Happy New
Year!!
2014 is beginning
with an exciting crop of new releases; despite the usual media grumblings and
general woes, the record companies seem raring to go with some great new Classical
recordings on offer. In particular the Jerusalem Quartet playing Janacek and
Smetana String Quartets - going by their previous work these performances are
bound to have great vivacity and flair. Jerusalem Quartet HMC902178 Offer £12.99
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
continues his Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle with volume two (a three disc set).
The cycle will be completed with one more installment in the near future. Bavouzet CHAN10798 Offer £24.99
Staying with
keyboard music, Hyperion has released a disc of CPE Bach played by
harpsichordist Mahon Esfahani. Although not yet a household name, Esfahani is
presently on tour and has had a lot of positive attention from critics and he was the first harpsichordist to be named a BBC New Generation Artist. Esfahani CDA67995 Offer £11.99. Returning to Beethoven, we have a new set of his Cello Sonatas performed by
Steven Isserlis and his regular collaborator, the forte-pianist Robert Levin.
Included on this disc are the three sets of variations and the Horn Sonata. We
are running a promotion on Steven Isserlis’ back-catalogue recordings this
month as well – just click on Isserlis’ picture on the homepage. Isserlis CDA67981/2 Offer £23.99
Steven
Isserlis also features on a fascinating new disc, again from Hyperion, this
time of his grandfather, Julius Isserlis’ music. The disc mainly contains piano
music in editions made by the pianist Sam Haywood. Julius Isserlis CDA68025 Offer £11.99
There has
been much interest in Chandos’ new release of rarely heard Overtures from
around the British Isles , with some lovely
gems by Arthur Sullivan, Frederic Austen, Coleridge-Taylor, Stanford and
others. A cracker of a release! British Overtures CHAN10797 Offer £12.49
This month sees
the welcome release of Georg Tintner’s Bruckner symphony cycle as a boxed set
on Naxos . These are the great recordings he
made in the 1990's with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Tintner 8501205 £29.99
Two
contemporary British composers are also featured this month: Signum are reissuing
their recording of the late John Tavener’s magnum opus, 'The Veil of the Temple
This is just
the tip of the iceberg – check out our ‘New Releases’ and ‘Future Releases’ pages
(click the ‘What’s New?’ tab).
