New releases

[Pulcinella]

I'm with Nick and Jeremy Sams on this one I'm afraid. No problems with boy sopranos per se but this one grates on initial hearing to the extent that I can guarantee I would not want to hear it again!. Marriner and the ASMF still a winner for me in the Pulcinella suite with bags more individuality to the playing than this under characterised performance.

I had much more of a problem with the adult singers.
Much preferred the boy to Jennifer Smith for Rattle and Teresa Tourné for Freitas Branco, the two versions I have on CD, and possibly also to my favourite, the old Argenta version I used to have on an Ace of Diamonds LP (now saved for frequent streaming).
ASMF/Marriner Pulcinella still high up for me too; it was one of the first versions (together with Ansermet) that I got to know. Strange misreading (a 'wrong' note that I've never heard anyone else play, though it might have been in the 'original') in one movement though.
PS: I don't think that Trujamán is meant to sound very nice! The role doesn't call for refined singing!

[Pulcinella]

It was reviewed on R3 last Saturday morning and the extracts played sounded very good. Jeremy Sams questioned the wisdom of using (for the first time in a recording, I think he said) a boy soprano in the chamber opera, however, on the basis that it didn’t sound very nice…

The YouTube version given as a link in this very short thread is worth a watch:

https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/platform-3/platform-3-aa/21859-el-retablo-de-masse-pedro-da-falla

[Sir Velo]

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9557573--sibelius-symphony-no-4-the-wood-nymph-valse-triste

Fine performance of the 4th but the Wood Nymph is given an extraordinarily powerful performance. .Rouvali's grasp of the cumulative sense of tragic foreboding is mightily impressive and the playing of the Yoterbury SO is superb. Lovely warm, but detailed sound. Streamed on Qobuz at 24/96.

[Pulcinella]

Just a bit tempted by today's release of the Copland Columbia Collection, though I think I've probably got almost everything already.
Nice to have it all in one place though.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...bum-collection

Enthusiasm tempered by an odd omission reported in a comment on Amazon: the Organ Symphony.
Admittedly it's conducted by Bernstein not Copland himself, but then so are some of the other pieces that are included.
And the Stravinsky equivalent has a Tashi CD in it.
I think they could have added the Leo Smit 2CD's worth of piano music too, for that matter.

[Pulcinella]

Debussy: Jeux - Poème dansé
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version)

Orchestre de Paris
Mäkelä, Klaus

Disappointed by the fourth tableau of Petrushka, but otherwise a pretty impressive release, I thought.

[PJPJ]

After quite a lull, some new releases on SA-CD from Dutton

duttonvocalion.co.uk

including some interesting VW

duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7411

[Pulcinella]

Duruflé: Requiem, Op. 9
Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
Stephen Layton

Fascinated by the acoustic in St Eustache (Requiem) in the excerpt played in Record Review; so different from that in the first recording I got to know of this beautiful work (St John's, Cambridge).

But oh dear: the Pie Jesu.
Completely unsuitable voice, I felt.

[Nick Armstrong]

Duruflé: Requiem, Op. 9
Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
Stephen Layton

Fascinated by the acoustic in St Eustache (Requiem) in the excerpt played in Record Review; so different from that in the first recording I got to know of this beautiful work (St John's, Cambridge).

But oh dear: the Pie Jesu.
Completely unsuitable voice, I felt.

I’m assuming this is a CD release of the performance whose appearance on YouTube was discussed hereabouts:

https://youtu.be/Z1Wx87CtFPQ?si=la3B8hCkpCJpNP5k

(Indeed I just noticed that the CD cover has been added on the above link in the last few days)

[Jonathan]

Looking at the timings on the latest Naxos Liszt CD, they seem rather stately. Did a quick calculation and he's 10 minutes slower overall compared to Leslie Howard (the only pianist whose recorded all the pieces on the disc, AFAIK)...

[Sir Velo]

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9595697--radu-lupu-live-vol-4

Of particular interest for many collectors will be the repertoire which Lupu didn't record commercially, viz the Bartok and Copland.

[pastoralguy]

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...upu-live-vol-4

Of particular interest for many collectors will be the repertoire which Lupu didn't record commercially, viz the Bartok and Copland.

Yes, I’ve been thinking of purchasing some of these live Lupu recordings. My concern is that the sound quality could be variable.

[Mandryka]

Yes, I’ve been thinking of purchasing some of these live Lupu recordings. My concern is that the sound quality could be variable.

The Copland on that CD has listenable sound, though far from ideal. Not sure about the Bartok!

[Pulcinella]

The Copland on that CD has listenable sound, though far from ideal. Not sure about the Bartok!

Two versions of performances of the Copland with the score found and posted on the YouTube....thread.

[Nick Armstrong]

Tuning into last Saturday’s RR where “Julius Drake swaps keyboard for microphone as he shares with Andrew his pick of new releases this week”, I was surprised to hear his ‘sharing’ of the Eric Le Sage complete Fauré chamber music with piano on Alpha - as far as I can see, this was released in 2015 (as a compendium of individual discs released over the preceding years)

“Recently reached completion” said AMcG … I’ve found no evidence of that. The performances mentioned and illustrations played were all in that set nearly ten years ago

UPDATE: I just found on the Alpha Classics site that the set was re-released last week with the addition of Le Sage’s 2019 recording of the Nocturnes … (so if piano solo counts as ‘chamber music’, it’s not really a ‘complete’ - intégrale - set any more, in the absence of Barcarolles etc etc… )


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[Pulcinella]

Another Glasgow Bartok instalment due out tomorrow:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9595909--bartok-the-wooden-prince-divertimento-romanian-folk-dances

Gets a good review in today's Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/43dde41e-99d0-45da-b4b4-5338de1e3bb6?shareToken=8b5b91765ae4de92527538a4f01cf2e6