Captivating soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan leads the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in an album exploring composers who immigrated to the United States. The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentleman explores Antonio Vivaldi’s influence on a generation of Czech composers. Two different ensembles – the Catalyst Quartet and the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal – record works by the Carribbean composer of the hour Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Finally, Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George and pianist Bryan Wagorn present an album of works inspired by the myth of Undine.
New Releases May 26: Barbara Hannigan, Catalyst Quartet, and more
Barbara Hannigan and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. (Photo: Thom Estifanos)
Leading the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan present a program exploring the concept of The American Dream. “I grew up in awe of America, but now my feelings are mainly nostalgic. With this repertoire, I want to express my admiration for the incredible creativity and tenacity of composers who shaped a musical language that was truly their own.” Robert Russell Bennett’s Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture, an arrangement of George Gershwin’s operatic masterpiece about love, addiction, racism, and hope, is paired with Aaron Copland’s vibrant Dance Symphony and “The Carousel Waltz” from Carousel by Richard Rodgers. For the grand finale, Barbara Hannigan reunites with American composer and arranger Bill Elliott in their joint creation, a vocal and instrumental suite called At the Fair. The suite starts with Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair? and concludes with the Jule Styne’s hit Don’t Rain on my Parade, both sung by Hannigan. The middle section of the suite is instrumental and includes a multitude of well-known American songs and themes including Seventy-Six Trombones, America the Beautiful, The Stars and Stripes Forever, and The Star-Spangled Banner.
The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal led by violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte offer a unique survey of the music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, drawn from varied performance contexts: sonatas for piano and violin, string quartets, concertos, opéras-comiques, concert arias, and symphonies. “His music — that of a performer-composer, as it was the case for most musicians of the period — served a function of representation: to write the concerto he himself would have to play at the next concert,” says Langlois de Swarte. “It was essential to make the greatest possible impression on the audience, with technique and virtuosity being among his most valuable assets.” The 2-CD album includes music from the operas L’Amant anonyme and Ernestine, the Violin Concerto in C Major, Op. 3, No. 2, the String Quartet Op. 1, No. 4, and various rarities recorded for the first time.
Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George and pianist Bryan Wagorn present an album inspired by the myth of Undine – her emergence from the depths, her experience of love, and her transformation into human form. Franz Schubert’s Introduction, Theme, and Variations on “Trockne Blumen,” D. 802 and Carl Reinecke “Undine” Sonata form the album’s foundation. Additional music by Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, and William Grant Still expands this expressive journey with warmth, intimacy, and richness of color. The album title reflects themes of love, loss, and solace at the core of the program which was one of the duo’s first post-pandemic performances — a project growing from a desire to create something meaningful after a long period of separation.
Catalyst Quartet presents the fourth and final release of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers. Volume 4 profiles French composer Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges and features three distinct sets of six quartets, each composed at different times in Bologne’s musical career. This marks the first-ever commercial recording of all 18 works together. The digital-only album opens with Bologne’s concertante quartets, published in 1779. They have no opus number but bear the subtitle “aux gôut du jour” (in the style of the time), and are representative of early Parisian renditions of the 18th-century string quartet style most associated with Haydn. The Op. 1 quartets were likely among the composer’s first output, written at the beginning of the 1770s and published in 1773. Like all of Bologne’s string quartets, they are written in two movements and offer a window into the sound world of Parisian chamber music circles of the late eighteenth century. The Op. 14 quartets were Bologne’s last works of instrumental music, and a unique departure from his focus on vocal music at the time. Published in 1785, the set is perhaps more mature and confident than Bologne’s entries from the 1770s.
The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentleman led by Robert Rawson explores Antonio Vivaldi’s influence on a generation of Czech composers. Best remembered today for The Four Seasons, Vivaldi’s dedication of the famous concertos to Count Wenzel von Morzin of Prague implies the works may first have become known there. In 1718 Morzin brought his “virtuosissima” orchestra – to quote Vivaldi – to Venice, during which time the Venetian composer served as their maestro di musica in Italia, inaugurating a period of musical exchange between Venice and Prague. The program features concertos and vocal music by František Jiránek, Frantisek Antonín Mica, and Antonín Reichenauer, interspersed among concertos and arias by Vivaldi. Soloists include violinist Tassilo Erhardt, oboist Mark Baigent, bassoonist Sally Holman, soprano Hana Blažíková, contralto Ciara Hendrick, and bass Tim Dickinson.
