On the first Sunday of every month, WRTI broadcasts a special edition of our program Sunday Classical focused on new releases. Join host Mark Pinto on WRTI on July 6 from 3-6 p.m. to hear highlights from each of these albums, and read his thoughts here.
Romanza
Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet), José Gallardo (piano), Julien Quentin (piano)
Former principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic, Andreas Ottensamer has been praised for his musicianship and is sought-after as a clarinet soloist worldwide. He joins forces here with long-term recital partner José Gallardo in a beautiful program of original and transcribed miniatures by Satie, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Mahler and many others.
Haydn 2032, Vol.17: Per Il Luigi
Basel Chamber Orchestra; Giovanni Antonini (conductor)
Giovanni Antonini and the Basel Chamber orchestra present their latest volume of Haydn symphonies, continuing a project spearheaded by Basel’s Joseph Haydn Foundation leading up to the 300th anniversary of Haydn’s birth in 2032. The symphonies here date from Haydn’s early years at the Esterházy court and were written to showcase the talents of the musicians of the court orchestra. The album takes its subtitle from the violin concerto also recorded here which Haydn dedicated to his friend, Italian violin virtuoso Luigi Tomasini.
Bartók, Enescu, Kodály, Martinů
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Tenan (conductor)
The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic celebrates its relationship with new chief conductor Carlo Tenan in a program of colorful orchestral works by 20th century Central European composers. Folk music infuses Bartok’s Dance Suite, Kodály’s Dances of Galanta, and Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, while Martinu’s luminous three-movement suite takes its inspiration from the famous 15th century frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy.
L'extase: Debussy & Messiaen
Magdalena Kožená (mezzo), Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
Sumptuous, sensual, and even exotic songs by these two French composers are the focus of this congenial collaboration of star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and revered pianist Mitsuko Uchida. The performers demonstrate their affinity with French music in three of Debussy’s song cycles and selections from Poemes pour Mi, with which Messiaen, who idolized Debussy, declared his love for his first wife.
Horizons: French Mélodies
Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano), Edwige Herchenroder (piano)
Though Debussy and Duparc receive attention here, the enticements of this album are the songs by female composers also writing in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. Premiere recordings of many of these songs are presented by British mezzo Kitty Whately, acclaimed for her performances of contemporary opera and art song, and prizewinning French pianist Edwige Herchenroder.
Just Biber
Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger (violin & director)
Dazzling is the word to describe these violin sonatas by the influential 17th-century Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer. Representative of stylus fantasticus, a free and unrestrained style employed by composers in the early Baroque period, Biber’s music is extremely virtuosic, and is handled adroitly here by Baroque specialist Podger with her ensemble, Brecon Baroque.
Holst: the Planets – Deborah Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon (soprano)
Enjoy this spin around the solar system and back home again with the Melbourne Symphony and their Spanish chief conductor Jaime Martín. Holst’s famous 1917 orchestral suite is enhanced by a presentation of a new work composed in response -- a dramatic, heartfelt, and beautiful homage to Earth by Aboriginal Australian composer and soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, who joins the orchestra on her own composition.
Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 18, 27, 28 & 31: The Lost Tapes
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
If you thought you heard everything there was to hear from the legendary Russian pianist, Deutsche Grammophon invites you to think, and listen, again. The Yellow Label has released, for the first time, Sviatoslav Richter’s performances of four Beethoven sonatas recorded live in recital in 1965. Renowned for his phenomenal, risk-taking approaches to Beethoven, Richter is in peak form here in these carefully restored recordings that just might blow you away.
Forgotten Symphonies
Le Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall (conductor)
Following the successes of his Beethoven and Schubert releases, Jordi Savall takes his Baroque specialist ensemble further into the 19th century with this revealing recording of neglected symphonies by two major composers of the Romantic era. Abandoned by the 23-year-old Robert Schumann, his two-movement “Zwickau” Symphony in G minor recycled music from an unfinished opera on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and shows the influence of Beethoven. Anton Bruckner was already 45 when he composed his Symphony “No. 0”, a work which the extremely self-critical composer later declared “does not count” among the symphonies he wanted published.
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Two Serenades; Two Serious Melodies; Swanwhite
Christian Tetzlaff (violin); Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon (conductor)
The Finnish Radio Symphony and chief conductor Nicholas Collon return for a second helping of Sibelius in this recording focusing on works composed during or just before World War I. Outstanding German violinist Christian Tetzlaff joins the ensemble in the Two Serenades and Two Serious Melodies, while the orchestra plays Sibelius’ rarely heard music from Strindberg’s play Swanwhite and the great, glorious Symphony No. 5.
Lassus: The Alchemist, Volume 2
Magnificat, Philip Cave (conductor)
Admired for their interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque choral works, the British vocal consort trades well on its own name in this second volume of works by the prolific 16th century composer of vocal music. Lassus reimagines his own music in these settings, based on earlier motets, of the biblical prayer of the Virgin Mary. These lavish and rich compositions are among Lassus’s finest compositional achievements.
Fanny Clamagirand (violin), Han Chen (piano), Malmö Opera Orchestra, John Jeter (conductor)
Music of the rightfully rediscovered 20th century African American composer is celebrated with international flair in this new recording from Price champion John Jeter and Sweden’s Malmö Opera Orchestra. The Chinese-born Han Chen plays the beautiful and brilliant Piano Concerto in One Movement, while French violinist Fanny Clamagirand solos in the richly orchestrated Violin Concerto No. 1 and the compact but expressive Violin Concerto No. 2. William Grant Still’s orchestration of one of Price’s last works, the piano suite Dances in the Canebrakes, rounds out this welcome release.
Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23; Nocturne No. 16 in E-flat major, Op. 55/2
Chopin: Sonatas 2 & 3 /Ballade No. 1 / Berceuse / Nocturnes
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)
The acclaimed British pianist follows up his award-winning 2020 album of Chopin’s Piano Concertos with this release of the composer’s best-known Piano Sonatas, Nos. 2 and 3, two contrasting masterpieces that rank among the composer’s most profound works. As encores, Benjamin Grosvenor gives us Chopin’s dramatic and popular Ballade No. 1, the peaceful Berceuse, and two of the composer’s numerous Nocturnes.
