Naxos AudioBooks was founded in 1994 by Klaus Heymann, founding chairman of the Naxos Music Group, and journalist Nicolas Soames with the purpose of providing classic literature in an audio format.
The catalogue is over 1,000 titles strong, and the label regularly continues to expand its list of quality unabridged recordings, with recent highlights including The Beetle by Richard Marsh (a 2023 Audie Award finalist), The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, and The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad.
A plethora of household names can be found on Naxos AudioBooks recordings, including Juliet Stevenson, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Sheen, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, Anton Lesser, Bernard Cribbins and the late Paul Scofield.
Regular bestsellers include James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, Middlemarch by George Eliot and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
Richard Marsh’s The Beetle read by Gunnar Cauthery Jonathan Aris Natalie Simpson & Andrew Wincott with John Foley is a 2023 Audie Awards® finalist in the category of Multi-voiced Performance. The recording has also won an AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award for the fine ensemble which ‘delivers the maximum wallop out of its antique thrills and builds a sense of menace that’s hard to shake.’
The Beetle is a horror novel that was published in 1897 and significantly outsold Dracula, which appeared in the same year. A polymorphous Egyptian creature – the Beetle – seeks revenge on the eminent British politician Paul Lessingham for crimes committed against the disciples of an ancient cult. Although it is less well-known than Dracula to modern readers, The Beetle remains a leading example of the Gothic novel.
The story is told from the perspectives of four different characters, concluding with the account of the detective Augustus Champnell. The action takes place within a three-day period in an undisclosed year in the 1800s.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989, Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education is a semi-autobiographical novel that tells the story of Billi, a girl growing up in Europe between the two World Wars. Upon the death of her German baron father, Billi moves from the family château to live with her vibrant and erratic English mother on the French Riviera. From there she is sent for schooling in England, where she lives an itinerant life, boarding among a bohemian crowd, attending galleries and public lectures, and reading some of the greatest books of the era. Her ambition to become a writer is nurtured when she returns to the Mediterranean and meets a community of stimulating artists and intellectuals, including Aldous Huxley, while her mother’s life takes a tragic turn. Powerfully evocative and densely observed, Jigsaw assembles the puzzle pieces of the author’s life to paint a vivid portrait of a vanished age.
One of the great novels in the Irish comic tradition, The Crock of Gold (1912) consists of six parts. Bringing together pagan gods, policemen, prisoners, leprechauns and animals, the narrative concerns a philosopher and his quest to find the most beautiful woman in the world, Cáitilin Ni Murrachu, who has been abducted by the god Pan. His journey takes him from dark forests to the spectacular heights of pagan gods, as he experiences encounters that will change him forever.
With its unique combination of philosophy and Irish folklore, The Crock of Gold is full of humour, its central themes including the battle of the sexes and the difference between men and women.
Opportunistic, shrewd and beautiful, Ethelberta resolves to disguise her humble beginnings and elevate her position in society. Crafting her career as a society poet and staging her family as her servants, she proves admirably adept at sustaining her own web of deceit as she reinvents herself and navigates the attentions of four different suitors. The wealthiest is not the one she loves… what will she do? This is a light-hearted, urban tale, offering a different side of Thomas Hardy. The master of pastoral realist novels was presenting a ‘somewhat frivolous narrative’, which nevertheless displayed his acute consciousness of class divisions and continues to delight those who discover it within his better-known works.
Lucy Scott trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her stage credits include Emma (Tricycle Theatre), Search and Destroy (New End Theatre) and Mansfield Park (Chichester Festival). Her television credits include Pride and Prejudice (BBC), Rosemary and Thyme (ITV) and Spooks (BBC). She also appeared in the film Tom Brown’s Schooldays with Stephen Fry. She has read many titles for Naxos AudioBooks, including Balzac’s Cousin Bette, Eliot’s Romola, Fontane’s Effi Briest and Richardson’s Clarissa.
Two unhappily married women, Rose Arbuthnot and Lotty Wilkins, respond to an advertisement offering a month’s rental of a small medieval Italian castle. In order to defray the not inconsiderable cost of such a venture, two other ladies, Lady Caroline Dester and the formidable Miss Fisher, are invited to join them, and thus the four embark on their adventure. The ill-matched companions get off to a rocky start, but the delightful and spell-binding environment of the Italian Riviera unexpectedly brings them together.
Written in a rented castle in Portofino and published in 1922, The Enchanted April met with immediate critical and popular success, and has given rise to two films and a play. At the time of publication, The Nation and Athenaeum wrote: ‘The beauty of San Salvatore is kept constantly before us with the greatest skill, and the humour of the author has never been more delightful.’ Bursting with wit, this audiobook is sure to enchant modern listeners as they gradually learn more about each of its protagonists.
The Cologne Chamber Orchestra, renowned for its extraordinary and sensitive interpretations, celebrates its centenary in 2023 as the oldest chamber orchestra in Germany.
On 19 March, the orchestra celebrated this milestone under principal conductor Christoph Poppen in a specially curated jubilee concerto event at the Kölner Philharmonie, featuring stellar soloists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maiasky, Daniel Müller-Schott and Michael Barenboim.
In 1995, under Helmut Müller-Brühl, the orchestra began an association with Naxos that has resulted in an ever-expanding discography. In 2001 its recording of the three Darmstadt Overtures by Georg Philipp Telemann won the Cannes Classical Award in the 18th-Century Orchestral Music category. And in March 2020 Christoph Poppen began a three-year project to record all the Mozart Masses for the label, alongside the Cologne Cathedral Vocal Ensemble, the Cologne Cathedral Choir and the Cologne Radio Choir.
‘The Cologne Chamber Orchestra, of which Poppen is the principal conductor, plays with great agility, bouncy and very colorful. The excellent WDR Rundfunkchor and the quartet of soloists, who fit seamlessly into the whole and never stand out, put the finishing touches on the interpretations.‘
– Pizzicato ★★★★★
‘Poppen pushes matters in his orchestra, the forces lithe and expansive where needed, moulding themselves to the diverse musical vocabulary, with its Baroque hints.‘
– BBC Music Magazine ★★★★
– Audiophile Audition ★★★★
– American Record Guide
– Gramophone
– MusicWeb International
Visit naxos.com to view the Cologne Chamber Orchestra’s full discography.
We celebrate Women’s History Month with our ever-growing reserve of recordings of fine music featuring brilliant female musicians, both from our own discography and from the catalogues of our affiliated labels. We are delighted to focus here on this pillar of incredibly talented women who compose, conduct and perform classical music:
Kosovan/Austrian mezzo-soprano Flaka Goranci presents La Femme, a project that brings together female composers from Middle Eastern, Balkan and Western countries. From the very earliest medieval verses by Kassia, via the blind virtuoso Maria von Paradis’ famed Sicilienne and holocaust victim Ilse Weber’s moving Wiegla, to powerful modern statements by the likes of Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Flaka Goranci’s own contribution, The Speech of Love, this entire project is dedicated to all creative women in music.
‘Flaka Goranci has showcased composers whom we should know better. I look forward to hearing more from her and from them. She is also the leading performer, and her stunning voice is ably and sympathetically accompanied by the World Chamber Orchestra conducted by Konstantinos Diminakis.’
– MusicWeb International
A Renaissance artist for our times, Lera Auerbach is internationally renowned as a composer whose exquisitely crafted, emotional and boldly imaginative music reaches a global audience. Her 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano is a cycle of compact but ‘meaningful and complete’ works that follows the key scheme of Chopin’s 24 Préludes, while exploring stark contrasts that range from primordial darkness to naïve innocence. Using a highly original tonal language with clear references to classical traditions, this pioneering work fully represents Auerbach’s ability to put music at the service of a broader expression of human need and fallibility.
Lotta Wennäkoski (b. 1970) is one of Finland’s most distinguished composers of the last two decades. This second album of her music on Ondine includes Wennäkoski’s international breakthrough work, Flounce (2017), recorded at the BBC Last Night of the Proms and performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under its new chief conductor Nicholas Collon. Wennäkoski’s Harp Concerto Sigla was written for Sivan Magen, the solo harpist of the Finnish RSO.
Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952) celebrated her 70th birthday on 14 October, 2022. Saariaho is known as one of the most celebrated living composers. In 2019, BBC Music Magazine produced a survey ranking the ‘50 Greatest Composers of All Time’ in which Saariaho ranked 17th, the best of any living composer, and ahead of the likes of Brahms, Schubert and Tchaikovsky.
To celebrate her recent 70th birthday, Ondine has assembled a tremendous digital-only album of tracks from her 15-album discography on the label. The compendium represents a 30-year collaboration that has produced both a number of award-winning recordings and the most extensive catalogue of her music on any label.
Louise Farrenc was one of the most respected pianists and composers in the 19th-century Parisian music scene, and her four sets of Études are her most important compositions for piano. Beautiful melodies and distinctiveness of character have made the Études, Op. 26 the most popular set, but all of these pieces are full of grace and charm alongside their didactic usefulness in their references to the styles both of Farrenc’s musical ancestors and her contemporaries.
‘The Op. 26 Etudes in particular display a remarkable range of moods, technical demands and captivating melodies.‘
– BBC Music Magazine ★★★★
Browse our Female Classical Composers catalogue for the full list of releases from Naxos Music Group labels.
On 27 February 2023, the eve of Kalevala or Finnish Culture Day, the Finnish Cultural Foundation granted three awards for significant cultural achievements. Pekka Kuusisto received the award in recognition of his achievements as a violinist and conductor, and for challenging musical boundaries.
Kuusisto is one of the most versatile and distinctive musicians working today. As both conductor and violinist, Kuusisto serves as the artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and principal guest conductor and artistic co-director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, as from the 2023/24 season. He is also an artistic partner with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a collaborative partner of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic best friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Pekka Kuusisto has made numerous acclaimed recordings for Ondine. His catalogue includes many works by Jean Sibelius, including the Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Leif Segerstam (ODE 878-2), other pieces for violin and orchestra with the Tapiola Sinfonietta (ODE 1174-5), and works for violin and piano with pianist Heini Kärkkäinen (ODE 1046-2). He has also recorded Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (ODE 939-2), Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 3, 4, and 5 (ODE 1025-2), and works by Olli Mustonen (ODE 974-2). Together with his late brother, violinist Jaakko Kuusisto, he performs on a disc featuring the complete Violin Concertos by J.S. Bach (ODE 980-2).
– The Daily Telegraph
– Gramophone
– Fanfare
– The Strad
Visit naxos.com for Pekka Kuusisto’s complete discography.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) wrote a number of important chamber works (with and without piano) over a period of some 35 years. His First String Quartet, completed in 1923, premiered the following year; its subsequent performance at the Vienna Incorporated Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1925 reinforced Korngold’s standing as a major contemporary figure. A decade passed before Korngold composed its successor, a work of relative harmonic clarity. Following a period devoted almost exclusively to writing film scores, he returned to abstract composition at the end of the Second World War. The works from this period include his Third String Quartet, which premiered in Los Angeles in 1946.
– BBC Music Magazine
– Gramophone
– AllMusic.com ★★★★★
– Classic FM ★★★★
Prize winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1990, Pietro De Maria is the first Italian pianist to have played Chopin’s complete piano works in six public concerts. He is joined by the Orchestra della Toscana under the direction of Daniele Rustoni in this new recording of Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2.
‘Chopin’s music, as Rubinstein said, goes straight to the hearts of the listeners. Chopin was very young when he wrote these concertos, not much older than a teenager. I think that these works have an element of great purity which adds to their fascination.’
– Pietro de Maria
– Fanfare
– MusicWeb International
– MusicWeb International
– Gramophone
– Gramophone
The members of the Valencia Baryton Project recently recorded their second Naxos album including Franz Joseph Haydn’s 35th Baryton Trio. The recording was made at the Castillo de Riba-Roja in the Valencia region of Spain. They are also featured in this month’s The Strad magazine and talks about the history of this once-neglected instrument, baryton.
The Valencia Baryton Project comprises musicians from the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía opera house in Valencia and the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, who came together with the vision of performing the almost 160 works by Joseph Haydn written for the baryton, a cross between a viola da gamba and a lirone. With Matthew Baker, one of only a handful of baryton players worldwide, the Valencia Baryton Project has performed across the globe. The baryton was considered to be the pinnacle of aristocratic instruments during the Classical era.
The Valencia Baryton Project is the first ensemble to record the baryton for Naxos. Their debut Naxos album, featuring Haydn’s rarely heard baryton trios, received critical acclaim.
‘The interpretation of each one of the instrumentalists is impeccable.’
– Ritmo ★★★★★
‘The baryton enjoys star billing in delightfully inventive Haydn.’
– The Strad
Classical Instrumental Albums
2017 marked the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi – one of the founders of opera and hailed in his day as ‘the creator of modern music’. Monteverdi transformed vocal music beyond Renaissance polyphony into an entirely new genre that expressed powerful feelings and emotions within a gripping narrative.
This set brings together Monteverdi’s three surviving operas: the splendorous L’Orfeo and, from later in his life, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea with their visceral passions and dramatic dilemmas, all elements that have animated the history of opera for centuries. John Eliot Gardiner’s acclaimed Monteverdi 450 series of semi-staged performances produced in Venice’s historical Teatro La Fenice is a living confirmation that Monteverdi ‘will be sighed for in later ages, for his compositions will surely outlive the ravages of time.’ The performances feature an international cast of soloists together with members of the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.
![MONTEVERDI, C.: Monteverdi Trilogy (The) - L'Orfeo / Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria / L'incoronazione di Poppea [Operas] (3-DVD Box Set) (NTSC)](images/OA1349BD.png "MONTEVERDI, C.: Monteverdi Trilogy (The) - L'Orfeo / Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria / L'incoronazione di Poppea [Operas] (3-DVD Box Set) (NTSC)")
‘Monteverdi’s genius shone through at every turn in this vibrant, heartfelt performance…’
– The Times ★★★★★
Cast includes –
Furio Zanasi, Lucile Richardot, Krystian Adam, Hana Blažiková, Gianluca Burrato, Michał Czerniawski, Gareth Treseder, Kangmin Justin Kim, Carlo Vistoli, Anna Dennis Marianna Pizzolato, and Francesca Boncompagni
| Conductor | John Eliot Gardiner |
| Co-Directors | John Eliot Gardiner and Elsa Rooke |
| Lighting Designer | Rick Fisher |
| Video Director | Sébastien Glas |
More full-length videos? NaxosVideoLibrary.com brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. Watch the world’s greatest opera houses, ballet companies, orchestras and artists perform on demand!
Until 31 March 2023, The Classical Shop is offering 60% off all Naxos downloads, including brand new albums and all latest releases. Don’t miss your chance to get your favourite albums while they’re still on sale!
Check out more Naxos releases on the Chandos website.
Rachmaninov, Giltburg, Sinaisky. Three titans.
March 17, 2023
This blog visits a new album scheduled for release on April 14 that features works for piano and orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninov (2023 marks the 150th anniversary of his birth). The solo pianist is Boris Giltburg, a seasoned Naxos artist noted not only for his outstanding musicianship and technical finesse (witness the numerous glowing reviews he unfailingly receives), but also for his presentation skills in bringing to life the works he performs, both on social media and, as is the case with this latest album, his production of the album’s booklet notes, which reflect authority and insight. The catalogue number of the release is 8.574528.
One genius through the eyes of another.
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.
Looking for new music? Our selection of curated playlists has you covered with music to complement the season, moment, or activity! Take a musical journey through Western classical music history with Introduction to Classical, sharpen your focus with Great Day At Work, and discover incredible music from female composers & artists with unCLASSIFIED’s Women of Classical playlist and Grand Piano’s Three Centuries of Female Composers. Finally, take a deep breath and sink into blissful, expansive melodies with Soft Instrumental from Naxos Moods. Happy listening!
Take a deep breath and sink into blissful, expansive melodies with Soft Instrumental from Naxos Moods.
Download the FREE Naxos Moods app, available for Apple Music subscribers on iOS devices and access all the playlists under Naxos Moods.
Discover the Naxos Atmosphere playlist, a spatial experience from the Naxos world of classical music featuring Dolby Atmos technology.
Created by Emmy Award nominee Lee Eisenberg and Academy Award winner Siân Heder, the critically acclaimed series, which garnered a 95% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score during its freshman season run, will return with eight brand new, inspiring stories. Little America is influenced by true stories featured in Vox Media’s Epic Magazine and aims to share and celebrate the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and surprising stories of immigrants from all over the world living in America in pursuit of their American dream. The second season of Little America features performances from Phylicia Rashad, Alan S. Kim, Ki Hong Lee and more.
This original series is now on Apple TV+ and features Naxos’ recording of Dalla Sua Pace from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Discover the music from the series on this Apple Music playlist!
Need to license some music for a project and don’t know where to start? Visit Naxos Licensing to find out how!
