New Releases

[Cato]

26 CDs. November. JPC listing
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/jorge-bolet-complete-decca-recordings/hnum/11904871

One of the great pianists of the last century!


Here near the end of his life:

[relm1]

I thought quite highly of this new release of Kenneth Fuchs. Imaginative, detailed, colorful music.

[Todd]

[Mandryka]

Rather nice Sokolov

[Brian]

Going off previous Alpha boxes and the price (just US $45 for 15 CDs), this will probably not have CD sleeve art or full booklet, but if you want all the Belcea Quartet's recordings, you can grab this and the Warner box for a total of less than $80.

[Brian]

OCTOBER





"Caroline Ridderstolpe's music remained virtually unknown for almost 200 years, until Anna Paradiso rediscovered it as part of her research into nineteenth-century Swedish salon music. Born in Berlin, Ridderstolpe (1793–1878) received an extensive musical education that included singing, instrument-playing and composition. After her marriage to a member of the Swedish aristocracy, she settled in Sweden, participated in the salons held at the royal court and socialised with some of the finest musicians, writers and painters of her time.

Ridderstolpe mainly composed songs and pieces for solo piano that belong to the genre of salon music which, far from being mediocre as is sometimes claimed, actually allows greater intimacy with the listeners. Ridderstolpe's songs are often based on poems by Swedish writers and represent a perfect union of text and music. According to Anna Paradiso, Caroline Ridderstolpe's music has a kind of sadness and depth that could be described as 'modern', reminiscent of the lieder of Beethoven, Schubert and the Schumanns.

In keeping with the soundscape of Ridderstolpe's era, the music is performed here by Anna Paradiso on an original square piano whose particularity and charm lie not in the evenness of all the notes as one might expect from a modern instrument, but rather in the independent beauty of each string. This instrument is combined with the expressive voice of the eminent mezzo-soprano Kristina Hammarström. By giving once more a voice to Caroline Ridderstolpe's music, the performers wish to cast new light on women's power over their own creativity and therefore over their own lives."



contents alphabetically
Arnold, Malcolm
Sonatina for clarinet and piano, op.29 (which btw was premiered by Colin Davis on clarinet)

Finzi, Gerald
Bagatelles (5), op.23

Horovitz, Joseph
Majorcan Pieces (2)
Sonatine for clarinet and piano (which btw was premiered by Gervase de Peyer)

Stanford, Charles Villiers
Clarinet Sonata, op.129
Intermezzi (3), op.13



"This recording presents the entire output to date for guitar of Toshio Hosokawa, one of Japan's most prolific composers for the instrument. His affinity for the guitar stems from his familiarity with popular songs accompanied by the guitar and from his knowledge of the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument from which he has adopted certain playing techniques. Although the works gathered here call for a variety of forces – guitar solo, guitar and voice, guitar and instrumental ensemble – they all present a fundamental aspect of Toshio Hosokawa's output: the music seems to be born like a calligraphic line 'at the limit of time and space'."



encores... Tzigane, Meditation from Thais, Tchaikovsky, Falla, Kreisler, Waxman, etc.





Why's there a soprano? Well...someone arranged the Four Last Songs for soprano, horn, and chamber orchestra!





open that MTT back cover in a new tab to see the full size track contents and the touching charitable purpose

And on Chandos (no art):
Adrian Sutton: Violin Concerto, Five Theatre Miniatures, A Fist Full of Fives, War Horse Suite, Short Story
Fenella Humphreys BBC Philharmonic

[Roy Bland]

[Todd]

O! M!! G!!!



It's been a while since Ms Krier's last recording.





This Dvorak fella's Cello Concerto seems to be recorded with no little regularity.  Maybe I ought to check it out.



Yep.

[Mandryka]

O! M!! G!!!



It's been a while since Ms Krier's last recording.





This Dvorak fella's Cello Concerto seems to be recorded with no little regularity.  Maybe I ought to check it out.



Yep.

What is that instrument that Beghin's playing - some sort of piano or some sort of clavichord?

[André]

Brian mentioned this one, which I'm very eager to buy:

[JBS]

What is that instrument that Beghin's playing - some sort of piano or some sort of clavichord?

The Presto blurb says he plays his own clavichord for this album.

[Florestan]

Most intriguing.

[Atriod]

[aukhawk]

A couple of tracks from this have been pre-released (Etudes 6 & 19).  At long last, someone who has an individual and distinctive way with this music, characterised by a staccato touch in the right hand.  I'm not supposing this is always going to work, but it's certainly a bit different from the growing list of ho-hum recordings released over the last 5 years or so.

Since Sally Whitwell's release of the complete Etudes in 2018 - which I was initially luke-warm about but over time I have really come to enjoy her severe, straight-ahead approach - we have had, in order more or less:
Jacopo Salvatori (2018)
[Nicholas Teague]** (2020)
Leslie Dala (2021)
Francois Mardirossian (2022)
Maciej Ganski (2023)
plus several other issues of just Book One (ie Etudes 1-10).
I've listened to all of these, but none of them have offered much, not really come close to weaning me off my favourites (Batagov, Whitwell and, with reservations about the sound, Gorisek).  So I'm now awaiting this Maire Carroll (2024) release with some interest.

** I've included Teague for completeness, though I doubt if even his own mother could enjoy listening to this stumbling effort.

[Madiel]

A couple of tracks from this have been pre-released (Etudes 6 & 19).  At long last, someone who has an individual and distinctive way with this music, characterised by a staccato touch in the right hand.  I'm not supposing this is always going to work, but it's certainly a bit different from the growing list of ho-hum recordings released over the last 5 years or so.

Since Sally Whitwell's release of the complete Etudes in 2018 - which I was initially luke-warm about but over time I have really come to enjoy her severe, straight-ahead approach - we have had, in order more or less:
Jacopo Salvatori (2018)
[Nicholas Teague]** (2020)
Leslie Dala (2021)
Francois Mardirossian (2022)
Maciej Ganski (2023)
plus several other issues of just Book One (ie Etudes 1-10).
I've listened to all of these, but none of them have offered much, not really come close to weaning me off my favourites (Batagov, Whitwell and, with reservations about the sound, Gorisek).  So I'm now awaiting this Maire Carroll (2024) release with some interest.

** I've included Teague for completeness, though I doubt if even his own mother could enjoy listening to this stumbling effort.

Have you tried Vikingur Olafsson's album? It's not the complete Etudes, but frankly it's the only Glass album I've ever truly enjoyed.

PS I grew up with Sally Whitwell. Still didn't make me like Glass, and that was before I didn't like Sally Whitwell...

[Mandryka]

The Presto blurb says he plays his own clavichord for this album.

The music is in Vol 21 of Spanyi - complex and interesting music IMO.

[aukhawk]

Have you tried Vikingur Olafsson's album? It's not the complete Etudes, but frankly it's the only Glass album I've ever truly enjoyed. ...

Yes of course Olafsson's part-set of the Glass Etudes is outstanding in every way.  And I didn't make it clear enough that I was surveying only recordings of the full 1-20.
The complete list of full sets (I think) with the ones I prefer in bold:
Maki Namekawa (2014) (inc. premiere recording of Book 2)
Nicolas Horvath (2015) (on 1 CD !!)
Bojan Gorisek (2015) (awful sound)
Jeroen Van Veen (2017)
Jenny Lin (2017)
Anton Batagov (2017) (a live recording)
Sally Whitwell (2018)
Jacopo Salvatori (2018)
[Nicholas Teague] (2020) (awful performance)
Leslie Dala (2021)
Francois Mardirossian (2022)
Maciej Ganski (2023)
Maire Carroll (2024) (new release)

Gorisek is highly interventionist, Whitwell plays it straight.  Batagov is part-way between the two (and is a gorgeous recording), Namekawa part-way between Batagov and Whitwell.

[Todd]

[DavidW]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but the third volume is out (I think I'm the only one on the forum that likes these recordings):

[Brian]

OK, guys, I found another batch of OCTOBER RELEASES to go with the ones higher up on this page...hope your browsers can load this page with all the images on it!!



Tzimon Barto's Bartok concertos require two CDs - approx. 26:15 for the First, 30:30 for the Second, and 30:15 for the Third, for just over 87 minutes total. The slow movement of Concerto No. 3 is 13:45. Compare to 78 for Anda, 73 for Kocsis, 76 for Andras Schiff, 76 for the mixed pianist Boulez set.

For @DavidW only  :



(I bet Fischer lets the timpanist get really wild in the Drumroll symphony!)

Contents of this release Todd pointed out:





promo:
"With one exception, this CD box contains my complete piano works from 2010 to 2020, which are being released on CD for the first time. Operas 76, 86 and 116 are dedicated to Ana-Marija Markovina, who also premièred them." (Stefan Heucke) This CD-Box is a great stroke of luck. Stefan Heucke's work is an impressive testimony to the musical interweaving of genres and themes, of new and historical forms and techniques of expression, of music and literature. The fact that Heucke's complete piano works from 2010 to 2020 are being released on CD for the first time with this CD box set makes one literally 'sit up and take notice'. The compositions are brilliantly performed by pianist Ana-Marija Markovina. Both Stefan Heucke and Ana-Marija Markovina have known one another for a long time; their collaboration is a stroke of luck for the music scene in this country and beyond.