Naxos Stokowski and Liszt Recordings in Gramophone
Classical Chart

Two outstanding new Naxos discs have entered Gramophone’s The Specialist Classical Chart in the magazine’s March 2009 issue:

NUMBER 4

Stokowski Transcriptions Vol 2 Music by Bach, Palestrina, Byrd, Clarke, Boccherini, Haydn and Mattheson arranged by Leopold Stokowski Leopold Stokowski arranged nearly 40 works from Bach’s catalogue for the modern symphony orchestra, and José Serebrier’s second volume of Bach-Stokowski Transcriptions is as colourful and wide-ranging as the first (8.557883). In response to popular and critical demand the present selection begins with the most famous Bach orchestration of all, the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor. This reached its widest public in Walt Disney’s Fantasia and here introduces a programme of sumptuous arrangements, including other music from the pre- and postbaroque periods. – The Leopold Stokowski Society

José Serebrier Biography & Discography

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Biography & Discography

Leopold Stokowski Biography & Discography

NUMBER 5

LISZT Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2, Totentanz Franz Liszt’s two piano concertos amply display both his extraordinary pianistic ability and his originality as an influential Romantic composer. The first, premiered in Weimar in 1855 with Berlioz conducting, is a path-breaking tour de force whose four movements, played without break and thematically linked, moved Bartók to acclaim it as “the first perfect realisation of cyclic sonata form”. The second, equally brilliant but more integrated, exemplifies Liszt’s belief that “New wine demands new bottles”. The Totentanz (Dance of Death), perhaps inspired by an Italian fresco, is a powerful series of variations on the Medieval Dies irae chant.

Eldar Nebolsin Biography & Discography

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Biography & Discography

Vasily Petrenko Biography & Discography

You can visit Gramophone’s website (www.gramophone.co.uk) and click on ‘The Specialist Classical Chart’ link to see updates. For instance, on 3 March another Naxos album charted at No 5:

Music for Clarinet and Piano COPLAND/BERNSTEIN: Clarinet Sonatas DANKWORTH: Suite for Emma, Picture of Jeannie Sir John Dankworth was inspired by Benny Goodman’s playing to study clarinet at the Royal Academy: his delightful Suite for Emma was composed for Emma Johnson, former BBC Young Musician of the Year, who performs it on this disc. Jazz and popular music influences are to the fore in the young Leonard Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata , which foreshadows the music for his ever-popular West Side Story. Aaron Copland’s arrangement for clarinet of his Violin Sonata is a major addition to the repertoire.

Emma Johnson Biography & Discography

John Lenehan Biography & Discography

Leonard Bernstein Biography & Discography

Aaron Copland Biography & Discography

John Dankworth Biography & Discography