It’s already September, so Christmas is closer than you may think! Have you considered what gifts your family and friends would like? Why not make things easy this year and give someone you love a Naxos CD or DVD? There are many great new releases this month, or visit naxos.com and browse through our comprehensive catalogues?

Acclaimed young British violinist Chloe Hanslip releases a delightful new CD of Jeno Hubay’s Violin Concertos, recorded with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Mogrelia. Read more

Haydn’s Complete Masses, an 8-CD boxed set, caps Naxos’s Haydn Anniversary Year boxed sets. Read more

Other Haydn boxed sets are also available, including The Oratorios (7 CDs), The Complete Concertos (6 CDs), The Complete Piano Sonatas (10 CDs), The Complete String Quartets (25 CDs) and The Complete Symphonies (34 CDs). Read more

Since Haydn’s time, the symphony has become established at the centre of an ever-evolving tradition of orchestral music. Each era, and each composer, has sought new ways to explore and express the dramatic musical potential of symphonic music. In the first of a 2-part feature, Innovative Traditions, we are proud to present a fascinating selection of symphonies through the centuries:

• Classical Symphonies: Haydn
• The Romantics: From Schubert to Brahms
• Russian Masterpieces and Rarities
• 19th and 20th Century Scandinavian Symphonies
• 19th and 20th Century British Symphonies: Stanford, Alwyn, Elgar & Vaughan Williams

Read more

A little bird told us that the 2009 Penguin Guide has given several Naxos CDs top ratings. We present a small selection of these, including many recent releases. Read more

Ask your local retailer about The Naxos 200 Essential Recordings. There are many great gift ideas here. Read more

And once again Critics’ Choice presents highly-reviewed CDs and DVDs from Naxos and the labels we distribute. Read more

Read David Denton’s reviews of our new releases for September 2009. Read more

As you can see, Naxos just keeps the great recordings (and great gift ideas) coming. And there are many more to come next month, too! Please remember that not all retailers can keep the complete Naxos range in-store, so contact your favourite classical CD/DVD store in plenty of time for them to place your order in time for Christmas.

Distributed Labels: Capriccio | Dacapo | OUR Recordings | Phoenix Edition

8.660259-60 VERDI Macbeth
Giuseppe Altomare (Macbeth) • Olha Zhuravel (Lady Macbeth)
Pavel Kudinov (Banco) • Rubens Pelizzari (Macduff)
Marco Voleri (Malcolm) • Luca Dall’Amico (Il medico)
William Corro (Un domestico di Macbeth, I apparizione)
Andrea Pistolesi (Il sicario) • Velia Moretti de Angelis, Valeria Cazacu
(II e III apparizione) • Anbeta Toromani (Ecate)
Dario Vinciguerra (Fleanzio) • FORM – Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana
Coro Lirico Marchigiano • Daniele Callegari, conductor

Verdi was justifiably pleased with Macbeth, his tenth opera and his first on a Shakespearian subject – it would long remain his own favourite among his ‘early period’ operas. Eighteen years later, at the invitation of the Theatre Lyrique in Paris, he substantially revised the score, and this is the version (sung in Italian) presented here. The talented young cast is headed by Giuseppe Altomare as Macbeth, one of Verdi’s most profoundly modern anti-heroes – a political animal driven to bloody regicide yet doomed by his very success – with Olha Zhuravel as his obsessively ambitious wife, driven to madness by her own guilt. ‘Daniele Callegari gives Verdi’s creation its full due, matching the differing styles of the later and earlier music to give a cohesive whole.’ (MusicWeb International on Naxos DVD 2.110258)

8.660193-94 BALADA La Muerte de Colon (Death of Columbus)
Jon Garrison (Cristobal Cooón) • Judith Jenkins (Queen Isabella)
Katherine Mueller (Beatriz Enriquez) • David Okerlund (Mysterious Character) • Arturo Martin (Margarit, Hernando, Vespucci) • Dimitrie Lazich
(Aguado, Diego, Magellan) • Raymond Blackwell (Friar Boil, Diego, Zapata) Milutin Lazich (Bobadilla, Bartholomew, Bolivar) • Brent Stater
(King Ferdinand) • Katy Shackleton-Williams (Indian Voice)
Members of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and Repertory Chorus
Robert Page, conductor

Composed as a sequel to Christopher Columbus, available on
Naxos 8.660237-38 The Death of Columbus has been critically acclaimed as ‘uncommonly impressive and winning’. From its spectacular opening scene depicting the triumphant return of Columbus to Barcelona from his discovery of the New World, to the tormented delirium of the great explorer’s death-bed scene, The Death of Columbus is an intensely moving opera, filled with lyrical melodies and imaginative orchestration. This is a landmark addition to Naxos’s highly-praised series of Balada’s music.

8.508009 HAYDN The Complete Masses
Soloists • The Trinity Choir • REBEL Baroque Orchestra
Owen Burdick, Jane Glover, conductors
CD 1 Stabat Mater
CD 2 Missa Cellensis in honorem BVM ‘Caecilienmesse’
CD 3 Missa Sancti Nicolai ‘Nikolaimesse’, Missa in angustiis ‘Nelsonmesse’
CD 4 Missa Cellensis ‘Mariazellermesse’, Missa in tempore belli ‘Paukenmesse’
CD 5 Missa in honorem BVM ‘Grosse Orgelsolomesse’, Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offi da ‘Heiligmesse’
CD 6 Missa brevis, ‘Harmoniemesse’
CD 7 Missa brevis (1805 revision), ‘Schoepfungsmesse’
CD 8 Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo ‘Kleine Orgelsolomesse’, ‘Theresienmesse’

Today Haydn is viewed mainly in the light of his string quartets and symphonies, yet his first and last compositions were Mass settings. They encompassed an extraordinary musical output, within which his Masses shine as uplifting and deeply satisfying sacred works. Whilst acknowledging the Viennese traditions of church music, these Masses are infused with the kind of inspiration and originality that make Haydn an undisputed master in so many genres. This collection by Trinity Choir includes all the complete and authenticated Masses by Haydn as well as his early Stabat Mater.

8.570527 TANEYEV Suite de Concert,
Ioann Damaskin (John of Damascus)
Ilya Kaler, violin • Gnesin Academy Chorus
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra • Thomas Sanderling, conductor

Inspired by a poem by Aleksey Tolstoy, Taneyev’s cantata John of Damascus was the first work that the self-critical Russian composer deemed worthy of an opus number, its sublime music drawing on an ancient sacred chant woven into rich passages of expressive counterpoint. A quarter of a century later, the virtuosic and scintillating Suite de concert, Taneyev’s first work for solo violin and orchestra, was also successfully premièred. Thomas Sanderling’s first disc in the Naxos Taneyev series (Symphonies Nos 1 & 3, 8.570336) was praised by The Guardian for its ‘strongly characterised performances’.

8.570589 SCHMIDT Symphony No 2, Fuga Solemnis
Malmo Symphony Orchestra • Vassily Sinaisky, conductor
Anders Johnsson, organ

Following their recording of Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No 1 and excerpts from his opera Notre Dame (8.570828), the Malmo Symphony Orchestra and Vassily Sinaisky here present Schmidt’s astonishing Second Symphony. The composer transformed his original conception of the work as a piano sonata based on a single theme into a kaleidoscopic essay for a large orchestra, rich with wind, brass and percussion instruments.The Fuga Solemnis for organ, brass and percussion is an enduring testament to Schmidt’s originality, inventiveness and mastery of counterpoint.

8.572041 R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier Suite,
Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten,
Symphonic Fragment from Josephs Legende
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta, conductor

To give renewed life to two of his less well known scores, the fantasy opera Die Frau ohne Schatten and the biblical ballet Josephs-Legende, Richard Strauss created symphonic memoires which preserved both their storylines and musical highlights.Following the phenomenal success of his ‘comedy for music’ Der Rosenkavalier,Strauss prepared an orchestral suite based on the florid waltzes of his most famousopera. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta has recordedseveral acclaimed discs for Naxos, including a double Grammy®-winning CD of JohnCorigliano’s Mr Tambourine Man (8.559331).

8.505040 Artist Profile Series - Ralph van Raat (5 CD box set)
ADAMS Complete Piano Music
RZEWSKI The People United will never be Defeated
TAVENER Piano Works 
LINDBERG Piano Music
Interviews with Ralph van Raat with music by Bolcom,
Corea, Durufle, Ives, Messiaen, Nancarrow, Rautavaara & Takemitsu
Ralph van Raat, piano

‘Ralph van Raat is an exceptional talent who makes seemingly inaccessible music accessible, with an unconditional devotion and a direct emotional
expressiveness.’ (Jury report, Philip Morris Arts Award 2003)
‘Van Raat is one of a select few musicians who combine dazzling technical virtuosity with a rare ability to connect with the emotional core lurking within even the most angular and dissonant compositions…His mastery of texture, harmony and rhythm is nothing short of breathtaking…Whether discussing music or playing it, van Raat communicates an infectious enthusiasm, plus a deep-seated intellectual and emotional curiosity, that make him one of the most sensitive performers and proponents of alt-classical music today.’
(5 STARS Dean R. Brierly, amazon.com)

8.559635 DAUGHERTY Metropolis Symphony, Deus ex Machina
Mary Kathryn Van Osdale, violin • Erik Gratton, flute
Ann Richards, flute/piccolo • Terrence Wilson, piano
Nashville Symphony • Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor

Inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in the comics, Metropolis Symphony has been performed by orchestras all over the world. Hailed by the London Times as a ‘Symphonie Fantastique for our times’, Metropolis Symphony is a musical response to the myth of Superman, expressing the energies, ambiguities, paradoxes, and wit of American popular culture. Deus ex Machina is a piano concerto inspired by trains of the future and past: Fast Forward re-creates the machine-like rhythms of modern trains admired by the Italian futurists; Train of Tears recalls Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train; Night Steam evokes O. Winston Link’s historic photographs of steam locomotives rumbling and whistling their way into extinction.

8.572078 HUBAY Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2,
Scenes de la Csarda Nos 3 & 4
Chloe Hanslip, violin • Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Mogrelia, conductor

Lauded as ‘the most charismatic violinist the UK has produced in recent years’, Chloe Hanslip has delighted music lovers with her Naxos recordings of virtuosic 19th century music by Bazzini (8.570800) and Godard (8.570554), as well as the Violin Concerto by John Adams (8.559302). Hubay’s first two Violin Concertos not only make full use of the violin’s singing qualities, especially in the gorgeous slow movements, but require considerable virtuosity in performance. With their Hungarian folk-dance elements the Scenes de la Csarda are among Hubay’s most famous works.

8.572065 PAISIELLO Piano Concertos Nos 1, 3 & 5
Francesco Nicolosi, piano • Campania Chamber Orchestra
Luigi Piovano, conductor

With more than eighty operas to his credit, Paisiello rivaled Mozart for success in this competitive field, though his eight keyboard concertos fell short of Mozart’s output in numerical terms. They are, however, unfailingly delightful works whose charm and deftly balanced interplay between the solo instrument and orchestra are characteristicof Paisiello’s appealing style. Although the First Concerto was conceived for harpsichord and the Third and Fifth for fortepiano, each retains its transparent beauty when performed, as here, on a modern piano. The Second and Fourth Concertos are available on Naxos 8.557031.

8.570421 GASSMANN Opera Overtures
Eclipse Chamber Orchestra • Sylvia Alimena, conductor

If the career of the Bohemian composer Florian Leopold Gassmann
(1729-1774) had not been cut cruelly short by his death resulting from a fall from a carriage, his name might be a good deal better known today for he was an accomplished composer of attractive, well-wrought operas that occupy an important place in the history of Venetian and Viennese 18th-century opera. This recording features a selection of Gassmann’s overtures, including those for three of his most popular operas, Il viaggiatore ridicolo (The Ridiculous Traveller), L’amore artigiano (Love in the Workplace) and La contessina (The Young Countess). Following the fast-slow-fast pattern typical of the mid-eighteenth century opera, these works are noteworthy for their bright cheerful themes, lovely lyrical writing and sensitive orchestration.09

8.570002 MENDELSSOHN String Quartets Vol 2
- Nos 2 & 5, Capriccio, Fugue
New Zealand String Quartet

The New Zealand String Quartet’s first Naxos recording of Mendelssohn’s string quartets (8.570001) was praised as ‘an auspicious start’ by Gramophone and ‘opulently recorded’ by Classic FM magazine. Its warmly affectionate accounts continue with this second of three volumes, including Mendelssohn’s posthumously published Capriccio and Fugue in E minor which display his polished mastery of counterpoint. The composer’s respect for Beethoven is evident in both the quartets on this disc, although in his marriage of Classical style and Romantic impulse, Mendelssohn’s vivacious brilliance and lyrical gifts are never overshadowed.

8.570776 K MEYER String Quartets Nos 5, 6 & 8
Wieniawski String Quartet

The Wieniawski String Quartet makes its Naxos debut with three important chamber compositions by its much-awarded compatriot Krzysztof Meyer, whose musical homeland is the chamber music of Viennese Classicism, enlivened with a dash of Bartok’s spicy musical accent. The composer describes his twelve string quartets as ‘sound-stories told with musical elements that the listener would care about, and not just a stream of acoustic stimuli’. High drama, playfulness, intense lyricism and narrative cohesion are the hallmarks of these splendid works.

8.570889 LECLAIR Violin Sonatas Book 1 Nos 5-8 (Vol 2)
Adrian Butterfield, baroque violin • Alison McGillivray, viola da gamba Laurence Cummings, harpsichord

Adrian Butterfield, Alison McGillivray and Laurence Cummings bring a wealth of expertise to their elegant interpretations of Leclair’s First Book of Violin Sonatas in which the French composer drew on Corelli’s path-breaking examples. While enlivening French chamber music with Italianate vivacity, Leclair also revels in the ornamentation, love of lyricism and touches of pastoral colour characteristic of his native land, while nodding here to the Scottish style of fiddling or there to the gentle sound of a shepherd’s bagpipe. Volume 1 (Sonatas Nos 1-4) is available on Naxos 8.570888.

8.572254 SINDING Violin and Piano Music Vol 1
Henning Kraggerud, violin • Christian Ihle Hadland, piano

Remembered today for his piano favourite The Rustle of Spring (Norwegian Classical Favourites 8.557017), Christian Sinding ranked second only to Grieg in his homeland and was honoured abroad, composing a wealth of immediately appealing and well-crafted Romantic music including the works for violin and piano on this disc. Playing a richly sonorous 1744 Guarneri del Gesù, violinist Henning Kraggerud (whose recording of violin concertos by Sibelius and Sinding on 8.557266  was acclaimed as ‘’a masterly performance... warm and powerful, with a confident, wide vibrato and immaculate intonation’’ by Gramophone) joins Christian Ihle Hadland, one of Norway’s most exciting young piano talents.

8.570963 SPOHR Double String Quartets Vol 1 - Nos 1 & 2
Forde Ensemble

A champion of Haydn’s, Mozart’s and Beethoven’s chamber music, Louis Spohr also made a considerable contribution to this genre, composing 36 string quartets and four double quartets, these latter unique in the repertoire. Spohr harnessed the potential of eight string players, mainly deployed as two groups of four, to create attractive pieces rich in antiphonal interplay, brimming with engaging melodies and shimmering with a high polish. The first, from 1823, pays tribute to Spohr’s idol Mozart, while the second, from 1827, integrates the players into a more evenly balanced whole.

8.570984 LISZT Soirees italiennes, Paganini Etudes,
Impromptu brillant sur des themes de Rossini et Spontini
(Liszt Complete Piano Music Vol 30)
Gianluca Luisi, piano

‘How inventively and powerfully he submerges the melodic blossoms of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Mercadante in the billowing flow of his music so that they are clothed in ever new charms, now with the heavenly grace of Aphrodite, now with the teasing playfulness of sporting Naiads, now with the sublime gravity of the God that commands the sea!’  wrote Carlo, Wiener Zeitschrift fuer Kunst, 7 December, 1839. Liszt made a large number of free arrangements, transcriptions and paraphrases of music by other composers, works that were a necessary part of his concert repertoire, and which still thrill listeners today.

8.572075 RUEDA Piano Music - Piano Sonatas Nos 1 & 2,
24 Interludes, Invenciones (excerpts), Mephisto
Ananda Sukarlan, piano

With symphonies, string quartets, chamber concertos, an opera and a large amount of piano music to his name, Jesus Rueda is one of Spain’s foremost living composers. Drawing on intensive studies of Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev, his piano compositions run the gamut from dazzling pyrotechnical displays, as in Mephisto, modelled on Liszt’s famous first waltz, and the two Sonatas, the second of which is influenced by jazz and Balinese Kecak dance rhythms, to the ravishingly sensuous tonal palette of the 24 Interludes and the relatively simple yet attractive Inventions for children. This is music which is not only highly individual in its blending of ‘classical’ and contemporary elements but richly expressive and communicative.

8.572390 Irina Kulikova Guitar Recital
- PONCE/TANSMAN/BROUWER/JOSE
Irina Kulikova, guitar

Winner of the 2008 Alessandria Competition and many other prestigious guitar competitions, and performing across Europe, in Russia and the USA, Irina Kulikova is a young rising star whose outstanding abilities have critics, leading guitarists and audiences taking notice. For her début Naxos disc she presents a fascinating recital that embodies her belief that ‘There is no limit to the depths of music. There is no limit to the colours of a guitar. Open all senses and the whole of your person, and you’ll become one with music and audience’.

8.571264-65 BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 6 & 9 (trans. Liszt)
IDIL BIRET ARCHIVE BEETHOVEN EDITION • 14 & 15
Idil Biret, piano

Born in Ankara, Idil Biret started to play the piano at the age of three and later studied at the Paris Conservatoire under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger, graduating at the age of fifteen with three first prizes. She was a pupil of Alfred Cortot and a lifelong disciple of Wilhelm Kempff. ‘The greatest compliment one could pay the interpreter of a symphonic transcription would be to tell him that it sounds just as if the original had been conceived for the piano,’ she remarks, aiming to achieve this result in her recordings.

8.571272 RAVEL Piano Concertos,
SAINT-SAENS Piano Concerto No 5
IDIL BIRET ARCHIVE CONCERTO EDITION • 3
Idil Biret, piano • Bilkent Symphony Orchestra • Jean Fournet, conductor

Ravel’s two works for piano and orchestra, the Concerto in G major and the Concerto for the Left Hand, both date from 1931. The Piano Concerto No 5 in F major of Saint-Saens was given the title ‘Egyptian’ and reflects his impressions of Egypt and the Far East. The two composers were hardly alike in their physical build, yet there is an obvious affinity between them since both were fascinated by the exotic sounds of music from Spain and the East, and despite their abiding respect for musical tradition were also alive to the musical developments of their own times.

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2.110262 MASCAGNI Amica
Anna Malavasi (Amica) • David Sotgiu (Giorgio) • Pierluigi Dilengite (Rinaldo) Marcello Rosiello (Maitre Camoine) • Francesca De Giorgi (Magdelone)
Slovak Chamber Choir • Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
Manlio Benzi, conductor • Alessio Pizzech, director

Filmed at the Palazzo Ducale, Martina Franca, Italy, 4–6 August 2007, as part of the 33rd Festival of the Valle d’Itria, Italy Pietro Mascagni explored many different musical styles, from the verismo of his ever-popular Cavalleria rusticana to the sentimental lyricism of Lodoletta. Amica was composed at breakneck speed, reaching completion only a month before its Monte Carlo premiere in 1905 conducted by the composer, and combined a return to ‘realism’ with a more sophisticated style of writing. Its extravagant scenic and vocal demands contributed to the opera’s neglect until recent times. Set in the Savoy mountains around 1900, Amica is a ‘dramatic poem in two acts’ involving two brothers, Giorgio and Rinaldo, whose love for the same woman, Amica, culminates in tragedy. While today numbering among his least performed works, Amica was initially a triumph, praised for its ‘passionate accent’ and ‘impulsive sincerity’ by a contemporary critic, and deemed ‘most worthy of re-evaluation’ according to the composer’s biographer Roger Flury.

Other Naxos Opera DVDs

See all Naxos/Marco Polo DVDs

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8.111341 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No 2
BRAHMS Piano Quintet (1957)
Glenn Gould, piano • Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor • Montreal String Quartet

Glenn Gould played Beethoven’s piano concertos from the beginning of his short concert career, this recording being made when he was 24, the same age as the composer when he wrote his Piano Concerto No 2. Gould’s vitality and enthusiasm in the first movement are particularly notable, as is Bernstein’s highly expressive interpretation of the beautiful Adagio. Despite his temperamental aversion to chamber music and his preference for pre-romantic music, Gould’s account with the Montreal String Quartet of Brahms’s F minor Piano Quintet is clearly articulated, propulsive and highly focused.

8.112019 BACH Stokowski Transcriptions, Vol 2 (1929-1950)
Julius Baker, flute • All- American Youth Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra • Leopold Stokowski, conductor

Naxos’s second volume of Stokowski’s much-loved Bach transcriptions includes the CD début of his only recording of the Second Orchestral Suite, which has been unavailable for the past half-century. Stokowski’s only recording of Jesu, joy of man’s desiring and his first recording of his transcription of the Prelude from the Violin Partita in E major, played by the All- American Youth Orchestra, are also notable rarities. Superbly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn, this disc is a significant contribution to the recognition of Stokowski’s achievement as both a populariser, through his vivid orchestrations, and a conductor of Bach’s immortal music. Volume 1 is available on 8.111297.

See all Naxos Historical CDs

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8.120887 BERNSTEIN West Side Story, On the Waterfront
West Side Story Original Broadway Cast (1957) - Larry Kert (Tony)
Carol Lawrence (Maria) • Mickey Calin (Riff) • Ken Le Roy (Bernardo)
Chita Rivera (Anita) • Marilyn Cooper (Rosalia) • Reri Grist (Consuelo)
Eddie Roll (Action) • Carmen Gutierrez (Teresita)
Elizabeth Taylor (Francisca) • Grover Dale (Snowboy)
Max Goberman, conductor On the Waterfront - Morris Stoloff conducting the Columbia Pictures Orchestra, Eve Boswell with Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra

West Side Story is now firmly enthroned as one of the major classics of the musical theatre. The show’s initial run was a solid, but not overwhelming 734 performances and that—at that year’s Tony Awards—the crowd-pleasing The Music Man [Naxos  Musicals 8.120886, November 2009 release] swept all the major awards except for choreography and set design, which went to West Side Story’s Robbins and Oliver Smith. But musical theatre history is often written with the hour hand, not the minute hand, and subsequent revivals—as well as the Oscar winning bonanza that was the 1961 film version—have seen to it that this is a show which will never leave our consciousness. Despite winning the Oscar for best motion picture score, only a small portion of the original soundtrack of On the Waterfront appeared on record, as filler to an obscure musical two years after the fact. It’s included here along with two English pop versions of the main theme, one with poetic lyrics by John Latouche and a haunting performance by Eve Boswell.

See all Naxos Nostalgia & Musicals CDs

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NA899012 DICKENS Dombey and Son (abridged)
Read by David Timson

Dombey and Son is vintage Dickens and explores the classic themes of betrayal, cruelty and deceit. The novel follows the fortunes of Dombey, a businessman par excellence, who craves a son to inherit his enterprises. His family, and especially his daughter, the sweet and good-natured Florence, bear the brunt of his frustrations. Dombey’s dysfunctional relationships are painted against a backdrop of social unrest in industrialised London, which is populated by a host of fascinating and memorable secondary characters. The carefully abridged novel is brought spectacularly to life by veteran reader David Timson.
Related titles:
NAX98912 Dombey and Son (unabridged)
NA689212 The Old Curiosity Shop (abridged)
NA690812 Barnaby Rudge (abridged)
Other Charles Dickens AudioBooks
Other Naxos AudioBooks read by David Timson

NA791512 WHITFIELD The History of English Poetry
Read by Derek Jacobi

English literature is a treasure trove of wonderful poetry. From Shakespeare to Milton, Keats to Shelley and Tennyson to Yeats, this accessible history (especially written for Naxos AudioBooks) introduces the listener to countless small masterpieces, including all the old favourites and some lesser-known gems. Whitfield explores this most expressive of art forms and traces the historical development of a rich and diverse canon of poetical works. The lyrical powers of the most remarkable poets of the English language are illustrated with over 200 extracts. This is the latest release from Naxos AudioBooks’s successful ‘History’ series, which includes accounts of English literature, theatre and opera.
Related titles:
NA417612 FAWKES The History of Opera
NA422712 FAWKES The History of the Musical
Other Naxos AudioBooks by Richard Fawkes
Other Naxos AudioBooks by Peter Whitfield
Other Naxos AudioBooks read by Derek Jacobi

NA799112 WILDE The Picture of Dorian Gray
Read by Greg Wise

Oscar Wilde’s enduring masterpiece, this fable of innocence and corruption, purity and decay has become a true classic. The beautiful, narcissistic Dorian Gray, torn between the influence of cynical hedonist Lord Henry Wotton and tortured artist Basil Hallward, sells the beauty of his soul in exchange for external perfection. Ultimately, he cannot escape the disfigurement of sin. Wilde’s remarkable wit and memorable, epigrammatic lines dazzle in audiobook form!
Related titles:
NA234212 The Importance of Being Earnest
Other Oscar Wilde Naxos AudioBooks

NA394012 BALLANTYNE The Coral Island
Read by Wayne Forester

An enduringly popular classic of children’s fiction, The Coral Island tells the story of three boys stranded on a seemingly idyllic desert island. Thoughtful Ralph, clever, brave Jack and mischievous Peterkin soon find, however, that their new home has more than a few surprises in store! Wayne Forester’s energetic reading brings this classic adventure vividly to life. The Coral Island inspired a whole genre of adventure literature, influencing Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
Related Titles:
NA549212 STEVENSON Treasure Island (unabridged)
Other Naxos AudioBooks read by Wayne Forester

NA396912 GARNER Elidor
Read by Jonathan Keeble

Part folklore, part adventure and part fantasy, Alan Garner’s Elidor is a modern children’s classic. When Roland opens a door in a derelict church, he unleashes the wonders of Elidor and the grave challenges that this troubled world presents. Drawing on Welsh, Irish and English mythology, the book chronicles the trials and hardships of a group of young teenagers as they attempt to fulfill a prophecy from another world, and fight a terrible evil.
Related Titles:
Related Titles:
NA539612 The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (unabridged)
NA593112 The Owl Service (unabridged)
Other Alan Garner Naxos AudioBooks
Other Naxos Audiobooks read by Jonathan Keeble

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DACAPO, OUR Recordings and Phoenix Edition are distributed worldwide by Naxos.  Capriccio is not distributed by Naxos in the UK.    

VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS Oboe Concerto, Ten Blake Songs,
Household Music, Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
Lajos Lencses, oboe • Andreas Weller, tenor • Budapest Strings
Bela Bamfalvi, conductor
C5035

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Music ‘where sanity can find a home.’ The Oboe Concerto displays the mercurial moods and infinite breath capacity of Goossens, with long sinuous melodic lines painting scenes in three movements, ranging from forthright dances to poignant pensiveness. Vaughan Williams wrote extensively for films, and his Ten Blake-Songs were composed for a 29-minute documentary film, The Vision of William Blake (1958) in which the poet Blake's philosophy is expressed in his paintings and writings. Household Music was initially composed for string quartet, but the strings were authorized to be replaced by oboe, clarinet, flute, saxophone or cornet, and even, with some transposition, bassoon, bass clarinet, recorder, etc. An arrangement for medium-sized orchestra was also made.  One of Vaughan Williams’ most celebrated compositions, the Tallis Fantasia was written in 1910 (and later revised in 1913, and again in 1919) for The Three Choirs Festival, a music event dating back to the 18th century, held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the three British counties. The Tallis Fantasia score, marked abundantly with directions like animato, cantabile, and molto espressivo, made possible later modern works exploring emotions in strings, like the famous Adagio (1936) by Samuel Barber.    

KRENEK Symphonic Elegy – Works for string orchestra (2 CD)
Orchestra Leopoldinum • Ernst Kovacic
C5033

Farewell and Departure - Ernst Krenek’s opus for string orchestra, the Symphonic Elegy ‘in memoriam Anton Webern’ which he completed in January 1946, is an impressive example of grieving. After all, he has managed to combine on the one hand the sovereign use of twelve-tone music, then a sign of his sound grasp of contemporary composition, and on the other hand he made use of a moving expressiveness, which is especially apparent in the central movement: A Marcia funebre in the tradition of Gustav Mahler, underpinned by by a low-pitched pizzicato note. Krenek’s Sieben leichte Stücke (Seven Easy/Light Pieces) for string orchestra, composed in 1955 are less complex. However, their classification as easy/light not only characterises their relative technical ease but also the cheerful and casual character of the pieces.  The powerful rhythm of the Sinfonietta a Brasileira Op 135 is less a reference to folkloristic music than to the work of the young Krenek, who during the phase of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Sobriety/Objectivity) liked to use machine-like pulsation. It seems as if the composer had regained his old fortitude after the years of WWII and his exile which were characterised by refined sounds.

HAYDN Applausus – Jubilaeum Virtutis Palatium (2 CD)
Anna Palmina (Temperantia) • Marina de Liso (Prudentia)
Donat Havar (Justitia) • Johannes Weisser (Fortitudo)
Andreas Wolf (Theologia) Capella Augustina
Andreas Spering, conductor
C5036

Among Haydn’s few oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons are the most famous. However he had tried the oratorio form before in Il ritorno di Tobia (1775) and before that in  an allegorical work called Applausus, subtitled Jubilaeum Virtutis Palatium, written in 1768, his first effort and, like Tobia, an Italianate work. His Seven Last Words of Christ was produced also adapted as a quasi-oratorio in 1796, having also existed in orchestral form and as a work for string quartet. Applausus was composed to honor the Cistercian abbott in Zwettl during Haydn's first years as Kapellmeister in Eszterhaza. The Latin text involves the Four Virtues (Temperance, Prudence, Justice and Strength) and another allegorical character, Theology, who sing in the style of an 18th-century opera seria. Haydn's melodic gift and musical inventiveness are evident throughout this early work.

KRENEK Karl V (1933), Kehraus um St. Stephan
(Last Dance Around St Stephens)
Satire with music Op 66 (1930) (2 DVD)
Karl V: Dietrich Henschel • Moritz Faehrmann • Cassandra McConnell
Andreas Herrmann • Hubert Francis Wiener Symphoniker
Lothar Koenigs, conductor
St Stephen: Andrea Bogner • Sebastian Holecek
Roman Sadnik Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg
John Axelrod, conductor
C9001 

World Premiere Recordings for DVD-Video.
Karl V Released from the weight of authority and close to death, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V meditates on the key points of his life helped by the young confessor Juan de Regla. Having failed to unite Christendom, the former sovereign regards his life as a failure. He even proved incapable of preventing Luther’s Reformation and the schism within the church. Conscious of leaving behind a political ‘patchwork’ and an empire (upon which the sun never set) in darkness, Charles V dies with the modest hope that he will at least manage this last act of duty to God’s satisfaction.  The decision to use a tone row as the basis for the entire work meant not only that Krenek created the first ‘tone row opera’, it also helped him get out of his creative crisis. Political disaster however was unavoidable: an intrigue by the Heimwehr (Home Guard), which was sympathetic to the Nazis, prevented the opera being staged in 1934. Four years later Krenek was forced by the Nazis to flee to America. 
Kehraus um St. Stephan The cavalry captain Ottmar Brandstetter is one of those whose lives have been ruined by the First World War (1914-1918). Lonely, without hope of a career, he tries to commit suicide but fails. His savior, the wine grower Sebastian Kundrather, offers him not only a new home but a new task – as a helper in the care and harvesting of his grapes. In contrast to Brandstetter, who seems at the beginning to be a loser, his friend Alfred Koppreiter, a successful businessman, is regarded as a war profiteer. At the end, though, Koppreiter loses, as a result of an intrigue, not only his fortune and love (Maria/Ria) but his life, while Brandstetter not only inherits Kundrather‘s vineyards, he regains the love of Elisabeth, whom he erroneously believed to have been unfaithful.  In Kehraus um St. Stephan Krenek returned to using conventional major-minor tonality and composed in a neo-romantic style. ‘Once more I mobilized,’ the composer wrote in his Selbstdarstellung (Self Portrait) of 1953, ‘the romantic tools for a work for stage that dealt with the political and social crisis in post war Vienna. While the music still exhibited the influence of the Schubert-like Reisebuch the libretto was highly critical of the local situation and especially the attitude of Germany toward Austria.’

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RUDERS Four Dances, Nightshade, Abysm
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group • Oliver Knussen, conductor
8.226028

Poul Ruders (f. 1949) fully masters a most expressive music which has had a world-wide resonance and makes him one of today's most performed Danish contemporary composers outside Denmark. On this disc three of his pivotal chamber works are in the hands of one of Europe's leading new music ensembles Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Four Dances in One Movement (1983) is an emotional sequence of four pure musical characters. Abysm (2000), which Ruders has written for BCMG, and Nightshade (1987) are two modern tone poems rooted in both dark and moving sound worlds.

HOLMBOE Works for violin and piano
Christina Bjorkoe, piano • Johannes Soe Hansen, violin
8.226063

All of Vagn Holmboe’s (1909-1996) works for violin and piano are on this CD, which contains the three violin sonatas and a handful of other small pieces for the same instruments and for solo violin. This music is from the chronological extremes of his long career, which lasted from the 1920s until the 1990s. The violin was Holmboe’s own instrument and his violin works show a decidedly extroverted love of music-making. Much of the music is inspired by the folk music that Holmboe encountered and studied at the beginning of the 1930s in the Balkans and Transylvania, but also by the relatively neglected Danish fiddling tradition.

Conversations for violin and piano -
KOPPEL, NORGARD, RUDERS, ROSING-SCHOW, NORDENTOFT
Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider, violin • Ulrich Saerk, piano
8.226519

A selection of short youthful pieces will sometimes offer a better introduction to Danish music after WW2 than several comprehensive volumes could hope to do. Together, the seven works featured here are ample proof. One hour, five composers, five distinct voices speaking through nothing more than a violin and a piano - that is all it takes for the listener to feel he is invited into the creative workshop at moments when openness, curiosity and clever insight come happily together.

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There are no new OUR Recordings this month.

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KRAUS Symphonies (2CD)
Concerto Koln • Werner Ehrhardt, conductor
Phoenix424

With his symphonies, composed between about 1780 and 1792, Joseph Martin Kraus made an important contribution to the genre of the grande symphonie which, freed from its earlier function in church or theatre or at table, was finally intended for the concert hall. As its most important characteristics should be mentioned the broadening of dimensions in time and space as well as a deepening and intensifying of the musical structural means. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's ‘Hamburg’ symphonies, Joseph Haydn's ‘Paris’ symphonies and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's late Viennese symphonies are the best-known examples, beside which the works of Kraus, with their individual character, are certainly of equal rank and even, in many features of their physiognomy, already point to the symphonic style of the early 19th century.

DURANTE Concertos
Concerto Koln • Werner Ehrhardt, conductor
Phoenix427

Durante's extensive work has up to the present hardly been revealed: in many cases the musical sources lack dates and apparently much has been lost. What appears unusual, almost surprising for an 18th-century Neapolitan composer, is his complete abstention from composing operas. Instead, he concentrated almost exclusively on sacred vocal music. The unconventional and highly individual style of Durante's music in its time attracted equally admirers and critics. His flamboyant style is particularly evident in the eight Concerti per quartetto which have been recorded completely for the first time, in this recording. When this collection of works was created is unknown, as is the case with most of Durante's compositions, but observations of style point to the late seventeen thirties or early seventeen forties. The concerti were not printed, yet nevertheless there is evidence of seven contemporary copies having been made of them, from which the conclusion may be drawn that the compositions were quite widely circulated.

VIVALDI Concertos
Concerto Koln • Werner Ehrhardt, conductor
Phoenix434

The approximately 160 instrumental works by Vivaldi at the National Library of Saxony include the double-chorus concerto RV 585 and the Symphony in B flat major RV 162 For strings, for which Pisendel (presumably) added parts for two transverse flutes, two oboes and a bassoon. Exact dating of the works is hardly possible, with the exception of RV 565 (before 1711) and RV 162 (after 1721); there is, however, evidence to suggest that the three concerti for recorders (RV 441, RV 556 and RV 585) were written before 1726, before Vivaldi first met Johann Joachim Quantz, an event which awakened Vivaldi's interest in the transverse flute and which draws almost a clear live between the recorder and the transverse flute concertos. The two flute concertos are from Opus 10 which was published in 1728, but they go back, like nearly all the pieces in this collection to works which were in some cases composed at a considerably earlier date. The program of La tempesta di mare, a storm at sea, is structured in fairly general terms, but one needs no detailed explanations to recognize the sophisticated way in which Vivaldi portrays the various stages of the storm. There are similar tendencies in the second concerto from Opus 10, La Notte. This title, which sounds quite innocuous to the present-day listener, was linked with a whole series of sinister associations for people in the 18th century. ‘Night overwhelms man with fear and anxiety,’ explained Zedler's Universal Lexicon in 1740, and this is precisely the programme in La Notte. It is not the fear of any real dangers, but the fear of eerie, creepy things like ghosts and spooks which is portrayed in the first four movements. It is only in the fifth movement that these trials and tribulations disappear, to be replaced by peaceful sleep. After going through a complicated series of modulations in the previous movements, Vivaldi returns to the basic key of G at the end of this movement. The final movement proclaims the impending dawn, to which the menacing ghosts are forced to yield.

SCHUBERT Symphonies Nos 5, 6, 8 ‘Unfinished’ & 9 ‘Great’
Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg • Sandor Vegh, conductor
Phoenix437

In contrast to the Fourth Symphony (the so-called ‘Tragic’), composed in April 1816, in his Fifth Symphony Schubert dispensed with clarinets, trumpets and timpani. Certainly the theory that the work, with its reduced chamber-orchestral scoring, was tailor-made for performance by an amateur orchestra cannot be maintained, for Otto Hatwig's group, as can be shown, also played more lavishly scored works by Beethoven, Cherubim and Spontini. Not so much external, but artistic, considerations led the 19-year-old composer to renounce a larger orchestral body in his B flat symphony.
As puzzling a work as the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony already marks a qualitative leap in Schubert's development as a symphonist before the Great C major symphony. As the autograph score of this B minor symphony shows, Schubert had begun writing it on 30 October 1822, in the year of the Wanderer Fantasy and the Mass in A flat major. Since a nearly complete draft, almost consistent with the final version, already existed, the fair copy could have been completed in November. As for the scherzo, in the piano sketch this third movement was likewise already far advanced. In the fair copy, on the other hand, it breaks off at the 9th bar. In any case, the symphony which Schubert handed over in 1823 to Anselm Huettenbrenner, the director of the Styrian Musical Association, in gratitude for his nomination as an external member was a fragment. Huettenbrenner thenceforth guarded the manuscript like a treasure. Not until 1865 did the conductor Johann Herbeck succeed in cajoling the score from him for a performance, which took place, supplemented by the totally incommensurate finale of the Third Symphony, on 17 December of the same year in the large Redoutensaal of the Vienna Hofburg.
The once widespread notion that, with his creative work, Franz Schubert found himself in accord with his contemporaries has already been shown, by the faltering reception of many masterpieces, to belong to the realm of legend. Only about a tenth of his total output was produced in print by the time of his death in 1828; only very late did works such as ‘The Great’ C major Symphony, the ‘Unfinished’ or the C major String Quintet find their way into concert halls.

Rendezvous – AMY BEACH Songs
Joerg Waschinski, soprano • Meininger Trio
Phoenix188

World Premiere Recording Amy Marcy Beach was one of the most productive and successful female American composers. She was also the first who was acknowledged by the public for comprehensive compositions such as her mass in Es-Major (1890) or her ‘Gaelic’ Symphony Op32 (1896). More than 300 compositions of almost all genres survive, including works for piano, chamber music, one opera, symphonic compositions as well as songs and choral music. Most of them were published and performed. In particular, her 120 songs had a broad impact and were soon included in the standard repertoire of her time. Her musical language remained rooted in the songs of the late Romantic era, but incorporating Scottish, Irish and Afro-American influences as they were practised in America. Her songs are historically important as forerunners to succeeding American song composers such as Charles Ives. Librettists for her songs were chosen from her circle of friends or she set to music poems from magazines or by famous poets such as Shakespeare or Hugo. The text of Ecstasy was her own creation and its publications in a volume of poetry enabled her to purchase the land for a holiday home. Thematically her songs focus on perishability, love and happiness where changing dispositions of the soul are expressed by metaphors such as the change of seasons and nature.

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DAUGHERTY Fire & Blood
Ida Kavafian, violin • Detroit Symphony Orchestra • Neeme Jarvi, conductor
8.559372

This recording celebrates three exciting works commissioned and premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra during Michael Daugherty’s four years as Composer-in-Residence. Inspired by Diego Rivera’s monumental fresco and Frida Kahlo’s paintings created in Detroit, Michigan, Fire and Blood “rivets the ear with a bold palette of colors and the skilful elaboration of vibrant themes” (Detroit News). MotorCity Triptych, “striking both in its brilliance and in its technical rigor,” is a road trip through the sounds of Detroit: the 1960s pulse of Motown, the motor rhythms of Michigan Avenue, and the legend of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Raise the Roof, composed for the opening of Detroit’s Max M. Fisher Music Center, is a grand acoustic construction featuring the timpani in a tour de force of urban polyrhythms.
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BERNSTEIN Mass
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
8.559622-23

When Leonard Bernstein was asked by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to compose the inaugural piece 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 theatre 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.
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USA

The Works of Arnold Schoenberg Vol 1
Concerto for String Quartet, The Book of the Hanging Gardens, A Conversation with Arnold Schoenberg, Serenade, Variations Op 31, Bach orchestrations, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Cello Concerto, Piano Quartet No 1 (Brahms arr. Schoenberg), Chamber Symphony No 2, Die gluckliche Hand, Wind Quintet, Violin Concerto, Ode to Napoleon / A Survivor from Warsaw
Soloists • Schoenberg (interview) • Fred Sherry Quartet
Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble • Philharmonia Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra • Simon Joly Chorale
New York Woodwind Quintet • Robert Craft, conductor
8.505223

Robert Craft, the noted conductor and widely respected writer and critic on music, literature and culture, holds a unique place in the world of classical music.  He is in the process of recording the complete works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern for Naxos.  Craft has twice won the Grand Prix du Disque as well as the Edison Prize for his landmark recordings of Schoenberg, Webern and Varese.

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Masterworks of 20th Century Box
– Krzyzstof Penderecki Choral Works
5-CD Boxed Set
Utrenja, A Polish Requiem, St Luke Passion, Te Deum,
Hymne an den Heiligen Daniel, Polymorphia, Ciaconna
Soloists • Warsaw Boys Choir • Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra Antoni Wit, conductor
8.505224

Penderecki is without a doubt one of the most influential and respected composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. This collection contains his most important compositions within the realm of choral music. Though Penderecki drew his inspiration from traditional Orthodox liturgy, the compositions themselves are stark, jarring, monumental and contain a vivid beauty that has yet to be equated. This set also includes Polymorphia, one of Penderecki's best known and most challenging orchestral pieces. 
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Great Operatic Arias in English
Adriana Lecouvreur ‘See Now, I Am Exhausted’, ‘Poor Little Flowers’, La Wally Aria, Arabella ‘I’m Very Glad’, ‘He’s Not The One’, Pagliacci ‘His Eyes Were’, Duet ‘Nedda’, The End Of The Affair, Queen Of Spades ‘It’s Nearly Midnight Now’, Williamson ‘The Violins of St Jacques’ Cheryl Barker, soprano
Gillian Keith, soprano • William Dazeley, baritone
London Philharmonic Orchestra • David Parry, conductor
CHANDOS CHAN3161

Extraordinary Australian soprano, Cheryl Barker, sings her favourites on CD in a highly original program showcasing thrilling moments of her dramatic artistry in music both familiar and fresh, all performed in English. It includes a scene from The End of the Affair (premiered by Cheryl with her husband Peter Coleman-Wright in 2004), arias from Strauss’s Arabella (for which she won the 2008 Helpmann Award for Best Female Performer in an Opera) and from a beautiful, rarely heard Australian work: The Violins of St Jacques by Malcolm Williamson. Great Operatic Arias in English arrives in the wake of Cheryl’s triumphant performances in Opera Australia’s Manon Lescaut.
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HANDEL Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, Dixit Dominus
Andreas Scholl • Helene Guilmette • Vocal Consort Berlin,
Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin • Marcus Creed, conductor
HMC902041

Composed to celebrate the birthday of Queen Anne of England, this Ode was subtitled ‘Ode for the Peace’ in reference to the Treaty of Utrecht which the monarch was about to sign, marking the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Six years earlier, the 22-year-old composer exploited in his sacred music what he had begun to learn from Italian opera: the result was the powerful, intensely passionate Dixit Dominus. Andreas Scholl is without doubt the world’s most celebrated counter-tenor, much admired by Australian audiences for his frequent national tours with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
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HANDEL & HAYDN Keyboard Works
Handel Chaconne with 21 Variations in G Major HWV435,
Suite No 2 in F Major HWV427, Suite No 8 in F Minor HWV433,
Haydn Sonata ‘un piccolo divertimento’ Variations in F Minor Hob XVII:6, Piano Sonata in E Flat Major Hob XVI:52
Angela Hewitt (piano)
CDA67736

Recorded and released in the Anniversary year of both Handel and Haydn, Hyperion’s Record of the Month is an effusive celebration of the two composers, performed by an artist whose renditions of 17th- and 18th-century keyboard works on the piano have received the highest possible acclaim. This recital is a welcome gesture from the ‘high priestess of Bach’ (The Sunday Times), Hewitt’s trademark clarity of line, singing tone and instinctive musicality perfectly suited to the urbane elegance of the works recorded here. An enchanting release that will delight Angela’s fans in the wake of her extraordinarily successful 2008 Bach World Tour.
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PORPORA Arias
Karina Gauvin, soprano • Il Complesso Barocco • Alan Curtis, conductor
ACD2 2590 (ATMA Classique)

Following the immense success of her CD Handel Arias, Karina Gauvin returns with a new recording of arias, most never recorded, from the operas of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768). The prestigious Italian baroque orchestra Il Complesso Barocco under the direction of Alan Curtis accompanies Madame Gauvin on this recording produced in Italy. ‘One of the dream sopranos of our time’ who in turn is ‘distinctive, sophisticated, deeply intuitive, a questioning and fearless artist.’ - The Globe & Mail
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Gloria! Songs of Exaltation
Various Artists
Dorian DSL-90906

‘Quelques instants de recueillement qui ne feront pas souffrir votre portefeuille. Une jolie compilation où se retrouvent Bach, Haendel et Vivaldi.’ - Journal de Montreal

‘Some meditative moments that will not hurt your wallet. A lovely compilation for rediscovering Bach, Handel and Vivaldi’ - Journal de Montreal
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Les Musiques de Picasso
Various Artists
Naïve V5162

“Allez, rêvons un peu. Entre Paris et la Côte d’Azur où il passait ses étés, nous allons partir en voyage dans l’univers du peintre Picasso. L’œuvre du peintre: « d’une amplitude exceptionnelle…arts plastiques, peinture, sculpture » s’est aussi nourrie de la Musique. En deux disques et avec des interprètes remarquables, la petite maison de disque Naïve n’a pas fait les choses à moitié. Puisant à même son catalogue, nous nous trouvons en présence des pianistes Rafael Orozco (Albéniz), Alfred Cortot (Ravel), de la soprano Maria Bayo (Granados) ou du clarinettiste Pascal Moragues pour Trois danses tirée de l’histoire du soldat de Stravinsky. Un joli cadeau à prix modique et qui sait, pourquoi ne pas redécouvrir l’œuvre de Picasso.” 
- Journal de Montreal

‘Come on, dream a bit. Between Paris and the Côte d’Azur, where he spent his summers, we are going to journey through the world of the painter Picasso. The painter’s work, ‘an exceptional output… in the plastic arts, painting, sculpture’, was also nourished by music. On two discs with remarkable interpreters, the boutique label Naïve doesn’t do things halfway. Drawn from its catalogue, we encounter pianists Rafael Orozco (Albéniz) and Alfred Cortot (Ravel), soprano Maria Bayo (Granados) and clarinetist Pascal Moragues for the Three Dances from Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. A nice gift at a modest price, and why not rediscover the work of Picasso?’
 - Journal de Montreal
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MAHLER Symphony No 4 / SCHOENBERG Pelleas and Melisande
Juliane Banse, soprano • Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor
Medici 2055488

“Incontournable du cycle Mahler, la Symphonie n° 4 est encore dominée par le chef Fritz Reiner (RCA/BMG) avec entre autres Maureen Forrester (1958). Dans un autre genre et certainement avec beaucoup moins de puissance, le chef d’orchestre Claudio Abbado mène fièrement ses troupes dans un double Schoenberg (Pelleas and Melisande) et Mahler, comme mentionné. Pour des raisons d’espace, notre attention se tournera vers la symphonie qui, admirablement bien captée, se revèle romantique dans l’esprit et pure au niveau du trait. Classique.”
- Journal de Montreal

‘Inevitably among Mahler symphonic cycles, Symphony No 4 is still dominated by the conductor Fritz Reiner’s 1958 recording (RCA/BMG) with, among others, Maureen Forrester. In another style and indeed with much less forcefulness, conductor Claudio Abbado leads his troops proudly in Schoenberg (Pelleas and Melisande) and Mahler, as mentioned. For reasons of space, our attention will turn to the symphony which, wonderfully well recorded, is revealed as Romantic in spirit and pure at the level of detail. Classic.’
- Journal de Montreal
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SALONEN LA Variations / SIBELIUS Symphony No 5
UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra • Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Medici 3078648

‘Dynamique chef d’orchestre et compositeur, Esa-Pekka Salonen dirige une de ses compositions, LA Variations. Bruyante comme une mégalopole, éclatée en un certain sens, nous y retrouvons aussi des bribes de Stravinsky, Mahler et même Strauss. Une curiosité non négligeable.’  
- Journal de Montreal

‘The dynamic conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts one of his own works, LA Variations. Noisy as an immense city, torn apart so to speak, we also find shards of Stravinsky, Mahler and even Strauss. A curious work that is far from negligible.’
- Journal de Montreal
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GERMANY

BRUCKNER Symphony No 7
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra  • Mariss Jansons, conductor
BR Klassik 403571900100 (Hybrid-SACD)

The present recording of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons unleashed the entire musical energy of this top world-class orchestra via the artistically and musically sophisticated interpretation and transparency of the audiophile SACD technology. Live concert review: ‘Soft and organically develops thanks to a play on the edge of her chair orchestra, an emotionally unusually dense, but highly transparent performance’ (Abendzeitung) In the future not only the excellent recordings of the three Bavarian Radio ensembles will be released on the BR-Klassik label. As well as the productions with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Radio Choir and Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Choir in BR-CLASSIC ARCHIVE,  recordings from the History of the station will be released. In addition, BR-Klassik Wissen (CLASSICAL KNOWLEDGE) is a series with recorded Word-/Musicbroadcasts giving an access to Key-Compositions of classical music. Concerts presented in spectacular locations will be published additionally on BR-KLASSIK DVDs.

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BEETHOVEN Complete Piano Sonatas
Paul Lewis, piano
Harmonia Mundi HMX 2901902.11

Every one of Lewis's Beethoven Piano Sonatas CD series has been unanimously acclaimed by the international press and has been included in Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choice, and volume 4 of the series was awarded Gramophone's Best Instrumental recording and Recording of the Year 2008.
 ‘The great Beethoven pianist of the day, Paul Lewis.’ -
Michael Tumelty (The Herald)

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BEETHOVEN Symphony No 9
Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano • Lilli Paasikivi, mezzo-soprano
Lars Cleveman, tenor • Karl-Magnus Fredriksson, baritone
Denmark Radio Choir • Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Örebro
Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
PSC1283

Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra have received awards and splendid reviews for their series of the complete orchestral music of Beethoven. Joined here by leading vocal soloists from Sweden and Denmark, plus the DR Vocal Ensemble and Choir, this performance of the Choral Symphony brings the series to a new peak. Also includes Beethoven’s Die Weihe des Hauses (Consecration of the House) and Gratulations-Menuett (Congratulation Minuet).
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UK

PUCCINI Edgar
World premiere recording on DVD
Jose Cura • Amarilli Nizza • Julia Gertseva • Marco Vratogna
Orchestra & Chorus of the Teatro Regio Di Torino
Yoram David, conductor
ARTHAUS 101377
ALSO AVAILABLE ON ARTHAUS BLU-RAY 101378

The WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING on DVD of the original four-act version of Puccini’s opera, in a lavish production from Teatro Regio di Torino 2008. The captivating tenor Jose Cura stars as the eponymous lead.
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MASSENET Thaïs
Live recording from the teatro regio di torino 2008
Barbara Frittoli • Lado Ataneli • Alessandro Liberatore • Maurizio Lo Piccolo Nadezda Serdyuk • Orchestra & Chorus of the Teatro Regio Di Torino Gianandrea Noseda, conductor
ARTHAUS 101385
ALSO AVAILABLE ON ARTHAUS BLU-RAY 101386

A stunning new production of Massenet’s rarely-performed mature opera, starring the sensational Barbara Frittoli in her début as the courtesan Thaïs. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Region di Torino.
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David Aaron Carpenter
ELGAR Cello Concerto
(arranged for viola by Lionel Tertis/David Aaron Carpenter)
SCHNITTKE Viola Concerto
David Aaron Carpenter, viola • Philharmonia Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
ONDINE ODE 1153-2

Ondine is delighted to present 22-year-old, New York-born violist David Aaron Carpenter’s debut recording. This will be the first of several recordings under a recent agreement between Ondine and the artist. David Aaron Carpenter has recently emerged as one of the world’s most promising young talents, winning, in 2006, the prestigious Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition.
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RAUTAVAARA 12 Concertos - Collector’s Edition
(4 CDs for the price of 2)
CD 1 Violin Concerto; Cello Concerto; Double Bass Concerto ‘Angel of Dusk’
CD 2 Ballad for Harps and Strings; Harp Concerto’ Concerto for Birds and Orchestra ‘Cantus Arcticus’
CD 3 Flute Concerto ‘Dances with the Winds’,
Clarinet Concerto Organ Concerto ‘Annunciations’
CD 4 Piano Concerto No 1, Piano Concerto No 2,
Piano Concerto No 3 ‘Gift of Dreams’
ONDINE ODE 1156-2Q
Various artists including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Patrick Gallois,
Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste    

This first-ever edition of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s complete concertos follows the release of his eight symphonies, in a collector’s box set. Ondine’s long-time house composer is regognised as one of the greatest musical figures in finland after Sibelius. These recordings were produced in collaboration with the composer between 1991 and 2005 and have been previously released on individual albums to international popular and critical acclaim.
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BEETHOVEN Ode to Freedom: Symphony No 9
Official Concert of the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989          
Bernstein • Anderson • Walker • König • Rootering
Medici Arts DVD 2072039

Leonard Bernstein's historical concert in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has long become almost as legendary as the revolutionary moment that it celebrated. Recorded at the beautiful Schauspielhaus right on Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin on Christmas 1989, it has now become available on DVD, along with a short documentary film as bonus. The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 1989 unleashed a wave of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe that radically transformed the world order and Leonard Bernstein spontaneously accepted an invitation to conduct a performance to mark this new era. It was only fitting that East Germany's new-found freedom should be celebrated with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The monumental work, perhaps the world's most famous Symphony, was inspired by Schiller's poem 'Ode to Joy', a passionate eulogy to freedom. Adding to the symbolism of the event, Bernstein conducted an orchestra and chorus formed from musicians from both East and West Germany (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden), as well as the United States (New York Philharmonic), Great Britain (London Symphony), France (Orchestre de Paris) and the Soviet Union (Orchestra of the Kirov Theater).
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Twin Spirits: Sting performs Schumann
Portraying the love of Robert & Clara Schumann in words and music
Sting • Styler • Jacobi • Keenlyside • Krylov
Burnside • Evans • Clein • Paremski
Opus Arte DVD OA 0994D

Twin Spirits is a unique and intimate, live theatrical performance by a chamber ensemble of actors, singers and musicians, portraying the deep and ultimately tragic love between the composer Robert Schumann and his pianist wife Clara Wieck. In this intensely moving performance of words, song and music, the Schumanns’ long separation, so formative an influence on their lives, is reflected in the division of the ensemble into male and female groups. Robert’s letters to Clara are read by Sting and his songs sung by Simon Keenlyside, with accompaniments and instrumental music played by Iain Burnside and Sergej Krylov. Clara’s letters to Robert are read by Trudie Styler and her songs sung by Rebecca Evans, with accompaniments and instrumental music played by Natalie Clein and Natasha Paremski. The narrator, Derek Jacobi, links together the letters and lyrics to complete the essential outline of the story. Conceived and directed by John Caird, Twin Spirits was first performed in June 2005 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London and has since been experienced only at private performances for charity by small audiences of all ages and interests, leaving them deeply touched and inspired.
‘A performance like this is a personal journey. You’re forced to share very private thoughts and make them public, and that creates a tension. This love story - the relationship and the tragedy - provides a great introduction for people who don’t normally listen to classical music. Hearing the Schumanns’ music at the same time as telling their story is a very intimate, engaging and emotional experience.’ - Sting      
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Naxos of America New Releases

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USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

8.570589  SCHMIDT Symphony No 2 in E flat major - Lebhaft
8.559635  DAUGHERTY Metropolis Symphony - Oh, Lois!
8.570527  TANEYEV Suite de concert - Gavotte: Allegro moderato
8.572041  R STRAUSS Symphonic Fragment from Josephs Legende

September New Release Sampler II
Piano - Violin - Chamber - Stage - Choral

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