This week audiences can hear the complete songs by Schumann and a world premiere recording. They can also hear a debut album by one of the leading baritones of our time. Here is a look at this week’s new releases.

George Gagnidze

Orfeo is set to release George Gagnidze’s debut album which was recorded with the Staatskapelle Weimar under the baton of Stefan Solyom. The recording includes arias from Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier,” Verdi’s “La traviata,” “Macbeth,” “Nabucco,” “Il trovatore,” “Un ballo in maschera,” and “Don Carlo,” Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”

In a statement, the baritone noted, “I am very happy about my first solo album release. I am looking back at a long and fruitful collaboration with the Staatskapelle Weimar and Stefan Solyom from my time as an ensemble member at Nationaltheater Weimar. The arias were recorded in 2012, but only the period of repose due to the pandemic in 2020/2021 made it possible to finally initiate their release.

The Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Queen Jane 

BMOP/sound is set to release the world premiere recording of Arnold Rosner’s opera “The Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Queen Jane.” The new recording features conductor Gil Rose leading the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera with soloists Megan Pachecano, James Demler, David Salsbery Fry, Aaron Engebreth, Krista River, Eric Carey, William Hite, Rebecca Krouner, Stephanie Kacoyanis, and Gene Stenger.

Sony Classical and BR-Klassik release Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber’s historical achievement as they record 299 songs by Schumann, almost the whole of the composer’s lieder output. The recording was supported by International Song Centre Heidelberg, initiated by the Heidelberger Frühling music festival.

Gerhaher and Huber have consciously eschewed a purely chronological or purely thematic approach, their aim being to preserve what for Schumann himself was the essential unity of his song cycles and to embed the individual songs within a chronological and thematic inner context.

The albums also feature Sibylla Rubens, Camilla Tilling, Julia Kleiter, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Martin Mitterrutzner, Christina Landshamer and Anett Frisch. There is an extensive booklet that includes all the song texts together with an introduction by the German musicologist Laurenz Lütteken, while Gerhaher himself has set down his personal thoughts on the individual songs. The recordings were supported by the Robert Schumann Research Centre in Düsseldorf.

The recording will be available digitally and will be released on CD on Oct. 8, 2021.