Our top pick is:

CLASSICAL: Maria Dueñas: Beethoven and Beyond (Deutsche Grammophon)

Before telling you how wonderful this album is, I should have included this in last week’s list. Better late than never!

Violinist Dueñas performs Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61. That opens the album. The last five tracks are cadenzas for the concerto that had been composed by Fritz Kreisler, Camille Saint-Saëns, Louis Spohr, Henryk Wieniawski and Eugène Ysaÿe.

In between are works by each of those composers: 3 Old Viennese Dances: No. 2 (Liebesleid) by Kreisler; Havanaise, Op. 83, R. 202 by Saint-Saéns; Spohr’s Symphonie Concertante for Violin, Harp and Orchestra (with Volker Kempf on hair); Lègende, Op. 17 by Wieniawski and Ysaÿe’s Berceuse, Op. 20.

Manfred Honk leads the Wiener Symphoniker. This is a very well constructed recording filled with great performances by Dueñas.

The rest of this weeks’s New In Music This Week: May 12th are:

The first album I love this week defies easy categorization. So it’ll have to go without one.

PJEV, Kit Downes & Hayden Chisholm: Medna Roso (Red Hook Records)

PJEV is a female a cappella quintet from Zagreb. Kit Downes is a composer, organist and pianist. Hayden Chisholm is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. The album features various folks songs from the Balkans, but performed and arranged in such a unique way that you find yourself going on a deeply personal journey with the music (at least I did).

You might be tempted to classify this as a world music album. You could call it a choral album. You could call it a jazz-infused album. I bet by the time you finish listening to it, you’ll just call it utterly compelling and moving.

BROADWAY: KPOP Original Broadway Cast Album (Sony Music Masterworks)

Sometimes the most interesting albums come from shows that didn’t last long on Broadway. The musical KPOP had 44 previews and 17 regular performances last year before closing. While I’m not sure what the audience was meant to be for a show like this (can younger KPOP fans truly afford Broadway tickets?), if you want to hear songs like This Is My Korea, Super Star, Amerika (Checkmate) and more, this is your opportunity. And if you’re a fan of the show, here’s your souvenir!

CLASSICAL: Berlin Philharmoniker: Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Phil Media GmbH)

In their continuing series of recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies, conductor Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmoniker have released this EP which contains the full symphony…one of Shostakovich’s shortest. His 7th and 8th symphonies were monumental works. When the 9th was first performed in Leningrad in November of 1945 many were astonished at its short length.

That doesn’t make this symphony any less interesting. In fact, the brevity of the work only heightens the interest in a work about which Shostakovich said, “”Musicians will love to play it and critics will delight in blasting it.” You can decide whether it should be loved or blasted when you check out this wonderful 26 minute recording.

JAZZ: Pilc Moutin Hoenig: YOU Are the Song (Justin Time Records)

This is the first recording in twelve years from pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, bassist François Boutin and drummer Ari Hoenig. The ten tracks on this very appealing album include After You’ve Gone, Straight No Chase and The Song Is You. All the tracks were recorded live. Each take heard on the album is the first take the trio performed.

Their previous recordings include 2002’s Welcome Home and 2011’s Threedom. It’s great to have them back with this terrific music!

JAZZ: Javier Red’s Imagery Converter: Life & Umbrella (Desafio Candente Records)

Some works are so deeply personal that the emotion becomes tangible in so many ways. Such is the case with Red’s second album with drummer Gustavo Cortiñas, bassist Ben Dillinger and saxophonist Jake Wark. (Their first album, Imagery Converter, was released in 2019.)

Composer/pianist Red wrote all twelve tracks on this album which was inspired by his son was diagnosed with autism. He says in the press release for the album that he hopes this music will “fill that empathy gap” between those who are neurotypical and those with autism. It sounds a bit clinical as a statement, but works beautifully on Life & Umbrella. There’s nothing clinical about the music here at all.

JAZZ: Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: Home Is Here (Tapestry Records)

Sometimes the best way to create awareness of an issue is to do it with music (see directly above). What saxophonist/bandleader Felipe Salles has done since forming the Interconnections Ensemble is tell a story of immigrants without proselytizing. What he’s accomplished instead is the creation of great music that reflects different sounds from all around the world from some of the best jazz musicians – all to tell a story about the value of immigrants in our society.

Home Is Here features saxophonist Melissa Aldana (Chile); legendary saxophonist/ clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera (Cuba); vocalist Magos Herrera (Mexico); flugelhornist Nadje Noordhuis (Australia); guitarist Chico Pinheiro (Brazil); vocalist Sofia Rei (Argentina); saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart (Guadeloupe) and saxophonist/percussionist Yosvany Terry (Cuba) performing with Salles who wrote all 8 tracks on the album.

None of this would matter if the music wasn’t good…and it is! My personal favorite tracks are Meridian 63, Storytelling and Wanderlust.

JAZZ: Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band: Vox Humana (Jazzheads)

As with Sanabria’s highly-acclaimed 2018 release West Side Story Reimagined, this new album was recorded live in front of an audience. Including Sanabria, his big band has 21 musicians – and that doesn’t count guest vocalists Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Antoinette Montague and Janis Siegel (The Manhattan Transfer).

The album includes Caravan, Do It Again (the Steely Dan song), I Love You Porgy and Eddie Palmieri’s Puerto Rico.

You don’t often get to hear a big band like this and this album is pure joy.

OPERA: Bizet: Carmen (Warner Classics)

You’re probably wondering why a recording of one of the most often performed and recorded operas would make this list. There’s one simple reason: Maria Callas. This is the only complete recording of Carmen that Callas ever did. The album was originally released in 1964 and re-released in 1997. This is a newly remastered version and is available on vinyl as well as CD and digital. Joining her to sing the role of Don José is Nicolai Gedda. Conducting the Orchestre du Théâtre National de l’Opéra de Paris is Georges Prêtre.

OPERA: Maria Callas: From Studio to Screen (Warner Classics)

This vinyl only release is probably going to be most popular with Callas completists. It’s a compilation of the many recordings of hers that have been featured in movies. This includes such films as Bohemian Rhapsody (Habañera from Carmen), The Bridges of Madison County (Casta Diva from Norma), Fargo and Philadelphia (La mamma morta from Andrea Chénier).

Of note, last year Callas Cinema was released digitally as a 19-track collection that included many of the same tracks found on this album.

That’s what’s New In Music This Week: May 12th. To check out last week’s New In Music This Week, please go here.

What are you listening to that excites you? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the music!

Main Photo: Art from Life & Umbrella (Courtesy Desafio Candente Records)

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