Below is a list of all classical CD titles released in the last 120 days.
LEONARD SLATKIN
Slatkin Conducts Slatkin - The Raven / Endgames / Kinah / In Fields Alec Baldwin (narrator) / Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Symphnoy Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Leonard Slatkin celebrated his 75th birthday in September 2019. Many of the selections in this program come from a concert given in his honour and are also a tribute to his remarkable musical family, both past and present. |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: Piano Trios Vol. 5 Aquinas Piano Trio [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Haydn worked during a period that witnessed a great deal of stylistic change, including the evolution of keyboard instruments from the harpsichord to the pianoforte with its hammer action and greater dynamic flexibility. |
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha Overture / Petite Suite / Gipsy Suite / etc RTE Concert Orchestra, Adrian Leaper [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] The Hiawatha trilogy, with its stirring overture, established Coleridge-Taylor as one of Britain's leading young composers and stimulated commissions in a wide variety of music. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Piano Sonatas / Fantasia in C minor Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano) [ Warner Classics / 6 CD Box Set - released 18/Feb/2022 ] 'Leonskaja always treads the tightrope between prettiness and excessive emphases...Perfection? For me, it's a yes. Can we have the Haydn and even the Beethoven sonatas complete from Leonskaja in good time, please?' BBC Recording of the Month April 20 |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Dualità Emőke Baráth (soprano) / Ensemble Artaserse, Philippe Jaroussky [ Warner Classics / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "She provides a sonic feast: rich bottom-register timbre, brilliant yet voluptuous top notes and a pure core that energises even her longest lines." BBC Music Opera Choice April 2022 |
BIZET / BRANDL / FALLA / GLAZUNOV / GLUCK / HEUBERGER / etc
Fritz Kreisler - The Complete Recordings Vol. 11 Fritz Kreisler (violin) [ Naxos Historial Great Violinists / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] |
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Three Early Operas: Ermione / La Donna del Lago / Bianca e Falliero Gregory Kunde, Carmen Giannattasio, Douglas d'Angus, Patricia Bardon, Majella Cullagh, Jennifer Larmore / David Parry, Maurizio Benini (conds) [ Opera Rara / 8 CD Box Set - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Opera Rara presents a new Opera Rara Classics boxset with a limited edition of three sought-after opere serie by Gioachino Rossini, performed by international bel canto champions. Now remastered to the best audio quality. |
ERICH KORNGOLD
Korngold: Complete Incidental Music to Much Ado About Nothing & Der Vampir Hans Jörg Mammel (tenor) Ekkehard Abele (narrator) / Holst-Sinfonietta Chorus, Holst-Sinfonietta, Klaus Simon [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Korngold's greatest critical successes lay in the field of opera and in his film scores. The early sets of incidental music reflect these two elements, sharing the theatrical bravura of opera and anticipating his own later filmic techniques. The... |
MUZIO CLEMENTI
Clementi: Keyboard Sonatas (from Op. 1, 10 & 12) HyeJin Kim (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] A native of Rome, Muzio Clementi was 'discovered' by the wealthy Beckford family of Dorset in England, where the foundations for a distinguished international professional career as a composer and performer were laid. Clementi's legacy to pianists... |
CAVALLI / VIVALDI / CESTI / STRADELLA / SARTORIO / LEGRENZI / etc
Ian Bostridge - Tormento d'amore Ian Bostridge (tenor), Cappella Neapolitana, Antonio Florio [ Warner Classics / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] With the 10 arias on Tormento d'amore, Ian Bostridge demonstrates the important place that the tenor voice held in Italian opera from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century - often thought of as the era of the castrato. |
FREDERIC CHOPIN
Chopin: Complete Nocturnes Jan Lisiecki (piano) [ Deutsche Grammophon / 2 CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "As he showed in his two previous Chopin releases, the 26-year-old Lisiecki is a player of exceptional poise and refinement. Everything here conveys a sense of ease, the singing line always beautifully brought out in the right hand." BBC Music Five S |
LEOŠ JANÁCEK / ZOLTÁN KODÁLY / ANTONÍN DVORÁK / VITESZSLAVA KAPRÁLOVÁ
Pohádka - Tales from Prague to Budapest Laura van der Heijden (cello) Jâms Coleman (piano) [ Chandos / Hybrid SACD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] The label début of the Exclusive Chandos Artist Laura van der Heijden explores the rich musical heritage of Bohemia. |
EDVARD GRIEG
Grieg Lise Davidsen (soprano), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) [ Decca / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] 'This is the outstanding Lise Davidsen recording many of us who've experienced the phenomenon live have been waiting for...The partnership with Leif Ove Andsnes doubles the pleasure.' BBC Music - Choral & Song Choice Feb 2022 |
Ludovico Einaudi (piano)
Underwater [ Decca Universal / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "Sure, it's unintrusive and its seeming meanderings might appear simplistic. But for me that's the beauty of it…It all feels as if you're party to an intimate exchange - the composer in private communion with the piano." BBC Music |
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN
Sullivan: Incidental Music to Macbeth, King Arthur & The Merry Wives of Windsor Margaret MacDonald (mezzo) / RTÉ Chamber Choir, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Arthur Sullivan is best remembered today for his Savoy Operas with W.S. Gilbert, but during his lifetime Sullivan was also famed for his church, concert hall and stage works. These three sets of incidental music show his versatility in the genre. |
JOHANN SIMON MAYR
Mayr: Alfredo il Grande (complete opera) Marie-Luise fressen (mezzo) Markus Schafer (tenor) / Simon Mayr Chorus, Members of the Bavarian State Opera Chorus, Concerto de Bassus, Franz Hauk [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Medieval England exerted a strong influence on Johann Simon Mayr, especially during his final proto-Romantic period. Alfredo il Grande was to be one of his last operas, with a narrative that takes us to a land under threat of war with the Vikings. |
GEORGE ENESCU
Enescu: Piano Quartet No. 1 / Piano Trio Stephan Tarara (violin), Molly Carr (viola), Eun-Sun Hong (cello), Josu De Solaun (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Chamber music was a crucial element in Enescu's output and these two works, separated by seven years, represent very different phases of his compositional development. The large-scale Piano Quartet No. 1 marks the climax of his early maturity. |
ANTONIO VIVALDI / JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR / PIETRO LOCATELLI
Vivaldi, Leclair, Locatelli: Violin Concertos Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Les Ombres [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "His playing is joyful; it is wild and beautiful, inventive and efficient...These are performances so special that I feel a changed man from listening to them. Buy it, tell all your friends." Gramophone Magazine March 2022 Recording of the Month |
HANS PFITZER
Pfitzer: Complete Lieder, Vol. 5 Uwe Schenker-Primus (baritone), Frauenstimmen des Freiburger Kammerchors, Lukas Grimm, with Klaus Simon (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Hans Pfitzner was able to deploy his extensive musical resources in setting a variety of texts from many different periods and on a wide range of subjects. |
JOHANN BAPTIST VANHAL
Vanhal: Symphonies, Vol. 5 (with Oboe Concertino) Vojtěch Podroužek (oboe), Pavla Honsová (viola) / Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, Michael Halász [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Johann Baptist Vaňhal was one of Haydn's most important contemporaries. His symphonies in particular were widely admired throughout Europe. Vaňhal's symphonies were known in England before those of Haydn. |