This is my favorite recording this month – it replaces one of the earliest Naxos recordings [Slovak Radio Symphony / Gunzenhauser] which was very well played and recorded but is no longer up to our present-day standards. The new recording is in a different league – a first-class orchestra, recorded in state-of-the-art 24/96 sound and conducted by Jerry Schwarz whose recent recording of Scheherazade received tremendous critical acclaim. There are other recordings of the three symphonies but ours is now the top choice in this repertoire. You will love this recording!

Many of today’s leading conductors attended the composer’s conducting classes and it is as conductor that he is known today. The music is very colorful and filmic. It is a worthy addition to our project to record the most important Italian composers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

I have a soft spot for the contemporaries of Haydn and Mozart and there are not many good viola concertos. This is the only recording featuring both Hoffmeister concertos and there are not many versions of the C.P. Stamitz. Very enjoyable and tuneful pieces in excellent performances from soloist Victoria Chiang and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. An hour’s worth of enjoyable listening!

Our recording resurrects the tuneful 2nd Piano Quartet and couples it with the better-known Piano Trio No. 1. Great performances by the Gould Trio and violist David Adams – the Goulds’ recording of the 3rd Piano Trio is available on 8.570416.

If you like chamber music, it’s difficult to imagine more enjoyable discoveries.

The composer is largely forgotten nowadays but was one of the leading violinists of his time. He had studied with de Bériot and Vieuxtemps and later became Professor of Violin at the Royal School of Music in London. To give you an idea of his stature – Franz Liszt accompanied him on his first tour of the United States. He later married Teresa Carreño, the first major woman pianist. Our recording offers some of the composer’s most distinctive and enchanting works – think of a French Fritz Kreisler.

The violinist here is a winner of the Young Concert Artists Competition and plays the pieces with great musicality and virtuosity.