New on Naxos February 2025

The February NEW ON NAXOS highlights Boris Giltburg’s new recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonatas and Boris’ own revision of Georgy Kirkor’s 1957 transcription of The Isle of the Dead. Of Boris’ previous Rachmaninov recording (8.574528), Gramophone was impressed by Giltburg’s performance, praising it as ‘a joy to hear, lightly pedalled, consistently on the qui vive, weaving and darting, with a delicious leggiero touch and crystal-clear articulation’.

Other highlights include the second volume in Alexey Shor’s Composer’s Notebook series, featuring pianist Behzod Abduraimov and flutist Jasmine Choi, accompanied by the Kyiv Virtuosi led by multi-awarded conductors Massimiliano Caldi and GRAMMY-nominated Dmitry Yablonsky; an audiovisual release of Richard Strauss’ lyric comedy Arabella staged by prize-winning director Tobias Kratzer; Vol. 4 in Christoph Poppen’s ongoing cycle of Mozart’s Complete Masses, featuring the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and the Cologne Cathedral Vocal Ensemble; and more.

Watch our monthly New on Naxos video to sample the highlighted releases of the month.

Click on any of the following categories to jump to that section:

Orchestral & Concerto Recordings

Abduraimov * • Choi ** • Kyiv Virtuosi • Caldi * • Yablonsky **

INCLUDES A WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING

A native of Ukraine, Alexey Shor now lives and works in New York. His music has received prestigious performances and recordings in collaboration with leading international musicians. Joining a long tradition of music inspired by literary sources, From My Bookshelf is a series of musical character portraits that range from the tortured soul of Quasimodo to the dashing D’Artagnan, with plenty of fantasy and romance in between. The engaging and virtuoso Flute Concerto No. 1 combines traditional Classical forms with unexpected harmonic language and intricate rhythmic vitality.

Opera & Ballet

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Also available on Blu-ray Video
(NBD0182V)
Jakubiak • Tsallagova • Soffel • Watson • Braun • Pesendorfer • Deutsche Oper Berlin Chorus and Orchestra • Runnicles • Kratzer

Richard Strauss’s Arabella is a lyric comedy that portrays hardships and obsessions in a society whose late-bourgeois values are crumbling. An addiction to gambling has driven the family of cavalry officer Waldner into financial ruin, and their only hope for salvation lies in marrying off their daughter Arabella into a wealthy family. Strauss’s orchestral opulence coupled with its period Viennese setting has seen Arabella perceived as a light-hearted comedy of errors, but Tobias Kratzer’s multi-faceted production also explores the disunity between its characters, spotlighting tensions that connect 19th-century Vienna to the present day.


Bartoli • Schirru • Ventre • Vassallo • Abis • Chikviladze • Frabotta • Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari • Cilluffo

Francesco Cilea is best remembered for his operas L’Arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur, but his final opera Gloria is a genuine rarity. Set in medieval Siena against the backdrop of conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, Gloria is a tragic tale of love and revenge that can be seen as a variation on the story of Romeo and Juliet. Filled with beautiful melodies accompanied by rich and refined orchestral sonorities, Gloria reveals itself after years of neglect as a precious masterpiece in this acclaimed production from the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari.

Chamber & Instrumental

Boris Giltburg

Symphonic in scale and with great dramatic power, Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor is an underappreciated masterpiece, depicting a tremendous range of human emotions. The turbulent and brilliant Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor is heard in the 1931 revised version which clarifies textures and streamlines the work, heightening its emotional impact. The Isle of the Dead employs Georgy Kirkor’s 1957 transcription which Boris Giltburg has revised significantly. Giltburg’s authority in Rachmaninov has been universally acknowledged, with his performances termed ‘characterful, sensitive and technically dazzling’ by BBC Music Magazine (Naxos 8.574528).


Bianco • Quatuor Éclisses

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

This album presents a diverse selection of world premieres commissioned by the award-winning guitarist, Gabriel Bianco, from composers who have lived and worked in his native Paris. These range from the swirling Spanish motifs in Matthieu Stefanelli’s Ellipsis for four guitars, featuring the Quatuor Éclisses, to Camille Pépin’s hypnotic Autumn Rhythm and Thomas Viloteau’s festive A Night in Bastille – just a few of the highlights in this programme of new guitar music from the City of Light.


Yasunori Imamura

Yasunori Imamura, whose recording of Bach’s complete lute works has been described as a ‘magnificent interpretation’ (Naxos 8.573936–37), turns his attention to the Cello Suites. Imamura has chosen to perform these iconic suites on the theorbo, the most important plucked instrument in the lute family, with a range very similar to the cello. Certain technical elements, such as the playing of arpeggios are, in fact, easier on the theorbo whose unique timbres and resonances bring a new sonic quality to these much-loved works.

Choral & Vocal

Ullrich • Ruckgaber • Konradi • Bill • Romberger • Grahl • Schweinester • Mitterrutzner • Köninger • Müller • Timoschenko • Cologne Cathedral Vocal Ensemble • Cologne Chamber Orchestra • Poppen

Flanked on this recording by the Missa brevis in G major, the only example of a ‘Pastoral’ Mass by Mozart, and the emotive Missa brevis in F major, the precocious Mass in C major was composed at the age of only 13. It is a dramatic setting of sizeable proportions, with the Gloria and Credo themselves the length of a Missa brevis setting. The ‘Dominicus’ Mass shows a deepening of Mozart’s contrapuntal and harmonic language, with more adventurous and memorable melodies for the soloists.


Barkidjija * • Lloyd ** • Murray * • Farid ** • Every Voice Generations Choir * • The Cecilia Chorus of New York with Orchestra * • Shapiro *

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Daron Hagen is a multi-award-winning composer with a lifelong commitment to emotionally accessible and heartfelt music-making. Everyone, Everywhere is a sweeping cantata composed to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Taking a variety of texts, it charts the articles of the Declaration, opening in fanfare optimism and ending in tenderness, to form a passionate cry for justice and peace. The other settings, utilising texts by W.B. Yeats and President Abraham Lincoln, are both ardent and intimate.

World Music

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Jason Carter

Jason Carter, classical and harp guitarist, presents In and Out of Time, an album that embraces the risk and reward of creating music in real-time via live looping, inspired from time spent in Kuwait, Singapore and Finland. It offers listeners a glimpse into the creative process as well as room to interpret and bring their own meaning to the music, making them an essential collaborator.

* Only available for download and streaming

AudioBooks
ARNIM, E. von: Love (Unabridged)
ARNIM, E. von: Love (Unabridged)
BUCHAN, J.: The Thirty-Nine Steps (Unabridged)
BUCHAN, J.: The Thirty-Nine Steps (Unabridged)

Naxos Playlist

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.



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