Tacenda City Of Dawn

Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to present the second installment of the Melodic Rock/AOR project Cry Of Dawn featuring Göran Edman on lead vocals. The self-titled debut album, released in 2016, was a welcome return for Edman and the new album, "Anthropocene" sees the talented singer sounding positively inspired. For "Anthropocene", Edman partnered with producer/songwriter/guitarist Tommy Denander to craft a superb, classic sounding AOR album that harkens back to the glory days of the genre. Edman's enthusiasm for this style of music shines through in his vocals and the passion translates clearly through all the performances.

Naxos intend to record Vivaldi’s entire orchestral corpus, and Raphael Wallfisch’s integral four-disc survey of the 27 cello concertos inaugurates this visionary, though plainly Herculean undertaking. Soloist and orchestra employ modern instruments; director Nicholas Kraemer contends that authentic protocols can be ably met by contemporary ensembles and, in articulation, style and ornamentation, these pristine, engaging readings have little to fear from period practitioners. Wallfisch’s pointed, erudite and spirited playing is supported with enlightened restraint by the CLS, directed from either harpsichord or chamber organ by Kraemer, whose sensitive continuo team merits high praise throughout. Without exception, these Concertos adopt an orthodox fast-slow-fast three-movement format. Wallfisch, dutifully observant in matters of textual fidelity, plays outer movements with verve, energy and lucidity, such that high-register passagework, an omnipresent feature of these works, is enunciated with the pin-sharp focus of Canaletto’s images of 18th-century Venice, which adorn the covers of these issues.

The City of Tomorrow releases Blow, a collection of three works for wind quintet, anchored by the premiere of a multi-movement work written for them by Hannah Lash. Guided by their virtuosity and commitment to polished interpretation, the album is an exploration of finely crafted compositions that take advantage of the rich colors of the instrumentation in all of its permutations.

Recorded in association with a live performance from Birmingham's Symphony Hall last year, this account of Stanford's Requiem rescues a magnificent work from wholly unjustified neglect. The performance of Charles Villiers Stanford's forgotten late-Victorian masterpiece, marking 125 years since the premiere of the Requiem at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, featured a number of international soloists alongside Brabbins including Carolyn Sampson and Marta Fontanal-Simmons (both Birmingham alumni), with James Way and Ross Ramgobin.

One of the aspects that appeals to this listener about Nikolai Lugansky's approach to the perennial favorite piano concerti of Sergei Rachmaninov is the commitment to the organic feeling of each work. So often these concerti are served up as early career, flamboyant exercises to introduce the young pianist du jour to already accepting audiences. And at times the imprint on the works imposed by the various pianists is what remains in the hall after the performance, not Rachmaninov.

With a captivating collection of lush new arrangements for violin and orchestra of film and TV scores, classical music from the movies, anime hits and new compositions by Oscar-winning composers, the album Cinéma showcases Esther Abrami’s versatility, musical sensitivity and technical mastery. Available on CD, Cinéma features unique new arrangements of blockbuster hits such as ‘Naruto’, ‘Demon Slayer’, ‘The Witcher’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ alongside iconic French music such as ‘Amélie’ and ‘Les Choristes’ as well as beloved classics by Pjotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Astor Piazzolla.

Talk about forgotten composers! Marcos Portugal (1762-1830) composed some 50 operas, all of which have disappeared. This present one was premiered in 1797 in Venice but the version recorded is one that was reassembled for Lisbon in 1804. Shorn of what I can only assume were the quasi-endless recitatives that were in style at that time in farces, what we get is 69 minutes of delightful music that makes you want to hear more of this Portuguese composer. Rossini might've been pleased with the plot about two women, one a Countess and the other a peddler, who have their identities switched by a playful magician/pilgrim and who wind up better for it (and their husbands) when all is set right.

For the third volume in their cycle of Schubert’s symphonies, Edward Gardner and the CBSO turn to the first and fourth symphonies. Composed in 1813, when Schubert was just sixteen, the First Symphony admirably demonstrates the young composer’s grasp of symphonic form and technique, and whilst the influences of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven are clearly audible, the spirit of Schubert’s own distinctive voice is certainly in evidence.

'Mendelssohn in Birmingham’ is an exciting new recording project with the CBSO and its Principal Guest Conductor, Edward Gardner. It celebrates Mendelssohn’s special relationship with the city’s Town Hall and will feature the complete symphonies recorded there. It was a venue much loved by Mendelssohn and saw him conduct many of his own works there, including premieres. ‘Mendelssohn in Birmingham’ also encompasses a major concert series at the Town Hall which will run alongside these recordings.