Sonya Yoncheva, Randall Scotting & Leah Crocetto Lead New CD/DVD Releases

By Francisco Salazar

This week audiences will get to hear a new album by Sonya Yoncheva as well as a number of world premieres.

This Island 

Avie Records will release American soprano’s Susan Narucki upcoming album. The collection of 20 songs also features eminent pianist Donald Berman, a longtime collaborator of Narucki’s. The album consists of a collection of songs, chiefly by women, written in the first half of the 20th century, some of them receiving their world premiere recording here.

 14 Recitations

This new solo album features Georges Aperghis’ 14 Récitations, a concert-length avant-garde song cycle for an unaccompanied female voice. The album features Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea, who notes that the piece abandons the traditional use of text. Instead, the 14 Récitations set phonemes and vocal sounds with atonality, extended vocal techniques, puzzles, and repetitions.

Chants Nostalgiques

Marie-Laure Garnier (soprano), Célia Oneto Bensaid (piano), and the Hanson Quartet release an album inspired and molded by the theme of nostalgic love. The album features Ernest Chausson’s “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” arranged for voice, string quartet, and piano, Gabriel Fauré’s “La Bonne Chanson” and Charlotte Sohy’s “Chants nostalgiques.”

Lovesick

Signum album releases countertenor Randall Scotting’s second album where he is joined by lutenist Stephen Stubbs for a selection of ‘anti-Valentine’s’ songs from the 17th and 18th centuries depicting heartbreak and love-loss.

Passiontide

Simon Mold’s new setting is a triumph drawing deeply on the traditions of baroque Passion settings as well as such works as Stainer’s ‘The Crucifixion’ and Maunder’s “Olivet to Calvary.” Helen Bailey, Stephen Cooper, Jeremy Leaman, and Philip Leech star in the new album.

Le Dolce Sirene

Reference Recordings is set to present the dynamic all-­women force of Bach Aria Soloists with a new album that includes works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Bach.

Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony releases a live performance of works by two brilliant American composers, William L. Dawson and Pulitzer Prize winner George Walker. Performed by the Seattle Symphony and recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall, this album features Asher Fisch conducting Walker’s pieces, and conductor Roderick Cox leading the Symphony for Dawson’s work.

Momenti

In their debut self-titled EP on Crossover Records, the genre-fluid, will be heard by global audiences for the first time, experiencing what makes their artistry unique. From the virtuosic nature of the first self-titled track, to the soulful cries of “I Don’t Know What Love Is,” from ‘A Star Is Born,’ to the smooth transitions and heartfelt message of Sondheim’s “Move On,” you will be taken on a true musical journey. Momenti is comprised of Leah Crocetto, Ronny Michael Greenberg, and Christian Pursell.

Momenti’s new EP will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer.

The Courtesan

Sonya Yoncheva releases her fifth solo album on her own label SY11 Productions. The album will focus on the world of courtesans in opera. The album was recorded last year in Genoa, Italy with the Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova led by Marco Armiliato and tenor Charles Castronovo. Yoncheva performs duets from “La Traviata” and “Thaïs” as well as arias from Puccini’s “La bohème” and “Manon Lescaut,” Giordano’s “Siberia” and Mascagni’s “Iris,” Leoncavallo’s “La bohème,” Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila,” Massenet’s “Manon” and “Thaïs,” and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” The bonus track “In Trutina” will be from Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

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