Wooden Tomasz Stańko Quintet

Yes, it sounds crazy to make yet another recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet a "reference recording", particularly given the number of really good ones already in circulation. Never mind. There is no finer performance available, and certainly none better recorded: gorgeous, perfectly natural sound whether in regular stereo or SACD surround-sound. So what makes this performance so special? First, and speaking generally, this has got to be one of the most shapely, elegant, and effortlessly flowing versions ever committed to disc.

The Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak needs no introduction. After having dazzled the opera stage and the discographic world both in duets and solo, she has devoted the whole of her new recording to Mozart.

Arvo Pärt is one of the greatest and most performed of living composers. Slow and meditative, often religious, reflecting his mystical experiences, Pärt’s works are unmistakeable. Here Morphing Chamber Orchestra, under its artistic director Tomasz Wabnic, performs some of the Estonian composer’s finest instrumental works, Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel and Summa, together with one of his vocal masterpieces, the Stabat Mater, presented here in a new arrangement, sung by three of today’s greatest operatic voices, Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak and Andreas Scholl. Several shorter pieces, marvels of poetry and purity, sung by Andreas Scholl, complete this programme.

NICOLA PORPORA'S Germanico in Germania is the latest Baroque opera seria to get worked over by a conductor who confuses over-caffeination with excitement. There’s little drama, shape or contrast when everything’s so loud and frantic, and the whole work sounds like one long string of agitated arie di tempeste. Even without understanding Italian, it’s easy to tell what a Baroque aria is about by the instrumental setup and the vocal writing.

New love, position, power, revenge, disguise, mistaken identity, complications and passionate devotion – the full spectrum of baroque opera seria is here in this new recording of Pergolesi’s ‘Adriano In Siria’. Franco Fagioli leads the cast, alongside Romina Basso, Yuriy Mynenko, Dilyara Idrisova, Juan Sancho and Cigdem Soyarslan, accompanied by the exuberant Polish orchestra Capella Cracoviensis under the baton of Jan Tomasz Adamus. Famed for his Stabat Mater, Pergolesi died aged just 26 but had already completed four opera seria; ‘Adriano in Siria’ is the third of these and has a libretto by Metastasio.

Nuria Rials Aufnahmen für dhm werden in aller Welt hochgelobt. Ihr Album »Muera Cupido« mit dem Ensemble Accademia del Piacere wurde gerade für den Opus Klassik nominiert. Für ihr neues Album hat die Sopranistin zusammen mit dem spanischen Tenor Juan Sancho Arien und Duetten aus G. F. Händels Opern, Oratorien und Kantaten ausgewählt, die die menschliche und göttliche Liebe besingen. Die begleitende Capella Cracoviensis rundet unter der Leitung von Jan Tomasz Adamus das Album mit Tanzsätzen und Ouvertüren ab. In der Barockoper war es üblich, dass die Duette von Sopranistinnen und Kastraten gesungen wurden.

Keine vor 1858 geschriebene polnische Oper wurde so erfolgreich wie Stanislaw Moniuszkos Halka. Capella Cracoviensis präsentiert die erste, zweiaktige Fassung von Halka, die 1848 in Wilna uraufgeführt wurde. Die Wilnaer Fassung ist die erste Orchesterfassung dieser Oper, deren Partitur unsere Zeit nicht überdauert hat. In dieser dramaturgisch sehr dynamischen Komposition werden einzelne musikalische Episoden als Teil der Szenen gestaltet; Rezitative, Arien und Chöre werden kombiniert.