Celebrating a great American duo
This month’s round-up includes premiere recordings and classic operas
One of the great musical pairings is feted in Yo-yo Ma & Emanuel Ax – A Celebration (Sony Classical 19075929282). Theirs is a collaboration based on a deep friendship and artistic connection, which began almost 50 years ago at the Juilliard School. This 20-disc set charts almost three decades of recordings, beginning with their first disc of Beethoven sonatas recorded in 1981 and culminating in 2009’s Mendelssohn piano trios disc, which they recorded with Itzhak Perlman. A fine salute to the duo.
Premiere recordings sit at the heart of a five-disc set of music by Joseph Martin Kraus (Capriccio C7325), who left his native Germany in his early twenties to join the court of Sweden’s Gustav III as Kapellmeister. His output was varied and this release features eight symphonies, four cantatas, two string quartets, a flute quintet and Amphitryon, a theatrical piece of arias, choruses and dance. A revised final version of that work receives its first ever recording here by L’arte del Mondo and the Bonn Chamber Choir, alongside the premiere recording of his four secular ‘Italian’ cantatas.
The colourfully-packaged French Piano Concertos (Brilliant Classics 95899) makes quite an impression with 12 discs of recordings. The programme takes us from Alkan to Tailleferre, via Nadia Boulanger and Reynaldo Hahn, whose lesserknown concertos sit comfortably alongside those by Debussy, Fauré, Franck, Poulenc and Ravel – among others. Pianists include Magda Tagliaferro, Florian Uhlig, Martin Galling, Rosario Marciano, Giovanni Belluci, Michael Korslick and Romain Descharmes, to name but a few.
Classic Operas (Craft Recordings CR01522) is comprised of four operas, presented across six discs and originally released on the Telarc label between 1996 and 2002. Boston
Baroque does the honours, presenting first recordings on period instruments of works by Gluck (Iphigénie en Tauride) and Mozart (The Impresario), plus world premiere recordings of two Mozart-era singspiels: The Beneficent Dervish and The Philosopher’s Stone plus a period instrument presentation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Soloists include Sharon Baker, Kevin Deas and Alan Ewing.
The 20-disc set charts almost three decades of recordings