WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Valentin Silvestrov was forced to leave his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022. His music has a prescient quality that unerringly seems to express the fate of his homeland. The intimate Violin Concerto and the heartfelt, single-span Eighth Symphony are notable for their economy of expression and emphasis on beauty, depth and harmony. This is music that hovers on the edge of silence in an uplifting homage to love and humanity, hope and renewal.

Heinrich August Marschner was a master of German Romantic music, and this third volume in the series presents excerpts from some of his later operas. These include Das Schloss am Aetna with its dark Faustian themes, and Lukretia in which the composer generates an air of Classical antiquity. Both Sangeskönig Hiarne and Der Bäbu showcase Marschner’s talent with descriptive ballet music, allowing us to discover a completely new side to his musical craft.

^† FIRST RECORDING ON CD

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

The music of Alan Hovhaness, one of America’s most prolific composers, enchants with his signature synthesis of East and West. Influenced by his Armenian heritage and a fascination with nature and spirituality Hovhaness sought to create music “for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.” This collection of works featuring the violin includes several premiere recordings. Concerto No. 2, one of a series of ten concertos for various instruments, requires the soloist and ensemble to play using distinctive effects including tone clusters, melisma, and playing without strict measure. Evocations of Armenian liturgy contrasted with dizzying Scottish jigs can be heard in the Violin Sonata.

The Polish-born composer, Marta Ptaszyńska, studied under Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, and since 1972 has worked in the United States where she forged cultural links between the two countries. Ptaszyńska has composed in all major genres and has worked with many leading musicians and ensembles. Her harmonic writing is often refined and translucent, with an expressive intensity generated through contrasts. The orchestral works in this album illustrate her gifts for creating evocative atmospheres. Dedicated to and premiered by Yehudi Menuhin, the Concerto Grosso explores Baroque archetypes.

Il diluvio universale (‘The Great Flood’) was premiered in Naples in 1830 but is better known in the much-revised version performed four years later in Genoa and Paris. The story, loosely drawn from the Bible, concerns Noah and his family, their conflicts, and the impending catastrophe of the flood. The opera offers a stream of attractive music, powerful choruses and refined harmonies, and represents a crucial stage in Donizetti’s musical thought. This acclaimed 2023 Donizetti Festival performance, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, employs the original 1830 edition.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

The two composers featured on this album worked in Russia during a period when it had become part of international musical culture, with many European musicians choosing to make a living there. Famous Czech cellist, Vladislav Aloiz, whose cosmopolitan Piano Trio in F major is an inspirational mix of beauty, passionate virtuosity and wit, moved to St Petersburg where he was awarded a professorship at the Conservatoire. Born in Kharkiv to an Austrian family, Alexander Winkler also found himself at the centre of Russian music at the turn of the century. The laconic themes of his masterfully written Piano Trio in F sharp minor are reminiscent of late Brahms.

Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez belonged to a key group of Brazilian composers including Villa-Lobos, Mignone and Guarneri, who radically transformed the landscape of Brazilian classical music and shaped future generations of composers. Lorenzo Fernandez was essentially a miniaturist, with many of his piano pieces being both richly inventive and short in duration. From the Iberian sonorities of earlier pieces such as the expansive Noturno, via the nationalist flavours of the Suítes Brasileiras, to his final piano work, the technically challenging Sonata Breve, Lorenzo Fernandez’s refined sophistication and originality can be heard in every piece.

Close harmony singing is the vocal equivalent of a jazz big band, and this programme is the Vasari Singers’ personal tour of a style in which they have excelled for years. Their connection with Ward Swingle and the pioneering Swingle Singers is explored in arrangements ranging from traditional folk songs such as the haunting Danny Boy, to favourites by The Beatles and the delicious harmonies of Stephen Sondheim. George Shearing’s English musical background and American jazz influence combine in his Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare, and the album closes with a cleverly integrated and up-beat version of Duke Ellington’s classic It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing).

* WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING

** WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF ARRANGEMENT

Manuel Blancafort’s music has a concise tonal directness that draws on his fondness for French composers. His Cançons are not simply evocative but embody an increasing use of the Noucentist aesthetic: the Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that was a reaction against Modernisme. Blancafort rejected the Romanticism and Wagnerian pathos of the modernist Lied in favour of Classicism and beauty – sentiments he shared with his Catalan contemporaries Toldrà, Gerhard and Mompou. Intimate, sensitive and playful, his Catalan songs connect both to his country’s past and also to a wider European musical culture.

Carl Teike achieved great success at the beginning of his career with Alte Kameraden (available on Naxos 8.574317), renowned as the German ‘march of marches’. Characterised by a clear structure, inventiveness and a wide range of tone colours, Teike’s marches significantly enriched the German concert march genre. On this second of three volumes they range from the festive Aus allen deutschen Gauen (‘From All Regions of Germany’) composed for veterans, marches with patriotic titles such as Der Kaiser kommt and Kaiser-Parole or dedicated to major cities in Northern Germany, to Die Welt in Waffen (‘The Weaponised World’), which gave rise to political scandal in its day.

Echoes of the Orient is a musical reminiscence, a compilation of both the composers’ and the artists’ early years spent on the eastern side of the world. Composer Angeline Bell has created a blend of exquisite Eastern and Western compositions by combining her classical expertise with her understanding of Chinese and Malay folk tunes. While for pianist Katie Yao Morgan, the album was an opportunity to delve deeper into her culture and revisit the cherished memories of her upbringing in China. Featuring the hauntingly beautiful sounds of the Chinese erhu, performed by Xiao Wang, this album transports you through bustling marketplaces, serene landscapes and heartfelt reminiscences.

* Only available for download and streaming

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.