The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has released Riccardo Muti Conducts Italian Masterworks on its CSO Resound label, featuring music by Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni, and Boito recorded live in Orchestra Hall in June 2017. Jon Bruce Yeh, the CSO’s assistant principal clarinet, is featured soloist on the new recording Liquid Melancholy: Clarinet Works of James M. Stephenson on the Cedille Records label; the album includes the recorded world premiere of Stephenson’s “Liquid Melancholy” Clarinet Concerto, among other Stephenson works. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra has released American Originals: 1918 on its Fanfare Cincinnati label. The album, led by Pops Conductor John Morris Russell, features new orchestrations of popular songs from the immediate post-World War I period such as Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” and George M. Cohan’s “Over There,” performed with Rhiannon Giddens, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Pokey LaFarge. The Experiential Orchestra, a New York City-based ensemble of musicians led by conductor James Blachly, has announced plans to record Ethel Smyth’s recently rediscovered composition The Prison (1930) with the Clarion Choir and vocal soloists including soprano Sarah Brailey and bass-baritone Dashon Burton. The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and featuring the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus has been released as a two-CD set on Deutsche Grammophon. The Naxos Music Group has acquired the Opus Arte Label from the U.K.’s Royal Opera House. The San Francisco Symphony has released Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette on its own SFS Media label; recorded live in June 2017 at Davies Symphony Hall, it features mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Nicholas Phan, bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony will release the first recording in a three-volume Saint-Saens cycle on December 28 on Hyperion Records, with the Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) featuring Paul Jacobs. Joshua Bell is featured as violinist and conductor on a new Sony Classical recording featuring the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performing two works by Bruch: the Violin Concerto No. 1 and Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra.
Posted November 30, 2018
