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Sunday Classical: New Release Highlights for February 2025

Elliott Perks, soloist in the Maxwell Quartet
Courtesy of the artist
Elliott Perks, soloist in the Maxwell Quartet

On the first Sunday of each month, WRTI devotes an edition of Sunday Classical to notable new releases. Join Mark Pinto on Feb. 2, 3-6 p.m. to hear highlights from each of these albums. Here are his notes on the selections.


Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas

The Nash Ensemble

London’s venerable Nash Ensemble celebrates their 60th anniversary season with this all-Debussy release. In addition to his early String Quartet and three late Sonatas (cello; violin; flute/viola/harp), the ensemble delivers a lovely and luminous rendering of the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, arranged for 12 players.

Gipps: Orchestral Works Vol. 3

Martin Owen (horn), BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba (conductor)

In this third installment, Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic invite you to discover more of the marvelous output of 20th-century English composer Ruth Gipps. Gipps wrote in a tonal, Romantic style influenced by her mentor, Vaughan Williams. You’ll find three world premiere recordings here, including her Symphony No. 1, which chronicles the horrors of World War II, plus the Horn Concerto she composed in 1968 for her son, Lance Baker.

Orff: Carmina Burana

Russell Braun (baritone), Max Emanuel Cenčić (countertenor), Alina Wunderlin (soprano), Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Zürcher Sängerknaben, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi (conductor)

“O fortuna!” The chorus that opens (and closes) Carl Orff’s most popular composition has embedded itself into our consciousness, thundering through countless movies, TV shows and commercials. The immediate success of this cantata based on medieval poetry led Orff to designate it as his Op. 1, disowning all his previous compositions. Maestro Järvi leads superb ensembles and soloists in this new outing of the iconic 1936 work.

Joseph Haydn: String Quartets Op. 77 & Folk Music from Scotland

Elliott Perks (soloist), Maxwell Quartet

German violist Hatto Beyerle, mentor of the Maxwell Quartet, insists that “in order to truly understand Haydn’s music, you must first understand folk music.” One of Britain’s finest young string quartets, the Maxwell Quartet takes Beyerle’s instruction to heart once again with their third album pairing Haydn string quartets with quartet arrangements of Scottish folk music. Heard here are Haydn’s two Op. 77 quartets, his last essays in the genre.

Dies Irae (Liszt · Rachmaninoff)

Dmitry Masleev (piano), Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra

The Dies irae chant from the Latin Requiem Mass permeates the two principal works on this new recording from pianist Dmitry Masleev, the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist. Liszt’s Totentanz and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are served up alongside an intriguing adaptation of Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole for piano and string orchestra.

Marsalis: Blues Symphony

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Jader Bignamini (conductor)

Detroit Symphony Music Director Jader Bignamini makes his recording debut with a work its world-renowned composer has called “a symphony of American dreams, infused with the feeling of the blues.” Wynton Marsalis’ 2009 seven-movement Symphony takes listeners on a sonic journey through America’s musical heritage, revealing influences from ragtime to habanera, using the 12-bar blues as a reference point. (The physical edition of this album doesn’t release until March 14, but we’ll be playing it during our new releases segment on Sunday.)

Una poesia muta. Art in Early Cinquecento Venice

The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery (conductor)

The British vocal ensemble presents a companion album to a German exhibition of paintings by Vittore Carpaccio, one of the most prominent painters of the early Renaissance in Venice. The composers recorded here all have strong links to Venice at that time, and Carpaccio is likely to have been familiar with their music. The fascinating album of short vocal works mixes familiar composers — Josquin, Jean Mouton, and Adrian Willaert — with others deserving of wider recognition.

Crusell, Du Puy, Berwald & Brendler: Bassoon Concertos

Jaakko Luoma (bassoon), Janne Nisonen (conductor), Tapiola Sinfonietta

Four delightful bassoon concertos from early 19th-century Sweden are featured on the second album of such gems by Janne Nisonen, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and Jaakko Luoma, the orchestra’s principal bassoon. The recording offers a selection of works by well-known composers — Franz Berwald and Bernhard Henrik Crusell — and others largely forgotten by music history.

Karl Weigl: Symphony No. 3

Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Jürgen Bruns (conductor)

Jewish composer Karl Weigl (1881-1949) fled the Nazis in his native Austria at the end of the 1930s, became a U.S. citizen in 1943, and held a number of important teaching posts, including at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. This recording gives us the opportunity to hear two works from the early 1930s that Weigl never lived to hear himself, composed in his typical late Romantic style and receiving their first recordings here.