|
|
|
NEW ON NAXOS
The World’s Leading Classical Music Label
July 2014 |
|
|
Get tuned in to the latest instalment of new releases from Naxos, your boundless source of classical discoveries.
Click here to watch our monthly New on Naxos video to sample some of the highlight releases of the month.
|
|
|
|
|
8.572763
|
Paul HINDEMITH (1895–1963)
Nobilissima Visione (Complete Ballet)
Five Pieces for String Orchestra,
Op. 44, No. 4
Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz
A series of powerful, largely radical works in the early 1920s saw Hindemith established as Germany’s leading young composer. In 1936 he was asked by choreographer and dancer Léonide Massine to collaborate on a ballet project, and Hindemith proposed scenes from the life of St Francis of Assisi. The resulting ballet, Nobilissima Visione (The Noblest Vision), is a work of lyricism, elegy and majesty. The Five Pieces for String Orchestra is an earlier, spirited work dating from 1927.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8.660343-44
|
Saverio MERCADANTE (1795-1870)
I Briganti
Melodramma serio in Three Parts
Libretto by Jacopo Crescini
Bruno Praticò, Vittorio Prato, Bass
Maxim Mironov, Jesús Ayllón, Tenor
Petya Ivanova, Soprano
Rosita Fiocco, Mezzo-soprano
Atanas Mladenov, Baritone
Camerata Bach Choir, Poznań
Virtuosi Brunensis • Antonino Fogliani
WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING
A highly regarded composer in his day and considered the equal of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante pioneered the transformation of bel canto opera into real music drama. He wrote the operatic tragedy I Briganti (The Brigands) not only to prove himself to the Parisian public but as a direct challenge to Bellini’s I puritani, premièred the previous year. Mercadante’s individual style of canto fiorito and distinctive theatricality demonstrate that opera need not be a mere succession of virtuoso vocal arias, and it paved the way for Verdi’s later dramas. Prepared from a new critical edition, this production was described as ‘outstanding’ by The New York Times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8.573200
|
Jacques LOUSSIER (b. 1934)
Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Percussion*
Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Tabla*
Adam Kostecki, Violin
Piotr Iwicki, Percussion
Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Adam Kostecki
*WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING
Jacques Loussier achieved immense worldwide popular success combining the music of J.S. Bach and jazz improvisation with his Play Bach Trio. Loussier’s focus has since turned more towards composing, his predilection for fusing jazz and classical elements expressed at its most economical in these two Violin Concertos. Eloquent expressiveness and colourful use of percussion characterise the First Concerto, while the Indian influence in the Second Concerto emerges through violin improvisation and rhythmic counterpoint from the tabla. Like Loussier, Paderewski was a piano virtuoso who turned to composition in later life, the Violin Sonata being one of his finest earlier works.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8.573223
|
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45*
Piano Trio (clarinet version)
Trois romances sans paroles
Dolly Suite, Op. 56
Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120**
Philip Dukes, Viola*
Richard Hosford, Clarinet**
Kungsbacka Piano Trio
Gabriel Fauré’s chamber works, long overshadowed by his popular Requiem (Naxos 8.550765), are regaining their rightful place. This new release from theKungsbacka Piano Trio follows their recording of Fauré’s First Piano Quartet andother chamber works (8.573042), described by Gramophone as ‘a delectableway into Fauré’s chamber music’. The programme features the less frequentlyheard original version, with clarinet, of the Piano Trio, the Second Piano Quartet, which includes an evocation of the bells of Cadirac near the composer’s home, the Romances sans paroles, described by Marcel Proust as ‘intoxicating’ and one of Fauré’s most famous works, the Berceuse from the Dolly Suite.virtuoso who turned to composition in later life, the Violin Sonata being one of his finest earlier works.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8.225352
|
Louis SPOHR (1784-1859)
String Quartets Vol. 17
Quartet No.10 in A major, Op. 30*
Variations in D minor, Op. 6
Quartet No. 18 in B minor, Op. 61,
Quatuor brillant No. 3*
Moscow Philharmonic Concertino String Quartet
*WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDINGS
The composition of string quartets ran as a continuous thread throughout Louis Spohr’s life, and he used the Quartet No. 10 in A major as his ‘parade horse’, playing it frequently in the Viennese salons to show off his skills both as a violinist and composer to audiences accustomed to Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven. Its first violin part matches the bravura display of the Quatuor brillant No. 3, written as Spohr planned to resume life as a touring virtuoso after resigning from his post in charge of the Frankfurt Opera. The Variations, Op. 6 see the soloist covering a wide range of ideas derived from a theme said to be by Haydn. This is the final volume in the Marco Polo complete Spohr String Quartets edition.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.110358
|
Robert Livingston ALDRIDGE (b. 1954)
Parables – An Interfaith Oratorio
Libretto by Herschel Garfein
University of Minnesota Opera Theatre
David Walsh, Director
Univeristy of Minessota Symphony Orchestra • University of Minnesota
Choruses • University Singers
Kathy Saltzman Romey
Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein are internationally renowned for their GRAMMY® award-winning opera Elmer Gantry (2007). Their follow-up collaboration, Parables (2010) is a cantata for soloists, a 200-voice choir and 80-piece orchestra. The attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001 haunts its writing but the use of passages from the Torah, New Testament and Koran seeks to bind the major faiths’ commonality, hopeful of healing and reconciliation. In this staged performance young dancers, costumes, and projection emphasize the music’s powerfully theatrical impact.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Carnival of the Animals - Lite
Newly released – free lite version! Read and listen to the Introduction, The Royal March of the Lion and Hens and Cockerels. It is possible to upgrade to the full version from the within the app.
This ever-popular musical work by Camille Saint-Saëns is now enhanced with words and animation in a new and thoroughly entertaining app. The carnival has never been so alive!
Is the Elephant happy with his trunk? Do Kangaroos like school? What about the poor old tortoise – does he ever get out and have fun?
“a brilliant introduction to one of the most fun and child-friendly classical works ever written” – Sinfini Music 4 stars
|
|
|
|
|
Multiplied by the power of one
4 July, 2014
There's no doubting the thrill of hearing a pot-bellied orchestra going for climactic points in a score with all its might and dislodging the dust from concert hall rafters. Yet the other end of the textural spectrum can be equally telling. Mozart reminded us that silence is possibly the most powerful element in music. Equally magical are those moments when the layers in a work slim right down to a single line, instilling fear into anyone in the auditorium who might be thinking of releasing a good cough at that moment.
Read more…
|
|
|
Also check out the latest edition of the New On Naxos presenter, featuring details of every new release of the month
Click here to download (PDF)
|
|
|
Naxos July 2014 Sampler
CATEGORY:
9.00218
was USD 9.99
Discounted Price USD 2.99
|
|
|
|
|