![Samuel Hasselhorn, Joseph Middleton - Schubert: Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe. Lieder (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/07/08/rnkl93afdu5pc_600.jpg)
Samuel Hasselhorn, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe. Lieder (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:43 minutes | 461 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Un premier album consacré à Schumann révélait avec éclat le nom du jeune baryton Samuel Hasselhorn, artiste profondément impliqué dans l’univers du lied. Avec son partenaire Joseph Middleton, il se tourne à présent vers Schubert, évoquant dans ce programme tout en sensibilité quelques-uns des thèmes chers au compositeur viennois : la nature, la nuit, le départ, l’absence et la mort. Quelques titres incontournables y côtoient des mélodies plus rares qui, peu à peu, structurent cette mise en abyme au cœur de ce que l’âme romantique a peut-être produit de plus émouvant.
(more…)
Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Joseph Middleton – A Most Marvellous Party: Noel Coward and Friends (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:24 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Noel Coward,celebrated musicians and regular Signum artists Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence and Joseph Middleton join forces for this album of works by Noel Cowardand his contemporaries.Featuring songs such as ‘Parisian Pierrot’ and ‘The Man I Love’, the album comprises of a collection ofsolos, duets and instrumental songs by composerssuch as Ned Rorem, Liza Lehmann, William Walton and Benjamin Britten.
Read more
Joseph Middleton, Sarah Connolly – Mahler Songs (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:01:16 minutes | 2,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and pianist Joseph Middleton have produced a CD with three of Mahler’s best known song cycles; the Rückert-Lieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and the Kindertotenlieder. It’s a very fine recording. Both performers are, of course, expert recitalists and they take quite an individual way with these well known pieces. In general they are quite slow (less so in the Rückert songs than the other two sets) but very clearly articulated. The phrasing, by both singer and pianist, is very deliberate and sometimes quite individual. This is most pronounced in the Rückert songs. It’s an interesting approach which I enjoyed.
The recording is fine. It was made in St. George’s Bristol in April 2021 and it’s well balanced, clear and natural. It will be available as a physical CD and in digital formats ranging from MP3 to 192kHz/24bit FLAC. I listened to the hi-res version. The booklet has plenty of useful information and full texts and English translations.
So, an interesting and enjoyable, if rather individual, record from two serious Mahlerians. Definitely worth a listen.
The release date is July 28th 2023 and the catalogue number is Signum SIGCD741.
Read more
Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Sounds and Sweet Airs – A Shakespeare Songbook (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:24:53 minutes | 2,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The 37 songs in this recital, written by 27 composers – male, female, English, French, Swiss, German, Romantic, modern and contemporary – bear witness to the richness of Shakespeare’s works to which this recital is dedicated.
Organised in the form of a play in five acts, including prologue and epilogue, the songs, which include several duets, are in turn cheerful and sad, light and profound, classical and jazzy – thus allowing, in Carolyn Sampson’s words, ‘a breadth of responses to these great texts’. Alongside well-known melodies, such as those by Schubert, there are musical adaptations by different composers of the same texts, as well as a contemporary reflection for the two voices by Hannah Kendall exploring the question of gender fluidity and identity through the elusive character of Rosalind from As You Like It.
After many acclaimed releases on BIS, including Album für die Frau, a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, A Soprano’s Schubertiade and Elysium, two Schubert recitals, as well as a number of themed recitals, some of which were named ‘Recording of the Month’ by MusicWeb International and ‘CD-Tipp’ by BR Klassik, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton are joined here by renowned British baritone Roderick Williams.
Read more
Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Songs for New Life and Love (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:52 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony”, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world premi`ere of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood. Ruby Hughes soon set about planning a programme which would converge with Grime’s music and the themes of new life and of love in all its aspects.
Read more
Nicky Spence, Mary Bevan, Fleur Barron, William Thomas, Dylan Perez, Joseph Middleton – Brahms: Liebeslieder, Op. 52 & 65 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:01 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder-Walzer (1869, 1875), Op. 52 and Op. 65, are a cheerful, short, witty set of songs full of anger, joy and rejection. These part-songs are accompanied by one piano, with four hands and any number of voices can perform any selection. These enchanting works are performed as part of Barbara Hannigan’s Momentum project, which teams up new talent with more established performers. Here, tenor Nicky Spence, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton are joined by three rising stars (mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, bass William Thomas and pianist Dylan Perez) in these love songs said to have been motivated by Brahms’s unrequited love for Clara Schumann.
Read more
Mary Bevan & Joseph Middleton – Voyages (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:19 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Jopseph Middleton perform a programme exploring the genius of Baudelaire and Goethe, and how texts by them unlocked very specific musical landscapes in settings by Debussy, Duparc, Chausson, de Bréville, Séverac, Fauré and Schubert.Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control” in stand out performances on opera and concert platforms, Mary Bevan is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music. Pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been highly acclaimed within this field. Described in the BBC Music Magazine as “one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder”, he has also been labeled “the cream of the new generation” by The Times and “a perfect accompanist” by Opera Now
Read more
Mary Bevan & Joseph Middleton – The Divine Muse (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:45 minutes | 1019 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
After the success of their debut disc, ‘Voyages’, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton present their second recital disc exploring Lieder in German and Italian by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf. The programme is woven around songs inspired by the ‘muses’ of the day, both mythological and divine.
Read more
Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton – Divine Music – An English Songbook (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:22:14 minutes | 3,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
“Inspirations and imaginings, evolving, changing English usage, landscapes, friendships and passings lie behind this album… Loosely, the songs we’ve selected embrace multiple interpre- tations and nuances of ‘divine’. As well as, I could argue, that sentiment of English song and English speaking composers embodying the [Blake/Parry] ‘Jerusalem-Builded-Here’ trope. The world I came from (singing in choir stalls), along with how countertenors are perceived generally, has been hard to escape. So here perhaps I’m taking on the challenge. As well as an opportunity to include songs written for me that for some while I’ve been needing to put down on disc.” (Iestyn Davies) ‘Divine Music’ marks Iestyn Davies’ third recital album on Signum Classics. The ‘Four Songs’ (Purcell/ Adès), Spoons Aria (Adès), Four Traditional Songs and Old Bones (Muhly) are world premiere recordings. Muhly’s Four Traditional Songs were also written dedicated to Iestyn Davies.
Read more
Louise Alder, Joseph Middleton – Richard Strauss: Through Life & Love (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:45 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Orchid Classics
Hailed as one of the brightest lyric-sopranos of the younger generation, a radiant pe rformer and a born actress Louise has been held in high critical acclaim during he r early career, and has recently been declared Young Singer of the Year at the 2017 International Opera Awards. She is also no stranger to Lieder, and has worked wi th pianist Joseph Middleton previously at the Leeds Lieder Festival. Joseph is considered a specialist in the art of song accompaniment, and has be en described as one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder by BBC Music Magazine, the cream of the new generation by The Times and a perfect accompanist by Opera Now. Through Life and Love sees Louise and Joseph perform some of the most beautiful Lieder in the repertoire, including Strauss Die Nacht, Standchen and Rote Rosen. Louise will be representing England at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition this year, and this will be her debut recital recording.
Read more
Louise Alder & Joseph Middleton – Chère nuit: French Songs (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:10 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
The acclaimed British soprano Louise Alder returns for her second recital on Chandos, joined once again by star pianist Joseph Middleton. Enthusiastic praise was widespread for her Chandos début, “Lines Written during a Sleepless Night: The Russian Connection”, which earned significant accolades in the USA and continental Europe in addition to the UK. For this recording the pair explore a rich and varied selection of French songs from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Louse Alder writes: “I have always held French song very dear to my heart and when we settled on this wildly varied programme, I quickly grew excited at the prospect of exploring the art form in virtually all its styles. From Ravel to Yvain, I hope we paint pictures of a French evening, of mystery, intrigue, discovery, seduction, love, and blissful night”.
Read more![James Newby, Joseph Middleton - I Wonder as I Wander (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/04/09/jfsmmooszv6zb_600.jpg)
James Newby, Joseph Middleton – I Wonder as I Wander (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:08 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
When deciding on the repertoire for his début recital, James Newby’s first choice fell on An die ferne Geliebte, songs that he had been performing ever since the beginning of his career. But Beethoven’s song cycle – and perhaps even more so the quasi-operatic Adelaide – also sets a tone for the entire programme, that of longing and of wanting to be elsewhere, near the distant beloved. These are emotions that Schubert, perhaps more than any other composer, has plumbed in depth, and Newby went on to select five of his songs that in various ways depict the restlessness and loneliness of the eternal wanderer.
(more…)
![Louise Alder, Joseph Middleton - Lines Written During a Sleeplesss Night: The Russian Connection (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/03/31/cu8zlip3v65ja_600.jpg)
Louise Alder, Joseph Middleton – Lines Written During a Sleeplesss Night: The Russian Connection (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:34 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Chandos
The soprano Louise Alder has been described as ‘the brightest lyric soprano of the younger generation’ (The Arts Desk), ‘a born actress’ (Opera), and as having ‘a voice of sparkling beauty’ (Gramophone).
(more…)
12 Ensemble, Mary Bevan, Joseph Middleton – Visions Illuminées (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:56 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Mary Bevan was born in Somerset into a large musical family (her slightly elder sister Sophie is also an internationally-acclaimed soprano), and read Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse at Trinity College Cambridge before taking up a place at the Royal Academy of Music. Shortly after graduation she became a Harewood Young Artist at English National Opera, where her roles included Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Papagena in The Magic Flute and Rebecca in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys. Engagements elsewhere include the title-role in Mark Antony Turnage’s Coraline at Covent Garden, Merab in Barrie Kosky’s landmark staging of Handel’s Saul at the Adelaide Festival, and Dalinda in Handel’s Ariodante with The English Concert.
Read more
Kitty Whately, Joseph Middleton – Befreit – A Soul Surrendered (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:29 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music. Having won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, she attended the prestigious Academy of the Verbier Festival. She writes of this project: ‘It has been my great pleasure to record with Joseph once again. We have long shared a mutual passion for early-twentieth-century-romantic Lieder and talked of making a disc including songs by Mahler and Strauss. The opportunity to discover and research lesser-known composers from their era has been thrilling and fascinating. As the world endured the pandemic, we all experienced fear and danger and loss in a way that most of our generation never did before, on such a global scale. Joseph and I felt drawn to reflect on grief, mortality, and bereavement.’ The two lesser-known composers featured in the recording are Johanna Müller-Hermann (who studied with several of the most prominent teachers in Vienna – Josef Labor, Guido Adler, Alexander Zemlinsky, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Franz Schmidt) and Margarete Schweikert, who’s upbringing and life in Karlsruhe and studies with Joseph Haas in Stuttgart could hardly provide a greater contrast – clearly audible in their music.
Read more