Tune into WRTI on August 2 from 3-6 p.m. to hear this month's edition of Sunday Classical: New Releases, where classical host Mark Pinto will play highlights from new album releases. This month's picks feature Dalia Stasevska leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a selection of Ukranian compositions; Ensemble Tumbleweeds in a number of early Venetian pieces; and two piano duo albums, one featuring the lauded Labèque sisters.
Ukrainian Mixtape
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska (conductor)
Rarely heard 19th and 20th century orchestral works by four Ukrainian composers fill this release by the BBC Symphony and their Ukrainian-born principal guest conductor, Dalia Stasevska. The expressive compositions reveal a multiplicity of styles and an emotional depth deeply rooted in the European tradition.
Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos
Ning Feng (violin), Kammerakademie Potsdam
Mozart was 17 when he composed his first violin concerto, and 19 when he wrote the remaining four. He wrote brilliantly for the instrument he himself played beautifully. Award-winning, world-renowned Chinese violinist Ning Feng deftly maneuvers the theatrical twists and turns of these forward-looking pieces.
Stephen Hough's Piano Postcards
Stephen Hough (piano)
Enjoy some armchair listening as the esteemed British pianist Stephen Hough takes a musical trip through some of his favorite tunes and songs from around the world, many in his own imaginative arrangements for solo piano. “Serious” works by Chaminade, Granados, Delibes, Sibelius, MacDowell and others coexist happily with movie songs from Coco, Frozen, and Mary Poppins.
Dvořák: String Quintets
James Ehnes (violin), Tessa Lark (violin), Jonathan Vinocour (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello), Timothy Cobb (double bass), Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Paul Neubauer (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)
This is the second release from the debut year of SCMS Records, the label of the Seattle Chamber Music Society. The Seattle, Washington music festival, established in 1982, draws many of today’s top players. Here they present two of Dvořák’s string quintets, works notable for their use of unique instrument combinations and infusion of Bohemian folk elements.
Wishing Tree
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (conductor)
The British vocal consort’s trademark “vocal agility, character and superb blend” (BBC Music Magazine) are on display in this program highlighting the secular side of repertoire they have sung in concert since their formation in 2015. Nature and love, childhood and innocence are themes running throughout this selection of music from the Renaissance era to today, including inventive reworkings of traditional British and Irish folk songs.
Alma y Fuego
Pasión Vega (vocalist), Javier Perianes (piano), Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)
Three colorful and celebrated works of Manuel de Falla are performed by Venezuela’s national youth orchestra in an album marking both the 150th anniversary of the birth of the seminal Spanish composer and the 50th anniversary of El Sistema, Venezuela’s transformative music education program (Maestro Dudamel is a graduate). Falla’s soulful, emotionally charged ballet El amor brujo (Love, the Magician) showcases vocalist Pasión Vega. Pianist Javier Perianes solos in the impressionistic Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Rounding out this tribute is the exhilarating Second Suite from the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat.
Schubert/Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy - Tchaikovsky: Concert Fantasy
Lukas Geniušas (piano), Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Modestas Pitrėnas (conductor)
Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas performs two Romantic fantasies. Though better known in its original solo piano version, Franz Liszt became so enamored of Schubert’s cyclic and extremely virtuosic Wanderer Fantasy that he turned it into the piano concerto showpiece heard here. Tchaikovsky’s brilliant Concert Fantasy is the companion piece.
Ballade vénitienne
Ensemble Tumbleweeds, Claire-Ombeline Muhlmeyer (conductor)
The French early-music ensemble with an unlikely moniker devotes its debut release to works by composers who flourished in 17th century Venice. In this time and place, music underwent a series of profound transformations in musical writing and instrument making, heard in these charming and surprising creations by Castello, Kapsberger, Marini, Frescobaldi, and others.
John Williams: Flute Concerto & Bernard Herrmann: Souvenirs de Voyage
Jin Ta (flute), Ma Yue (clarinet), Rachel Walker (oboe), Christoph Wichert (bassoon), Marc-Antoine Robillard (horn), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Darrell Ang (conductor), Joshua Tan (conductor)
For the curious listener, the musicians of the Singapore Symphony make compelling cases for the concert music of three American composers known almost exclusively for their film scores. The ‘other side’ of John Williams is represented by his imaginative and expressive Flute Concerto and early Essay for Strings. These works are joined by world premiere recordings of the Suite for 5 Woodwinds by Hugo Friedhofer and Bernard Herrmann’s Souvenirs de Voyage in an arrangement for clarinet and string orchestra.
Respighi: Sinfonia Drammatica
RAI National Symphony, Robert Treviño (conductor)
Ottorino Respighi: Sinfonia Drammatica: I. Allegro energico
The RAI National Symphony and principal guest conductor Robert Treviño shine a light on a rarely performed orchestral gem of Respighi. The epic and intensely emotional Sinfonia Drammatica was written in the looming shadow of the First World War and was the composer’s last major work before his famous Roman Trilogy of tone poems. Containing echoes of Richard Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, and even Wagner, the piece captures Respighi at the very cusp of musical maturity.
Claude Debussy: Piano Duets, Vol. 2
Hélène Mercier (piano), Louis Lortie (piano)
Venerable French-Canadian pianists Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie return with a second helping of Debussy in four-hand and two-piano originals and arrangements. Arrangements by Ravel, Dutilleux and even the composer himself offer listeners a different perspective on some of Debussy’s best-known orchestral works (Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Nocturnes) and solo piano pieces (Clair de lune, La plus que lente, Rêverie).
Katia & Marielle Labèque - 55
Katia Labèque (piano), Marielle Labèque (piano)
One of the world’s most recognizable and beloved piano duos, the Labèque sisters celebrate 55+ years of recordings with this release that brings together new recordings and treasures from their archive. In music ranging from Dimitri Tiomkin and Margaret Bonds to Stravinsky and Messiaen, the album exhibits the duo’s acclaimed collaborations and even solo turns.
Rojo
Laura Mazon Franqui (guitar)
The award-winning Cuban guitarist presents a carefully curated collection of Hispanic and Latin American guitar music. In works by Tárrega, Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, Turina, Morel, and others, Franqui weaves a personal and universal story of passion, love, loss, and the enduring fire of artistic expression.
