The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and its music director, Joshua Bell, have released Joshua Bell: Bach on the Sony label, which features the Violin Concerto Nos. 1 and 2 (BWV 1041 and 1042). The Music & Arts label has released a three-CD set featuring Leopold Stokowski leading the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (then known as the Bowl Symphony) in the 1940s, many from performances originally released as 78rpm recordings. The International Contemporary Ensemble will be featured on In the Light of Air—Music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a CD to be released in late August on the Sono Luminus label; Thorvaldsdottir is currently serving as the New York Philharmonic’s Kravis Emerging Composer. The Kansas City Symphony has released a new Reference Recordings CD of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, led by Music Director Michael Stern. The New York-based chamber ensemble The Knights has released the CD The Ground Beneath Our Feet, including a new double concerto for violin and santur (Persian dulcimer) by Knights co-founder Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei; also on the recording are works by Steve Reich, J.S. Bach, and Stravinsky. The final recording and complete four-CD set of Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic’s Nielsen Project were released on June 9, to coincide with the composer’s 150th birth anniversary. Pablo Heras-Casado, music director of New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s, is the conductor on Praetorius, a new recording by Germany’s Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and Ensemble performing early-17th-century music by Jacob, Hieronymus, and Michael Praetorius. California’s Pacific Symphony and Music Director Carl St.Clair have released the first recording of Elliot Goldenthal’s Symphony in G-sharp minor on the Zarathustra Music label; the piece was first performed during the orchestra’s 2014 American Composers Festival. The Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon has released J.S. Bach: Concertos for One, Two and Three Violins, under Artistic Director Monica Huggett, on the label 1201 Music. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”), led by Vasily Petrenko, has been released by Naxos. The Seattle Symphony and Music Director Ludovic Morlot have released Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (“New World”) and Varèse’s Amériques, as a digital download and as a CD, on the Seattle Symphony Media label. The Youth Orchestra of the Americas and pianist Gabriela Montero have released an album, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto, on the Orchid Classics label; featured are Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as well as Montero’s own Ex Patria and Three Improvisations.
The independent music group [PIAS] is acquiring the French record label and distributor Harmonia Mundi, with a sale expected to take place in October. Harmonia Mundi was founded in 1958 by Bernard Coutaz, who died in 2010. Deutsche Grammophon has released Max Richter’s Sleep, described as an “eight-hour lullaby” for piano, strings, electronics, and vocals. The work will be performed live in Berlin in September, before an audience that will be given beds instead of seats. Mercury Classics has released The Chopin Project, featuring pianist Alice Sara Ott in new transcriptions of Chopin compositions by Olafur Arnalds.
Posted July 14, 2015
