In August, PENTATONE releases three enthralling additions to their catalogue: Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn – Works for Cello and Piano with Johannes Moser and Alasdair Beatson; Belle Epoque with Annelien Van Wauwe, Alexandre Bloch, and Orchestre National de Lille; and Schubert – Winterreise with Ian Bostridge and Thomas Adès.
CELLO TREASURES FROM TWO MUSICAL SIBLINGS
Johannes Moser, Alasdair Beatson
German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson present a moving portrait of the Mendelssohn family with this recording of pieces by the siblings Felix and Fanny. Once composed for the popular Sunday Sessions at the Berlin Mendelssohn family house, these works fit into the typically nineteenth-century tradition of domestic music-making, albeit at the highest thinkable level. Beatson plays an 1837 Érard fortepiano, identical to the instrument that belonged to the Mendelssohn household when these pieces were composed. Besides Felix Mendelssohn’s two sonatas for cello and piano, his Variations concertantes, op. 17, Lied ohne Worte, op. 109 and Albumblatt in B Minor are featured. Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s Fantasia in G Minor and Capriccio in A-flat Major show what could have become of this talented female composer if societal conventions had not restricted her musical activities to the private salon.
This is Moser’s fifth album as an exclusive ENTATONE artist, after releases with the cello concertos of Dvořak and Lalo (2015), Elgar and Tchaikovsky (2017), works for cello and piano by Rachmaninov and Prokofiev (2016, awarded with a diapason d’or and ECHO Klassik 2017), and cello concertos by Lutosławski and Dutilleux (2018). He records for the first time with Alasdair Beatson, who makes his PENTATONE debut.
This album will be released as 1 Super Audio-CD and in digital formats for streaming and high-resolution downloads. (Article number: PTC 5186781)
THE EPITOME OF ROMANTIC MELANCHOLIA
Ian Bostridge, Thomas Adès
Renowned Schubert interpreter Ian Bostridge revisits Winterreise, the greatest of all song cycles, on his first PENTATONE album. Bostridge presents this masterpiece together with pianist, conductor and composer Thomas Adès, who bases his profound accompaniment on a fresh engagement with the original manuscripts. Winterreise is the epitome of Romantic melancholia, written by a composer aware of his fatal illness but at the height of his creative powers. It is the first instalment of a trilogy of PENTATONE recordings comprising the major Schubert song cycles. After Winterreise, Die schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang will follow.
Ian Bostridge is one of the most celebrated tenors and lied interpreters of his generation. Thomas Adès is best known as a composer but demonstrates his extraordinary skills as a song accompanist on his first PENTATONE recording.
This album will be released as 1 CD and in digital formats for streaming and high-resolution downloads. (Article number: PTC 5186764)
