This month’s new releases are a veritable ‘A to Z’ of marvellous music, from rare chamber works by Alfano to lush orchestral masterpieces by Zemlinsky! Full details about these great albums are available on naxos.com.
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Naxos Classical Music Spotlights are a great way to learn more about the artists, composers and music on Naxos recordings. A fascinating series of Naxos Classical Music Spotlights is available for June. Eagerly followed by music lovers around the world, these episodes are also invaluable resources for music teachers and students.

• An American Romantic - Arthur Foote
  
• In This Hid Clearing - Interview with conductor Thomas J. O’Neal
  
• John Lynch Talks About Millenium Canons
  
• Rued’s Langgaard’s Visionary Music for Organ and for Orchestra
• Child Prodigy - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
• My Secluded Garden - The Music of Lorenzo Palomo
  

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This month sees a bumper crop of excellent reviews. Read the Critics Choices

Naxos.com is constantly being developed with new features. We introduce some of them this month. Read more

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Distributed Labels: Capriccio | Dacapo | OUR Recordings | Phoenix Edition

8.570211 GLAZUNOV Orchestral Works Vol 18 –
Masquerade, 2 Pieces, Pas de caractere, Romantic Intermezzo
Gnesin Academy Chorus • Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Dmitry Yablonsky, conductor

Glazunov’s beautifully scored incidental music for Lermontov’s play Masquerade has only survived in manuscript. With characteristic genius,
he illustrates both the glittering atmosphere and dances of splendid St Petersburg balls and depicts the horrifying descent into madness of the play’s protagonist, Evgeny Arbenin, who jealously poisons his innocent wife. The shorter works on this disc likewise show Glazunov’s amazing command of orchestral resources, whether evoking an exotic oriental vision, the vivacious spirit of Hungarian music, in the Pas de caractère, or painting a mood of gentle romantic lyricism.

8.570240 ZEMLINSKY Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), Sinfonietta
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • James Judd, conductor

A Symphony in all but name, Zemlinsky’s lavishly scored ‘symphonic fantasy’ Die Seejungfrau (1903) is his most frequently performed large-scale work beside the Lyric Symphony (Naxos 8.572048). Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the mermaid who sacrifices herself out of unrequited love for a prince, the work places greater emphasis on thematic development than on mere illustration. Written over three decades later, when Zemlinsky’s music was taking on a more astringent manner, the Sinfonietta is remarkable for its nervous energy, anguished passion and sheer virtuosity.

8.570880 MALIPIERO Symphonies Vol 3 - Nos 5, 6, 8 & 11
Moscow Symphony Orchestra • Antonio de Almeida, conductor

This third volume of Malipiero’s symphonies features the most widely played of all his Symphonies, the strikingly original Sixth (for strings) from 1947. The adventurous, at times dissonant Fifth, with its concertante part for two pianos, juxtaposes chamber and orchestral textures. From the 1960s come the Eleventh (of the bagpipes), which features drone-like ostinati, and the colourfully scored Eighth (Short Symphony). Volumes 1 and 2 are available on Naxos 8.570878 and 8.570879.

8.557531 WEBERN Vocal and Orchestral Works - 5 Pieces,
5 Sacred Songs, Variations, Ricercar from Bach’s A Musical Offering
Tony Arnold, soprano • Claire Booth, soprano • David Wilson-Johnson, bass Simon Joly Chorale • Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble
Philharmonia Orchestra • Robert Craft, conductor

Robert Craft’s abiding love and understanding of Anton Webern’s music have made him an internationally renowned champion of this elusive composer’s oeuvre. Its utter originality, pristine architecture and refined emotionalism yield rich rewards indeed. Whether transforming the Ricercar from J.S. Bach’s A Musical Offering into a kaleidoscope of orchestral sounds, creating vivid new colours through ever-changing vocal and instrumental groupings, revelling in multi-layered polyphony or cultivating the purest simplicity, Webern reveals new musical worlds which remain as fresh and fascinating today as when they were written.

8.669016-17 TAYLOR Peter Ibbetson
Emily Lunde, mezzo-soprano • Paul Gudas, tenor
Carolyn Gronlund, mezzo-soprano • Barry Johnson, baritone
Terri Richter, soprano • John Obourn, tenor • Eugene Buchholz, bass
Erin Stark, soprano • Seattle Symphony Chorale
Abraham Kaplan, Associate Conductor for Choral Activities
Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz, conductor

From its triumphant, star-studded première in 1931 until 1985, Peter Ibbetson was the most-performed American opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The story (based on the novel by George Du Maurier) of two star-crossed lovers who secretly escape to a mystical “dream world” was immensely popular in the 1930s, and was the subject of several Hollywood films. Composer Deems Taylor—known to millions as the host of the original Disney Fantasia movie—was at that time a leading voice in American music. His lush, romantic / impressionist music and masterful dramatic timing make Peter Ibbetson a most rewarding listening experience, and a “must” for all opera fans. Rediscover an American classic with this world-première recording featuring some of today’s leading opera stars.

8.572152 MARKEVITCH Orchestral Music Vol 2 -
Le Nouvel Age, Sinfonietta, Cinema-Ouverture
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Christopher Lyndon-Gee, conductor

Markevitch’s renunciation of composition at the age of 29 in favour of a conducting career remains a mystery, given the rapturous responses his youthful music inspired. The extraordinary works on this disc are a case in point. The Sinfonietta is his first truly assured composition, the Cinéma Overture transforms the Blue Danube waltz into a modernist mini-masterpiece, while Le Nouvel Âge is one of his most intense, tightly constructed works, rich in polyrhythms and brimming with mysticism.
Lyndon-Gee ‘conducts with an unflagging energy’. (Fanfare)

8.570599 RYU Sinfonia da Requiem, Violin Concerto No 1
In-Hye Kim, soprano • Polish Radio Choir, Kraków • Camerata Silesia
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw • Lukasz Borowicz, conductor
So-Ock Kim, violin • Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra
Piotr Borkowski, conductor

Premiered at the 12th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Warsaw, in March 2008, Jeajoon Ryu’s Sinfonia da Requiem was hailed as “a masterpiece” by Krzysztof Penderecki and enthusiastically received by the Festival audience with a ten-minute standing ovation. A work of searing intensity and magisterial assurance, it matches in emotional scope the Korean-born composer’s Violin Concerto No. 1, the soloist for which, fellow Korean So-Ock Kim, the youngest ever winner of the gold medal in the prestigious Shell/LSO Competition, plays an exquisite 1666 Stradivarius violin.

8.559628 LEES String Quartets Nos 1, 5 & 6
Cypress String Quartet • Cecily Ward, violin I • Tom Stone, violin II
Ethan Filner, viola • Jennifer Kloetzel, cello

The highly personal style of American composer Benjamin Lees lends his music the lofty grandeur and sardonic wit, not only of Shostakovich but also of the Cubist and Surrealist artists, all of whom he so admires. Lees, who also shares Britten’s refined sense of harmony, delights in contrasts and surprises, enthralling the listener at every turn from the lyrical to the burlesque, the romantic to the brusque. His fifth string quartet was chosen by Chamber Music America as one of its 101 Great Ensemble Works.

8.572104 PARRY Choral Masterpieces - Songs of Farewell, I Was Glad, Jerusalem
Mark Rowlinson, baritone • Jeffrey Makinson, organ
Manchester Cathedral Choir • Christopher Stokes, conductor

Sir Hubert Parry composed some of the most masterful and moving choral music of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. His magnificent coronation anthem for Edward VII, I was glad, and his setting of Blake’s mystical poem Jerusalem rightly remain famous, while his Magnificat and Nunc dimittis display his debt to Anglican musical traditions. The Songs of Farewell draw psalms and English poetry together into a charming garland, and Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land from his oratorio Judith sets the composer’s own prayerful text.

8.557805 QUANTZ Flute Sonatas Nos 272-277
Verena Fischer, transverse flute • Klaus-Dieter Brandt, baroque cello
Léon Berben, harpsichord

Johann Joachim Quantz was one of the 18th century’s most prolific composers, yet most of his music remains unpublished. A pioneer of the ‘mixed taste’ combining French, German and Italian elements, and an important figure during the transition from Baroque to Classical styles, Quantz wrote an impressive body of work for the flute-playing Frederick the Great at whose court he served for more than three decades. These six Flute Sonatas rank among his very best, exemplifying his exquisite taste and masterful technique.

8.570928 ALFANO Cello Sonata, Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano
Samuel Magill, cello • Scott Dunn, piano • Elmira Darvarova, violin

Franco Alfano’s completion of Puccini’s opera Turandot has eclipsed his own reputation, although the profound ability of this talented composer is finally emerging into the light. The works on this disc display contrasting aspects of his musical personality. The large-scale Cello Sonata, with its echoes of Debussy and Ravel, grows from serene beginnings to turbulent intensity before subsiding into elegiac resignation. The more neoclassical Concerto, actually a piano trio, weaves hints of Renaissance polyphony with Basque and eastern European folk-music into a shimmering fabric of virtuosity and lyricism.

8.570976 KABALEVSKY Complete Preludes,
6 Preludes and Fugues Op 61
Alexandre Dossin, piano

Drawing on the Chopin model of alternating major and minor keys, as well as on Russian folk melodies, Kabalevsky’s 24 Preludes (1943–4) find the composer’s writing at its most distinctive. They are coupled with the early 4 Preludes (1927), in which the influence of Prokofiev is seldom far away, and the Preludes and Fugues (1958–9), six widely contrasting and expressive preludes yoked to their traditional fugal partners. This is the second recording of Kabalevsky’s piano music by Alexandre Dossin, First Prize and Special Prize winner at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition. The three Piano Sonatas can be heard on Naxos 8.570822.

8.570577-78 BACH Die Kunst der Fuge
Sergio Vartolo, harpsichord • Maddalena Vartolo, harpsichord

Though unfinished at his death, Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue is both his musical last testament and a cornerstone of Western composition. At once a miracle of intellectual achievement, musical invention, technical challenges and emotional power, The Art of Fugue draws on all of Bach’s resources as a master of counterpoint. It is here performed, as the composer apparently intended, on harpsichord, by Sergio Vartolo who uses his own recently-published facsimile edition of the autograph score, and of the engraved first edition (1751/1752).

8.572242 Trendsetters – Wind Band Music by
HINDEMITH, HOLST, GRAINGER, SCHWANTNER
The Peabody Conservatory Wind Ensemble • Harlan D. Parker, conductor

The Peabody Conservatory Wind Ensemble’s 150th Anniversary album Collage (8.570403 ) and its acclaimed recording of the Carmina Burana Suite and other works (8.570242) have secured its reputation as belonging ‘among the very top wind bands in the US’ (Fanfare). With this addition to Naxos’s popular Wind Band Classics series the Ensemble explores the music of four musical trendsetters—Hindemith, whose exhilarating Symphony convinced other leading composers that the wind band is a legitimate medium for serious music; Holst, whose First Suite is regarded as a cornerstone of the band repertoire; Schwantner, whose…and the mountains rising nowhere calls for amplified contrabass, piano and 46 percussion instruments; and Grainger, whose Lincolnshire Posy is considered a pinnacle among his folk-music settings.

8.559616 Short Stories – Chamber Music for Saxophone Quartet by IVES, HIGDON, STURM, TORKE, BIXLER, MACY
Ancia Saxophone Quartet

Taking its name from Jennifer Higdon’s Short Stories, this album explores stylistically diverse music showcasing the saxophone quartet’s immense expressive potential. The Ancia Saxophone Quartet has delighted audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Asia for more than two decades. The group’s innovative and diverse repertoire stretches traditional boundaries of genre and style, juxtaposing traditional classical repertoire with contemporary works by modern composers.

8.559612 MOE Strange Exclaiming Music, Teeth of the Sea,
Rough Winds Do Shake the Darling Buds,
I Have Only One Itching Desire, Market Forces
Curtis Macomber, violin • Stephen Gosling, piano • Michael Lipsey, percussion Raschèr Saxophone Quartet • DoublePlay Percussion Duo
Columbus State University Percussion Ensemble • Curtis Macomber, violin
The New York Saxophone Quartet

Eric Moe is an alchemist of expressive extremes, from what he calls ‘beautiful quiet music’ to ‘the rough, raucous stuff’. His exquisitely controlled music distils rare eloquence, grace, force and beauty from the incongruous elements of pop, rock, jazz, African drumming and classical sources as diverse as Mozart and Stravinsky. Edgy and lyrical, gritty and elegiac, the works on this disc synthesise the harmonies of Debussy, the drum licks of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bud Powell’s extraordinary pianism and much more besides into an exuberant musical fusion.

8.225335 Johann STRAUSS I Edition Vol 15
Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina • Christian Pollack, conductor

In a career that spanned a period from the 1820s until his death in 1849, the older Johann Strauss established an unrivalled position for himself among composers and performers of dance music in Vienna. This fifteenth volume in Marco Polo’s ongoing Johann Strauss I Edition presents a cavalcade of dances including the rapturously-received High Society Quadrille, the uplifting Strollers Waltzes, the highly original Valhalla-Toasts Waltzes and the Minnesinger Waltzes, which borrow from the music of Adrien-François Servais, ‘the darling and hero of the 1842 concert season’.

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8.120885 WEILL Street Scene (Hollywood Bowl Performance, 1949)
Studio Orchestra • Studio Chorus •  Izler Solomon, conductor

There are many things to cheer about Kurt Weill and the varied career he led in the American musical theatre, but the sheer unpredictability of it all is what proves most electrifying. And nothing was more surprising than the creative leap he took that found him writing 1947’s Street Scene based on Elmer Rice’s 1929 Pulitzer Prize winning drama of life in the slums on the East Side of Manhattan. This version of Street Scene was part of a two-hour concert broadcast live from the Hollywood Bowl and recorded by the Armed Forces Radio Service, who pressed it on sixteen-inch transcription discs. Not available in the United States due to possible copyright restrictions.

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NA697512 TREMAIN Music and Silence
Read by Michael Praed with Clare Wille and Alison Dowling

Music and Silence (9789626349755) established Rose Tremain’s reputation as one of the nation’s favourite authors of literary fiction. Rose Tremain particularly wanted Naxos to record this novel due to our specialist background in classical music. Music from the Naxos catalogue was used to bring the novel alive and to evoke the historical atmosphere. The novel itself centres on King Christian IV of Denmark and his immediate circle. The King was a figure of great ambition and imagination that was often frustrated in carrying out his grand plans. Running in counterpoint, are the dreams and disappointments of an utterly fascinating array of characters. In recognition of the range of different individualised voices in the novel, we have employed three readers to capture this rich group of characters in its full diversity.

NAX96712 STERNE Tristram Shandy (Unabridged)
Read by Anton Lesser

Released in its full, unabridged glory in time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its first publication, Tristram Shandy (9789626349670) is a delightfully bizarre novel that satirises our obsession with tracing our origins. The way that this memoir stops, and starts, and lurches off into curious digressions, is infamous, and it is now lauded as one of the greatest works of British comedy. Tristram Shandy has enjoyed renewed popularity in recent years due to the 2005 film The Cock and Bull Story, which was inspired by the novel.

NA492512 HEYER Sylvester
Read by Richard Armitage

Sylvester (9789626349670) is a fun and raucous caper that traces the fortunes of Phoebe Marlow as she enters the marriage market. This novel,
by the enduringly popular Georgette Heyer, is perfect for lovers of Jane Austen. There is also a huge fan club of Richard Armitage aficionados out there (he starred in the popular BBC adaptation of North and South) who are ecstatic about the decision to put this novel in his hands.

NA393312 DOYLE The Poison Belt
Read by Glen McCready

The Poison Belt (9789626349335) is the sequel to The Lost World featuring
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s second most popular character: Professor Challenger. The threat of apocalypse looms when a poisonous gas envelops the earth.

NA198412 ELIOT Murder in the Cathedral
Read by Robert Donat & Cast

Murder in the Cathedral (9789626349847) is a play by T. S. Eliot that uses the historical episode of the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in the twelfth century to create a compelling drama. Here, Naxos resurrects the famous 1953 recording, which features Robert Donat as Beckett.

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Castelnuovo-Tedesco Complete Music for Two Guitars 2
Brasil Guitar Duo
8.570779

The Brasil Guitar Duo’s Naxos recording of the first twelve Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Guitars (8.570778) gained 5 stars and high praise from Audiophile Audition: ‘Sonics are first rate, and the interplay of the two guitars is a delight’. A landmark in the guitar’s history and the most ambitious undertaking for two guitars ever conceived, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s tribute to J.S. Bach is equally a demonstration of his own melodic inventiveness, wit, vivacity, introspection and lyricism. The Elegiac Fugue, composed shortly before his death, is a fitting musical epitaph.

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Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Complete songs for mixed choir a cappella
Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble • Chamber Choir at School of Music in Piteå Erik Westberg
8.572393-94

Peterson-Berger’s lyrical drawing-room pieces for the piano are known to many Swedes and often evoke a summery, romantic nationalism. Singers will have come into contact with him as a composer of some delightful songs, several of them very well known, not least because they were favourite repertoire for Jussi Björling. A number of his numerous choral settings have become standard repertoire for Swedish choirs. The current album shows that his work list contains many other hitherto unrecognized jewels.

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Evert Taubes Värld
Göteborgs Symfoniker • Anders Eljas
8.572391

Evert Taube was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was not only the immortal poet that made songs about the Swedish summer, he was also a fascinating person and a true adventurer. Taube had the ability to see the beauty in his surroundings and make it even more beautiful in his poetry. With a paintbrush, pen or a lute in his hand he gave us summer images and adventurous portrayals that always will find new interpreters.

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Anonymous
Various Artists
8.578044-45

Compositions attributed to this prolific composer stretch across the centuries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the early stages of the Baroque period. This music was by turns spiritual and secular, romantic and raucous, traditional and forward-looking. Anonymous (‘Ann Onymous’, perhaps?) was equally at home writing Gregorian chant, songs for troubadours, and instrumental dance music. She assimilated elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, tapping into musical traditions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, North Africa and beyond. You name it, she could write it. Needless to say, we know virtually nothing about her. No artist sketched her features. No poet sang her praises. No registrar listed her birth. So this 2-CD set celebrates her extraordinary contribution across the centuries.

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DACAPO, OUR Recordings and Phoenix Edition are distributed worldwide by Naxos.  Capriccio is not distributed by Naxos in the UK. 

There are no Capriccio New Releases until August 2009. However, several Capriccio  titles have recently been added to naxos.com, including:

Marches
Music by Beethoven, Chabrier, Dupre, Gruber, Holzmann, Joplin, Kagel, Prokofiev, Rihm, Scelsi, Johann Strauss I, Wagner & Weill
HR Brass • Lutz Kohler (conductor)
C10839

Midnight Lounge - Chill Out Classics and Meditation
Music by Beethoven, Bochmann, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Elgar, Faure, Grothe, Haentzschel, Humperdinck, Lekeu, Lincke, Mackeben, Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Perez-Freire, Respighi, Rheinberger, Saint-Saens, Schoenberg, Schubert, Schumann, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Strauss, Tchaikovsky,
Wagner & Wolf Juliane Banse • Gwyneth Jones • Jochen Kowalski
Alfredo Kraus • Geoffrey Parsons • Hermann Prey • Tabea Zimmermann
and other artists • Cologne Radio Chorus • Cologne West German Radio Chorus • Leipzig Radio Chorus • Moscow Rybin Choir • RIAS Chamber Chorus Wannsee-Sanger • Wernigerode Youth Radio • Budapest Strings
Petersen Quartet • Academy of St Martin in the Fields • Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra • Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Bratislava Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra • Cologne Radio Orchestra Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra • Cologne West German Radio Orchestra Eclair Salon Orchestra • Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
New Berlin Chamber Orchestra • Philharmonia Orchestra
Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra • Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Michail Jurowski • Neville Marriner • Sandor Vegh
Hans Vonk and other conductors
C49326

Spring Parade
Music by Abt, Ager, Berte, Grothe, Jary, Jurmann, Kollo, Kreisler, Lehar, Lincke, Mackeben, Mendelssohn, Millocker, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rodgers,
Saint-Saens, Sinding, Stolz, Johann Strauss II, Tauber & Vaughan Williams
Jeno Jando • Zoltan Kocsis • Jochen Kowalski • Hermann Prey
and other artists • Vienna Boys Choir • Wannsee-Sanger • Budapest Strings Collner Cafehaus Ensemble • Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra
Cologne Radio Orchestra • London Symphony Orchestra
Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra • Munich Radio Orchestra
Vienna Strauss Orchestra • Vienna Symphony Orchestra
various conductors
C49364

Oboe Concertos – SCHUNCKE, NIELSEN, KALLIWODA & ROPARTZ
Lajos Lencses, oboe • Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Bernhard Guller, conductor
C67134

BUSONI Paraphrases and Transcriptions for Piano Vol 2
Music by Bach, Busoni, Liszt, Mozart, Novacek
& Offenbach Holger Groschopp, piano
C67135

GREGORI Concerti grossi Op 2
STRADELLA Sinfonias Nos 1 & 2
Soloists • Capriccio Basel Baroque Orchestra
C71091

HAYES Orchestral Music
Soloists • Capriccio Basel Baroque Orchestra
C71135

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MOZART Symphonies Vol 7
Danish National Chamber Orchestra • Adam Fischer, conductor
DACAPO 6.220542

This is the third SACD in the acclaimed series of the complete symphonies by WA Mozart in the hands of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and their renowned Austro-Hungarian chief conductor Adam Fischer. This volume contains the symphonies nos. 22, 23, 24, 25 and 27 composed in 1773.
The CD booklets in this series offer the conductor’s commentaries to each symphony as well as reflective essays on Mozart and the Classic period.
This CD is released by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra on its own record label DRS, distributed by Dacapo.

The following titles have recently been added to naxos.com:

RUDERS Concerto in Pieces, Violin Concerto No 1, Monodrama
Erik Heide, violin • Mathias Reumert, percussion
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra • Thomas Sondergard, conductor
8.226034

BERG Ar Goat, Triedra, 9 Duos, Melos I
Per Dybro Sorensen, Michael Norman, guitar • Bolette Roed, recorder8.226526

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There are no OUR Recordings new releases this month. The following OUR Recordings have received excellent reviews:

Movements —AMARGOS Northern Concerto,
BORTZ Pipes and Bells, STUCKY Etudes
Michala Petri, recorder • Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Lan Shui, conductor
6.220531

‘Anyone who claims that the recorder's tiny dimensions cannot possibly compete in a solo capacity against a full-sized 21st-century orchestra should investigate these three dazzling and inventive concertos, written for and tailored to Michala Petri's singular virtuosity.’
- ClassicsToday 10/10

GIULIANI Violin and Guitar Works
Kim Sjogren, violin • Lars Hannibal, guitar
8.226904

‘This disc is pure delight. Giuliani had composed over 20 works for violin
(or flute) and guitar, and all of those I have heard so far are equally enjoyable. Sjorgen's violin tone is warm and engaging, and the guitar accompaniment is solid. The audio quality is superb, even if it tends to the larger-than-life side. But that's alright: better so than having to strain to hear the music! To top it off, a most beautiful and tastefully elegant production.’
- Giv Cornfield

OUR Recordings Catalogue

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There are no Phoenix Edition new releases until August 2009. The following Phoenix Edition recordings have received excellent reviews:

KRAUS Amphitryon
Chantal Santon, soprano •Georg Poplutz, tenor • Bonner Chamber Choir L’Arte del Mondo • Werner Ehrhardt, conductor
Phoenix111

‘The chamber ensemble L’Arte del Mondo includes among its players the founders of Concerto Köln; they employ period instruments and observe historical performance practice as much as possible. I found that if I turned up the volume I could obtain quite a room-filling sound without sacrificing the remarkable clarity and detail of the Cologne venue. This is a significant contribution to Kraus’s stage music on records.’ - American Record Guide

HAYDN Complete Piano Trios
Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
Phoenix161

‘During this Haydn bicentenary there will be many reissues and new releases, but I can think of no better way of commemorating the great man than this marvellous set of Piano Trios from the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt (HTE). They play this music as if it had been made for them and this is a set I will enjoy again and again… This is delightful music, delightfully played, and anyone who loves good music should buy it for the endless pleasure it will give.’ - MusicWeb International

SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto Nos 1 & 2
Dimitri Maslennikov, cello • North German Radio Symphony Orchestra Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Phoenix128

‘Shostakovich’s two cello concertos are impressively played by Dmitri Maslennikov, with Eschenbach leading the NDR Symphony. Extremely fine sound on these probing performances.’
-Turok’s Choice

Phoenix Edition Catalogue

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Stabat Mater
VIVALDI Stabat Mater, Sonata al Santo Sepolcro in E Flat Major RV130, PERGOLESI Salve Regina, BACH Tilge Höchster meine Sünden (Psalm 51) BWV1083 (transcription of Stabat Mater by Pergolesi)
Emma Kirkby, soprano • Daniel Taylor, countertenor
Theatre of Early Music
BISSACD1546

With a disc entitled Stabat Mater and featuring Pergolesi among the composers, it would be natural to expect his setting (surely the most famous of all) of this heartfelt meditation on the grief of the Virgin Mary to be included in the programme. Well, it isn’t – and it is! Only a few years after Pergolesi in 1736 had composed his Stabat Mater, Bach made an adaptation of it using a contemporary German version of the biblical Psalm 51. This and other moving Baroque masterpieces are heard here in beautifully delicate, pristine performances by the Canadian ensemble Theatre of Early Music and its director (counter-tenor Daniel Taylor), who in Bach is joined by legendary soprano Emma Kirkby, famous for her recording of the Pergolesi original.

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BENEDICT, MACFARREN Piano Concertos
BENEDICT Piano Concerto in C Minor Op 45,
Piano Concerto in E Flat Major Op 89, MACFARREN Concert Piece in E Minor
Howard Shelley, piano & conductor • Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
HYPERION CDA67720

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s eighth recording for Hyperion’s acclaimed Romantic Piano Concertos edition. TSO is the perfect size for the sparkling early Romantic works featured on this album, here led by brilliant virtuoso Howard Shelley. ‘Pianism of this calibre is rarely encountered.’
(The West Australian). Together they champion the unjustly neglected music of composers Julius Benedict and Walter Macfarren.

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Sacred Garland – Devotional Chamber Music
from the Age of Monteverdi
Frescobaldi Canzona ‘La Bernardinia’, Kapsperger Toccata No 1, Monteverdi Venite sitientes ad quas, Palestrina Pulchra es amica mea, Grandi Jesu mi dulcissime, Merula Nigra sum, Gaudeamus omnes, Piccinini Toccata No 12, Corradini Spargite flores
The Gonzaga Band
CHANDOS CHAN0761

For this collection The Gonzaga Band (which takes its name from the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, powerful and influential patrons of the arts in the late Renaissance) has chosen some of the most beautiful music from the dawn of the Italian Baroque. Some of the composers, such as Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Merula and Grandi, are well known today. Others, such as Nicolò Corradini, Benedetto Re and Archangelo Crotti, are minor masters whose music has been unjustly forgotten. All share a gift for writing accessible, tuneful music for solo voice with obbligato instruments. Catherine Bott has praised The Gonzaga Band’s blend of cornett and voice as that of ‘two soprano instruments’ matched ‘in dazzling duet’.

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Armand Amar-Home OST
NAÏVE K1659

There are the pictures. There's the text. And then there's the music, which accompanies, flies, reveals emotions, never becomes superfluous and never sentimentalizes the simple, poignant tale told by Yann Arthus-Bertrand's movie. His experience, syncretism and worldliness enriched the project with a unique poetic dimension. Armand Amar made several journeys to record with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble. He wove into his score chants and instruments from several continents (Mongolia, Armenia, Iran, etc). Home will be screened in Australia from July

Armand Amar – Retrospective
with guest artists including Sinead O’Connor, Roselyne Minassian,
Sharmila Roy and Salar Aghilli
Naïve K1644 (2 CD)

Armand Amar - Retrospective is a highly anticipated release by the Australian music media. French of Moroccan origin (born in Jerusalem in 1953), Armand Amar spent his childhood in Morocco. Imbued with the sounds of instruments considered exotic at the time, the pull of that “world apart” exercised by extra-European music soon fascinated him. He was constantly searching for physical experiences in the early years of his musical apprenticeship, whereas in the following years his search became a commitment; he learned to play tablas, discovered the zarb and congas, and studied under various masters of traditional and classical music. Armand Amar has gone on to become one of the worlds most influential and respected award winning sound track artists. ABC Classic FM CD of the week beginning 8  June. Armand Amar is one half of the collaboration that brought you the highly  successful and bestselling album Songs from a World Apart.

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The Best of Beatles Baroque
Les Boreades
ACD2 3008
The Beatles songs on this “Best of” compilation are taken from the three
best-selling Beatles Baroque CDs released between 2000 and 2006 by Montreal-based early music ensemble Les Boréades. ‘Surprising though it may seem, it was during a session in which Les Boreades were recording
17th century Italian music that the idea that become the Beatles Baroque was born. The atmosphere in the studio became somewhat giddy, and we were turning everything we had to record – a melodic turn of phrase here, a harmonic sequence there – into improvisations on Beatles’ songs. In short, it became impossible to finish the recording. “Let’s be serious,” I said, not very seriously. “We’ll record the Beatles later on.” And they held me to my word!’
– Johanne Goyette, Producer

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Naxos Canada New Release Guide July 2009

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8-String Religion
Minor Blue (David Darling / Tasker Music), 8-String Religion
(David Darling-Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music), Remember
(David Darling -Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music), Sweet River
(David Darling -Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music), Only One Wish
(David Darling-Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music), Sojourn
(David Darling-Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music), Clouds
(David Darling/Tasker Music), Soft Light
(David Darling-Mickey Houlihan/Tasker Music)
David Darling, 8-string cello
First Impression Music LIM DXD 041

One of the ten ‘Must’ discs for demonstration selected by Harry Pearson, Editor, The Absolute Sound. The soundscaping of the recording is hue,
yet the definition and detail are impeccable and exemplary. A great recording of world’s only ‘8-string cello’ made of solid wood with dreamy tone color and rich musicality. Most of the music was written by the world renowned cellist David Darling in a unique hybrid style of beautiful classical and new age in a jazzy format, projecting great inner depth, very captivating yet refreshing. Using DXD high definition and high resolution (24 bit-358.2 K Hz) mastering format; with stunning sonority. The disc is made of 99.9999% pure silver
(not aluminum)—a special feature of FIM production.

Flute Mystery
Fred Jonny BERG Flute Mystery, Warning Zero, Pastorale,
Vicino alla Montagna, Flute Concerto No 1
Emily Beynon, flute Catherine Beynon, harp
Philharmonia Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
2L58SABD (Hybrid SACD + music Blu-ray)

Only the full symphony orchestra can impose the true emotional dynamics of the arctic nature. FLUTE MYSTERY is a collection of five orchestral works by Norwegian composer Fred Jonny Berg. In this distinctive and dynamic surround sound recording, the Philharmonia Orchestra with Emily & Catherine Beynon as soloists on flute & harp are conducted by the legendary Vladimir Ashkenazy. Berg's music is often described as melodious, accessible and dramatic, yet with a highly original quality. Berg himself tries to explain: ‘It is really as simple as it is complicated—I breathe in what life has to offer, and breathe out what I have to offer life. I have given up trying to grasp what actually happens in the process from impression to expression.’ In his music Fred Jonny Berg reveals himself as a person, who has experienced that life consists of light and dark, but unlike the majority of us he approaches both with a similar undaunted decisiveness; it adds an extra quality to his music: the conviction of an eyewitness.

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UK

POUL RUDERS CONCERTOS Concertos in Pieces (1994–95),
Violin Concerto No 1 (1981), Monodrama (1988)
Erik Heide, violin • Mathias Reumert, percussion
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra • Thomas Søndergård
DACAPO 8.226034

Poul Ruders is one of the biggest names in contemporary Scandinavian music. His orchestral works in particular have a brilliance and intensity that have made a great impression on audiences around the world. These concertos, each with its own highly personable character, are eminently enjoyable, full of life and beauty, and well worth discovering. The music is impeccably performed by musicians who clearly revel in both the technical demands and the sheer excitement of this music. And the recording itself is superb.

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DANSES et DIVERTISSEMENTS
TAFFANEL Quintette en sol mineur pour instruments à vent (1878),
POULENC Sextuor pour piano et quintette à vent (1932–39),
JOLIVET Sérénade pour quintette à vent avec hautbois principal (1945),
TOMASI Cinq Danses Profanes et Sacrées pour quintette à vent (1948)
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet • Stephen Hough, piano
BIS-SACD-1532

“The combination of Stephen Hough and wind players from the BPO makes for sparkling performances” Gramophone on MOZART/BEETHOVEN Piano Quintets (BIS-CD-1552). One of the world’s foremost wind quintets meets one of today’s finest pianists in a work that many consider to be the best work for piano and winds: Poulenc’s Sextet, as well as works by other French composers.

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MONTEVERDI Orfeo
Dietrich Henschel • Maria Grazia Schiavo • Sonia Prina • Luigi De Donato Antonio Abete • Hanna Bayodi • Xavier Sabata • Cyril Auvity • Juan Sancho Jonathan Sells • Ludovic Provost • Agustín Prunell-Friend
Les Arts Florissants, Caen • Les Saqueboutiers, Toulouse
William Christie • Pier Luigi Pizzi (Director, Scenes and Costumes)
DYNAMIC DVD 33598

This is the first recording in the complete Monteverdi cycle with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, made possible by a three-year collaboration between Dynamic and Teatro Real. The production is enhanced by the rich colour of 17th century costumes, with Christie himself clad in a flowing red cloak and white ruffed collar. The DVD features interviews with Christie,
Pizzi and the Opera’s two protagonists.

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USA

Francis Bacon: A Film by David Hinton
Arthaus DVD 100634
International Emmy

Best Arts Documentary, International TV Festival, Banff Award of Merit, International TV Movie Festival, New Jersey Francis Bacon revolutionised figurative painting in the 20th century. The English painter unmasked his subjects in a provocative and ruthless manner. Deformed bodies, grimacing faces and the materiality of colour make us aware of brutality and sexuality, existential abysses and the fears of existence. Works like Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X inspired him just as much as Eisenstein’s epic film The Battleship Potemkin for his famous motif: the Scream. Author Melvyn Bragg accompanies the painter throughout his day. This begins in his London atelier, leads us on to his favourite pub and ends up in a gambling club in Soho.

Aida’s Brothers & Sisters: Black Voices in Opera and Concert
A film by Jan Schmidt-Garre & Marieke Schroeder
Arthaus DVD 101367

Featuring Grace Bumbry, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Shirley Verrett, Leontyne Price, Betty Allen, Barbara Hendricks, Simon Estes, Bobby McFerrin and more.  An intriguing documentary about black singers of classical music set against the background of black emancipation in politics and society in the US. ‘I’m an American, but I’m obviously black, you see, I can’t wash this off. So what you have, you have with you forever – and that’s how people feel. If they take it the best way, that’s fine – if they take it the worst way they have difficulties all their lives’ (Betty Allen)            

Piotr Anderszewski - Unquiet Traveller
Music by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann &  Szymanowski
Piotr Anderszewski, piano           
Medici Arts DVD 3077938

Bruno Monsaingeon has dedicated a great part of his life to directing movies about the greatest musicians of our times (including Gould, Richter, Menuhin and Oïstrakh), sharing with us his passionate vision of artists. His last movie, which has already been awarded in several festivals, is an especially living portrait of the non-conformist pianist Piotr Anderszewski. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, this ‘on-the-road’ movie’s setting is a winter journey through Poland to Budapest, in a train in which the pianist has taken his grand piano with him... In this movie, Piotr Anderszewski gives us his innermost thoughts about music and his qualms: through words we gain immense insights into this artist, while this special train strides through the land of his childhood, revealing his true nature, generous but tormented. A brilliantly built film by Bruno Monsaingeon, utterly poetic and deeply emotional, which invites us to join the journey.

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ROSSINI La Gazzetta (Blu-ray)
Cinzia Forte (Lisetta) • Bruno Praticò (Don Pomponio)
Pietro Spagnoli (Filippo) • Charles Workman (Alberto)
Agata Bienkowska (Madame La Rose) • Marisa Martins (Doralice)
Simón Orfila (Monsù Traversen) • Marc Canturri (Anselmo)
Intermezzo Choir • Liceu Grand Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Maurizio Barbacini, conductor • Dario Fo, stage director
Opus Arte DVD OA BD7034D

The Nobel Prize-winning writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its première DVD release. Recorded in 2005 under the musical direction of Maurizio Barbacini, Fo's production brings fresh vitality and colour to the story of Lisetta, and of her father's attempts to find a husband for her through an advertisement in the newspaper La Gazzetta.

RICHARD STRAUSS Alpine Symphony, Macbeth
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra • Marek Janowski, conductor
PentaTone PTC5186339

A new recording of works by Richard Strauss featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marek Janowski.  PentaTone has recorded an extremely well received Brahms cycle with the same forces.
See more Marek Janowski albums

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Buy all 8 tracks for only
USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

8.557531  BACH A Musical Offering - Ricercar a 6
8.572250  REVUELTAS Caminos (Itinerarios)
8.572152  MARKEVITCH Sinfonietta in F major - Allegro moderato
8.570211  GLAZUNOV Romantic Intermezzo Op 69
8.570880  MALIPIERO Symphony No 6 ‘degli archi’ - Piuttosto lento
8.572067  TANEYEV Symphony No 2 in B flat major - Introduction and Allegro
8.570240  ZEMLINSKY Sinfonietta Op 23 - Sehr lebhaft
8.572242  HOLST Suite No 1 in E flat major Op 28 No 1 - Chaconne

Naxos July 2009 Sampler II
CHAMBER MUSIC – INSTRUMENTAL
– SOLO VOCAL – CHORAL

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USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99