Newsletter 146 
January 2009  

Happy New Year from Naxos!

We start 2009 with a tremendous range of Naxos CD and DVD titles, and are delighted to announce several new releases from the Dacapo and Phoenix Edition labels that we distribute worldwide.

Please take a moment to see what’s in store this month and click on the links for more information about each title.

For news, interviews and a preview of our new releases for February, please visit our website www.naxos.com.

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Naxos DVDs | Naxos CDs | Naxos Historical CDs

Distributed Labels: Dacapo | Phoenix


  Naxos DVDs

2.110258 VERDI: Macbeth
Altomare • Kudinov • Zhuravel • Pelizzari • Voleri • Coro Lirico Marchigiano "V. Bellini" • Fondazione Orchestra Regionale delle Marche • Callegari

Verdi was justifiably pleased with Macbeth, his tenth opera and his first on a Shakesperean subject.  He conducted its triumphant premiere in Florence in 1847, taking thirty calls at the final curtain, and it would long remain his own favourite among his ‘early period’ operas.

2.110259 ROSSINI: Il Turco in Italia
Vinco • Marianelli • Concetti • Adami • Taddia • Prague Chamber Chorus • Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento • Allemandi

Filmed live in 2007 at the prestigious Rossini Opera Festival in the composer’s birthplace, Pesaro, Il turco in Italia is a madcap ensemble opera with an inspired score that boasts music of both comic genius and extraordinary beauty.

2.110231 COPLAND: The City
Guinan, narrator • Post-Classical Ensemble • Gil-Ordonez

Made for the 1939 New York World’s Fair (“The World of Tomorrow”), The City is a seminal documentary film distinguished for the organic integration of narration, cinematography and music. The score, arguably Copland’s highest achievement in film, was also his ticket to Hollywood.


 Naxos CDs

8.660231-32 KEISER: Fredegunda
Pavlikova • Koch • Stuber • Wendt • Kranebitter • Haks • Matsubara • Neue Hofkapelle Muenchen • Hammer

Reinhard Keiser composed more than one hundred operas, of which Fredegunda, which premiered at Hamburg’s famous Gänsmarkt Theatre in 1715, was one of the most popular. This important and entertaining German Baroque opera abounds in melodious, often ravishingly orchestrated, music.
 

8.570993 DEBUSSY: Orchestral Works, Vol  2
Orchestre National de Lyon • Jun Märkl

Debussy’s orchestral works are much loved for their exquisite orchestrations, poetically nuanced harmonies and almost magical evocations of time and place. The Pelléas et Mélisande Symphony was derived by Marius Constant from the orchestral episodes of Debussy’s famous opera.

 

8.557507 STRAVINSKY: Symphony in C / Symphony in 3 Movements / Octet / Dumbarton Oaks
Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble • Philharmonia Orchestra • St Luke's Orchestra • Robert Craft

With neo-classical works such as those on this disc, Stravinsky showed that great music could still be composed with the simplest of means. The Robert Craft Collection has been acclaimed as “one of the more adventurous and interesting recording projects by Naxos”.

   

8.572050 STOKOWSKI: Bach Transcriptions, Vol 2
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra • José Serebrier

Leopold Stokowski arranged nearly 40 works from Bach’s catalogue for the modern symphony orchestra, and José Serebrier’s second volume of his transcriptions, as colourful and wide-ranging as the first (8.557883), includes the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

Watch video clip

   

8.570897 MOZART: Complete Masonic Funeral Music
Zeiser-Celesti • Spohr-Kammerorchester Kassel • Paternostro

During his seven years as a Mason, Brother Mozart adapted or composed a number of works for his fraternity, some of which are still used in Masonic ceremonies. Among these is Laut verkünde unsre Freude, a cantata which Mozart conducted less than three weeks before his tragic death.

 

8.570328 SCHUBERT: Overtures, Vol 1
Prague Sinfonia • Benda

Revered for his incomparable Lieder, Franz Schubert was also an avid operagoer who yearned, largely in vain, for success as a composer of stage works. This disc features several of his less familiar early overtures. It is hard to believe that such accomplished and effective music was the work of a teenager.

   

8.572059 FREITAS BRANCO: Symphony No 2 / Artificial Paradises / Guerra Junqueiro
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland • Cassuto

Luís de Freitas Branco was the towering figure in Portugese music during the first half of the 20th Century. His Second Symphony combines elements as disparate as Gregorian chant, the boisterous spirit of a Brucknerian scherzo and the influence of Franck and Debussy into a superbly integrated Romantic work.

 

8.559352 GIANNINI: Symphony No 4 / Piano Concerto
Imreh • Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra • Spalding

Vittorio Giannini was an impeccable craftsman and masterful orchestrator with a gift for arching, expressive melodies that reflect his abiding love of European musical culture. His Piano Concerto is redolent of Rachmaninov, while the passionate Symphony No 4 places him among America’s finest Neo-Romantic composers.

   

8.570528 SPOHR: Violin Concertos Nos 6, 8 & 11
Lamsma • Sinfonia Finlandia • Gallois

By uniting the virtuosity of the French violin school of Viotti, Kreutzer and Rode to the seriousness, perfection of form and developmental skills of the Viennese classical school of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Louis Spohr imbued his violin concertos with both formal mastery and a delightfully nonchalant elegance.

 

8.570601 SHENG: Spring Dreams
Lin • Schub • Svaboda • Sheng • Singapore Chinese Orchestra • Yeh

Chinese American composer Bright Sheng acknowledges no aesthetic borders, weaving together haunting melodies and sonorities from sources as diverse as Chinese, Kazakhstani and Tibetan music, or even his own dreams, like silken threads into shimmering brocades of sound.

 

8.570481 HAYDN: Lyra Concertos
Fromanger • Nelken • Hommel • Rothert • Spätling • Cologne Chamber Orchestra • Müller-Brühl

Joseph Haydn’s five Concertos for two lire organizzate were written in
1786-7 for King Ferdinand IV of Naples whose favorite instrument was the now obsolete lira organizzata. Here, these concertos are performed with flutes, recorders and oboe as solo instruments instead, losing none of their charming vitality thereby.

   

8.572235 MARKOPOULOS: Liturgy of Orpheus
Van Dam • Kelessidi • Sheffield • Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Flanders Opera, Ghent • Abrath

In his lavishly scored oratorio The Liturgy of Orpheus Yannis Markopoulos combines fragments of Orphic poems with a narrative text by Panos Theodoridis to create a work brimming with melodies, rhythms and instrumental tone colours.

 

8.559601 CORIGLIANO: Symphony No 3 'Circus Maximus' / Gazebo
Dances for Wind Ensemble

University of Texas Wind Ensemble • Junkin

In his astonishing Symphony No. 3, the celebrated American composer John Corigliano both embodies and comments on the “massive and glamorous barbarity” of our present time, which he sees paralleling the decadence of Ancient Rome.

   

8.572248 Northern Winds
Docking • Wallace • Toronto Wind Orchestra

Northern Winds is an inspirational album featuring a wealth of Canadian talent that highlights imaginative approaches to wind orchestration across various styles by several composers. The young featured soloists have already been critically acclaimed.

 

8.570747 CLARA SCHUMANN: Complete Songs
Craxton • Djeddikar

Clara Schumann the composer often worked in her husband’s shadow, many of her songs being mistaken for his although those best loved by the public flowed from her pen. “There is really nothing better than composing for oneself,” Clara noted in her diary in 1853.

   

8.570754 SCHUBERT: Flute and Piano Music
Grodd • Napoli

Written for the virtuoso Ferdinand Bogner, the Variations on Trockne Blumen from Die schöne Müllerin, Schubert’s only original composition for flute and an instrumental tour de force, takes its theme from the climactic song of the cycle The Fair Maid of the Mill.

 

8.557718-19 POPPER: Etudes for cello solo
Dmitri Yablonsky

An admired contemporary of Liszt and Brahms, the widely-travelled Bohemian-born virtuoso cellist and influential pedagogue David Popper composed prolifically for his instrument. No lesser light than Pablo Casals declared that “no other composer wrote better for the instrument".

   

8.570766 ROSSINI: Péchés de vieillesse, Vol 2
Alessandro Marangoni

Rossini spent his final years in Paris where he wrote numerous short piano pieces arranged in 14 volumes, which he jokingly called Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age). Alessandro Marangoni’s highly praised first volume is available on Naxos 8.570590-91.

Read interview

   

8.570743 RIES: Complete Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas, Vol 2
Susan Kagan

Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s friend and pupil, was an exceptionally gifted composer whose prophetic piano sonatas foreshadow Schubert’s poignant harmonic language, Mendelssohn’s expressively sweet melodies and Chopin’s brilliant figuration. Volume 1 is available on Naxos 8.570796.

8.559375 HOIBY: Songs
Faulkner • Garland • Hoiby

Lee Hoiby's immense contribution to the American song repertoire is widely recognized, his style elegantly and convincingly bridging the lyrical worlds of Verdi and Gershwin, Schubert and Sondheim.

   

8.225289 Johann Strauss I Edition, Vol 13
Slovak Sinfonietta • Pollack

The older Johann Strauss established an unrivalled position for himself among composers and performers of dance music in Vienna, earning the nickname Mädchenherzenbegeisterer, “the one who sets girls’ hearts aflutter”.


 Naxos Historical CDs

8.111325 GHEDINI: L’Olmeneta / Litanie alla Vergine /Musical Offering (trans. Ghedini          
Mazzacurati • Gusella • Rizzo • Scarlatti Chorus and Orchestra di Napoli • Ghedini

L’Olmenata (The Elm Grove) of 1951 is a fascinating concerto for orchestra and two concertante cellos which represents two complementary herbs, the red Glaspi and the white Egusa. At the heart of the concerto lies a haunting, yearning, almost Mahlerian slow movement. These, the only surviving recordings of Ghedini conducting his own music, are re-issued here for the first time in more than 50 years.

8.111284-85 BELLINI: La Sonnambula      
Callas • Monti • Ratti • Zaccaria • Cossotto • Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan • Votto

Visconti’s sensational 1955 production of La Sonnambula was revived and recorded two years later. As a girl, Callas had fallen in love with the role of Amina; as an adult it suited her voice perfectly, and her interpretation set a benchmark that few have equalled.

8.111332-33 PUCCINI: La Bohème 
Callas • Monti • Ratti • Zaccaria • Cossotto • Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan • Votto

This 1956 recording of Puccini’s perennially popular La bohème was Callas’s thirteenth complete opera recording for Columbia/Angel and also features Anna Moffo’s very pleasing interpretation of Musetta. Mimi allows Callas to showcase some highly refined singing marked by her uniquely sensitive musicianship and admirable rhythmic mastery.

8.111334-35 PUCCINI: Turandot 
Callas • Schwarzkopf • Fernandi • Zaccaria • La Scala Orchestra and Chorus • Serafin

Puccini’s Turandot is a perfect vehicle for a dramatic soprano with a steady, steely and brilliant voice capable of rising to top C. Although Callas had last sung the strenuously demanding title rôle on stage in 1949, her subtlety is apparent in this dramatically and musically effective 1957 recording.


Distributed Labels

Naxos distributes Dacapo and Phoenix Edition world-wide.

  Dacapo

8.224709 Kayser Symphonies, Vol. 2
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra • Matthias Aeschbacher, conductor

Leif Kayser (1919-2001) was an indisputably gifted composer and quickly established himself as one of the coming young men of the Danish musical scene, until he abandoned it for a period to dedicate himself to the priesthood. More…

6.220519 Langgaard Symphonies Nos. 15 & 16 and Orchestral Works
Johan Reuter, baritone • Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Choir • Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) was an odd, lonely figure in Danish music. His 16 symphonies make up a thought-provoking, original contribution to the history of the symphony. The last two symphonies are both brief, but are musically very different. More…


Phoenix

Phoenix171 Soprano Cantatas
Emma Kirkby, Sophie Boulin, Isabelle Poulenard, sopranos • Hans-Martin Linde, transverse flute • Cappella Coloniensis • Hans-Martin Linde, Ferdinand Leitner, conductors

In Handel’s Latin motet Silete, venti Emma Kirkby gives a virtuoso example of her art. Emma Kirkby’s colleague Sophie Boulin is no less a virtuoso, as is proved by the cantatas by Bach and Hasse. La Gelosia (Jealousy) conveys in exemplary fashion an impression of the style of the courtly aristocratic Italian opera. More…

Phoenix175 CHERUBINI: Dirge on the Death of Joseph Haydn
Marilyn Schmiege, soprano • Martyn Hill, Paolo Barbacini, tenor • Cappella Coloniensis • Gabriele Ferro, conductor

A macabre situation: The press has announced the death of one of the most famous contemporary composers; another renowned composer writes a dirge—in honour of the deceased master—and then it turned out to be nothing but a newspaper hoax: The master is still alive! That is exactly what happened in 1804. More…

Phoenix172 Flute Concertos
Phoenix173 Overtures
Phoenix174 Classical Symphonies
Phoenix176 HAYDN: Scena di Berenice, Miseri noi misera patria, Violin Concerto No. 4, Symphony No 92 in G major “Oxford“
Phoenix177 CARL & JOHANN STAMITZ: Clarinet Concertos, Orchestral Quartet
Phoenix178 HASSE: Cleofide (highlights)


January 2009 Samplers

January 2009 Samplers

NAXOS January 2009
New Releases Samplers


Buy all 11 tracks from
Naxos January 2009
Sampler I for only
USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

Buy all 10 tracks from
Naxos January 2009
Sampler II for only
USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

DEBUSSY Nocturnes
No 2 Fêtes
STRAVINSKY Symphony in C major
III Allegretto
BACH-STOKOWSKI Toccata and Fugue in D minor
SCHUBERT Des Teufels Lustschloss Overture
FREITAS BRANCO Os paraisos artificiais (Artificial Paradises)
GIANNINI Piano Concerto
II Adagio
SPOHR Violin Concerto No 6 in G minor
III Alla spagnola. Tempo di Polacca
HAYDN Concerto for Two Lire Organizzate in G major
(arr. for flute & oboe)

III Rondo: Presto
CORIGLIANO Symphony No 3 "Circus Maximus"
VI Circus Maximus
APPLEBAUM High Spirits
STRAUSS I Apollo-Walzer

KEISER Fredegunda
Act II Scene 5: Aria Schliesset euch, ihr holde Kerzen (Fredegunda) 
SHENG Tibetan Dance
III Tibetan Dance
MARKOPOULOS The Liturgy of Orpheus
X Love Has Come
CLARA SCHUMANN Die gute Nacht
SCHUBERT Winterreise (excerpts) (arr. for flute)
No 5 Der Lindenbaum
POPPER High School of Cello Playing
Etude No 13 in E flat major
ROSSINI Péchés de vieillesse, Vol 6:
Album pour les enfants dégourdis

No 7 Une caresse à ma femme
RIES Piano Sonatina in B flat major, Op 5, No 1
III Rondo: Allegretto
HOIBY Where the Music Comes From
MOZART Masonic Music
Zerfliesset heut', geliebte Bruder




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