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The Naxos 200 Essential Recordings are a splendid selection of classics drawn from the heart of Naxos’s extensive catalogue. Ask your local retailer about these delightful albums. Read more

Naxos Classical Spotlights are fascinating podcasts about our artists and albums presented by Raymond Bisha, Naxos Radio Promotions Manager for North America. Our Podcasts are FREE and are available in several different ways - you will find all the information you need to subscribe and/or listen to our podcasts anyway you like on the Naxos Blog Podcast page. Among the fascinating forthcoming Naxos Classical Spotlights, you may enjoy listening to these:

• 2 September:  Andy Teirstein - Open Crossings
  includes an interview with composer Andy Teirstein.
  RECENT RELEASE
  Open Crossings - TEIRSTEIN Kopanitza, Invention,
  What is Left of Us, Suite, Maramures
  (Various Artists) 8.559617

• 8 September: Romantic Violin Concertos by Gade, Lange-Muller, Langgaard
  RECENT RELEASE
  Romantic Violin Concertos –
  GADE/LANGE-MULLER/LANGGAARD
  (Astrand, Tampere Philharmonic, Storgards) Dacapo 6.220562

• 16 September: Richard Strauss
  RECENT RELEASE
  R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier Suite, Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten & Symphonic Fragment from Josephs Legende from (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Falletta) 8.572041

• 22 September Fanfares and Overtures for Wind Band -
  Rutgers Wind Ensemble
  RECENT RELEASE
  Fanfares and Overtures for Wind Band by REED/HUSA/NELHYBEL/SCHUMAN
  (Rutgers Wind Ensemble, Berz) 8.572230

• 19 September: Svendsen - Norwegian Rhapsodies
  RECENT RELEASE
  SVENDSEN Norwegian Rhapsodies Nos 1-4,
  Romeo and Juliet, Zorahayda
  (South Jutland Symphony Orchestra, Bjarte Engeset)
  8.570322

• 30 September: Daugherty Metropolis Symphony
  includes an interview with composer Michael Daugherty FORTHCOMING RELEASE
  DAUGHERTY Metropolis Symphony, Deus ex Machina
  (T. Wilson, Nashville Symphony, Guerrero)
  8.559365

See many more Naxos Classical Spotlight Podcasts

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See what Naxos is releasing next month. Visit the ‘upcoming releases’ page of naxos.com for a sneak preview. Read more

The Gift of Music Send a gift that will last the whole year through: give a subscription to your family and friends to Naxos.com, Naxos Web Radio or Naxos Music Library. Read more

Albums of the Month

8.559622-23 BERNSTEIN Mass
A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers
Text from the liturgy of the Roman Mass
Additional texts by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein
Jubilant Sykes, Celebrant
Asher Edward Wulfman, Boy Soprano
Morgan State University Choir
Peabody Children’s Chorus
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Music Director and Conductor

When Leonard Bernstein was asked by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to compose the inaugural work for the opening of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., he wrote: “The Mass is also an extremely dramatic
event in itself—it even suggests a theater work.” Premiered on September 8, 1971, with additional words by Stephen Schwartz of Godspell fame, Mass is a remarkable, visionary work with a kaleidoscope of musical styles that touches on themes of political protest, existential crisis and religious faith lost and found.

• ‘the best sung, best played, most intelligently interpreted recording of Mass currently available.’ (10/10 – Classics Today)
• ‘with advances in sound engineering this spectacular new recording can fully exploit the score’s wide dynamic range. It is unquestionably the finest thing that Marin Alsop has yet placed on disc, and it comes with the pedigree of being from a Bernstein protégée.’ (David’s Review Corner)

8.660237-38 BALADA Cristobal Colon
(Christopher Columbus)
Opera in two acts
Libretto by Antonio Gala
Jose Carreras (Cristobal Colon)
Montserrat Caballe (Queen Isabella)
Carlos Chausson (Martín Alonso Pinzon)
Luis Alvarez (Padre Fray Antonio de Marchena)
Stefano Palatchi (King Fernando)
Victoria Vergara (Beatriz Enríquez)

From one of the world’s great opera houses, the Gran Teatre del Liceau in Barcelona, comes Leonardo Balada’s richly melodic opera about one of the world’s great explorers, Christopher Columbus, commissioned by the Spanish government for the 5th Centennial of the Discovery of America. A superb cast, headed by Jose Carreras as Columbus and Monserrat Caballe as Queen Isabella of Spain, gained critical acclaim for their performances in what The Washington Times described as ‘a masterpiece... a landmark score in the lyric theater of our time’.

See all Naxos August 2009 New Releases

Naxos Digital Releases

Alongside our unparalleled range of monthly new CD and DVD releases, Naxos also releases a marvellous selection of digital albums. For more information about this month’s digital titles and to purchase them from ClassicsOnline, please click on the album covers or titles below.
See more digital releases on ClassicsOnline.

8.572159 DVORAK Piano Quartets Nos 1 and 2
Helena Sucharova-Weiser, piano • Vlach Quartet Prague

8.559629 Eight Visions - A New Anthology for Flute and Piano
21st Century Flute Music by ROREM, CHEN, SANFORD, MORAVEC
Marya Martin, flute • Colette Valentine, piano • Eve Beglarian, electronics

8.579003 PAVLOVA Symphony No 6, Thumbelina Suite
Milhail Shestakov, violin • Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra
Patrick Baton, conductor

8.570958 RODE 24 Caprices en Formes d'Etudes
Axel Strauss, violin

8.572188 Grand Duos by SERVAIS, GHYS, LEONARD & VIEUXTEMPS
Friedemann Eichhorn, violin • Alexander Hulshoff, cello

1.

ALFANO Concerto for Violin,
Cello and Piano - Con dolce malinconia
from the album ALFANO Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano
Samuel Magill, cello • Scott Dunn, piano • Elmira Darvarova, violin 8.570928

2.

LEES String Quartet No 1 – Moderato
From the album LEES String Quartets Nos 1, 5 & 6
Cypress String Quartet
8.559628

3.

KABALEVSKY 4 Preludes Op 5 - No 1 Semplice
From the album KABALEVSKY Preludes Opp 5 & 38,
6 Preludes and Fugues Op 61
Alexandre Dossin, piano
8.570976

4.

MOE Strange Exclaiming Music - Rhyme Does Not Pay
From the album MOE Strange Exclaiming Music
Curtis Macomber, violin • Stephen Gosling, piano
Michael Lipsey, percussion
Members of the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
DoublePlay Percussion Duo
Columbus State University Percussion Ensemble
Curtis Macomber, violin
The New York Saxophone Quartet
8.559612

5.

HINDEMITH Symphony in B-flat major -
Moderately fast with vigour-Molto agitato
From the album Trendsetters - HINDEMITH/HOLST/GRAINGER/SCHWANTNER
Peabody Conservatory Wind Ensemble • Harlan D Parker
8.572242

6.

7.

BACH (arr. Webern) A Musical Offering -
Ricercar a 6
from the album WEBERN Vocal
and Orchestral Works (Webern Vol 2)
Tony Arnold, soprano • Claire Booth, soprano
David Wilson-Johnson, bass • Simon Joly Chorale
Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble • Philharmonia Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor
8.557531

8.

TANEYEV Symphony No 2 - Introduction and Allegro
From the album TANEYEV Symphonies Nos 2 & 4
Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sanderling, conductor
8.572067

9.

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No 11 ‘The Year 1905’ -
The Palace Square
from the album SHOSTAKOVICH Symphonies Vol 1 -
Symphony No 11 ‘The Year 1905’
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko, conductor       
8.572082

10.

TCHAIKOVSKY The Voyevoda Op 78
from the album TCHAIKOVSKY
Manfred Symphony, The Voyevoda
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko, conductor
8.570568