New Releases: Mozart versus Salieri – Christian Benda & Prague Sinfonia Orchestra; Bach Cello Suites – Rachel Podger

29 April 2019, 10:00 | Updated: 29 April 2019, 10:01

New Releases
New Releases: Mozart versus Salieri – Christian Benda & Prague Sinfonia Orchestra; Bach Cello Suites – Rachel Podger. Picture: Sony Classical / Channel Classics

By Sofia Rizzi

Throughout the week Classic FM’s presenters bring you the best new recordings, including world exclusives and premiere broadcasts of latest releases.

John Suchet's Album of the Week
Picture: Classic FM

John Suchet plays a track from his featured Album of the Week at 10.15am every weekday.

Mozart versus Salieri: Rivalry? – Prague Sinfonia Orchestra & Christian Benda

Sony Classical

Mozart versus Salieri: Rivalry? – Prague Sinfonia Orchestra & Christian Benda
Picture: Sony Classical

The professional competition between Mozart and Salieri has been a well-documented topic. It even became subject of the Oscar-winning film Amadeus.

Now, a new album of compositions by the two is here to provide a side-by-side comparison of the works of both composers. Christian Benda leads the Prague Sinfonia Orchestra in a musical journey, from Mozart's Don Giovanni opera overture, to Salieri's overture to Les Danaides.

This album gives a musical backdrop to what is still to this day, a mysterious rivalry in music history.

John Brunning's Drive Discovery
Picture: Classic FM

J S Bach: Cello Suites for Violin – Rachel Podger

Channel Classics

J S Bach: Cello Suites for Violin – Rachel Podger
J S Bach: Cello Suites for Violin – Rachel Podger. Picture: Channel Classics

Rachel Podger goes beyond her violin repertoire in this album, instead adapting some of Bach's finest cello works for the violin.

Rachel said: “Since, I have spent a fair bit of time coaching cellists, both modern and baroque alike, and found myself playing along to demonstrate various points I gradually could feel these pieces joining the violin partitas and sonatas as another kind of daily bread; I started catching myself playing some of the movements I particularly loved while warming up, and realising that it was actually possible to play them on the violin, and to find a special expressive vocabulary at the higher pitch.”