News from the Naxos Music Group
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Label of the Month: Naxos AudioBooks
Naxos AudioBooks is the leading audiobook label for the classics. It was founded in 1994 by Klaus Heymann and Nicolas Soames with the purpose of providing classic literature with classical music, and regularly continues to expand its list of quality audiobooks. The label produces between 20 and 40 titles a year.
The catalogue ranges from Homer and Plato to Dante, Milton, Austen, Dickens, Conan Doyle and Beckett, plus key contemporary figures such as Haruki Murakami and Cormac McCarthy. The label has also recorded a dozen Shakespeare plays in full drama productions with leading English actors, including Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, Juliet Stevenson and Ewan McGregor. Other recordings also feature experienced ‘radio’ voices, such as Neville Jason and David Timson, who know how to create a magical world through storytelling.
Naxos AudioBooks also became the first independent audiobook company to develop its own Download Shop from its website, offering fast, high-quality downloads in easy-to-use MP3 format, before adding the option of M4B format.
Recent highlights include The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton, read by a cast led by Derek Jacobi, The Mimic Men by Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul, The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley, Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais and The Darling Buds of May series by H. E. Bates.
A Lou Harrison Centenary Celebration
The PostClassical Ensemble, dubbed as “one of the nation’s most innovative music groups” by The Washington Post, celebrated composer Lou Harrison’s birth centennial with a concert at the Indonesian Embassy in US on April 24, 2017. The program includes gamelan works, the Suite for Cello and Harp, and the Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Gamelan. It also features commentaries by gamelan master Sumarsam.
The event also serves as the CD launch of their newest recording on Naxos which features Harrison’s Violin Concerto with violinist Tim Fain as soloist, and Double Music (co-composed with John Cage). The album also includes the Grand Duo for Violin and Piano, performed by Fain and pianist Michael Boriskin (8.559825).
In his blog, Artistic Director Joe Horowitz said “Harrison’s music is an original, precise, and yet elusive product of far-flung cultural excursions. He may also be understood as a composer of paradoxes. His idiom is lyric but never lush. He can be monumental but is not grandiose. He espoused “world music” before there was a name for it.”
The event was broadcast by WWFM and is still available for streaming online.
Click here for more releases from the Naxos Music Group.
The Naxos Interview: Angel Gil-Ordóñez talks with Laurence Vittes
Watch | Finale of Lou Harrison’s Violin Concerto with Tim Fain and the PCE
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Naxos Celebrates its 30th Anniversary
Founded in 1987, Naxos has developed from being known primarily as a budget label into one of the world’s leading classical music labels. The Naxos label offers an almost unduplicated catalogue of over 9,000 titles, and records a wide range of repertoire with artists and orchestras from more than 30 countries. The company has also transformed into a global enterprise that owns, administers and/or distributes a large number of independent and major classical record labels both physically and digitally. With its suite of digital subscription platforms, including NaxosMusicLibrary.com, NaxosSpokenWordLibrary.com, NaxosWorks.com, and others, Naxos continues as a leader and innovator.
From May 16 to 17, 2017 the Naxos Music Group hosted the annual Music Market Munich, and this year the highlight was a gala concert at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche with four young Naxos artists – pianists Boris Giltburg and Nicholas Rimmer, cellist Gabriel Schwabe, and violinist Tianwa Yang.
The concert programme consisted of works by Schumann, Martinů, Rachmaninov, Ravel, and the final movement of Hermann Berens’ Gesellschaftsquartett No. 1, Op. 23 for piano-four hands, violin and cello. During the event Dr. Florian Dücke (CEO of Bundesverband Musikindustrie) and music critic Remy Fránck (President of the International Classical Music Awards), presented Naxos founder and Chairman Klaus Heymann with an ICMA Special Achievement award for his contributions to the classical music recording industry.
The event was also broadcast live on Facebook, and can still be streamed here.
Featured Digital Platform: Naxos Music Library
Now boasting almost 2 million available tracks, the Naxos Music Library is the largest resource of classical music online with over 800 new CDs added every month.
The library offers the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus recordings of over 650 record labels, including Sony Classical, Warner Classics/Erato, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, RCA Records, with more labels joining every month. It also covers a wide range of genres from classical music, to opera, jazz, musicals, world music, and pop/rock.
NML can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, anytime, and the HTLM5 player can stream music though the standard internet connection of most phones and tablets.
Click here for a 15 minute preview to browse and listen
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JoAnn Falletta honoured at Leadership Buffalo Values Awards
Having served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999, JoAnn Falletta was awarded the Community Impact Award at the 14th Annual Leadership Buffalo Values Awards on May 4, 2017. The organisation brings together people who have leadership roles in western New York for programmes specifically designed to help them be more effective in the community.
Falletta is the recipient of many major conducting awards, including the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, the coveted Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League’s prestigious John S. Edwards Award. She is an ardent champion of music of our time, having introduced over 500 works by American composers, including more than 110 world premieres. Hailing her as a “leading force for the music of our time,” she has been honoured with twelve ASCAP awards and serves on the US National Council on the Arts. Her recording of John Corgliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man with the BPO from 2008 won two GRAMMY® Awards.
The Naxos Interview: Laurence Vittes talks to JoAnn Falletta
Watch Video Trailer | In the Tatra Mountains
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RECENT RELEASES FROM JOANN FALLETTA AND THE BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC
– Audiophile Audition ★★★★
– ClassicsToday.com
1 Bernstein • 2 years • 6 continents • 1,000 events
On May 9, 2017 the Bernstein Office announced a two-year global celebration of the life and career of celebrated American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), featuring more than a thousand events on six continents. The event was hosted by award-winning actor Alec Baldwin, who is also the radio broadcast host of the New York Philharmonic, where Bernstein served as music director from 1957 to 1969. Other personalities present at the press launch were conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, actress Whoopi Goldberg and the Bernstein family.
“Leonard Bernstein at 100 will explore my father’s legacy from every angle – and that’s a lot of angles … I’m thrilled to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect his multiple achievements to the 21st century, as well as introduce his legacy to new generations.”
– Jamie Bernstein
A launch concert at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on September 22, 2017, entitled Bernstein on Broadway, will be directed by Tony Award-winning director Kathleen Marshall and music director Rob Fisher. It will present an evening of favourite tunes from West Side Story, Wonderful Town, Candide and On the Town, plus selections from the historic Mass, which was commissioned for the center’s opening in 1971.
Conductor Marin Alsop, a protégé of Bernstein, will serve as the musical ‘curator’ for a two-season Bernstein centennial celebration at the Ravinia Festival in 2018 and 2019. This will include the Ravinia premiere of Bernstein’s Mass, plus performances of the Chichester Psalms and Serenade after Plato’s Symposium (with violinist Joshua Bell).
The continuing collaboration between Naxos and Marin Alsop to record Bernstein’s orchestral works has proven highly successful over the years:
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Licensing News – Mom
The hit series Mom, starring Allison Janney and Anna Faris, aired its season 4 finale on May 11, 2017, and the Naxos Licensing team is proud to announce that we had many placements throughout the run.
Here are some of the works used on the show:
B-flat major, ‘La Reine’
Capella Istropolitana • Barry Wordsworth
E-flat major
Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia • Béla Drahos
G major, ‘Oxford’
Capella Istropolitana • Barry Wordsworth
Northern Chamber Orchestra
Nicholas Ward
Seasons 1 to 3 also feature recordings from Naxos. Be sure to check out Mom on CBS.
‘Singer of the Year’ Award for Karita Mattila in 2017 RPS Music Awards
Finnish soprano Karita Mattila received the ‘Singer of the Year’ Award in this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards for her notable performances in two JanáÄek operas: as the KostelniÄka in Jenůfa at the Royal Festival Hall, and Emilia Marty in The Makropoulos Case at the BBC Proms 2016.
The Awards committee's citation included the following:
“It’s a cliché of judges deliberating awards to announce that a field crowded with excellence made their decision hard to make. However, they finally decided to honour a singer, who in two unforgettable concert performances held huge audiences at both the Royal Festival Hall and the Proms spellbound through the nakedly communicative power of her vocal and dramatic artistry.
For her unforgettable incarnations of both the KostelniÄka in Jenůfa and Emilia Marty in The Makropoulos Case, the award goes to the astounding Finnish soprano Karita Mattila.”
Previous RPS Music Awards winners in the Naxos Music Group roster of artists include baritone Roderick Williams (2015), percussionist Colin Currie (2014), and conductor Marin Alsop (2002).
Some of Karita Mattila’s most successful recital and opera albums have been released on Ondine:
– MusicWeb International
– Fanfare
– Gramophone
![FLOYD, C.: Susannah [Opera] (St. Petersburg Opera, 2014) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/Sharedfiles/images/cds/others/2.110381.gif "FLOYD, C.: Susannah [Opera] (St. Petersburg Opera, 2014) (NTSC)"){kind=small}
New releases from Naxos AudioVisual Collection
Launched last year, Naxos’ new audiovisual division has already released several major opera and concert performances on DVD and Blu-ray. The first release to be added to the collection was a deluxe 4-DVD (3-Blu-ray) boxed set of Andrea Andermann’s film productions of Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata, and Puccini’s Tosca, featuring some of opera’s most prominent stars including tenors Plácido Domingo and Vittoro Grigolo, soprano Eteri Gvazava, bass-baritone Ruggero Raimondi, and conductor Zubin Mehta. New releases include a performance of Handel’s Messiah recorded live from the 2016 Easter Concert at Klosterneurburg, Vienna; St Petersburg Opera Company's recent production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah; Puccini’s La Bohème from the Malmö Opera directed by Orpha Phelan; and Mourad Merzouki’s Pixel, performed by Compagnie Käfig with 3D designs by Adrien M / Claire B Company and music by Arman Amar.
NEW & UPCOMING RELEASES in the Naxos Audiovisual Collection
![HANDEL, G.F.: Messiah [Oratorio]](images/2.110387-NBD0061.gif "HANDEL, G.F.: Messiah [Oratorio]")
– Klassik heute
![PUCCINI, G.: Bohème (La) [Opera] (Malmö Opera, 2014)](images/2.110385-NBD0059.gif "PUCCINI, G.: Bohème (La) [Opera] (Malmö Opera, 2014)")
Watch Video Trailer
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– The WholeNote
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Click here to browse through Naxos’ audiovisual catalogue.
The spirit of Satie, as heard by Satie.
![[GP761] SATIE: Gnossienne No. 1 (Full Version)](images/vid-satie.jpg "[GP761] SATIE: Gnossienne No. 1 (Full Version)")
Gnossienne 1 Live at the Philharmonie de Paris
“My first ever non-stop marathon performance of Satie’s piano music took place in Honfleur and Perpignan back in 2011. It signaled the beginning of a long journey, since when I have worked closely with the most important Erik Satie experts on a very special project: to capture the spirit of Satie’s music as it would have sounded in his day. Approaching Satie’s complete piano oeuvre in chronological order, I recorded the first few volumes of this new cycle on an 1881 Érard piano. This survey of the urtext edition of Satie’s music contains world premieres of both newly discovered and recently corrected works, enhanced by in-depth musical analysis; a thoughtful biography containing recent additional material by Robert Orledge; plus a comprehensive iconography with rarely seen or unknown examples chosen by Ornella Volta.”
– Nicolas Horvath
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Copland’s Third Symphony. Euphoric, historic.
Premiered in 1946, a year after the end of World War II, Copland’s iconic Third Symphony was described by the composer as ‘a wartime piece—or, more accurately, an end-of-war piece—intended to reflect the euphoric spirit of the country at the time.’ The fourth movement, heard on this recording in its original uncut form, opens by quoting one of his most well-known pieces, Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland described the Three Latin American Sketches ‘as being just what the title says. The tunes, the rhythms and the temperament of the pieces are folksy, while the orchestration is bright and snappy and the music sizzles along.’
Watch | Excerpt from Copland’s Symphony No. 3
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OTHER COPLAND RECORDINGS FROM LEONARD SLATKIN AND THE DSO
– Pizzicato ★★★★★
Featured Playlists – The Best of Naxos
2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Naxos, the world’s leading classical music label in terms of number of new releases and breadth of catalogue. Its strategy of recording exciting new repertoire with exceptional talent has been recognised with 30 GRAMMY® awards, more than 800 Penguin Guide 3-star recommendations, 175 Gramophone Editor’s Choice Awards, and numerous other honours. Naxos is a truly international label that produces over 200 new recordings each year in more than 30 countries. You will find below a selection of playlists that exemplify the best of the Naxos catalogue, spotlighting iconic works, world-class artists and the label's renowned album series (50 of the Best, American Classics, etc.). Also included is a special playlist curated by Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief, James Jolly, comprising his 30 favourite pieces from 30 years of Naxos recordings. Please enjoy!
Artist of the Month – David Timson
“I first worked for Naxos AudioBooks in 1997, making a small contribution to The Life of Mozart. Nicolas Soames, the founder, was able to see the potential in a person before they were aware of it themselves, and as a result my life was changed when I was entrusted with a major project: recording the complete Sherlock Holmes stories. This was a 10-year project, and led to further epic reads such as Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, unabridged, and Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. I also directed 5 of the Shakespeare plays in the Naxos repertoire, which was tremendously exhilarating. I have now been working for Naxos for 20 years. It is a tremendous privilege to have the responsibility for a compete novel and has been a joyous experience, particularly to have the golden opportunity to read Dickens, easily my favourite author, perhaps after Shakespeare! Naxos AudioBooks has led the field in the production of high quality classic literature from all ages, and for all ages.
With Anthony Anderson now at the helm of Naxos AudioBooks, the creativity and range continues to flourish and expand.
Congratulations to Naxos on reaching 30, and for a glorious achievement in a competitive market. Here’s to the future!”
– David Timson
David Timson has worked as an actor for nearly thirty years in theatre, television and film, but most consistently for BBC Radio. He won the BBC Student Prize in 1971 and has since made over 1,000 broadcasts, ranging from the title role in Nicholas Nickleby, to that past institution Listen with Mother. He has frequently read serials and short stories for Women’s Hour and Radio 4. He has also recorded substantially for Naxos AudioBooks, reading poetry for their collections of Comic and Oriental verse. Among his main projects for Naxos AudioBooks is the solo reading of The Complete Sherlock Holmes; and he has directed many Shakespeare plays including Twelfth Night, Richard III and Othello.
New and recent titles featuring David Timson
– AudioFile
– AudioFile
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