March
26 – 30 March
Live aus der Semperoper
The Lehár Gala from Dresden
Staatskapelle Dresden – Christian Thielemann
Deutsche Grammophon 479 0050
The CD and DVD release of this year’s Lehár Gala from Dresden takes up the success of last year’s live recording from the Operetta Gala with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden.
The Dresden Semperoper is the perfect setting, the orchestra, conductor and soloists are world class and the predominant Lehár program is a perfect fit. The soloists, Angela Denoke, Ana Maria Labin and Piotr Beczala, assisted by the Dresden State Opera Chorus, offer arias and ensembles that will delight you with their joie de vivre.
A trio of major works is completed by one written for Renée Fleming by the doyen of French composers, Henri Dutilleux – his dramatic Le Temps l’horloge. The album is completed by two earlier songs by Dutilleux, specially-orchestrated for this album and recorded in the presence of the composer.
19 – 23 March
Renée Fleming – Poèmes
Ravel, Messiaen, Dutilleux
DECCA 478 3500
As the sensual centrepiece of an album of 20th century French vocal masterpieces, Renée Fleming makes her first-ever recording of Ravel’s ravishing Shéhérazade. ComplementingShéhérazade is Olivier Messiaen’s collection of love songs to his young wife the Poèmes pour Mi – a tour de force of voluptuous vocalism.
12 – 16 March
Debussy, Szymanowski: Piano Works
Rafał Blechacz
Deutsche Grammophon 477 9548
Rafał Blechacz is one of DG’s best-selling young artists.
He is by talent, proclivity, and nationality the perfect choice to record works by his fellow Pole, Szymanowski. And therefore to record Debussy, too – whose presence in Szymanowski’s musical DNA looms large. Arguably the greatest Polish composer since Chopin, Szymanowski was also influenced by Ravel, Scriabin and Strauss. For the first time on record Rafał Blechacz plays Szymanowski’s reverie-inducing music, Debussy’s Impressionist soundscapes including Pour le piano and Estampes – are a natural fit for a Chopin expert such as he.
5 – 9 March
ALBRECHT MAYER – SONG OF THE REEDS
Tabea Zimmermann, Marie-Luise Neunecker, Markus Becker
Decca 478 3564
Albrecht Mayer, the acclaimed oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, delves into German Romantic music with his close friends Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Marie-Luise Neunecker (horn), and Markus Becker (piano), to create this virtuosic original and intimate recording of diverse romantic works for oboe.