Franz Krommer served the Habsburg emperors as court composer in Vienna, having succeeded his Czech compatriot, Leopold Koželuch. He excelled in a vast range of music, notably the string quartet and music for winds, but he also wrote eight published symphonies and a sequence of concertos. In the recordings heard here conductor Marek Štilec uses corrected parts based on archival records. Both the First and Second Symphonies are fulsome and vigorous with graceful trios and bustling energy, revealing an increasingly bold and adventurous language. The attractive Concertino is in effect a divertimento full of shifting moods.

Alfred Schnittke’s oeuvre carries an unmistakable personal signature that integrates widely differing stylistic worlds. The profoundly compelling works heard in this programme display an extraordinary level of expression and colours. From the haunting sonorities of the prepared piano in his First Concerto Grosso to the playful theatricality of Moz-Art (after the fragment K. 416d) this album brings together all of Schnittke’s works for two violins, both with and without orchestra.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Internationally acclaimed performer, professor and composer Larry Lipkis has written over 100 works for a variety of vocal and instrumental ensembles. Lipkis’s love of commedia dell’arte stems from his career as a performer of Renaissance music, and these four concerti are musical depictions of characters from this popular theater tradition. The impish and impetuous Pierrot is personified by the bassoon, while his love interest Columbina flits and charms through a mercurial violin. The gently youthful Innamorata or female lover is expressed through a translucently accompanied flute, and the romantic entanglements and acrobatic humor of Harlequin is a perfect fit for the outsized musical personality of the bass trombone.

Gaetano Donizetti’s tragic opera Maria Stuarda depicts the merciless rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, who is seen as a martyr facing up to the illegitimate Queen of England. The opera was a victim of censorship at its premiere and was beset by problems during rehearsals but is now seen as one of Donizetti’s great operatic masterpieces. From the flamboyantly lyrical royal confrontations to the poignant final execution scene, this widely acclaimed production by David McVicar features monumental sets and sumptuous Elizabethan costumes bringing the majesty and stark brutality of Elizabeth I’s reign vividly to life.

Fromental Halévy’s five-act grand opera La Juive charts the forbidden love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, and the tragedy that ensues. The work’s pageantry, opulence and thrilling music made it one of the most enduringly successful operas of the 19th century with more than 500 performances in Paris alone. This acclaimed contemporary staging from Oper Frankfurt features Ambur Braid as the heroine Rachel, and John Osborn as her father Éléazar.

An opera reimagined – with courage, wit, and poetic resonance. In this bold and intimate interpretation of Händel’s Il Floridante, Cembaless and Poetry Slam artist Florian Wintels merge baroque virtuosity with the language of today. The result: a vibrant and emotionally charged experience that explores timeless themes of love, power, injustice, and resistance.

The name Pleyel is chiefly remembered today as a piano manufacturer, but the company’s founding figure Ignaz Pleyel, a former pupil of Haydn, was one of the most acclaimed composers of the late 18th century. The success of Pleyel’s finely wrought twelve String Quintets, the three of which heard on this album inspired Mozart to compose his own quintets in C major and G minor, lies in their well-paced balance between crackling energy and lyrical expansiveness. These highly accomplished works are sprightly, good humoured and filled with such an intrinsic lightness and grace that they are guaranteed to delight as much now as they did centuries ago.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS OF ARRANGEMENTS

The four works on this album by the esteemed Chinese-American composer Chen Yi are all premiere recordings, two of which – The Soulful and the Perpetual and Three Bagatelles – she has adapted specifically for violinist/violist Patrick Yim and pianist Kiu Tung Poon for this recording. Admired for bridging Eastern and Western traditions, Chen Yi draws on authentic folk music from the west of China evoking the sound of the bawu and lerong in Three Bagatelles. Originally composed for saxophone and piano The Soulful and the Perpetual is characterised by two opposing movements – the first lyrical; the second a perpetuum mobile. Spring in Dresden is a vivid and energetic work with erhu-inspired sliding tones, while the Chinese Folk Dance Suite is colourful, virtuosic and brilliantly conceived.

Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger’s musical legacy can be found in his reputation as a renowned organist and professor as well as in his extraordinary facility and productivity as a composer in all forms, including a considerable amount of solo piano music. From the high-spirited Second Sonata to his final Fourth Sonata with its defiant opening and hymn-like Romance, Rheinberger’s piano sonatas are polished, beautifully balanced and tasteful, drawing on established Classical-Romantic traditions while being especially effective in producing flowing and memorable melodies.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Composed between 2004 and 2022 the seven works on this album reflect the concerns and crises of our time. These include the pandemic, racial unrest, global conflict, reflections on the realities of war, the pervasive use of gun violence, pollution and social strife. The music oscillates between struggle and celebration and gives powerful glimpses of redemptive hope in our shared experiences, one that values civic identity and collective expression and offers a fanfare for those who shape our future for the better.

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.