This week a conductor releases the complete Beethoven symphonies and there is a rerelease of a Don Giovanni production. Here is a look at this week’s new releases.

Beethoven: The Symphonies 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe present Beethoven’s nine symphonies in what is the very first recorded cycle to be based on the recently concluded New Complete Edition of the composer’s works.

In a statement, Nézet-Séguin said, “I’m interested in how Beethoven’s music can surprise us today. Our interpretation should make the audience feel as if they were hearing this music for the first time. That is my goal.” The symphonies were recorded in July 2021 at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, where orchestra and conductor were joined in the Ninth Symphony by soloists Siobhan Stagg, Ekaterina Gubanova, Werner Güra, and Florian Boesch and the professional choristers of Laurence Equilbey’s Accentus.

Don Giovanni 

Warner Classics releases director Sven-Eric Bechtolf production of Mozart’s masterpiece with Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Don Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Anett Fritsch as Elvira, Lenneke Ruitens as Donna Anna, and Valentina Naforniţa as Zerlina. The release includes a full length realtime BEHIND THE SCENES with picture-in-picture function Package: Luxury slipcase.

New Suns

The Philadelphia-based vocal sextet Variant 6 has released its debut album on Open G Records. The album celebrates a widely diverse range of styles and sounds of 21st-century vocal music, with works by Joanne Metcalf, Jeremy Gill, Bruno Bettinelli, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, and Gabriel Jackson.

Reactions – Songs and Chamber Music

Naxos Records releases an album with music by composer Margaret Brouwer. Brouwer is a composer who wears her heart on her sleeve and the new album is a collection of recent chamber music and vocal works that explicitly express the composer’s emotions, moods and unique view of world affairs. The album features Sarah Beaty performing “Declaration,” a set of songs for voice, piano, and violin addressing violence and war and the equality of all people, including a section using text from the Declaration of Independence.

Le Chant de la Terre

The new recording embraces Arnold Schönberg’s version of Gustav Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” (1911) for chamber orchestra, completed by musicologist Rainer Riehn in 1983. This release features soloists Kévin Amiel and Stéphane Degout, as they both bring to us this enchanting music under the direction of conductor Maxime Pascal.