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This month’s new releases from Naxos include two exciting opera DVDs, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, as well as a stunning box set of Haydn’s Complete Concertos which joins the other highly praised box sets that Naxos has released to commemorate the Haydn 200th Anniversary Year.
To celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, Naxos releases Tributes to Lincoln with eight important works by leading American composers performed by the Nashville Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Naxos also presents the second volume of the Pacifica Quartet’s thrilling interpretations of Elliot Carter’s String Quartets to celebrate the 100th birthday of this great American composer.
Take a moment to explore Naxos’s other outstanding new releases as well as those from Capriccio, Dacapo and OUR Recordings, which are distributed worldwide by Naxos. Click on the album titles for more information about each new release.
Visit naxos.com today for more news from Naxos, the world’s leading classical music label. |
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2.110264 DONIZETTI: Lucrezia Borgia
Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano • Roberto De Biasio, tenor • Enrico Giuseppe Iori, bass • Nidia Palacios, mezzo-soprano • Orchestra and Chorus of the Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti • Tiziano Severini, conductor
Donizetti’s opera is one of the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto repertoire. Beautifully costumed and designed, brimming with high drama and pathos, this production stars in the infamous title rôle Greek diva Dimitra Theodossiou, praised for her stupendous acting and singing in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux (Naxos DVD 2.110232). |
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2.110260 SCHUBERT: Alfonso und Estrella
Olaf Bär, Thomas Hampson, baritones • Luba Orgonasova, soprano • Alfred Muff, bass • Endrik Wottrich, tenor • Chamber Orchestra of Europe • Arnold Schoenberg Choir • Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor
An all-star cast conducted by the renowned Nikolaus Harnoncourt came together in May 1997 to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Schubert’s birth with a new production of this rarely performed opera. Winner of two Emmys and many other prestigious awards, Brian Large directed this historic Vienna Festival production. |
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8.660227-28 STRAUSS: Furstin Ninetta
Tua Åberg, Elin Rombo, Henriikka Gröndahl, sopranos • Jesper Taube, Ola Eliasson, Samuel Jarrick, Baritones; Fredrik Strid, Göran Eliasson, tenors • Ninetta Chorus • Stockholm Strauss Orchestra • Valéria Csányi, conductor
Johann Strauss II’s Princess Ninetta enjoyed seventy-six performances and immediate critical approval: “Strauss has once more spun us such delightful melodies”. Its Neue Pizzicato Polka remains one of its more popular excerpts, yet the operetta itself still enchants, as this sparkling new recording amply shows. |
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8.506019 HAYDN: Complete Concertos
Cologne Chamber Orchestra • Helmut Müller-Brühl • Augustin Hadelich • Dmitri Babanov • Harald Hoeren • Ariadne Daskalakis•Jürgen Schuster • Maria Kliegel • Sebastian Knauer • Ketil Haugsand •Christian Hommel • Daniel Rothert • Philipp Spätling
This boxed set includes all the surviving concertos of Haydn as well as some of the works which have been attributed to the composer. Haydn is not primarily known for his concertos, and this wonderfully varied set thus throws a spotlight on a less-celebrated area of his extraordinary output.
OTHER HAYDN 200th ANNIVERSARY BOX SETS ALSO AVAILABLE: |
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8.501042 THE COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS (10 CDs)
Jeno Jandó
“He shows himself a complete master of this repertoire.” Penguin Guide |
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8.502400 THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS (25 CDs)
Kodály Quartet
“The Naxos recordings by the Kodály Quartet are outstanding in every way...” Gramophone |
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8.503400 THE COMPLETE SYMPHONIES (34 CDs)
Sinfonia Finlandia • Patrick Gaullois • Northern Chamber Orchestra • Nicholas Ward • Cologne Chamber Orchestra • Helmut Müller-Brühl • Toronto Chamber Orchestra • Kevin Mallon • Nikolaus Esterházy Sinfonia • Béla Drahos • Capella Istropolitana• Barry Wordsworth |
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8.507008 THE ORATORIOS (7 CDs) -
AVAILABLE IN MARCH 2009!
Die Schöpfung (The Creation)
Max Ciolek • Sunhae Im • Jan Kobow • Hanno Muller-Brachmann • Christine Wehler • Cologne Vocal Ensemble • Capella Augustina • Andreas Spering
“If you’re looking for a good, period-instrument version of The Creation, the great oratorio by Haydn, at budget price, look no further.” – Scena
Die Jahrzeiten (The Seasons)
Andreas Karasiak • Stephan MacLeod • Sibylla Rubens • Gewandhaus Chamber Choir • Leipzig Chamber Orchestra • Morten Schuldt-Jensen
“This Naxos set of Die Jahrzeiten, in German, is given with modern instruments, and very well they play, aided by a fine clear recording” - International Record Review
Il Ritorno di Tobia (The Return of Tobias)
Nikolay Borchev • Anders J. Dahlin • Ann Hallenberg • Roberta Invernizzi • Sophie Karthäuser • Cologne Vocal Ensemble • Capella Augustina • Andreas Spering
“The choruses are all superb, the arias inventive and vastly challenging...Haydn lovers should snap it up as a matter of urgency. – Gramophone
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8.570723 SZYMANOWSKI: Harnasie, Mandragora, Prince
Potemkin: Incidental Music to Act V
Wiesław Ochman, Alexander Pinderak, tenors • Ewa Marciniec, mezzo-soprano • Ewa Marczyk, violin • Kazimierz Koślacz, cello • Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir • Henryk Wojnarowski, chorus master • Antoni Wit, conductor
Multiple prize-winner and Grammy award nominee for several of his Naxos recordings, Antoni Wit is one of today’s most highly regarded Polish conductors, an ideal interpreter of the exotic, colourfully scored music of Karol Szymanowski, described by Sir Simon Rattle as “one of the greatest composers of this century”. |
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8.570555 JANACEK: Operatic Orchestral Suites, Vol 1
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • Peter Breiner, conductor
The operas of Leoš Janáček have been gaining their rightful place the world over. Jenůfa, a powerful tragedy set in a Moravian village, launched Janáček’s operatic career. The Excursions of Mr Brouček is his most candidly satirical opera. Peter Breiner, who created the compelling orchestral suites, conducts these world première recordings. |
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8.570519 MOZART: Piano Trios, Vol 2
Kungsbacka Piano Trio
Composed in 1788 at the peak of his creative powers, though at a time of both artistic success and looming personal crisis, Mozart’s last three piano trios are masterpieces whose prevailing character of congenial gaiety is heightened by poignant undercurrents of lyrical melancholy. Volume 1 (8.570518) also features the acclaimed young Kungsbacka Piano Trio. |
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8.570480 SCHUBERT: Lied Edition 30 - Poets of Sensibility, Vol 6
Jan Kobow, tenor • Ulrich Eisenlohr, fortepiano
Naxos’s acclaimed series of Schubert’s Lieder continues with a selection of songs with texts by contemporaneous poets such as Johann Gaudenz, Baron von Salis-Seewis, Friedrich von Köpken and Peter Johann Uz, important early Romantics whose fame today owes much to Schubert’s enduring settings.
OTHER VOLUMES ALSO AVAILABLE |
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8.559363 CARTER: String Quartets Nos 2, 3 & 4
Pacifica Quartet
To celebrate his 100th birthday, Elliott Carter’s Complete String Quartets have been newly recorded by the Pacifica Quartet, Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year for 2009. Volume 1 (8.559362) was critically acclaimed: “a knockout” (Limelight), “Music with heart as well as a brain”
(4 STARS, The Times), “the best possible introduction to Carter’s music”
(5 STARS, The Guardian). |
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8.570469 RODE: Violin Concertos Nos 7, 10 & 13
Friedemann Eichhorn, violin • South West German Radio Orchestra, Kaiserslautern • Nicolás Pasquet, conductor
A student of Viotti, and respected by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Spohr, among others, Rode’s 13 Violin Concertos are rarely played. Friedemann Eichhorn, the soloist on this world première recording, has commented: “Working with these scores was a wonderful adventure...Rode emphasizes the singing quality of his instrument”. |
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8.572240 COPLAND / BERNSTEIN: Clarinet Sonatas
DANKWORTH: Suite for Emma, Picture of Jeannie
Emma Johnson, clarinet • John Lenehan, piano
Sir John Dankworth’s delightful Suite for Emma was composed for Emma Johnson, former BBC Young Musician of the Year, who performs it here. Jazz and popular music influences are to the fore in the young Leonard Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata. Aaron Copland’s arrangement for clarinet of his Violin Sonata is a major addition to the repertoire. |
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8.559378 JONES: Symphony No 3, "Palo Duro Canyon"
Tuba Concerto
Christopher Olka, tuba • Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz, conductor
“Samuel Jones is a sensitive musician with great imagination, and he is a real craftsman. These works should be part of the core of the great American repertoire” (Gerard Schwarz). His Tuba Concerto, which Schwarz regards as “the finest solo work for that instrument ever produced”, was composed for the performers on this disc. |
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8.559373-74 Tributes to Lincoln - IVES / PERSICHETTI / HARRIS / BACON / GOULD / McKAY / TUROK / COPLAND
Sharon Mabry, mezzo-soprano • Mary Kathryn Van Osdale, violin • Anthony LaMarchina, cello • Roger Wiesmeyer, piano • Nashville Symphony Chorus • George Mabry, chorus director • Nashville Symphony • Leonard Slatkin, conductor
To celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, the Nashville Symphony, Leonard Slatkin and Naxos have selected eight important works by leading American composers, some setting Lincoln’s own immortal words, some words of poets inspired by him, others based on Lincoln’s life and ideals. |
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8.570396 BALAKIREV: Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Grande Fantaisie on Russian Folksongs
Anastasia Seifetdinova, piano • Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Dmitry Yablonsky, conductor
Balakirev was praised by Rimsky-Korsakov as “an excellent pianist…endowed by nature with a sense of correct harmony and part-writing”, qualities abundantly evident in his two piano concertos. Brimming with Romantic bravura, rich orchestrations and solo writing, these are highly appealing works. |
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8.570987 LUTOSLAWSKI: Complete Music for Violin & Piano
SZYMANOWSKI: Myths / JANACEK: Violin Sonata
Ariadne Daskalakis, violin • Miri Yampolsky, piano
The lives of the three Eastern European composers on this disc spanned almost 150 years (1854–1994), a period of dramatic historical change. Praised by The Strad for her “striking athleticism, musical insight, expressive embellishment and elegiac lyricism”, violinist Ariadne Daskalakis is sensitively accompanied by pianist Miri Yampolsky. |
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8.572175 MARTINU: Complete Piano Music, Vol 5
Giorgio Koukl
Since the release of Volume 4 (Naxos 8.570215), several manuscripts of previously unperformed, unknown or lost works have been discovered. For this recording of the unpublished Polkas and Waltzes Giorgio Koukl has used manuscript sources, gaining unique insights into this immediately appealing music. Also available: Vol 1 (8.557914), Vol 2 (8.557918), Vol 3 (8.557919). |
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8.570315 RHEINBERGER: Organ Works, Vol 8
Wolfgang Rübsam
These works, with their echoes of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt and Bach, nonetheless demonstrate Rheinberger’s own finely honed melodic sense, harmonic development and clear-voiced textures. Recorded on the magnificent 72-stop, four-manual Rieger-Sauer Organ in Fulda Cathedral.
Also available: Vol 1 (8.554212), Vol 2 (8.554213), Vol 3 (8.554549),
Vol 4 (8.554809), Vol 5 (8.557184), Vol 6 (8.570313), Vol 7 (8.570314). |
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8.570400 The Bottesini Collection, Vol 4
Thomas Martin, double bass • Anthony Halstead, piano • Jacquelyn Fugelle, soprano
Giovanni Bottesini enjoyed a globe-trotting career as “the Paganini of the double bass”. Manuscript sources have been used for his Fantasia on Bellini’s La sonnambula, Variations on Nel cor più non mi sento, and other pieces.
Also available: Vol 1 (8.570397), Vol 2 (8.570398), Vol 3 (8.570399). |
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8.572109 GRYC: Passaggi / ZIVKOVIC: Tales from the Center
of the Earth / SCHWANTNER: Recoil
Joseph Alessi, trombone • Benjamin Toth, percussion • The Hartt School Wind Ensemble • Glen Adsit, conductor
Stephen Gryc and Nebojsa Zivkovic composed their concertos—Passaggi and Tales from the Center of the Earth—for the instruments they play themselves. The artistic integrity and natural virtuosity of these major works is magnified by the astonishing musicianship of the soloists. Joseph Schwantner’s highly rhythmic Recoil contrasts with the eloquently lyrical beauty lullabies of Leslie Bassett and Joseph Turrin. |
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8.572166 WILBY: A Breathless Alleluia
Philip Gault, baritone • Philip Wilby, organ • Joseph Cook, tuba • David Thornton, euphonium • Black Dyke Band • Nicholas Childs, conductor
This disc includes several world première recordings: A Breathless Alleluia is an affectionate tribute to Nicholas Childs; Paganini Variations exploits all the soloistic brilliance of the modern brass band; The Euphonium Concerto is a tour de force whose emotional heart is its songlike third movement. |
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8.570792 BRIDGE: Piano Trios Nos 1 & 2 / Miniatures for piano trio
Jack Liebeck, violin • Alexander Chaushian, cello • Ashley Wass, piano
Between the early Phantasie Trio (1907) and Miniatures (1908) and the masterful Piano Trio No. 2 (1928–29), Bridge developed from being a pupil of Stanford to becoming a composer whose music—by turns graceful, nocturnal and vigorous—pointed towards the future. |
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8.570550 IRELAND: Sextet, Clarinet Trio, Fantasy-Sonata
The Holy Boy
Robert Plane, clarinet • Sophia Rahman, piano • Alice Neary, cello • David Pyatt, French horn • Maggini Quartet
This recording features the genial, Brahmsian 1898 Sextet, unheard in public until 1960, and a reconstruction by Stephen Fox of the Clarinet Trio of 1912-14, Robert Plane’s transcription for of Ireland’s very popular piano prelude The Holy Boy and one of Ireland’s finest and most beautifully crafted chamber works, the Fantasy Sonata. |
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8.572074 TOGNI: 3 Studies on Morts sans sepulture
Flute Sonata, Violin Sonata, String Trio
Lorna Windsor, soprano • Ex Novo Ensemble
For its début Naxos recording this virtuosic ensemble presents a selection of chamber music by the influential Italian composer, teacher and pianist Camillo Togni, whose finely crafted, lucid compositions which are notable for their eloquent restraint and striking instrumental sonorities. |
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8.559398 LESHNOFF: Violin Concerto, String Quartet No 1
Distant Reflections
Charles Wetherbee, violin • Baltimore Chamber Orchestra
Markand Thakar, conductor • Carpe Diem String Quartet
Named by the Baltimore Sun as an ‘Artist to Watch’, Jonathan Leshnoff is swiftly gaining international recognition. This disc shows three facets of his music: the Violin Concerto, praised as ‘radiantly lyrical’; Distant Reflections, a lyrically meditative chamber work; and the String Quartet No. 1 “Pearl German”, which traces the cycle of seasons. |
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8.571255 Idil Biret Archive Beethoven Edition, Vol 5
- Piano Sonatas, Vol 3
Idil Biret
This third volume of acclaimed pianist Idil Biret’s Beethoven Piano Sonatas presents the sonatas No 7, No 21 “Waldstein” and No 25. Together with the “Appassionata” Sonata, the “Waldstein” laid the foundations of Beethoven’s fame as a composer-pianist. Piano Sonatas Vol 1 (Nos 1, 2, 19 & 20 - 8.571251) & Vol 2 (Nos 3, 5 & 18 - 8.571254) are also available. |
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8.571256 Idil Biret Archive Beethoven Edition, Vol 6
- Symphonies (arr. Liszt), Vol 2
Idil Biret
Liszt was an influential advocate of Beethoven’s music at a time when it was still gaining its pre-eminent place in the classical repertoire, his astonishing piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies playing an important rôle. This disc presents Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven’s 4th and 5th Symphonies. Symphonies Volume 1 (Nos 1 & 2) is also available (8.571252). |
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8.571257 Idil Biret Archive Beethoven Edition, Vol 7
- Piano Concertos, Vol 2
Idil Biret
This second volume of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos presents the 3rd and 4th, works in which the composer continued to negotiate the relationship between soloist and orchestra in fascinating and original ways. Piano Concertos Vol 1 (Nos 1 & 2) is also available (8.571253)
Idil Biret Biography & Discography |
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8.110119-20 VERDI: Simon Boccanegra
Tito Gobbi, baritone • Victoria de los Angeles, soprano • Boris Christoff, bass • Rome Opera House Chorus and Orchestra • Gabriele Santini, conductor
Featuring a near-ideal cast, this recording drew high praise from The Gramophone: “Gobbi…has one of his greatest rôles…de los Angeles is an inspired choice for the girlish, ardent heroine …[Santini] gives a momentous, carefully paced and constantly illuminating reading”. Christoff gives an unforgettable portrayal of Fiesco |
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8.111256 ELGAR: Symphony No 1/ Falstaff
London Symphony Orchestra • Edward Elgar, conductor
Hans Richter, the work’s dedicatee and first conductor, acclaimed Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 as ‘the greatest symphony of modern times’. Although Falstaff is often treated merely comically, Elgar’s virtuosic tone poem presents him and Prince Hal with psychological insight. These thrillingly realised recordings were made between 1930 and 1932. |
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8.112012 WEBER: Piano Sonata No 2
LISZT: Piano Sonata / SCHUBERT: Landler
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot was one of the very greatest pianists of the 20th Century, renowned above all for his intuitive, highly personal interpretations of Romantic masterpieces. Recorded between 1931 and 1948, this disc includes a wonderfully poetic reading of Weber’s introspective and playful Sonata and an intense yet subtly nuanced rendition of Liszt’s groundbreaking Sonata. |
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8.120875 BIZET/HAMMERSTEIN II: Carmen Jones
Muriel Smith (Carmen Jones) • Luther Saxon (Joe) • Carlotta Franzell (Cindy Lou) Glenn Bryant (Husky Miller) • June Hawkins (Myrt) • Cozy Cole (Drummer) • Jessica Russell (Frankie) • Dick Montgomery (Dink) • Randall Steplight (Rum) • Urylee Leonardos, Ethel White, Sibol Cain (card players)
This Original 1943 Cast Album is the classic recording of the Broadway adaptation of Bizet’s immortal opera Carmen. To this day, Carmen Jones remains one of the most inventive and consistent attempts to modernise a classic opera, and this recording stands as a solid reminder of its success. |
Naxos distributes Capriccio, Dacapo and OUR Recordings world-wide. |
Capriccio |
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CAPRICCIO C5019 DESSAU: Symphony No 2, In memorium Bertolt Brecht, Danse et Chanson, Examen et poème de Verlaine
Ksenija Lukic, soprano • Manuela Bress, mezzo-soprano
Holger Groschopp, piano • Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Roger Epple, conductor
Dessau wrote in every genre and his music has an immediate emotional appeal that is quite compelling. |
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CAPRICCIO C7005 JC BACH: Sinfonie concertanti
Janos Balunt, flute • Lajos Lencses, oboe • Istvan Szekely, piano
Budapest Strings • Bela Banfalvi, violin and leader • Karoly Botvay,
cello
and artistic director
This specially priced 4-CD set offers the “London Bach’s” delightful music that combines elements of the concerto and the symphony. The solo instrumentation varies throughout and the excellent wind and string soloists of the Budapest Strings are the featured performers. |
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Other Capriccio New Releases
CAPRICCIO C5001 BLOCH: Deux Psalms, Suite Hebraïque
Baal-Shem, Trois poèmes juifs
CAPRICCIO C5005 GLUCK: Iphigenie auf Tauris
CAPRICCIO C5008 STRAUSS: Elektra
CAPRICCIO C7001 PROKOFIEV: Incidental Music for Hamlet
Boris Godunov, Eugen Onegin & Egyptian Nights
CAPRICCIO C7010 RACHMANINOV: Russian Easter Vespers Mass, Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
Capriccio Catalogue |
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DACAPO 6.200001 LANGGAARD: The Symphonies
Danish National Symphony Orchestra • Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
With his symphonies the Danish composer Rued Langgaard offered 16 vastly different versions of what a symphony can be. This box set is the first collected recording of Langgaard's complete symphonies based on the critical edition of the scores. “Mr. Dausgaard's keen advocacy elicits polished, persuasive accounts that live up to Langgaard's motto: 'Long Live Beauty'” - The New York Times. |
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DACAPO 6.220533 GUDMUNDSEN-HOLMGREEN: Plateaux for piano and orchestra, For Piano
Juho Pohjonen, piano • Danish National Symphony Orchestra • Ed Spanjaard, conductor
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b. 1932), one of the most important composers in Scandinavia, is both famous and notorious for simple, music full of contrasts that often borders on both the entertaining and the absurd. The contrasting and simple are also evident in the first recordings of the two works on this release. |
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DACAPO 6.220547 NØRGÅRD: Symphonies Nos 3 & 7
Danish National Symphony Orchestra • Danish National Vocal Ensemble • Danish National Choir • Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
Per Nørgård's symphonies are milestones in the music of our time. On this unique CD we hear a new recording of the famous Third Symphony. The new Seventh Symphony is a dynamic, highly complex work coloured by much use of percussion. Once more, it shows new aspects of Nørgård as the constantly developing master of Scandinavian music. |
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Dacapo Catalogue |
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OUR RECORDINGS 6.220600 Dialogue - East Meets West
Chen Yue, xiao and dizi • Michala Petri, recorders
Ten new compositions by five young Chinese and five young Danish composers whose colorful and varied works provide distinctive visions of the musical encounter between China and the West. A unique musical dialogue providing new possibilities for creativity and beauty. |
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OUR Recordings Catalogue |
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