AUGUST’S NEW ALBUM RELEASES 2023

31/8/2023

August's New Album Releases 2023

Gallery

Tan Dun Buddha Passion
Mozart: The Piano Quartets
BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 8
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture

The start of August saw the release of Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion – an epic choral work that also launched the Edinburgh International Festival this summer. 

Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, the title role of which was created and is portrayed in this recording by Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang, is set at the foot of the Himalayas and inspired by Chinese and Sanskrit texts. The story follows a little prince as he finds enlightenment and becomes Buddha, meeting an array of characters before reaching Nirvana. The life-affirming score fuses the ancient wisdom of Buddhism with the musical tradition of JS Bach’s Passions, featuring hypnotic orchestral textures and Eastern vocal techniques.

“these musical paintings depict more than four thousand musical instruments, three thousand musicians and five hundred orchestras. I was so deeply moved that I could almost hear the sounds emanating from the murals.”

Tan Dun

On 11 August, and following a highly successful series of concerts in the summer of 2022, Francesca Dego, Timothy Ridout, Laura van der Heijden, and Federico Colli released Mozart: The Piano Quartets on Chandos Records. Whilst he may not have been the first composer to add a viola to the popular piano trio, Mozart was certainly the first to do so with such outstanding success. In his piano quartets, the strings become an equal partner to the piano, rather than mere accompaniment – much as in his piano concertos.

Dego | Ridout | Van der Heijden | Colli, Mozart: The Piano Quartets

Paavo Järvi continued his run of albums with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Alpha Classics this month with Bruckner’s Symphony No.8. For Paavo Järvi, it is the composer’s ​“most unusual symphony” and the ​“pinnacle” of his symphonic output.

“Described by the composer as a ​‘mystery’, for conductor Paavo Järvi the Eighth Symphony is the pinnacle of Bruckner’s symphonic output. Recording the symphony is particularly special for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, since it was the first Bruckner the orchestra ever performed.”

Alpha Classics

It was a special month for Aziz Shokhakimov who released his debut conducting album with Warner Classics and Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 and Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture. 

“My constant concern is for this orchestra to have a distinctive, readily identifiable sound, and for this sound to be of the highest quality. Thanks to all its splendid musicians, that is achievable. The work we do together is very productive, and I always sense a powerful chemistry with this orchestra, which I first encountered in 2014. I fell in love with it immediately.”

Aziz Shokhakimov