WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Kip Winger is a genre-bridging composer with a long and successful career in rock music. His celebrated ballet score Conversations with Nijinsky led conductor Giancarlo Guerrero to commission the two works on this album. Weaving four floriographical meanings into the musical arc, In the Language of Flowers is a violin concerto that celebrates a love story “no words could adequately express.” Symphony of the Returning Light sits in the tradition of autobiographical fantasies stretching back to Berlioz. The symphony incorporates the use of Morse code rhythms, and is centered around the theme of atonement.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Giya Kancheli, one of Georgia’s most eminent composers, became increasingly famous after the advent of glasnost in the Soviet Union, when his works, not least his seven symphonies, were heard internationally. Around the year 2000 Kancheli shifted away from the opulence of these pieces and moved towards a more restrained, introspective vein, which is exemplified by the three works on this album. Elements of folk and traditional music can be glimpsed in the abstract Ex contrario, while Middelheim is striking for its overlapping succession of episodes. Tsutisopeli was Kancheli’s final score.

These seven new Nordic violin concertos were all composed for soloist Niklas Walentin and the Danish Chamber Players. Though compact in length, they range widely in expressive power. Some have nature themes – the sonic portrayal of the Arctic, the fragility of glaciers. One is a homage to Ukraine, another is a Swedish Four Seasons, while others embrace folkloric elements. Each concerto is to be performed in a circle, intended to give an immersive cinematic feel, enveloping the listener in a landscape of sounds.

Only available for download and streaming

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING

Joachim Raff moved in circles that included Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, and he ultimately became one of the best-known German composers of his day. Of Raff’s six stage works Dame Kobold (‘The Phantom Lady’) was the first of a series of comic operas that anticipated later trends, moving away from Wagnerian pathos and looking back to the levity of Rossini. Admired for its utterly gorgeous musical setting, the opera is notable for a disarmingly simple yet fastpaced plot, bewitching solos and elegantly flowing melodies, and a deftly responsive marriage of language and music.

Fromental Halévy’s five-act grand opera La Juive (‘The Jewess’) is one of the most popular operas of the 19th century, captivating audiences ever since its debut at the Opéra de Paris in 1835. Set in the 15th century and full of pageantry, the subject is the forbidden love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, and the tragedy that ensues. Oper Frankfurt’s contemporary staging won great acclaim, with Ambur Braid being lauded for her ‘luminous soprano’ as the heroine Rachel, and ‘vocal phenomenon’ John Osborn heralded in the role of her father Éléazar as ‘immensely moving’.

Also available on Blu-ray (NBD0190V)

In this recital, prize-winning Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko explores the evolving language, dramatic breadth and technical daring of Alexander Scriabin’s piano works. The album charts the remarkable evolution of Scriabin’s musical language from his earliest pieces, to the sensual, volatile Piano Sonata No. 5, which stands at the summit of Scriabin’s creative trajectory. As a resonant counterpart, Izik-Dzurko plays Rachmaninov’s brooding Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor. A digital-only release of four early piano works by Scriabin is also available on 9.70408.

9.70408

Alexander SCRIABIN
Fugues, WoO 12 and 13
Nocturne, WoO 3
Piano Sonata, Anh. 3

Only available for download and streaming

Alexander Glazunov’s seven string quartets extend over the entirety of his composing career and are equal in significance to his symphonies. Fused with nationalist sentiment and Classical discipline the First String Quartet secured the Glinka Prize for the teenage composer in 1884. The advances in expressive range and formal integration in the Second Quartet include a rapturous slow movement considered a highlight of his earlier output, while the Third Quartet has become known as ‘The Slavonic’ for its evocative folk-music character.

Jinhyung Park, winner of the 2023 Jaén Prize International Piano Competition, explores the multifaceted nature of his instrument in this meeting of three 19th-century masters. Brahms’ Handel Variations – a birthday gift to Clara Schumann – employs an infinite variety of pianistic and motivic devices, while Granados’ Los requiebros is a dazzling interpretation of the Spanish jota folk dance. Dvořák’s formidable Second Piano Quintet is swept along by an enveloping lyricism that distils the very spirit of the composer.

A native of Bohemia, Wenzel Thomas Matiegka was a contemporary of Beethoven and a celebrated guitarist. His reputation was established after settling in Vienna where he became accepted in musical circles that included Schubert. Matiegka’s works reflect the influence of Mozart and Haydn, while exploring the virtuoso possibilities of the guitar by blending lyrical serenity with refreshing good humour and exhilarating technique.

Liszt’s circle of friends and musical acquaintances was both wide and varied. In typically generous fashion he often promoted their music through transcriptions, arrangements and additions. This collection features arrangements of dance music by illustrious contemporaries such as Weber and Smetana, additions to a work by Liszt’s Weimar assistant Joachim Raff, and a scintillating solo transcription of the Tanzmomente by the influential Viennese composer/conductor Johann von Herbeck, amongst others.

The New & Now playlist features all that is new and exciting in the world of classical music, whether it’s new music, new presentations or new performers. With more than 200 new releases each year, and artists from around the world, there is always something new to discover with Naxos.