Warner Classics & Erato January 2021 Releases

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Warner Classics & Erato
January 2021 Releases

Piotr Anderszewski performs the second book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier

Contralto Nathalie Stutzmann, recently named Principal Guest Conductor Designate of The Philadelphia Orchestra, shines a light on the deep-voiced female singers of the Baroque era with a program of music by Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora, and more

Nicholas Angelich dedicates his new album to the compositions of Sergei Prokofiev

Also includes releases from Martha Argerich & Theodosia Ntokou, Itzhak Perlman, Hephzibah Menuhin, and more

Well-tempered Clavier

Piotr Anderszewski
Digital Release: January 29, 2021
Physical Release: February 12, 2021
Piotr Anderszewski takes a characteristically creative approach to Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-tempered Clavier). Rather than recording all 48 of its prelude-and-fugue pairings, he has focused on 12 pairings from Book Two. “I decided to put the pieces together in a sequence of my own subjective choosing, based sometimes on key relationships, at other times on contrasts. The idea behind this specific order is to create a sense of drama that suggests a cycle: 12 characters conversing with one another, mirroring each other.” Anderszewski’s last Erato album of Bach prompted BBC Music Magazine to write: “For anyone who loves Bach (or the piano) … this life-enhancing disc is required listening.”

Contralto

Nathalie Stutzmann
Digital Release: January 15, 2021
Physical Release: January 29, 2021
Contralto Nathalie Stutzmann shines a light on the deep-voiced female singers of the Baroque era, often overshadowed by the extravagant talents and reputations of castrato singers like Farinelli and Caffarelli. Her program of Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora, Bononcini, Caldara and Gasparini displays the variety of operatic roles – both female and male – assumed by contraltos like Vittoria Tesi and Anna Marchesini. “We must remember that the opera composers of the early 18th century saw the female contralto and the male castrato as vocally interchangeable,” says Stutzmann, “and that the voice most closely resembling a castrato is not the countertenor – produced using a falsetto technique – but the contralto, which is a natural voice.” Stutzmann both sings and conducts Orfeo 55, the instrumental ensemble she founded a decade ago.

Prokofiev

Nicholas Angelich
Digital Release: January 22, 2021
Physical Release: February 5, 2021
Nicholas Angelich’s new album is dedicated to Prokofiev, the so-called unclassifiable artist– considered revolutionary by some, neo-classical by others. Came to public attention as a virtuoso pianist, Sergei Prokofiev left a fascinating body of work, that of a composer torn between two societies, between the culture of his homeland and the unchallenged culture of the West.
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Beethoven

Martha Argerich, Theodosia Ntokou
Digital Release: December 4, 2020
Physical Release: January 22, 2021
Martha Argerich, one of the great performing musicians of our time, is also a generous mentor and colleague to younger pianists. Here, saluting Beethoven in his 250th anniversary year, she shares the keyboard with Greek pianist Theodosia Ntokou in a transcription of his Symphony No 6, the ‘Pastoral’, made by Selmar Bagge, a German organist and musicologist born in 1823. Completing the program is Beethoven’s intense ‘Tempest’ Sonata, No 17 in D minor, op 31 No 2, performed by Theodosia Ntokou, who praises its “passion, intensity and fire”.
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Catalog Releases

Homage

Hephzibah Menuhin
Digital Release: January 22, 2021
Physical Release: February 5, 2021
“An independent spirit, a gracious, generous woman who was also deserving of a place among the great pianists of the 20th century.” Hephzibah Menuhin is summed up in those word by Bruno Monsaingeon, who was close to both her and her dazzlingly famous violinist brother, Yehudi. The distinguished French filmmaker has curated this 11-disc box (9CDs and 2DVDs), spanning the years from 1933 to 1980, the year before Hephzibah Menuhin’s death at the age of 60. Containing a substantial proportion of world premiere releases – live performances and TV interviews – Hephzibah Menuhin: Homage documents the pianist in her familiar role as her brother’s duo partner and sheds new light on her prowess as a recitalist and concerto soloist. It also provides fascinating insights into her life, her relationship with Yehudi and her humanitarian beliefs and activities.
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Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin

Itzhak Perlman
Physical Release only: February 5, 2021
Itzhak Perlman, the supreme violinist of his time, performs the supreme works for unaccompanied violin. In preparing the Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Perlman sought authenticity through the score itself, not through musicological research: “Music is a language, and, performed responsively, with musical logic as guide, it will make sense.”
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Händel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

Natalie Dessay
Digital Release: January 29, 2021
Physical Release: February 12, 2021
French soprano, Natalie Dessay, is joined by Le Concert d’Astrée, and Emmanuelle Haïm to perform Handel’s Il trionfo delp Tempo e del Disinganno, which was praised by BBC Music Magazine as “Technically superb, reassuringly stylish, this is an outstanding performance of Handel at the height of his powers.”

Caldara / Un Concert pour Mazarin

Philippe Jaroussky
Digital Release: January 29, 2021
Physical Release: February 12, 2021
Philippe Jaroussky, one of the foremost countertenor opera singers today, has a passion for enlightening neglected composers. This is masterfully exemplified by his first recital, Un concert pour Mazarin, and the best-seller album Caldara Arias gathered here.
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