Most Streamed Tracks on Naxos.com - February 2008

1. Symphony No. 3 in D minor - I. Allegro con spirito
   From the album TANEYEV: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 8.570336
   
2. Keyboard Sonata in G major, Op. 17, No. 1 - I. Allegro
   From the album BACH, J.C.: 6 Keyboard Sonatas, Op. 17 8.570361
3. Euclidica, "Tonada acuecada"
   From the album ESCOBAR, Jose Antonio: Guitar Music of Chile 8.570341
4. 4 letzte Lieder (4 Last Songs), Op. posth., TrV 296 - No. 1. Fruhling
   From the album STRAUSS, R.: 4 Last Songs / 6 Lieder / Ariadne auf Naxos (excerpts) 8.570283
   
5. Symphony in E minor, Bryan e3 I. Allegro (molto)
   From the album VANHAL: Symphonies, Vol. 4 8.570280
6. Mass No. 6 in E flat major, D. 950 – Kyrie
   From the album SCHUBERT: Mass No. 6 in E flat major / Stabat Mater 8.570381
7. Symphony No. 3 in D minor - II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace alla marcia
   From the album TANEYEV: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 8.570336
8. Symphony No. 3 in D minor - IV. Finale: Allegro con brio
   From the album TANEYEV: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 8.570336
9. Symphonic Overture, Op. 6
   From the album SUGATA: Symphonic Overture / Peaceful Dance of 2 Dragons / The Rhythm of Life 8.570319
10. Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 127, "Fantasia quasi Sonata" - I. Maestoso - Allegro assai
    From the album KAPUSTIN: Piano Sonata No. 15 / Preludes / Etudes / Bagatelles 8.570532

8.570069
RAUTAVAARA: Symphony No. 8 ‘The Journey’

During the last decade Einojuhani Rautavaara has become one of the internationally most popular and frequently performed Finnish composers. Symphony No. 8, Rautavaara’s most recent, includes a second movement Scherzo which is among the most propulsive and concentrated pieces of his later output. Manhattan Trilogy (2003- 2005) was described by The New York Times, following its world première at Carnegie Hall, as “a reminiscence of the hopes and anxieties of his student years… The outer movements, Daydreams and Dawn, are cast in consonant but freely modulating chord progressions, with achingly beautiful solo lines darting through the thick textures. Even the central Nightmares movement, though darker and more freely dissonant, often has a lush quality.”

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Pietari Inkinen

8.570721 SZYMANOWSKI: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3

Composed in 1910, at a time when Szymanowski was influenced by Richard Strauss, Reger and Scriabin, the unusually structured Symphony No. 2 is a work of great power and invention, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments, in particular the violin. Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Song of the Night’, in which orchestra, tenor and choir are subtly blended in a continuous web of intoxicating sound, is a ravishing setting of a Polish translation of a poem by the great medieval Persian mystic known as Mevlânâ, our Master, Jalāl ad-Dīn, which evokes the mysteries and beauty of a starlit Persian night.

Ewa Marczyk, violin solo; Ryszard Minkiewicz, tenor; Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra (Chorus-master: Henryk Wojnarowski); Antoni Wit

8.570534 BARTÓK: The Wooden Prince

The Wooden Prince is a fairy tale ballet with an original story by Bartók’s literary acquaintance Béla Balázs, who had also written the libretto to Bluebeard’s Castle (available on Naxos 8.660928). Though outwardly sunny in its subject matter, The Wooden Prince has a mystical side that may explain Bartók’s attraction to the story. The ballet’s opening pages have often been compared to the opening of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and the majestic heart of the score lies in the glorious music Bartók wrote to accompany the prince’s apotheosis.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra , Marin Alsop

8.570485 HAYDN: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4, 9 and 11

While, unlike Mozart, Haydn never made a living as a keyboard soloist, he nevertheless came nearest to Mozart in the best known of his keyboard concertos, No. 11 in D major. First performed in Paris in 1784 this is a work of the composer’s maturity, with strikingly dramatic contrasts, an expressive slow movement and an infectious Hungarian Rondo. Although slight by comparison, if not in craftsmanship, Concerto No. 3 is notable for its wistful slow movement and lively Finale, while Concerto No. 4, with its elaborate solo part, includes a dramatic and sombre Andante cantabile, and an exuberant Rondo.

Sebastian Knauer, piano; Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmu Müller-Brühl

8.570554 GODARD: Violin Concerto No. 2

As a boy Benjamin Godard was a celebrated violin prodigy, but later turned to composition as his life’s work. With the notable exception of the ever-popular Berceuse from the opera Jocelyn, most of Godard’s works have fallen out of the repertoire. A thorough romantic in the Schumann-Mendelssohn mould, Godard was best known for his short atmospheric pieces and stage works, while his short piano pieces have recently garnered new respect. Two of his most successful longer works are the Concerto Romantique and the Violin Concerto No. 2, both featuring deft virtuoso writing for the violin and the romantic sensibility of the mid-19th century.

Chloë Hanslip, violin; Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice; Kirk Trevor

8.570149 PURCELL: Theatre Music, Vol. 1

Written mostly during the last five years of his life, Purcell’s Theatre Music is a rich and varied collection of some of the composer’s finest melodic inspirations. They include solemn overtures, cheerful and sad songs, as well as delightful dances, either incorporated into the action of the play or performed as preludes and interludes. This first volume of the series includes many gems such as the erotic musical diversion in Amphitryon which takes the form of a Pastoral Dialogue betwixt Thyrsis and Iris, the amorous shepherd begging for, and finally being granted, his heart’s desire; and the series of dances in The Gordian Knot Unty’d, the most delightful of which are the Rondeau, Minuett and the final Chacone.

Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon

8.570797 SIBELIUS: Music for Cello and Piano

Sibelius wrote very little for the cello, although some of his violin pieces allow alternative instrumentation. Some of his songs and piano pieces, and the popular Finlandia, are here given in effective arrangements for cello and piano, in addition to the original cello fantasia Malinconia, perhaps inspired by the death of his infant daughter.

Jussi Makkonen, cello; Rait Karm, piano

8.559360 RZEWSKI: The People United...

The People United Will Never Be Defeated! by the left-wing composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski is a landmark in American piano literature. The work comprises 36 variations on a protest song of the same name by the Chilean composer Sergio Ortega. The variations themselves all symbolize the different phases and aspects of a struggle: from angry, highly-energized modernism, via melancholic references to blues, calculated dense polyphony and nostalgic folk music to written-out free jazz passages. Rzewski’s popular Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, written in 1979 as part of the set North American Ballads, forms a fitting counterpart.

Ralph van Raat, piano

8.669018 WHEELER: The Construction of Boston

The Boston Cecilia’s concert performance of Scott Wheeler’s one-act opera on 1st April, 2007, in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, was hailed with a Boston Globe headline: “CONSTRUCTION OF BOSTON is a love note to the city”. Drawing on a cast of brilliant, young, mostly Boston-based vocal artists, a chorus of established reputation in music old and new, and an outstanding orchestra comprised of first rank professional instrumentalists, Wheeler’s witty, first foray into the operatic genre got a brilliant reading under the baton of veteran conductor Donald Teeters.

Chorus & Orchestra of The Boston Cecilia, Donald Teeters

8.570789 DRAGATAKIS: Complete Solo Piano Music

Dimitris Dragatakis’s compositions combine elements of the musical traditions of Epirus in the north-west of Greece with the contemporary music of his age. This first recording of Dragatakis’s complete solo piano music eloquently reveals the varied stages of the composer’s career, from the first undated works to his final compositions, presenting us with a satisfyingly complete image of this most distinguished Greek composer.

Lorenda Ramou, piano

8.570200 PERRY: The Innocents Abroad

The six Mark Twain films in this recording present a series of exciting challenges in the variety and range of their musical requirements. The Mysterious Stranger is set in medieval Austria and contains elements of mysticism and other-worldly dreams. The Innocents Abroad takes place in 19th century California, Paris, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Athens, the Crimea and Cairo, with each location calling for characteristic musical backgrounds. Pudd’nhead Wilson is a murder drama built around themes of slavery and misidentification. Life on the Mississippi evokes the by-gone days of riverboat traffic on the mighty Mississippi. The Private History of a Campaign that Failed carries a compelling anti-war message drawn from events in the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, quite simply, the most famous book in American literature.

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir; Rome PhilharmonicOrchestra; Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Boys’ Choir; Richard Hayman, harmonica

8.570186 HERRMANN: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Starring Gregory Peck and adapted from Hemmingway’s novel, The Snows of Kilimanjaro was a major hit in 1952. Bernard Herrmann’s romantic score, celebrated for the elegiac ‘Memory Waltz’, is presented in complete form coupled with the world premiere recording of the composer’s dark thriller score for 5 Fingers (also 1952). This music anticipates Herrmann’s Hitchcock classics North by North West, Psycho, and especially Vertigo.  

Moscow Symphony Orchestra, William Stromberg