence and legacy. Chopin’s unique style of piano writing was to utterly transform the way in which composers wrote for and thought about the instrument. Few escaped some aspect of that legacy until the early years of the twentieth century; and few pianists have not had Chopin’s music in their concert repertoire. Small wonder that so many composers and pianist-composers—major and minor—have felt moved to pay their respects to a musician for whom there is almost universal approbation. A fascinating selection of hommages are represented here. Jonathan Plowright has recently been described as ‘one of the finest living pianists; the possessor of qualities that should no longer remain a secret’ (Gramophone). His formidable technique and musical integrity combine in a disc which is a must for any pianophile.
November 2009 The Baroque Trombone Members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra - Richard Tognetti (violin), Helena Rathbone (violin), Maxime Bibeau (double bass), Neal Peres Da Costa (harpsichord, organ), Christian Lindberg (trombone) BIS RECORDS | BISCD1688 | CD | 7318590016886
Frescobaldi Four Canzonas, Biber Trio Sonata, Castello Three Sonatas
Christian Lindberg, who has done more than anyone to establish the modern trombone as a solo instrument, bought his first sackbut 30 years ago with the hope of one day recording a baroque programme. Now the opportunity to do so has arrived – largely due to Lindberg’s encounter with Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. On this recording Lindberg and a handful of the ACO players in ‘sweet harmony’ (including Helena Rathbone, Maxime Bibeauand Neal Peres Da Costa)present a programme of sonatas and canzonas by Biber, Frescobaldi and Dario Castello.
This disc is a must-have for lovers of guitar music and contemporary Australian composition. It presents a selection of lively and accessible Australian works arranged for guitar from our finest composers, from Sculthorpe's ever-popular Kakadu to Ross Edwards' thrilling dance-inspired music and works by Brett Dean, whose new opera Bliss will soon be the toast of the town when Opera Australia premieres it in March. Brilliant young Adelaide-based guitarist Aleksandr Tsiboulski brings this diverse collection of music by leading Australian composers to the attention of listeners the world over.
Dear Mrs. Parks is a deeply moving oratorio for which Hannibal Lokumbe wrote both the music and libretto. The work features a massive ensemble comprised of full orchestra plus a large choir and four vocal soloists. Featuring influences from the blues, jazz, African music and Gospel music, it pays homage to Rosa Parks in the form of imaginary letters to the civil rights heroine from three individuals, an African-American woman who worked with Mrs. Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Viola Liuzzo, a white Civil Rights martyr from Detroit slain by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965; and a young African-American man whose generation has benefited from the Civil Rights Movement. The fourth soloist is a young girl, representing innocence and hope.
The last collaboration between Richard Tognetti and Christian Lindberg (on Baroque trombone) was an extremely popular ABC Classic FM CD of the Week. Now Lindberg appears as conductor for this thrilling disc of Dvorak’s spirited music for violin and orchestra.
Handel Duets
Wolkenstein Songs of Myself
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
Impressions on Chopin
