We reveal who’s recording what and where...
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra has formed an exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophon and will release a series of recordings. First this year is one based on Mozart’s visit in the late 1770s to the court of Elector Palatine in Mannheim. Works by him including Symphony in C major will be paired with those by composers he would have encountered on his visit.
DG’S creative relationship with the Verbier Festival is being taken to another level with the launch of a new label. Verbier Festival Gold will release a new recording from its vast archive each month: the first release, out now, is Verdi’s Requiem, featuring the festival orchestra and Coro Teatro Regio Torino, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Alison Balsom is building on a 20-year creative partnership with Warner Classics (formerly EMI Classics) by signing a new fivealbum deal. The first release, Quiet City, sees the virtuoso trumpeter explore 20th-century American music with works by Miles Davis, Bernstein and Copland. It also features a new arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for trumpet, piano and orchestra.
Decca Records recently signed the rising male soprano Samuel Mariño. His debut recording has been in the can for a while and is scheduled for release on 27 May. Sopranista sees Mariño perform a variety of arias from 18th-century opera, including world premiere recordings of pieces by Cimarosa and Joseph Bologne, plus arias by Gluck and Mozart not previously recorded by a male soprano.
Berlin’s Backlash Music, a label which specialises in contemporary and improvisatory music, is getting UK distribution through Orchid. Forthcoming releases include drummer/composer Max Andrzejewski’s Mythos, described as born out of a ‘violent interaction with Wagner’s infamous Ring Cycle’.