We reveal who’s recording what, and where…
Deutsche Grammophon and Decca are going all out for JS Bach’s 333rd birthday with a mammoth box set. Comprised of 222 discs featuring some 280 hours of music and over 750 performers, plus a documentary and two hardback books, JS Bach – The New Complete Edition is, according to the blurb, the most comprehensive composer box ever released. It’s certainly the heaviest, weighing in at a whopping 13.5kg.
Also marking a (not so big) birthday is The Sixteen, which celebrates 40 years in 2019 with UK and international tours. On top of the live performance plans, its label CORO is to release five albums including a new recording of Handel’s Acis and Galatea and a special 40th Anniversary Collection.
More and more unreleased archival BBC Radio recordings are making their way to the market, and we can thank The Richard Itter Archive for a good many of them. Both Lyrita/cameo Classics and ICA Classics have releases on the way, including Malcolm Sargent conducting Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust (Cameo) and multi-disc sets featuring Bruno Walter and Pierre Monteux (ICA).
Opera fans have a new label to look out for as soprano Marina Rebeka unveils Prima Classic. The label promises four recordings a year, including complete operas and recital discs. Its first release will be a collection of bel canto arias by Donizetti, Bellini and Spontini; titled Spirito, the recordings were made using facsimiles of the original manuscripts.
Another new label has just launched o cially, following a set of inaugural releases over the summer. All That Dust is the brainchild of industry veterans Newton Armstrong, Juliet Fraser and Mark Knoop, and will provide recording opportunities for composers and performers with a focus on contemporary classical music.