January 03, 2025
A student of Haydn, a masonic brother of Mozart and a fine composer in his own right, Paul Wranitzky (1756–1808) left behind 45 symphonies that are at long last stepping out of the shadows thanks to ongoing recordings and increased access to published scores.
(Read more)December 20, 2024
John Rutter is the most acclaimed composer of Christmas carols alive today, while the Black Dyke Band occupies the highest rank in the worldwide brass band community.
(Read more)December 13, 2024
American composer Kenneth Fuchs discusses the programmes of his two most recent albums in conversation with Raymond Bisha; both recordings feature the Sinfonia of London and soloists under conductor John Wilson.
(Read more)December 06, 2024
Raymond Bisha introduces the programme on a recent recording that includes Kapustin’s Second and Sixth Piano Concertos, with soloist Frank Dupree accompanied variously by the SWR Big Band and the SWR Symphony Orchestra.
(Read more)Raymond Bisha introduces a new album featuring Beethoven’s final three cello sonatas that are full of unexpected shifts of harmony and mood, virtuoso flourishes and experimental surprises, all of which defy convention.
(Read more)November 15, 2024
Renowned both as a distinguished soloist with some 1,800 concerts worldwide to her credit and as a member of the Amadeus Guitar Duo, Dale Kavanagh is one of the most prominent classical guitarists of her generation.
(Read more)November 08, 2024
Raymond Bisha’s latest podcast introduces the twenty-four strings and forty fingers of the Guitalian Quartet in a programme from a new album featuring music from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and beyond.
(Read more)October 25, 2024
Knighted in 1950, Sir Arthur Bliss was Master of the Queen’s Music in Great Britain from 1953 until his death in 1975. Raymond Bisha introduces a new album comprising both original works for brass band and arrangements of others for the ensemble that represent the breadth of the composer’s output…
(Read more)October 18, 2024
Raymond Bisha introduces the world premiere recordings of remarkable orchestral works by Maria Herz.
(Read more)October 11, 2024
Raymond Bisha’s podcast spotlights two classic recordings in the Vox Audiophile Edition that were first released in the mid-1970s.
(Read more)October 04, 2024
Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, this is the final podcast in Raymond Bisha’s four-part survey of Naxos’ project to record all 18 versions of the composer’s 11 symphonies.
(Read more)September 27, 2024
Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, this is the third podcast in Raymond Bisha’s four-part survey of Naxos’ project to record all 18 versions of the composer’s 11 symphonies.
(Read more)September 20, 2024
Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, this is the second podcast in Raymond Bisha’s four-part survey of Naxos’ project to record all 18 versions of the composer’s 11 symphonies.
(Read more)September 13, 2024
Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, Raymond Bisha dips into the fruits of Naxos’ project to record all 18 versions of the composer’s 11 symphonies.
(Read more)September 06, 2024
A recent new album of American organ concertos featuring multi-award-winning artists brought together the artistry of organist Paul Jacobs and the contemporary music pedigree of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero.
(Read more)August 30, 2024
In the first half of the 20th century, Catalan instrumental music was dominated by works for the piano and the cello. As a result, the importance of Catalan violin repertoire is often overlooked.
(Read more)August 16, 2024
Conductor Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra have already persuaded audiences to absorb the symphonies of Brahms and Beethoven through their distinctive lens. Now they’re midway through a series of recordings of Haydn’s great late symphonies.
(Read more)August 02, 2024
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, perhaps best known for his numerous film scores and works for guitar, also composed in a variety of other genres, from transcriptions for cello to violin concertos, piano works and orchestral music.
(Read more)In this podcast, Raymond Bisha talks with American composer Margaret Brouwer about the inspiration and compositional approach behind the orchestral pieces on the programme of her new album.
(Read more)Five years into the celebrated Naxos Music of Brazil series, we reach Vol. 21 and the music of Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897–1948), who was a key figure in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro.
(Read more)Smetana’s Má vlast is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke Czech legends and celebrate the beauty of the country’s landscapes.
(Read more)Pianist Quynh Nguyen discusses her recording of the complete piano works of Paul Chihara, the distinguished American composer whose output includes the scores for over 100 motion pictures and television series.
(Read more)May 24, 2024
JoAnn Falletta, conductor of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, discusses a programme of orchestral works by composer/conductor Lukas Foss, who was both a predecessor of hers in Buffalo and a mentor to her.
(Read more)Irish cellist Gerald Peregrine introduces his latest album of early 20th-century British works for cello and piano, interweaving the classical and folk-based music with a personal narrative of community engagement, in which his live music-making initiatives have achieved truly significant and touching results.
(Read more)April 26, 2024
This podcast spotlights Israeli mandolinist Alon Sariel, who provides an entree into the engaging world of the mandolin, an instrument that perhaps enjoys a relatively low profile but commands a fascinating global reach.
(Read more)April 19, 2024
Marin Alsop discusses her latest release – an album of orchestral works by John Adams – with Raymond Bisha, exploring just what it is about Adams’ music that makes him the leading nominee for the title of America’s greatest living composer, not least for scores that inhabit ‘the groove’ with conspicuous relish.
(Read more)Louis Wayne Ballard (1931–2007) – also known as ‘Honganozhe’, which means ‘Stands with Eagles’ in the Quapaw language – was the first indigenous North American composer of art music, and his extensive knowledge of the music, dance and mythology of this culture informed his compositions. This podcast reviews a new album of his works that are eclectic in style, uniquely varied and thoroughly engaging.
(Read more)March 29, 2024
Raymond Bisha’s conversation with Janne Valkeajoki delves into the various musical transformations and performance mechanics that were involved in the masterly transfer from harpsichord strings to accordion reeds.
(Read more)Orfeo Vecchi was held in high regard by his contemporaries for the sacred music he produced towards the end of the 16th century. Raymond Bisha introduces a new recording of the twenty pieces that comprise his third book of Motets for Six Voices.
(Read more)March 08, 2024
Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of works for string quartet by Florence Price and Leo Sowerby, who were both prominent members of the Chicago music community in the 1930s and 1940s.
(Read more)February 23, 2024
Raymond Bisha’s latest podcast introduces the world premiere recording of Joseph Rheinberger’s arrangement for two pianos of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
(Read more)February 19, 2024
George Gershwin’s ever popular Rhapsody in Blue was first performed in February 1924. To mark the centenary of that celebrated event, pianist Jeffrey Biegel commissioned composer Peter Boyer to write a work for piano and orchestra that would be a 21st-century partner to Gershwin’s original.
(Read more)February 09, 2024
Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of works for piano and orchestra by Chopin, performed by legendary pianist Abbey Simon.
(Read more)January 26, 2024
Raised in Medellín, Colombia, Billy Arcila has lived in the United States for over 40 years, where he teaches and performs as one of California’s foremost guitarists. In this podcast, Raymond Bisha presents the first album to be made of his music.
(Read more)Joseph Haydn was music director of the Esterházy Court at Eisenstadt for twenty-five years. It was where Prince Nikolaus commissioned him to write trios for the baryton, a bowed, stringed instrument similar to the viol but with extra plucked strings that enabled performers to accompany themselves.
(Read more)December 29, 2023
Raymond Bisha introduces the fifteenth and final volume in Konstantin Scherbakov’s recordings of the complete piano works of Leopold Godowsky, in which the programme comprises a number of the arrangements Godowsky made of Chopin’s Études.
(Read more)November 10, 2023
Stanisław Skrowaczewski spent 19 years as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, from 1960 to 1979, during which time he developed it into one of the finest orchestras in North America.
(Read more)November 03, 2023
Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was also an accomplished guitarist and cellist, and his wonderful music for the latter instrument takes full advantage of the lyrical and dramatic capabilities of the instrument.
(Read more)October 20, 2023
This podcast features Raymond Bisha in conversation with conductor Kenneth Kiesler about the rediscovery, rescue and reconstruction of two operas by James P. Johnson (1894–1955).
(Read more)October 06, 2023
Raymond Bisha’s second podcast featuring historic recordings on the VOX label explores those made of Tchaikovsky’s music by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under Maurice Abravanel, who was the ensemble’s music director for more than 30 years.
(Read more)September 29, 2023
This podcast features broadcaster Peter Hall in a conversation with JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, about her October release on the Naxos label, which is the second of two albums featuring all of Zoltán Kodály’s works for orchestra.
(Read more)September 15, 2023
This podcast features American composer Jennifer Higdon in a wide-ranging conversation with Raymond Bisha, during which she describes the long swathe of influences on her composing career.
(Read more)August 25, 2023
Raymond Bisha presents the first in a series of podcasts that explore newly remastered recordings on the VOX label dating from the 1970s..
(Read more)Brazilian composer Claudio Santoro (1919–1989) proved a dynamic force for his country’s classical music scene. His life was both intertwined with, and deeply influenced by, the political and social events playing out around him, from the building of the Berlin Wall in Europe to political upheavals in his homeland. Through it all, his compositions reflected a life of distinctive musical exploration.
(Read more)Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799) – a brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and gifted composer – might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. Raymond Bisha gives an overview of this remarkable life, binding the disparate elements of his career with the constant beauty of his violin concertos.
(Read more)Raymond Bisha introduces Naxos’ new album of the complete works for solo piano by leading American composer John Corigliano Jnr. During their conversation together, the composer gives insight into the creative genesis of all the works on the programme, which span a period of some fifty years…
(Read more)May 05, 2023
Raymond Bisha introduces Naxos’ fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff, who was GRAMMY-nominated for his album Violins of Hope (Naxos 8.559809) and is amongst the most frequently performed of living composers.
(Read more)March 31, 2023
Conductor and Naxos artist Marin Alsop discusses Robert Schumann’s four symphonies in the wake of her recordings of the works as reorchestrated by Mahler.
(Read more)September 02, 2022
This podcast features Peter Hall in conversation with JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, about her latest release on the Naxos label — a recording of William Walton’s Façades 1 and 2, together with four additional movements.
(Read more)March 11, 2022
Raymond Bisha introduces us to the eclectic and exuberant imagination of the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, whose works are inhabited by a host of influences — musical, historical and personal.
(Read more)February 25, 2022
Raymond Bisha’s podcast focuses on two works by William Bolcom recorded for the Naxos American Classics Series.
(Read more)February 11, 2022
Raymond Bisha dips into a Naxos recording of works by Jean Sibelius that have been obscured by the popularity of his symphonies and the violin concerto, including many pieces he wrote to complement stage works.
(Read more)January 28, 2022
Once in a while you hear such incredibly beautiful music for the first time that you just can’t understand why it has remained under wraps for so long.
(Read more)Fantasy, fairy tales and Maurice Ravel’s flair for orchestral colour are all to the fore in this album featuring two examples of the composer’s music for the stage — the scores for his opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges and his ballet Ma mère l’oye.
(Read more)December 24, 2021
In this week’s podcast, Raymond Bisha introduces the 4-CD collection of the complete piano works of Mieczysław Weinberg — from teenage mazurkas written in his native Poland through to his last works for the instrument composed in Moscow.
(Read more)November 12, 2021
This podcast features Marin Alsop in conversation with Raymond Bisha following the release of her first album for Naxos as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
(Read more)Violinist Tianwa Yang marks her fifteenth year as one of Naxos’ leading artists with a new album featuring Prokofiev’s two violin concertos.
(Read more)An introduction to the Symphonies and Dances of composer Malcolm Arnold featuring conductor Andrew Penny who recorded all these works for Naxos.
(Read more)September 24, 2021
Raymond Bisha presents an overview of Boris Giltburg’s project to learn and record all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, which are now released in a 9-CD boxed set edition following their inception as critically acclaimed digital releases.
(Read more)September 10, 2021
Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and gifted composer, with a claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals.
(Read more)August 27, 2021
Raymond Bisha introduces the second volume of string quartets by the Lithuanian composer Jurgis Karnavičius (1884–1941), recorded by the Vilnius String Quartet on the Ondine label.
(Read more)August 13, 2021
Significantly influenced by his experience of playing in some of the earliest Soviet jazz bands, Nikolai Kapustin trained as a pianist at the Moscow Conservatory but subsequently devoted himself to composition.
(Read more)Raymond Bisha prefaces his latest podcast with this introduction: “Heitor Villa-Lobos, the prolific Brazilian composer of some 2,000 works, conductor, cellist, guitarist and music educationalist, wrote his three violin sonatas between 1912 and 1920.
(Read more)July 16, 2021
French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) is remembered as someone who could spin melodies as easily as he breathed.
(Read more)July 09, 2021
With multiple GRAMMY nominations and wide critical acclaim to her credit, Joan Tower’s latest album in the Naxos American Classics series demonstrates why she is so often performed, and why she is such a respected person among American composers.
(Read more)Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy ran one of the finest salons in pre-revolution Paris.
(Read more)June 11, 2021
From composer to transcriber to performer — less instantaneous than modern transmissions, but it’s how many works first came to be known by music lovers before the dawn of the age of technology.
(Read more)Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871) was one of the most famous composers of the 19th century.
(Read more)May 14, 2021
Raymond Bisha introduces Spanish guitarist Mabel Millán in her debut album for Naxos.
(Read more)April 23, 2021
In this podcast, Raymond Bisha takes us on a journey across South America, making musical stops in the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Colombia.
(Read more)Raymond Bisha’s latest podcast finds him in conversation with world-renowned guitarist and lutenist Richard Savino who introduces his debut recording for Naxos that also features his renowned ensemble El Mundo.
(Read more)Described as having ‘natural genius’, John Abraham Fisher was a significant figure in London during the second half of the 18th century.
(Read more)March 12, 2021
Aram Il’yich Khachaturian once described how he “grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music, popular festivals, rites joyous and sad, events in the lives of people always accompanied by music… deeply engraved in my memory, that determined my musical thinking.”
(Read more)February 26, 2021
Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of choral transcriptions by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) that forms part of Naxos’ Music of Brazil series.
(Read more)Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of orchestral works by Žibouklé Martinaityté (b. 1973).
(Read more)Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of 21st-century mallet percussion concertos performed by virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under Jean Thorel.
(Read more)January 08, 2021
Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of orchestral music by the Pulitzer and Erasmus Prize-winning American composer John Adams.
(Read more)January 01, 2021
Choral music formed an important part of Anton Bruckner’s output throughout his career, even though the genre was widely underappreciated by a public more inclined to large-scale symphonic and operatic works.
(Read more)December 25, 2020
Czech composer Vitězslav Novák (1870–1949), who was one of Dvořák’s composition students, rose to prominence with a series of increasingly ambitious orchestral works that fused elements of folk music, impressionism and late-Romanticism.
(Read more)December 11, 2020
Raymond Bisha discusses a release of music by the American composer Bernard Herrmann with Joseph Horowitz, co-founder of PostClassical Ensemble, a group dedicated to stepping across normal repertoire boundaries.
(Read more)