Explore landmark works by Jean Sibelius and Aram Khachaturian, plus unheralded repertoire by Gaetano Donizetti, Ernest Chausson, John Field, and Marie de Grandval.
New Releases Mar. 11: Composer Focuses
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Photo: Andrew Eccles)
Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s latest release features Aram Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto, recorded live with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The concerto is complemented by a series of solo piano works including Khachaturian’s Pictures of Childhood piano suite; Oscar Levant’s transcriptions of the “Sabre Dance” and “Lullaby” from the ballet Gayane; and the premiere recordings of Thibaudet’s own transcriptions of the Masquerade suite and the beloved Adagio from Spartacus.
“Khachaturian has this quality of nothing being fabricated,” says Thibaudet. “It’s all really him, coming from his heart and soul, and this Adagio for me is perhaps one of his best, most beautiful, and touching pieces of music. I wanted to take as much as possible from that huge orchestral score and decided in the end to create my own transcription, which I took the greatest pleasure in doing. It’s a piece that I find very intimate and personal, and I put a lot of my heart and soul into it.”
This release marks the fifth and final volume of the complete Sibelius symphonies performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under the charismatic Finnish percussionist turned conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Rouvali, who made his debut with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February, has been Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony since 2017, a position that concludes in 2025. This series has already won numerous awards around the world and reaches its conclusion with two of Sibelius’s greatest symphonies, the Sixth and Seventh. The album includes eight extracts from Sibelius’s incidental music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, one of the composer’s most fascinating composition for the theatre.
While the nocturne — a short, dreamy, and melodically expressive work that evokes the night — is often associated with Chopin, it was pioneered by the lesser-known Irish composer John Field. Alice Sara Ott’s recording of his 18 Nocturnes celebrates the music of the man credited as the inventor of form. “Engaging with Field’s nocturnes was a deeply rewarding experience,” says Ott. “Their beauty and grace affected me profoundly, and I hope that this album may perhaps inspire the occasional listener to discover Field’s music for themselves.”
A visionary musician, Alice Sara Ott continually reimagines the repertoire, creating immersive multimedia experiences through cross-disciplinary collaborations. In addition to making the album, Ott stars in a 50-minute documentary called NOCTURNE available on DG’s streaming platform STAGE+.
In their first full-length album, I Giardini, a collective of French chamber musicians, center the music of Ernest Chausson. The Concert in D major, Op. 21 for violin, piano, and string quartet is a masterly work on the borderline between chamber music and orchestra, featuring violinist Pierre Fouchenneret and I Giardini’s co-artistic director, pianist David Violi. I Giardini also deliver a previously unpublished version of Poème, Op. 25, reworked for violin, piano and string quartet, again with Fouchenneret as soloist. The album concludes with a star turn for co-artistic director and cellist Pauline Buet performing a transcription for cello of the third movement from Chausson’s song cycle Poème de l’amour et de la mer and singing the popular song “Le temps du lilas” by the French singer Barbara (Monique Andrée Serf), both accompanied by David Violi.
The music of Gaetano Donizetti has been a source of inspiration for the founders of the Opera Rara, the company that restores, records, and performs neglected vocal repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Spearheaded by Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, the Donizetti Song Project is curated by musicologist and Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker. Over the course of two years, Parker tracked down Donizetti’s entire corpus of solo songs, nearly 200 in total, many of which have never been heard in modern times. “[This repertoire] makes a powerful argument for the importance of the Italian ‘school’ in a field long dominated by German and French composers.” says Parker. The third volume of the Donizetti Song Project features 16 songs for tenor and piano performed by tenor Michael Spyres and Carlo Rizzi with an additional two songs featuring a violin or harp obbligato. Michael Spyres joins WFMT to share selections from this new album on March 15.
French composer Clémence de Grandval (1828–1907), born Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset and known as Vicomtesse de Grandval and Marie Grandval, studied composition with Friedrich Flotow, composer and family friend, and later with Frédéric Chopin and Camille Saint-Saëns, the latter dedicating his Oratorio de Noel to her. A prolific composer, Grandval’s output includes a mass, 50 songs with piano accompaniment, several orchestral works and oratorios, nine operas, and many chamber pieces. Her penchant for song and opera is evident in the Grand Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, where each musician enjoys the opportunity to play long singing lines and indulge in a bel canto style of rubato and expression.
Oboist Andrew Parker, bassoonist Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and pianist Colette Valentine present a lively performance of the trio, new to the WFMT library, on this EP from Navona Records.
