Le Tre Soprano is an intriguing album based on the careers of the Three Ladies of Ferrara; three virtuosi who served as Ladies in Waiting to the young Duchess of Ferrara in the late 16th century and became sufficiently renowned as musicians that Tasso wrote poems about them and Monteverdi, Strossi and others wrote music for them.
The music on the album is all from that period, so it often sounds surprisingly “modern”.. It’s quite varied musically and very well performed by three excellent singers; sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Amanda Powell and mezzo Amanda Crider along with members of the American period ensemble Apollo’s Fire and their leader Jeannette Sorrell who is also responsible for the arrangements. The band consists of Francisco Fullana and Emi Tanabe – violin, Andrew Fouts – violin and viola, René Schiffer – cello, William Simms and Brian Kay – archlute, theorbo, and guitar, Parker Ramsay – baroque triple harp and Anthony Taddeo – percussion with Sorrell on keyboards.
George is a new CD from soprano Sonya Yoncheva and friends made up of music George Sand would have listened to and some readings fro her works. There’s a particular emphasis on Pauline Viardot; close friend of Sand and sister of Maria Malibran.
Lines of Life is a CD produced out of a deep collaboration between German baritone Benjamin Appl and Hungarian composer György Kurtág. It’s a mixture of works by Schubert and Kurtág (with one song by Brahms at the end). It centers on Kurtág’s Hölderlin-Gesänge Op.35a but there are other Kurtág works on the disk too, Most of these are sung a capella but there are four settings of texts by Ulrike Schuster that have piano accompaniment (Pierre-Laurent Aimard). The Schubert songs feature James Baillieu on piano except for the last one, and the Brahms, where Kurtág himself accompanies. 
Rachel Fenlon is a very rare, perhaps unique, talent. She’s the only Lieder singer I know who accompanies herself on the piano. 
Transpositions is an unusual album in more than one way. For starters, the music is composed by a duo; Unsettled Scores consisting of Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magowan. These are the folks responsible for 
I’ve enjoyed the music of Drew Jurecka and Rebekah Wolkstein in a variety of genres and formats; Payadora Tango Ensemble, Schmaltz and Pepper etc, but I’ve never heard their string quartet; the Venturi SQ. But now I’ve had a chance to listen to their debut album which is due to be released next year on Leaf Records. It features a new quartet by Drew Jurecka plus the Ravel String Quartet in F. Besides Jurecka and Wolkstein the Venutis comprise Shannon Knights on viola and Lydia Munchinsky on cello. 
Horizon is a choral work in seven movements by Croatian composer Dalibor Bukvić. Scored for (mostly) unaccompanied female voices, it’s meant to evoke the ambiance of the prehistoric Vučedol culture, which flourished between 3000 and 2200 B.C. in what is now (mostly) Croatia which could stand in this context for the ritual side of any pre-literate culture.
My review
Nearly a year ago I reviewed Christopher Whitley’s album of pieces for solo violin and electronics 
Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth is a new miniature album of her own compositions by cellist India Gailey. Back in the day we would probably have called this an EP as there is about 20 minutes of music in all.
operaramblings 