Newsletter 168 
December 2009  

Naxos wishes you, your family and friends a happy and safe festive season and a great New Year!

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE NAXOS RECORDING FROM 2009?
We invite you to tell us, in a few sentences, which Naxos CD or DVD most impressed you this year. Please be sure to include the catalogue number. We’ll post a selection of your responses in coming months on naxos.com! Read more and email us today

Please take a moment to browse through our new releases for 2009
There are many wonderful gift ideas among this year’s Naxos CDs and DVDs.

January
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April

May
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September
October
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We look forward to bringing you many wonderful releases throughout 2010.
Here’s what’s coming in January next year.


Naxos CDs | Naxos DVDs | Naxos AudioBooks
Naxos Distributed Labels | Naxos Special Products
Naxos Distributed Label Priority Titles | Naxos Samplers

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


 Naxos CDs

8.570453 BACH Cantatas for Solo Soprano
Siri Thornhill, soprano • Cologne Bach Vocal Ensemble
Cologne Chamber Orchestra • Helmut Muller-Bruhl

Among JS Bach’s 200 or so surviving church cantatas, these four for solo soprano include the popular Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!, in which singer and solo trumpet engage in thrilling displays of virtuosity. In the other cantatas, Bach provides equally beautiful obbligato parts for violin, viola and oboe, whose interactions with the soprano heighten the emotional significance of the sacred texts. For the opening sinfonia of the most richly-scored cantata here, Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht, Bach makes use of a version of the first movement of his Brandenburg Concerto No 1.

8.570824 CRESSWELLThe Voice Inside,
Alas! How Swift, Cassandra's Songs, Kaea

Madeleine Pierard, mezzo-soprano • Vesa-Matti Leppanen, violin
Michael Kirgan, trumpet • David Bremner, trombone
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • James Judd, conductor


New Zealand-born Edinburgh-based Lyell Cresswell has composed works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, voice and solo instruments which have been widely performed and broadcast. In The Voice Inside, he explores the ever-changing relationship between the soprano and violin soloists and the orchestra, while Cassandra’s Songs, which also set words by Scottish poet Ron Butlin, is concerned with exile, identity and belonging. Alas! How Swift embodies in musical terms the inescapable passing of Time. His Trombone Concerto takes its name Kaea from the Maori wooden war trumpet used to terrify enemies and raise alarms.

8.660261-62 DONIZETTI Maria Stuarda
Simone Alberghini • Roberto de Biasio • Mario Cassi
Giovanna Lanza • Maria Pia Piscitelli • Laura Polverelli
FORM – Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana
Coro Lirico Marchigiano ‘V. Bellini’ • Riccardo Frizza, conductor

In Donizetti’s opera Maria Stuarda the roles of the doomed queen and her cousin, Elizabeth I, have been taken by some of the greatest divas, from Malibran to Gruberova and Tosi to Baltsa, each revelling in the high drama of their tragically linked fates. ‘Contributing greatly to the success of the work, the young Maestro Riccardo Frizza revealed himself as a deep and sensitive interpreter of this score, managing to capture all the nuances of Donizetti’s music…Laura Polverelli portrayed with elegance and pride the character of Elizabeth, her furies, doubts and jealousies; Maria Pia Piscitelli was a wonderful Maria Stuarda, passionate, sorrowful, proud, dignified when sentenced to death, recalling her past sins yet conscious of her innocence.’ (MusiCulturA)
Also available on Naxos DVD 2.110268

8.572159 DVORAK Piano Quartets Nos 1 & 2
Members of the Vlach Quartet Prague • Helena Sucarova-Weiser, piano

Dvorak’s two piano quartets stand beside those of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schumann as important contributions to the chamber music repertoire. Enlivened by Czech inflections, the elegant charm of the First, with its marvellous set of variations and combined scherzo-and-finale last movement, contrasts with the more serious and weighty character of the Second, where an expressive theme for cello in the slow movement and a lyrical scherzo in waltz-time lighten the prevailing mood.

8.559606 FETLER Violin Concerto No 2,
Capriccio, 3 Poems by Walt Whitman

Aaron Berofsky, violin • Thomas H. Blaske, narrator • Penelope Fischer, flute Scott Graddy, piccolo • Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
Arie Lipsky, conductor

This recording, the first devoted entirely to the music of Paul Fetler, features Ann Arbor poet and attorney Thomas H. Blaske as narrator in the evocative Three Poems by Walt Whitman, written to commemorate the American Bicentennial in 1976. An elegant solo violin quasi-cadenza opens the remarkable third movement, after which the narrator intones the haunting line, ‘Ah, from a little child, thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music...’ The phrase is heard again, reflected near the close and carried as if by a distant music box, simulated by a toy piano. A labor of love, Fetler’s Violin Concerto No 2 mixes spry energy and elegant orchestration with expressively flowing melody into an irresistible tour de force, a perfect example of the ‘progressive lyricism’ that characterizes his musical style.

8.559629 Eight Visions - A New Anthology for Flute and Piano
Marya Martin, flute • Colette Valentine, piano

New Zealand-born, American-based flautist Marya Martin enjoys an international career. She joins acclaimed American pianist Colette Valentine for this recording which brings together eight contrasting yet complementary pieces commissioned for her from leading composers whom she admires and who enthusiastically agreed to participate. ‘Undoubtedly one of the most artistically rewarding experiences in my career…I hope that they will bring as much inspiration and delight to you as they have to me,’ she notes of these Eight Visions, which range from lyrical to virtuosic, folk- and jazz-inspired to mystical and prayerful.

8.570524 GADE Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3
Hasse Borup, violin • Heather Conner, piano

Mendelssohn’s successor as the music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus and a close friend of Joachim and the Schumanns, the Danish conductor and composer Niels Wilhelm Gade melded Nordic spirit with the technique of the Germanic masters. His three violin sonatas mark important stages in his career. The light-fingered First, dedicated to Clara Schumann, the mercurial Second, dedicated to Robert Schumann, and the weighty Third with its gorgeous Romanze each display different facets of his engaging musical personality. The acclaimed Danish violinist Hasse Borup and American pianist Heather Conner here make their Naxos debut.

8.572096 GARBIZU Txistu and Piano Music - 6 Old Time San Sebastian Songs, Basque Suites Nos 1 & 2, 4 Zortzikos
Jose Ignacio Ansorena, txistu and tamboril • Alvaro Cendoya, piano

Tomas Garbizu is one of the greatest names in twentieth-century Basque music. This recording bears witness to his genius and his audacity in combining for the first time such disparate instruments as the txistu (a type of flute and the Basque culture’s most traditional dance instrument), the tamboril (Basque double-headed drum) and the keyboard, to form an entirely original and innovative ensemble. This disc features the Basque Country’s best-known txistulari, Jose Ignacio Ansorena, who has an exceptional insight into Garbizu’s music, partnered by pianist Álvaro Cendoya, who has already recorded an album of Garbizu’s piano works for Naxos (8.557630).

8.572446 HILL String Quartets Vol 3 - Nos 5, 7 & 9
Dominion String Quartet

The Dominion Quartet continues its exploration of the string quartets of Alfred Hill, an Australian-born composer who studied in Europe and lived for much of his life in New Zealand. The Fifth pays tribute to France, America, Italy and Britain, nations that were allies during World War I. In the Seventh, hints of the music of Debussy, Ravel and Dvorak coexist within Hill’s own Late Romantic idiom. The Ninth, with its touches of Iberian colour, Impressionist passages and Czech harmonies show Hill as a musical citizen of the world.

8.570781 LIGETI String Quartets Nos 1 & 2, Andante and Allegretto
Parker Quartet

Gyorgy Ligeti’s choral and orchestral music hit the mainstream when it was featured in the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but his equally remarkable chamber works remain less well known. While indebted to his compatriot Bartok for its folk-inflected passages, Ligeti’s First Quartet, subtitled Metamorphoses nocturnes, is nonetheless a work of striking originality. The Second Quartet, composed around fifteen years later, abounds in contrasts between glacial stillness and manic activity, mechanistic pizzicatos and gentle oscillations. His early Andante and Allegro is richly expressive and easily accessible.

8.570881 MALIPIERO Symphonies Vol 4
- No 7, Sinfonia in un tempo, Sinfonia per Antigenida

Moscow Symphony Orchestra • Antonio de Almeida

This fourth volume of Malipiero’s seventeen highly contrasting symphonies features the lyrical Seventh (1948), notable for an intensely eloquent slow second movement that grows in potency whensubsequently repeated. With its pungent harmonies and more complex structures the Sinfonia in un tempo (1950) belongs to a very different expressive and stylistic world from the symphonies of the 1930sand ’40s. Named after an ancient Theban piffero player, represented by the work’s prominent piccolopart, the Sinfonia per Antigenida (1962) is perhaps Malipiero’s most inscrutable symphony, in whichangular lines and aggressive dissonances reflect a bitter, disillusioned attitude to the world.

8.572469 MANNING The Manchester Carols
The Manchester Carollers • Northern Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tanner, conductor

This new sequence of Christmas carols was written in 2007 by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy and composer Sasha Johnson Manning, and premiered in the same year. The Manchester Carols re-tell the Christmas Story for the 21st Century, celebrating a child’s birth and all that child was to become: a man who lived by a humble, selfless creed, championing the marginalised in a society which was, as it is now, fraught with political tensions. These carols are for everybody, the believer and the non-believer, people of other faiths and everyone wishing to join in the Christmas celebrations.

8.572153 MARKEVITCH Complete Orchestral Works Vol 3
- Cantique d'Amour, L'Envol d'Icare, Concerto Grosso

Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Christopher Lyndon-Gee, conductor

This third volume of Naxos’s Igor Markevitch Complete Orchestral Works Edition, presents the composer’s first truly individual work, The Flight of Icarus, the tumultuous 1933 première of which Milhaud proclaimed ‘a date in the evolution of music’. The Concerto Grosso, with its daringly original harmonic language, polytonal and rhythmic ideas, and the evanescent Song of Love, which recalls both the orchestral colour and emotional detachment of Ravel, are likewise regarded as youthful masterpieces. Volumes 1 (8.570773) and 2 (8.572152) have been praised for their ‘breathtaking power’ and ‘deeply committed performances’.

8.570981 MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL Lieder Vol 1 - Opp 1, 7 & 10
Dorothea Craxton, soprano • Babette Dorn, piano

A gifted composer of some 500 works, mainly songs and small piano pieces, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel has been eclipsed by the fame of her younger brother Felix Mendelssohn. Yet her sensitivity in setting the German Romantic poets she loved, principally Goethe, Heine, Geibel and von Eichendorff, warrants greater attention. Like Clara Schumann, whose songs Dorothea Craxton has also recorded for Naxos (8.570747), Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel possessed a distinct and richly powerful musical voice, by turns introspective, melancholic, delicate, lilting and serene – which deserves to be heard on its own terms.

8.572189 MESSIAEN Harawi, 3 Melodies
Hetna Regitze Bruun, soprano • Kristoffer Hyldig, piano

Messiaen’s song cycles Trois Melodies (1930) and Harawi (1945) were both inspired by the loss of a loved one: the Melodies are a memorial to his mother who had died three years previously, and Harawi was written shortly after his wife Claire Delbos had begun to suffer from the long illness that would ultimately lead to her death. But far from resorting to misery, the shimmering beauty of Messiaen’s music leaves the listener with a sense of hope and transcendence.

8.572246 Organ Recital
- BUXTEHUDE/BACH/LITAIZE/WIDOR/MESSIAEN

Michael Unger, organ

Canadian-born Michael Unger is a multi-award winner, including First Prize in the 2008 Sixth International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo, Japan, and First and Audience Prize in the 2008 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artists Competition. The music chosen for his debut Naxos recital follows a kind of spiritual progression from death to life, beginning with a dramatic baroque depiction of death’s dance (Praeludium in E, Buxtehude), and concluding with an exuberant twentieth-century affirmation of religious incarnation (Dieu parmi nous, Messiaen). Michael Unger performs extensively, and is also a church musician, chamber musician and published composer.

8.572093 RAVEL/RESPIGHI/GRANADOS Violin Sonatas
Frederieke Saeijs, violin • Maurice Lammerts van Bueren, piano

This disc draws together some lesser-known works by three of the 20th century’s greatest composers. Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G major was his final chamber work, combining the influence of blues with an austere beauty. The dramatic Violin Sonata in B minor by Respighi is a greatly underrated contribution to the repertoire, while Granados’s one-movement Violin Sonata perfectly captures the composer’s extraordinary harmonic and melodic gifts in a seamless blend of traditional Romantic language and Spanish inflections.

8.570958 RODE 24 Caprices for Solo Violin
Axel Strauss, violin

The first German artist to win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss was acclaimed for his recording of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words (8.570213) as ‘an excellent violinist who plays these with wit and verve’. On this disc he revels in the virtuosic and expressive opportunities offered by Pierre Rode’s 24 Caprices, which preceded those of Paganini by several years. Rode’s Violin Concertos Nos 7, 10 and 13, performed by Friedemann Eichhorn, are also available in the 19th Century Violinist Composers series (8.570469).

8.572238 ROGER Chamber Music - Clarinet Quintet,
Piano Trio, Piano Sonata, Variations on an Irish Air

Gould Piano Trio • Robert Plane, clarinet • Emily Beynon, flute
David Adams, viola • Mia Cooper, violin

Born in Austria and active in Vienna until 1938 when he emigrated to the USA before returning to Europe after the Second World War, Kurt Roger combined traditional, even archaic musical forms, with the adventurous harmonies of late Romanticism. His Clarinet Quintet, like that of Brahms, is a beautifully conceived late work, while the Variations on an Irish Air recalls his visit to Ireland in 1939. The Piano Trio displays Roger’s Classical Viennese roots and the Piano Sonata uses Baroque, Romantic and Modern elements in inventive combination.

8.572315 ROSSINI Complete Piano Music Vol 3
- Peches de vieillesse Vol 5

Alessandro Marangoni, piano

Italian pianist Alessandro Marangoni, praised by the media for his ‘beautiful legato touch and a keen sense of phrasing’, here presents the third in his series of Rossini’s Sins of Old Age with the Album for Adolescent Children. From the pious First Communion and the lilting barcarolle of The Lagoon of Venice to the exotic Moorish Prelude and Rossini’s Mendelssohnian tribute to his favourite food, Ah! The Peas!, this is indeed delectable piano music. Volumes 1 (8.570590-91) and 2 (8.570766) are also available.

8.660268-69 STRAUSS II Eine Nacht in Venedig
Daniel Buckard, Pierre Gylbert, Johan Christensson and Henrik Holmberg, tenors • Erika Andersson and Anna Larsdotter Persson, mezzo-sopranos Merete L. Meyer, Anna-Maria Krawe and Kristina Hansson, sopranos
Coro Notturno • Stockholm Strauss Orchestra • Mika Eichenholz, conductor

When the lady-killer Duke of Urbino decides to seduce Barbara, the most beautiful woman in town, at a masked ball, the scene is set for an unforgettable night. But the duke’s barber, Caramello, hands out the invitations to his working-class friends instead of the cream of society, and mistaken identities contribute another hilarious chapter to the war of the sexes. Strauss’s sparkling score for A Night in Venice enjoyed considerable success around the world. Although later arranged by Korngold, it is heard here in its original version and free from spoken dialogue.

8.572438 Baritone Arias by VERDI, ROSSINI, MOZART, DONIZETTI, LEONCAVALLO, MASSENET, BIZET & ARAKISHVILI
Lado Ataneli, baritone • Wurttemberg Philharmonic Orchestra
Lodovico Zocche, conductor

For his Naxos debut recording, the internationally acclaimed Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli has selected operatic arias by Bizet, Donizetti, Leoncavallo, Verdi, Massenet, Mozart and Rossini, which showcase what the Los Angeles Times hailed as ‘one of the healthiest, roundest, most mellifluous voices on the planet’. A sought-after interpreter of verismo roles, Lado Ataneli has worked with conductors including Riccardo Muti, James Conlon and James Levine, sharing the stage with Placido Domingo and other leading singers. He closes his recital with an aria by Dimitri Arakishvili, one of the founders of modern Georgian music.

8.572342 Southern Harmony Wind Band Music by KABALEVSKY, STEVENS, GRANTHAM, LAURIDSEN & COPLAND
Ohio State University Wind Symphony • Ivan Peshkov, violin
Olga Solovieva, piano

Under the direction of Professor Russel Mikkelson, The Ohio State University Wind Symphony is a nationally recognized ensemble devoted to the preparation and performance of the finest traditional and contemporary music for band. On this disc from Naxos’s popular Wind Band Classics series, they present a wide-ranging program with global connections, from the overture to Russian composer Kabalevsky’s opera about a Breton master carpenter, Colas Breugnon, to Aaron Copland’s El salon Mexico which takes us ‘south of the border’. Contemporary American composers are represented by Donald Grantham, whose Southern Harmony draws on an 1835 collection of American songs, Morten Lauridsen’s sublimely still O Magnum Mysterium, and John Stevens’s colorfully-scored Symphony.

See all our New Releases for December 2009

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 Naxos DVDs

2.110239 MUSICAL JOURNEY - ROME
LISZT Piano Concerto
Banowetz, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dohnanyi

The Places
Starting from the Pantheon and the Colosseum, our tour takes us to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, the Arch of Constantine and the Capitol, with the later city represented by the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, and the great piazza of St Peter's in the Vatican.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Rome is by Franz Liszt, who divided the last 25 years of his life between Rome, Hungary and Weimar, after an early career as a travelling virtuoso, one of the greatest pianists of his time, and a period settled in Weimar as Director of Music Extraordinary to the Grand Duchy. In Rome he took minor orders and developed further his interest in the music of the Church.

2.110249 A MUSICAL JOURNEY - FRANCE
FAURE Requiem
Beckley, Gedge, Carey, Oxford Camerata, Summerly

The Places
Starting from the great Cathedral of Chartres, our tour takes us to Brittany and Normandy in Northern France, and to Franche Comte and Burgundy.   Many of the scenes chosen match closely the music of Faure and in particular that of his Requiem, with a wide range of corresponding images, from the calvaries of Brittany to the startling architecture of Le Corbusier in his church of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, from The Last Judgement by Roger van der Weyden in Beaune to the tapestries of Jean Lurcat at Angers.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of France is by Gabriel Faure. It includes his Requiem, the evocative Pavane, his Sicilienne, probably originally intended as part of incidental music for Moliere's Le bourgeois gentilhomme, and the Berceuse.

2.110251 A MUSICAL JOURNEY - NORTHERN ITALY & SICILY
MOZART Symphonies Nos 25 & 41
Capella Istropolitana, Wordsworth

The Places
The tour starts in Northern Italy, in the remarkable city of Mantua, once the domain of the Gonzaga family, at whose court Monteverdi was once employed.  There is a visit to Cremona, the centre of violin-making, and to Milan, where Mozart stayed on more than one occasion during his Italian journeys. Sicily (Sicilia) has enjoyed a remarkably varied history, held by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, it became part of Roman territory, later to be occupied by Ostrogoths, recaptured by the Byzantines, ruled by Saracens, and occupied by the Normans, followed by German, French and Spanish overlords. It was only in the mid-nineteenth century that the island was drawn into the unified country of Italy. The historical changes that Sicily has undergone are reflected in its culture.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour is by Mozart and includes his final Symphony No 41, known as the 'Jupiter', written in Vienna in August 1788, and the earlier Symphony No 25, completed in Mozart's native city of Salzburg in early October 1773. Mozart had made three extended Italian tours between 1771 and 1773, and his father Leopold had hoped that his family might be able to settle there, if a position could be found for his son. 
Also available:
Ravenna, Faenza & Venice 2.110237
Switzerland & Bavaria 2.110246
Southern Italy & Sicily 2.110252

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Naxos AudioBooks

NA489812 BURMAN Descartes - An Introduction
Read by Jonathan Oliver

Rene Descartes is one of the formative figures in Western philosophy, logic and mathematics. His famous statement: ‘I think, therefore I am’, has become perhaps the most famous phrase in all of philosophy. Descartes’s groundbreaking writings attempted to establish unshakeable foundations of knowledge, and set a trend for subsequent Western philosophy, which has endlessly critiqued and expanded upon his ideas.This title is read by Jonathan Oliver and Roy McMillan. It introduces the listener to the life and work of one of the greatest thinkers of all time.
Related titles:
NA485412GRIFFITH Aristotle - An Introduction (Unabridged)
NA644412GRIFFITH Ancient Greek Philosophy - An Introduction (Unabridged)
NA334412 CRAIG Philosophy - A Very Short Introduction (Abridged
Naxos AudioBooks read by Jonathan Oliver

NA199712 MILLER Death of a Salesman (Abridged)
Original Cast Production, 1950

Arthur Miller’s most famous play, Death of a Salesman, has become a key text in Western literature. Made in 1953, this powerful recording was directed by Elia Kazan. It features Thomas Mitchell and Arthur Kennedy as father and son. Willy, a travelling salesman, based in New York, relentlessly chases material success. As the disappointing nature of his reality crowds in upon him, Willy and his family suffer the tragic cost of his delusions of greatness. A domestic tragedy, a cynical indictment of materialism and the American Dream, and a profoundly moving story of one man’s struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of continual adversity – Miller’s play is essential listening.
Related titles:
NA198412 ELIOT Murder in the Cathedral (Unabridged) (Old Vic, 1953)
NA436212 SARDAR/DAVIES American Dream, Global Nightmare
NA288712 THOMAS Under Milk Wood and Other Plays
(1954 Premiere Radio Recording, unabridged)

NA234212 WILDE The Importance of Being Earnest (1952, unabridged) / GIELGUD Selected Poetry Readings

NAX91612 KIPLING Kim (Unabridged)
Read by Madhav Sharma

Set in the days of the British Raj, Kipling’s finest novel is the exciting and touching tale of an Irish orphan-boy who has lived free in the streets of Lahore before setting out, with a Tibetan Lama, on a spiritual quest. Kim later enrols in the Indian Service and simultaneously embarks on an espionage mission of supreme importance. A thrilling climax in the Himalayas occurs when the two quests become entangled. Kim’s search for identity is staged within one of the most magnificent and affectionate portrayals of Indian culture in literature.
Related titles:
NA201812 KIPLING Kim (Abridged)
NA147412 The Great Poets – KIPLING
NA205212 KIPLING Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Unabridged)
NA303512 KIPLING The Jungle Books (Abridged)
Naxos AudioBooks read by Madhav Sharma

NA888812 CONAN DOYLE The Complete Casebook of
Sherlock Holmes (Unabridged)

Read by David Timson

David Timson’s award-winning series is widely acknowledged to be among the very best interpretations of the master sleuth.
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes I
These six cases are among the last undertaken by Sherlock Holmes before he retired to the Sussex downs. However, the problems facing the sleuth are as diverse and challenging as ever. With seeking the whereabouts of the stolen Mazarin Diamond, discovering the importance of being called Garrideb, encountering a mysterious murder on Thor Bridge, searching for eternal youth and the threat of a Vampire in Sussex, there is no sign of Holmes’s deductive powers slowing down.
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes II
Here are the last six Sherlock Holmes stories from The Casebook: The Illustrious Client, The Three Gables, The Lion’s Mane, The Blanched Soldier, The Retired Colourman, The Veiled Lodger and Shoscombe Old Place written by Doyle at the end of his life. As with all the Holmes recordings by David Timson for Naxos AudioBooks, this set is propelled by well-chosen music and the remarkable variety of characters from the bottomless imagination of the reader. A tour de force which is unlikely to be matched for decades. As a bonus, the set contains a Sherlock Holmes story written by David Timson himself!
Naxos AudioBooks read by David Timson

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 Naxos Special Products

CANADA

TARREGA Guitar Music
Mats Bergstrom, guitar
8.572365

Francisco Tarrega, the most influential Spanish virtuoso performer of the nineteenth century, was a charismatic romantic who, with a cigarette in his mouth, mesmerized his audiences for hours with his performances. On this disc, Swedish Royal Academy member Mats Bergström expresses the ‘light and shade’ of Tarrega’s music (sans cigarette!) on a modern instrument based on an 1888 model owned by the composer himself. The Preludes, composed between 1889 and 1909, are particularly well regarded pieces, while the other works include original compositions and imaginative transcriptions.
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STAMITZ Flute Concertos
Robert Aitken, flute • St Christopher Chamber Orchestra • Donatas Katkus
8.570150

A pioneer in the development of the symphony, Johann Stamitz also composed several concertos, including fourteen for flute. The four flute concertos presented here, featuring acclaimed Canadian flutist Robert Aitken, show what delightful results came from the combination of Stamitz’s lively musical imagination with the talents of the highly admired Mannheim orchestra’s players for whom they were written. Virtuosity, lyricism and a dash of Bohemian spirit characterise these charming works, in which the emergence of the Classical style from its Baroque antecedents can be heard.
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 Naxos Local Product

GERMANY

16th Grand Opera Gala in support of the AIDS Foundation
Simone Kermes, Peter Seiffert and other artists.
Choir & Orchestra of German Opera Berlin • Andriy Yurkevich

8.551233

The Grand Opera Gala in support of the AIDS Foundation was again held at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the 16th occasion that the Opera had hosted the Gala. This event has become one of the most important charity functions to be hosted in the capital and is now an established fixture on Berlin's cultural and social calendar. Under the direction of Andrij Yurkevych and working alongside the chorus and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, established singers such as Peter Seiffert, Simone Kermes and Michael Volle celebrated the world of opera in all its fascinating variety. All-round talent Max Raabe acted as MC. A distillation of pure opera entertainment serving an important cause that continues to affect us all.
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 Naxos Local Product

SWEDEN

Underbar en stjärna blid
Auld Lang Syne, Ave Maria, Gammal julvisa ‘Guds Son ar fodd’, Glad dig du Kristi brud, Glans over sjo och strand, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Jesus ar min frojd och gladje, Jul, jul, stralande jul, Look Shephard Of Bethelhem, Nu tandas tusen juleljus, Sankta Lucia, Stilla natt, The Christmas Song, Till Betlehem mitt hjarta, Underbar en stjarna blid
Mats Norrefalk, electric and acoustic guitar • Ulf Samuelsson, organ and director • Ida Zackrisson, soprano • Krister Zackrisson, baritone
Sankta Eugenia Vokalensemble

8.572340

This CD is both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time - it mostly contains well-known Christmas songs, but in unusual and exciting arrangements. A good choir and top vocal soloists accompanied by organ and sometimes - electric guitar! Everything is presented with great sensitivity and high standards which make this a record to return to time after time.
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 Naxos Featured Album

UK

DUFFY/JOHNSON MANNING The Manchester Carols
The Carol Singers’ Carol, Mirabile Dictu, The Advent Carol, Christmas Flowers, Annunciation, The Trees, Let it be cold, A Miracle, An Angel, New Boy Born, The Gold of Straw, Mary’s Carol, Each Child’s Name, Call it Nazareth, We Believe, The Present Song
The Manchester CarollersNorthern Chamber Orchestra • Richard Tanner
8.572469

The product of an inspired collaboration in 2007 between composer Sasha Johnson Manning and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, The Manchester Carols is a collection of 12 carols which reshape and modernise the Christmas story.  Its creators wanted to write something that is relevant to and reflects modern society, and which acknowledges the fact that even though someone might not subscribe to the religion behind the Nativity story, they can still appreciate it as an inspiring, magical tale.  The carols are for everyone, believers or not.  Far from treading the well-worn path of holly, ivy and mistletoe, Duffy uses the Christmas story as a metaphor for human experience, giving us up-close and personal insights into the central characters of the nativity. As the Poet Laureate says: ‘I think the story is wonderful.  There’s a lot we can take from it on a human level even if we don’t take the divine element.’
‘Once heard, the Manchester tunes are hard to shake off. These are definitely carols to sing’ - The Times
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 Naxos Featured Albums

USA

LOKUMBE Dear Mrs Parks
Wilkins • Detroit Symphony Orchestra  
8.559668

Dear Mrs Parks features a massive ensemble comprised of full orchestra plus choir and four vocal soloists. Influenced by blues, jazz, African music and Gospel music, it pays homage to Rosa Parks inthe form of imaginary letters to the civil rights heroine. Hannibal Lokumbe’s career in music spans over four decades. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Bessie award, the NEA, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has composed works for the Kronos Quartet, the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Houston symphonies.
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The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto 50th Anniversary Edition
(CD & DVD)

Nishizaki • Chengzong • Shanghai Conservatory Symphony Orchestra
Fan • Chengwu • Yin • Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra • Leaper

Marco Polo 8.225980

In honor of the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto’s 50th birthday, Naxos has released the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto 50th Anniversary Limited Edition performed by the world renowned violinist Takako Nishizaki. She was the only non-Chinese artist invited to perform at the official Butterfly Lovers 50th Anniversary Concert held at the Beijing's Great hall of the People. Copies autographed by Takako Nishizaki available by special request. The box set contains the complete Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto on the 24K Gold CD and the re-issued DVD filmed in West Lake, Hangzhou.  Also included on the CD and DVD is the Yellow River Piano Concerto performed by the pianist Yin Chengzong.
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BERLIOZ Benvenuto Cellini
Burkhard • Naouri • Sherratt • Brindley • Petrenko • Kovalevska
Stoelzl • Morell • Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

2.110271  

‘A mix of futurism a la Metropolis, fantasy a la Batman and quotes from Piranesi’s Carceri, juxtaposed in the form of photo montages, enhanced with…robots, a helicopter, a shark and the winged vehicle of a pop star Pope’, was how the Neue Zuercher Zeitung described this astonishing Salzburg Festival production of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. The high-calibre cast, headed by Burkhard Fritz as the temperamental Renaissance artist and the 26-year-old Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Teresa, the woman with whom he tries to elope, is conducted by Valery Gergiev who ‘pulled out all the stops. He whips the Vienna Philharmonic into a delirium similar to that which possibly took hold of the composer’. (Der Standard) This is French grand opera at its fast-paced and spectacularly-staged best.
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Naxos Distributed Label Priority Titles

AUSTRALIA

SCHUBERT Winterreise
Mark Padmore, tenor • Paul Lewis, piano
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907484

Gramophone CD of the Month ‘Two deeply thoughtful artists push each other ever onwards…Padmore sets out on a searing journey of self-revelation…A recording to live with’ – Gramophone
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Also released this year by these artists:
BEETHOVEN Complete Piano Sonatas
Paul Lewis, piano
Harmonia Mundi HMX290190211

BRITTEN Before Life and After
Mark Padmore, tenor • Roger Vignoles, piano
Harmonia Mundi HMU907443

Dreamland: Choral Riches from the Hyperion Catalogue
Sacred choral works by Arvo Pärt, Morten Lauridsen, John Tavener,
James MacMillan, Gabriel Jackson, Pawel Lukaszewski and more.
Holst Singers • Polyphony • Schola Cantorum of Oxford • Tonus Peregrinus Westminster Cathedral Choir • Trinity Choir Cambridge
Hyperion HYP41

A new and intriguing sampler featuring a selection of pieces from Hyperion’s extensive and varied choral collection. This disc seeks to give a flavour of the contemporary choral music recorded by Hyperion over the last decade. Whilst on one level it can stand alone as a tribute to the beauty of its composers’ writing and choirs’ singing, it also lifts the lid on the albums from which the tracks are drawn. A perfect introduction to the magic new worlds of sound that await the listener
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My First Ballet Collection
Scenes from The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppelia, and more
Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Darcey Bussell, Various Dancers
OA1019D

The perfect gift for daughters, granddaughters and budding ballerinas! Visit the interactive ballet mini-site for more information, footage, pictures, and gift ideas for young ballet lovers: www.savd.com.au/ballet
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See all Select Australia’s new releases

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Naxos Distributed Label Priority Titles

CANADA

Silk Road
Vienna Boys’ Choir • Film by Curt Faudon
Arthaus CD 104028 Music from the Motion Picture
Arthaus DVD 101471
Arthaus 2-DVD + CD 101469
Arthaus Blu-ray 101470

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Curt Faudon brings to life a never before seen, intimate view of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, the most famous boys’ choir in the world. The film takes the viewer for a whirlwind spin around the world and deep into the choir’s history, with music to match. Faudon deftly changes locations, music, sounds, and moods, matching the choristers’ own fast pace of life and continually surprising the viewer with music or offbeat facts from the choir’s rich past or frank interviews with insights from the boys – straight from the horse’s mouth. Experience a touching coming-of-age story, breathtaking musical performances and awe-inspiring international locations along the Silk Road with tidbits of mystery. The musical offerings, collected from the choir’s long tradition and musicological field research, come in Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Marathi, Maori, Savo Finnish, Tajik, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek and German. Most of the pieces have not been recorded by the Vienna Boys’ Choir before.

BEETHOVEN/MOZART Piano Concertos
Martha Argerich, piano • Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Seiji Ozawa, Eugen Jochum, conductors
BR Klassiks 403571900701

A concert by Martha Argerich is always sensational, sometimes grandiose, and occasionally the audience experiences a truly stellar event. Going through the archives of Bavarian Broadcasting, the feeling was unanimous: on these evenings Argerich was in top form, collaborated with two congenial conductors, inspired the orchestra and drew inspiration from it. After the concert evening in June of 1983, the audience and reviewers were unanimous in their enthusiasm, as attested by the Abendzeitung: ‘Martha Argerich, currently in the form of her life, played…with inimitable fire without forgetting intimacy, sensitivity and expression.’
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A Chatman Christmas – Choral Music of Stephen Chatman
University of British Columbia Singers • Bruce Pullan, conductor
Centrediscs CMCCD 15509

Naxos of Canada is now the proud distributor of the Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs, the Juno-award winning label that has released 150 titles so far, garnering the acclaim of critics and listeners alike. The label is unique among recording labels in Canada because it features only works by Canadian composers. New for November is A Chatman Christmas. The songs heard on this CD, composed over a twenty year period (1988-2008), were inspired by Chatman’s keen interest in the rich tradition of Christmas choral music and his personal experiences over many Christmas holiday seasons. His compositional approach – for example, strophic settings of strophic poems, diatonic melodies and harmonies, and traditional vocal textures – is not only a conscious, deliberate homage to the Christmas choral tradition but also a significant contribution to this canon of choral repertoire.
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Vivaldi!
Marie-Nicole Lemieu, contralto • Ensemble Matheus
Jean-Christophe Spinosi, director

Naïve V5212

This collection features the repertoire that revealed the magic that is Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux in a recorded format. Her first CD portrait is dedicated entirely to Vivaldi. It includes her interpretations of some of the composer’s most beautiful and famous arias from works such as Orlando Furioso, Griselda, La fida ninfa and Stabat Mater, all of which have been acclaimed by the press. Soprano Sandrine Piau and counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky also feature in the programme.  ‘Certainly Marie-Nicole Lemieux in the title role gives a blazing star performance.’ - Opera News on Lemieux’s Orlando Furioso
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Naxos Distributed Label Priority Title

GERMANY

MENDELSSOHN Violoncello solo
David Geringas, cello • Ian Fountain, piano
Profil – Edition Guenther Haenssler PH08003

David Geringas is one of the most versatile musicians of our time. As a cellist and conductor, he has an unusually wide-ranging repertoire from the earliest Baroque to contemporary music. Born in Lithuania, he was the first musician to perform many Russian and Lithuanian avant-garde works in the West. He has received the highest Lithuanian awards for his worldwide commitment to the music and composers of his country. In October 2006 President Horst Koehler of Germany bestowed the First Class Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on the artist for his achievements on the international music scene as musician and as cultural ambassador of Germany. David Geringas holds honorary professorships at the Moscow Conservatory and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and has an honorary doctorate from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
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Naxos Distributed Label Priority Title

SWEDEN

Christmas Songs
Orphei Drängar male-voice choir • Ida Falk Winland, soprano
Linné Brass Quintet • Members of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra
Cecilia Rydinger Alin, conductor

BIS 1833

Formed in 1853, the choir Orphei Drängar (OD) has constantly striven to discover and develop new directions for the male-voice choir, while not neglecting its splendid traditions. The first OD disc recorded together with the choir's new artistic director, the celebrated choral conductor Cecilia Rydinger Alin, is no exception. Described by Choir & Organ (UK) as 'a tremendous choir, with superb technique and an immense, expressive range', OD gives proof of its versatility in a highly varied programme which still manages to stay within the theme of Christmas: original settings and new arrangements of Swedish folk songs and Christmas classics, English carols and Broadway songs - with Stille Nacht, a Russian hymn in praise of the Holy Virgin, and Eric Whitacre's widely admired Lux aurumque added for good measure. Supplying even more nuances to the palette is the choir's guest artist, the young Swedish soprano Ida Falk Winland, as well as a brass ensemble, supporting choir and soloist in parts of the programme.
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 Naxos Distributed Labels

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

  Capriccio

There are no Capriccio new releases this month.

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 Dacapo

getString
Music by Simon Christensen, Christian Winther Christensen,
Jexper Holmen, Jens Voigt Lund, & Simon Steen-Andersen
Silesian String Quartet • Morten Riis remix
DACAPO 8.226530

String quartets of the 21st Century by five Danish young composers who interpret one the most classical of genres very freely. String quartet meets electronica - in a fruitful clash of traditions and new possibilities. The concept of ‘sound' is the common denominator for a whole new view of the venerable configuration of four string instruments in a quartet. Five young Danish composers lead the genre into the future, and the five are linked by electronic remixes of their works, so that the CD forms a ‘composition of compositions’. The result is effortless, virtuoso, colourful music with a wealth of nuances!

NORGARD A Light Hour
Percurama Percussion Ensemble • Gert Mortensen, leader
DACAPO 8.226100

Per Norgard's (b. 1932) A Light Hour is a stimulating and vital percussion manifestation. And the title can be taken quite literally: the music lasts an hour, begins with a bright sound and ends in an elevated mood with a collectively improvised ‘note feast'. Originally A Light Hour was an improvisation work from 1986, but in 2008 Per Norgard created this new through-composed version. By way of a wealth of instruments the listener is sent on a percussion journey around the world brilliantly realized by the percussion virtuoso Gert Mortensen and his ensemble Percurama, whose members themselves come from 15 different countries.

NORGARD Der göttliche Tivoli (The Divine Circus)
Bernd Gebhardt, baritone • Fabienne Jost, soprano • Steffen Kubach, baritone • Andrea Stadel, soprano • Daniel Szeili, tenor • Hubert Wild, baritone
Hans-Kristian Kjos Sorensen, percussion • Dorian Keilhack, conductor

DACAPO 6.220572-73 (SACD)

Der göttliche Tivoli (The Divine Circus) is Per Norgard's marvellous portrayal of the Swiss schizophrenic artist Adolf Woelfli (1864-1930). It stands as a key-work in contemporary Nordic music drama and present in two acts Woelfli's two periods in life: his rough upbringing in Switzerland in the late 19th century and confinement in an insane asylum, where over more than 30 years he produced an endless number of incredible artworks. The encounter with Woelfli's life and art became a significant turning point in Norgard's music, which lead to a series of great works all dealing with chaos and catastrophe. Among those Der göttliche Tivoli, which here is presented on disc for the first time in a live performance from the Stadttheater Bern in 2008.

MOZART Mitridate re di Ponto
Henriette Bonde-Hansen, soprano • Sine Bundgaard, soprano
Anders Jerker Dahlin, tenor • Maria Fontosh, soprano
Kristina Hammarström, mezzo-soprano • Lisa Larsson, alto
Mathias Zachariassen, tenor • Ars Nova Copenhagen
Danish National Chamber Orchestra • Adam Fischer, conductor

DACAPO 6.220580-82 (SACD)

A distributed release for DRS, the label for the Danish National Chamber Orchestra’s Mozart releases with their chief conductor Adam Fischer. Their studio production, earlier released only in Denmark, is sought to be as true to Mozart’s intensions for practice as possible – a great Danish cast.

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 Ondine

There are no Ondine new releases this month.

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 OUR Recordings

There are no new OUR Recordings this month.

See OUR Recordings Catalogue

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 Phoenix Edition

There are no Phoenix Edition new releases this month.

See Phoenix Edition catalogue

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Naxos December 2009 Samplers

December New Release Sampler I
Orchestral/Stage/Choral

Buy all 10 tracks for only
USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

8.570881 MALIPIERO Sinfonia in un tempo
8.570453 BACH Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht, BWV 52 - Aria:
Immerhin, immerhin, wenn ich gleich verstossen bin!

8.570824 CRESSWELL Cassandra's Songs - No 1 Cassandra's Lament
8.570981 MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL 6 Lieder Op 7 No 1 Nachtwanderer
8.572153 MARKEVITCH Concerto Grosso - Allegro vivace e leggier
8.572189 MESSIAEN Harawi - No 11 Katchikatchi les etoiles
8.572438 VERDI I vespri siciliani Act III - In braccio alle dovizie
8.572469 MANNING The Gold of Straw
8.660261-62 DONIZETTI Maria Stuarda Act I - Era d'amor l'immagine
8.660268-69 STRAUSS II Eine Nacht in Venedig (A Night in Venice)
Act I - Lied mit Chor: Frutti di mare!

December 2009 Samplers
December New Release Sampler II
Piano/Violin/Organ/Chamber/Instrumental

Buy all 13 tracks for only
USD 1.49 / GBP .99 / EUR .99

8.570524 GADE Violin Sonata No 3 - Allegro non troppo e scherzando
8.570958 RODE 24 caprices en formes d'etudes - No 10 in C sharp minor
8.572093 RAVEL Violin Sonata in G major - Blues: Moderato
8.572096 GARBIZU Basque Suite No 1 - Minuetoa (Minuet)

8.570781 LIGETI String Quartet No 2 - Sostenuto, molto calmo
8.559629 BEGLARIAN I will not be sad in this world
8.572159 DVORAK Piano Quartet No 1 - Finale: Allegretto scherzando
8.572238 ROGER Piano Trio Op 77 - Allegro
8.572246 LITAIZE 12 Organ Pieces No 1 Prelude
8.572315 ROSSINI Peches de vieillesse Vol 5: Album pour les enfants adolescents
- No 4 Prelude Moresque

8.572446 HILL String Quartet No 5 ‘The Allies’ – ‘Syncopated’ Intermezzo: Allegro moderato
8.572377 BEETHOVEN String Trio in G major Op 9 No 1 - Scherzo: Allegro
8.572342 LAURIDSEN O Magnum Mysterium (arr. for wind band)

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