This week audiences will be able to stream a summer concert, a legend’s unreleased recordings, and a world premiere piece. These are the latest albums that OperaWire recommends.

Summer Night Concert 2020: Vienna Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev & Jonas Kaufmann

Sony Classical will release this year’s Summer Night Concert 2020 with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Valery Gergiev with tenor Jonas Kaufmann as soloist. The concert will also release the concert on DVD/Blu-ray on Oct. 23, 2020.

Performed on Sept. 18, 2020, the program features music by Wagner, R. Strauss, Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Puccini, and Khachaturian, among others.  

Falling Out of Time 

Silkroad is releasing a new recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s “Fall Out of Time” on In a Circle Records. The work was written for and recorded by the composer’s longtime collaborators and friends, the Silkroad Ensemble.

In a statement Artistic Director, Rhiannon Giddens said, “The first thing I noticed about Silkroad’s new recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time was its beauty. As I listened more, I was struck by how deeply rooted this work is—rooted in places, in people, and in relationships. It’s rare to hear something that is at once so personal and so interconnected, so specific and so global.”

Golijov added, “When I first read David Grossman’s novel, Falling Out of Time, I could think of nothing else. I felt I had to set it to music. And I knew the only people who could manifest in sound the infinitely nuanced world of the book are the musicians of the Silkroad Ensemble.”

Songbird

Margaret Marshall OBE has launched her “Songbird Album” via a new website, www.margaretmarshallsongbird.com.

The Songbird album is comprised of Henry Purcell’s The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation, J. S. Bach’s Non sa che sia dolore, BW209, Antonio Vivaldi’s Introduzione al Dixit, R636 and De Torrente, from Dixit Dominus, R594, G.F. Handel’s Guardian Angels, from the Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV71, W. A. Mozart’s Ah’ lo Previdi – ah t’invola agl’occhi miei, KV272, and Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis.

The performances, except the works by Vivaldi, are from live radio broadcasts, unheard since they were first performed in the 1970s.

In a statement, Marshall said, “Through a chance encounter I came into possession of recordings of live radio broadcasts I had given early in my career when I believe my voice was at its brightest and freshest. I was just happy to have these recordings which I had never heard, but a few persuasive people, including my old school friend and highly regarded record producer John Fraser, convinced me that perhaps they were worthy of a larger audience. These are the composers and works I loved to sing – and whilst I enjoyed a wonderful operatic career, my heart always belonged to the concert platform. Indeed, I have never liked the categorization of classical singers as opera singers as I feel it gives a hierarchy to opera over other classical musical genres.”

The songbird platform is a collaboration between Miss Marshall and her elder daughter, Nicola Davidson. In addition to the musical performances, it includes stories about life as a classical singer, including discovering you have a voice, the importance of great teachers, performing when heavily pregnant, singing the repertoire that best suits your voice even if that means turning down exciting opportunities, and performing your first professional opera with Riccardo Muti.

Messiah 

The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and its chief conductor Justin Doyle present Handel’s Messiah in a new release by Pentatone. They are joined by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and an all-British quartet of outstanding soloists including Julia Doyle, Tim Mead, Thomas Hobbs, and Roderick Williams.