SOMM Recordings’ celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth continues in Ocober with Volume 2 of Vaughan Williams Live, featuring historic performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult in new, signature remasterings by Lani Spahr with authoritative booklet notes by Vaughan Williams’ biographer Simon Heffer. Two works featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus include a 1945 BBC radio broadcast of the first performance of the wartime masterpiece Thanksgiving for Victory – with soprano Elsie Suddaby, organist George Thalben-Ball and Valentine Dyall as the speaker – and the rapturous Serenade to Music from the opening night of the BBC’s Third Programme (now Radio 3) in 1946. First performed in 1938 in celebration of Henry Wood’s jubilee as a conductor and originally composed for 16 solo singers, it appears here in its version for orchestra, chorus and four soloists – Isobel Baillie (soprano), Astra Desmond (contralto), Beveridge White (tenor), and Harold Williams (baritone).

The Cleveland Orchestra will release their next album, Strauss: Three Tone Poems, on their own label. They have also now announced their touring plans for 2022. In August and September this year, The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will embark on their 20th international tour together, with 12 performances in nine European cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Linz, Lucerne, Prague, and Vienna.

The music of Strauss, including works from the forthcoming June release, will be featured prominently on the tour, alongside works by Berg, Bruckner, Rihm, Schubert, as well as Mozart with pianist Igor Levit.

Baritone Michael Wilmering and pianist Daan Boertien give a surprising charge to the familiar music, which, in these uncertain times, seems to be a compass for a future whose contours are not yet entirely clear. The adventurous TRPTK label steps into the deep end with a new take on Schubert’s masterpiece Winterreise. Michael Wilmering, Baritone/Daan Boertien, Piano

PENTATONE has announced a long-term partnership with the Czech Philharmonic. Two conductors sharing the transmission duties, the venerable elder statesman Semyon Bychkov, the orchestra’s current Music Director, on the one hand, and the most important Czech conductor to have emerged in this generation, Principal Guest Conductor Jakub Hrůša on the other, paving the way for other distinguished members of the Czech Philharmonic’s family of conductors further down the line.  In the years to come the company will release selected symphonies and symphonic works by Smetana, Dvořák and Suk, as well as Pentatone’s first-ever full cycle of Mahler Symphonies.The first album to kick off this incredible collaboration is Mahler Symphony No. 4, to be released in April.

The Chimaera Trio debuts on MDG with music of the Fin de Siecle. The Dutch musicians have grouped works by Alban Berg and Anton Webern around the almost symphonic clarinet trio by Alexander von Zemlinsky; the pivotal point of the programme, however, is Gustav Mahler (and not least his wife Alma), whose song transcriptions in this compilation offer room for all kinds of relationship associations.

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER A new album of Christmas Carols – the inaugural recording of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge with Director of Music, Daniel Hyde Available on CD, streaming and download from 5 November. In the Bleak Midwinter reflects a Christmas that was unlike any other in recent history. Much of the music on this album was heard around the world as part of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a service that has been broadcast live on Christmas Eve every year since 1930. But for Christmas Eve 2020 in the face of a global pandemic, the continuation of this uniquely long-running tradition was not possible – not sung live, nor with a congregation in the Chapel alongside the global audience who have long listened from around the world. Instead, a full service, with lessons, carols, organ voluntaries and prayers, was recorded in an empty Chapel with the Choir of King’s College spread out around the stalls. For its millions of listeners, the broadcast meant the continuation of a Christmas tradition in a year when so many were without their friends and family, and without so much of what makes Christmas special.

Tiburtina Ensemble’s subtle female voices have made the Jistebnice kancionál, a unique 15th century handwritten hymnal, resound. A number of unanswered questions and mysteries still surround the manuscript. Yet the Supraphon album (SU 4291-2), made by the internationally esteemed Tiburtina Ensemble, lifts the veil of mystery to a certain degree, conveying the sheer beauty of the songs. “How wonderful my favourite Latin choral pieces sounded in Old Czech!” says Barbora Kabátková, Tiburtina Ensemble’s artistic director, who spoke spoke about the release of the recording.

Have you been to the South Bohemian village of Jistebnice?
I have passed through Jistebnice several times. Had I not known the Jistebnice kancionál and the story of its discovery, I probably would not even remember the village. But I’m not saying that it isn’t a nice place to live!

The Jistebnice kancionál contains Easter liturgy music – what is it that makes the hymnal so interesting?
As a whole, the Jistebnice kancionál is immensely precious. The bulk of the choral music intended for the most important feasts of the liturgical year it contains is intended for Lent and Easter. The most engrossing pieces for the Paschal Triduum include “pseudo-lamentations”, inspired by Jeremiah’s Lamentations. One of them, an emotional account of the Passion of Christ, is featured on our album.

Is Old Czech difficult to understand and work with?
Yes, it is, primarily because – just like with all archaic languages – you cannot consult the pronunciation with an authentic, native speaker. Learning the texts wasn’t that bad, as it is quite similar to contemporary Czech, although sometimes this similarity was quite misleading. What’s more, we were not at all sure about some words whose spelling differed in individual pieceswithin the manuscript.

Do you think that music can work as a time machine, with the Jistebnice kancionál and your recording affording us the opportunity to peep into the 15th century?
I will gladly leave it upon the listener to judge. It all depends on everyone’s zest and imagination!

What do you deem to be the greatest revelation of the Jistebnice kancionál?
I didn’t anticipate finding quite so much beautiful music there. During my musicology studies, I only had a superficial knowledge of the source, and nothing motivated me to examine it more closely. Only the research carried out by Hana Wörner–Vlhová opened my eyes and spurred me to explore

For further details please visit:
www.tiburtina-ensemble.com