On the first Sunday of every month, WRTI airs a special edition of Sunday Classical focused on classical new releases. Join host Mark Pinto on WRTI on Sept. 1, 3-6 p.m. to hear highlights from these albums, and read what he has to say below.
Avec Elles
Mathilde Calderini (flute), Aurèle Marthan (piano)
In this all-French program, French flute/piano duo Calderini and Marthan celebrate music by women composers, plus works by Debussy and Poulenc inspired by women. The female composers include Cecile Chaminade, represented by her famous Concertino; the prolific Claude Arrieu, nom de plume of Louise-Marie Simon; Mel Bonis; and 31-year-old Lise Borel, who was commissioned by the performers.
Haydn: Late Symphonies, Vol. 3
Danish Chamber Orchestra, Ádám Fischer (conductor)
Composed between 1791 and 1795, Haydn’s London symphonies were a sensation with audiences in that city and continue to delight listeners today. Ádám Fischer, who has previously traversed Haydn’s symphonic territory in acclaimed recordings with his Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, revisits this music with the Danish Chamber Orchestra as their chief conductor. Their third volume surveys Symphonies 99, 100 “Military,” and 101 “Clock”.
Roberto Gerhard: Don Quixote (complete ballet); Suite from Alegrías; Pedrelliana
BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena (conductor)
Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970) was the only Spanish composer ever to study with Arnold Schoenberg, and like his teacher he ultimately committed himself to writing twelve-tone music. For more than 20 years before his stylistic change, however, Gerhard wrote in a Spanish style, in a modern tonal idiom reminiscent of Stravinsky and Bartók. It is this music – a ballet suite, the complete ballet Don Quixote, and a symphonic movement – which the BBC Philharmonic and their former chief conductor Mena, a Spaniard himself, showcase in this intriguing new release.
Bruckner & Klose: String Quartets
Quatuor Diotima (string quartet)
In the first of two recordings we dedicate to the bicentennial of Bruckner’s birth on September 4th, the acclaimed Diotima Quartet make the case for a genre of music not normally associated with the Austrian composer. Although written as composition exercises, Bruckner’s pieces for string quartet foreshadow the originality and power of his later compositions. As an added curiosity, the album also features a String Quartet by Bruckner’s pupil, Friedrich Klose.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Bates: Resurrexit
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony brought the composer his greatest success during his lifetime. With this release, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck treat us to a live recording of this Bruckner masterpiece from Heinz Hall, their Pittsburgh home. The symphony is paired with a 2018 composition by Philadelphia-born Mason Bates written to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Maestro Honeck.
Ochre
The Crossing, Donald Nally (conductor)
Each new release from Philly’s outstanding, Grammy-winning, new-music choir is an event, and this one’s no exception. The recording brings together works by three of today’s most creative composers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Caroline Shaw and composers George Lewis and Ayanna Woods. It’s another chance for us to experience, as Gramophone recently observed, the ensemble’s ability to “sustain long lines, clarify layers of dense counterpoint and pinpoint the expressive intent of every detail.” Spellbinding stuff!
Vivaldi X2²
La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler (conductor)
The excellent British period instrument ensemble returns with a second helping of concertos for two (or more) instruments by the prolific Italian Baroque composer. La Serenissima’s first outing received rave reviews, and this one, of some of Vivaldi’s most colorful and jubilant works, is sure to please.
Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor)
Yannick blows some of the accumulated dust off the celebrated symphonies of Brahms in performances praised by the Berlin-based paper Der Tagesspiegel for their “transparency, bright colors and clearly articulated phrasing.” The dynamic conductor is a frequent collaborator with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and this welcome set follows their complete cycles of Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies and ongoing series of Mozart operas.
African Pianism, Vol. 2
Rebeca Omordia (piano)
London-based pianist Rebeca Omordia returns with this sequel to her critically acclaimed first African Pianism album. The fascinating program includes eight premiere recordings of works by sub-Saharan African composers, with the added treat of the First Fantasie nègre of trailblazing African-American pianist Florence Price.
Beyond the Years
Karen Slack (soprano), Michelle Cann (piano)
And while we’re focusing on Florence Price, here’s a chance to enjoy a selection of her songs, presented by two outstanding Philadelphia performers. Philly native Slack has been a devoted champion of the music of Black composers, and Cann, chair of piano studies at Curtis, has been recognized as a leading interpreter of Price’s piano music. Together they bring us these 19 unpublished songs (16 of them in premiere recordings), which Price wrote for many of the great singers of her generation, including Carol Brice, Camilla Williams, and Marian Anderson.
Dvořák & Tchaikovsky
John-Henry Crawford (cello), San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Martin West (conductor)
Rising young American cello star John-Henry Crawford offers up experienced performances of Tchaikovsky’s Mozart-inspired Rococo Variations and Dvořák’s emotional, much loved Cello Concerto. Don’t miss this outing by the award- and competition-winning Louisiana native, who has been hailed for his “polished charisma” and “singing sound.”
Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución diamantina
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel (conductor), María Dueñas (violin)
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and their always-exciting music director Gustavo Dudamel invite us to explore the orchestral music of contemporary Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. It’s music that Dudamel says speaks “to both the body and the spirit, full of visceral primeval rhythms and mysterious, soulful sound-worlds.” Featured are a violin concerto, a ballet inspired by a 2019 feminist uprising in Mexico surrounding an epidemic of violence against women, and a compelling orchestral work reflecting on the return of musical performances following the Covid-19 pandemic.
