The World of Classical Music NAXOS NEW ON JULY 2025
This Month’s Other Highlights
© 2025 Naxos Rights US, Inc.
NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
Jeremy Backhouse © Sam Canetty-Clarke
Click to listen to SHEARING, G.: Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare: No. 3. It was a lover and his lass LISTEN About Jeremy Backhouse, Conductor Jeremy Backhouse is one of Britain’s leading choral conductors, and has been the sole conductor of the internationally renowned chamber choir Vasari Singers since its inception in 1980. Since winning the prestigious Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition in 1988, the ensemble has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio and Classic FM, and has recorded a discography of over 30 highly acclaimed albums on EMI, Guild, Signum, Naxos and its own VasariMedia label. In 1995, Backhouse was appointed music director of the Vivace Chorus. Alongside the standard classical works, he has conducted the choir in a vast array of ambitious programmes, including sell-out performances at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. DIGITAL PRE-RELEASE SINGLE
8.574699 Release date: 11 Jul 2025
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The Music Never Ends Close Harmony Songs by Ellington • Shearing Sondheim • Legrand The Beatles • The Swingles Gareth Giles, Piano Gareth Huw Davies, Double bass Vasari Singers • Jeremy Backhouse
Close harmony singing is the vocal equivalent of a jazz big band, and this programme is the Vasari Singers’ personal tour of a style in which they have excelled for years. Their connection with Ward Swingle and the pioneering Swingle Singers is explored in arrangements ranging from traditional folk songs such as the haunting Danny Boy , to favourites by The Beatles and the delicious harmonies of Stephen Sondheim. George Shearing’s English musical background and American jazz influence combine in his Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare , and the album closes with a cleverly integrated and up-beat version of Duke Ellington’s classic It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing). The Vasari Singers directed by Jeremy Backhouse is one of the UK’s leading chamber choirs, and has been responsible for some of our most successful choral recordings, their album of Great British Anthems (8.572504) being described as ‘essential listening’ by Gramophone . In Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem (8.573049), ‘the Vasari Singers grip the work with evident relish and commitment’ as reviewed by BBC Music Magazine . Their choral concert album Heaven Full of Stars (8.574179) was also much admired by the American Record Guide : ‘the whole program is mesmerising and the performances are exquisite – perfect intonation, blend, expression, musicality, and sheer beauty of choral sound’. • Key features: • The Vasari Singers have also gained a significant following with their Christmas releases on Naxos, including the highly successful collection A Winter’s Light (8.573030) which appeared back in November 2012, to be joined in October 2023 by Music on Christmas Morning (8.574542) which was admired in the American Record Guide as being ‘performed beautifully. The Vasari Singers… produce an excellent traditional British choral sound. The joy the singers radiate is a tribute to Jeremy Backhouse’s spirited direction’.
John LENNON (1940–1980) Paul McCARTNEY (b. 1942) Blackbird – I will (arr. J. Rathbone) * Only available for download and streaming
9.50343 * Release date: 6 Jun 2025
Vasari Singers
Companion titles – Jeremy Backhouse and the Vasari Singers
8.574179
8.573030
8.574542
8.572504 8.573049
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NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Valentin Silvestrov and Christopher Lyndon-Gee © Inna Galatenko
8.574481 Release date: 11 Jul 2025
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Click to listen to Symphony No. 8: V. Moderato – Allegro vivace – LISTEN
Valentin SILVESTROV (b. 1937) Symphony No. 8 Violin Concerto * Janusz Wawrowski, Violin * Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra Christopher Lyndon-Gee
About Christopher Lyndon-Gee, Conductor Internationally renowned conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee is known worldwide for his catalogue of many dozens of recordings, almost all of these since 1994 with Naxos. These include the complete orchestral music of Igor Markevitch and of Edgard Varèse; most of the symphonies and orchestral works of George Rochberg (a project still in progress); and, since their first collaborations in Kyiv in 2016, the present series of music of Valentin Silvestrov. Other prize-winning recordings include the music of Hans Werner Henze, Ottorino Respighi, Dmitry Shostakovich, Larry Sitsky (his opera The Golem ), Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Bliss and Richard Strauss.
Valentin Silvestrov was forced to leave his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022. His music has a prescient quality that unerringly seems to express the fate of his homeland. The intimate Violin Concerto and the heartfelt, single-span Eighth Symphony are notable for their economy of expression and emphasis on beauty, depth and harmony. This is music that hovers on the edge of silence in an uplifting homage to love and humanity, hope and renewal.
Key features: •
This release follows on from a previous recording on Naxos 8.574413 with violinist Janusz Wawrowski and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. With the Symphony for Violin and Orchestra ‘Widmung’ as its main work, this release has received wide
critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine commenting that ‘Wawrowski is an eloquent exponent of the many lyrical passages… It’s all strangely beautiful, and, at the same time, disconcertingly haunting.’ • The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Lyndon-Gee have also recorded Silvestrov’s Seventh Symphony (Naxos 8.574123). This was considered ‘a demonstration-class recording’ and ‘a very appealing release’ in Gramophone , and a ‘highly commendable release’ by MusicWeb International .
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Companion titles – Christopher Lyndon-Gee and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
8.574413
8.574123
8.573282
8.573618
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NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
Dario Salvi
8.574483 Release date: 25 Jul 2025
Click to listen to Das Schloss am Aetna, Op. 95: No. 4: Con forza (Tempo primo) – No. 5: Coda LISTEN
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Heinrich August MARSCHNER (1795–1861) Overtures and Stage Music, Vol. 3 Das Schloss am Aetna Der Bäbu • Die Verlobung vor der Trommel Lukretia • Sangeskönig Hiarne Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava Dario Salvi Heinrich August Marschner was a master of German Romantic music, and this third volume in the series presents excerpts from some of his later operas. These include Das Schloss am Aetna with its dark Faustian themes, and Lukretia in which the composer generates an air of Classical antiquity. Both Sangeskönig Hiarne and Der Bäbu showcase Marschner’s talent with descriptive ballet music, allowing us to discover a completely new side to his musical craft. About Dario Salvi, Conductor Dario Salvi is a busy and respected conductor with a versatile and eclectic repertoire, which has been recognised through numerous awards and nominations, including the 2023 ‘Riccardo Drigo’ Music for Ballet prize and a 2022 International Classical Music Awards nomination for the world premiere recording of Johann Strauss II’s Waldmeister (Naxos 8.660489-90). His passion for the rediscovery and performance of long-forgotten masterpieces and the curation of world premieres has put Salvi in the spotlight around the world.
Key features: •
Vol. 1 (Naxos 8.574449) launched this edition in December 2022 with the American Record Guide admiring the way ‘the Czech Chamber Philharmonic plays its heart out. Dario Salvi seems to be making the rounds with music of this type, and he does a good job here. The sound is good too’. • Vol. 2 (Naxos 8.574482) followed in October 2023 and was welcomed by The Light Music Society : ‘Throughout this release the music is given committed performances by a wonderfully full-sounding orchestra and the solo sections (for cello, horns and violin) in the final track of the [disc] are all superbly executed. The orchestra and conductor are to be congratulated, as always, for bringing this music to the fore after a period of such neglect’. • With numerous Naxos recordings to its name, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava is one of the leading symphonic orchestras of the Czech Republic which, and with its distinctive sound and progressive repertoire it is held in the highest esteem by audiences and critics alike.
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Companion titles – Previous releases in the series
Dario Salvi and the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
8.574449
8.574383
8.574482
8.574597
8.574396
8.574335
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NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
Enea Scala as Cadmo and Maria Elena Pepi as Ada © Gianfranco Rota
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797–1848) Il diluvio universale Azione tragico-sacra in three acts (1830) Libretto by Domenico Gilardoni (1798–1831) Critical edition of the first version (Naples, 1830) by Edoardo Cavalli © Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo, 2022 Giuliana Gianfaldoni, Soprano • Maria Elena Pepi, Mezzo-soprano Enea Scala, Tenor • Nahuel Di Pierro, Bass Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala Il diluvio universale (‘The Great Flood’) was premiered in Naples in 1830 but is better known in the much-revised version performed four years later in Genoa and Paris. The story, loosely drawn from the Bible, concerns Noah and his family, their conflicts, and the impending catastrophe of the flood. The opera offers a stream of attractive music, powerful choruses and refined harmonies, and represents a crucial stage in Donizetti’s musical thought. This acclaimed 2023 Donizetti Festival performance, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, employs the original 1830 edition. Orchestra Donizetti Opera Riccardo Frizza, Conductor
8.660580-81 Release date: 11 Jul 2025
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Click to listen to Act I: Recitative: Di Cadmo la consorte (Jafet, Tesbite, Noè) – Scene 2 Sela? Tu piangi… (Noè, Sela) LISTEN
Companion titles – Gaetano Donizetti, Composer
8.660578-79 8.660576-77 8.660565-66 8.660552-53
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NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Alan HOVHANESS (1911–2000) Concerto No. 2 † Works for Violin and Piano Zina Schiff, Violin • Valerie Stark, Piano Salzburg Chamber Soloists • Avlana Eisenberg † FIRST RECORDING ON CD
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The music of Alan Hovhaness, one of America’s most prolific composers, enchants with his signature synthesis of East and West. Influenced by his Armenian heritage and a fascination with nature and spirituality Hovhaness sought to create music “for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.” This collection of works featuring the violin includes several premiere recordings. Concerto No. 2 , one of a series of ten concertos for various instruments, requires the soloist and ensemble to play using distinctive effects including tone clusters, melisma, and playing without strict measure. Evocations of Armenian liturgy contrasted with dizzying Scottish jigs can be heard in the Violin Sonata . Key features: • This release joins an already substantial and highly popular discography of Alan Hovhaness’s works in the Naxos catalogue, including symphonies and innumerable orchestral works from this most prolific of composers. The Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Strings, Op. 89a joins works such as the ‘very attractive’ ( ClassicsToday.com ) Guitar Concerto on Naxos 8.559336, and the early Cello Concerto, Op. 17 (8.559158) regarded as revealing ‘an inspired melodist and contrapuntalist’ by the Los Angeles Times . • The mother-daughter team of violinist Zina Schiff and conductor Avlana Eisenberg has previously appeared on our American Classics series with the music of William Grant Still (8.559867), which has become a real hit amongst collectors and critics. The New York Times considered it ‘an enjoyable program that ought to spark more curiosity in this composer.’ • Acclaimed conductor Avlana Eisenberg is a passionately committed advocate for emerging and underrepresented American composers, new works, and making symphonic music accessible for all. She is music director of the Boston Chamber Symphony, and has led orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom. Her recent discography includes a Naxos recording of world premieres by William Grant Still with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, acclaimed by The New York Times and selected as Album of the Week by SiriusXM, and a Sibelius/Barber/ BenHaim album with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV, which was praised in Gramophone magazine.
8.559957 Release date: 25 Jul 2025 Companion titles – Recommended releases in the American Classics series
8.559336
8.559158
8.559867
8.559061
Click to listen to Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Strings, Op. 89a: I. Pastoral
LISTEN
Marta PTASZYŃSKA (b. 1943) Double Concerto Concerto Grosso • SE-TA (Sequenza e Tarantella) Daniel Mieczkowski, Flute Roksana Kwaśnikowska-Stankiewicz, Wojciech Koprowski, Violins Zuzanna Elster, Anastasia Razvalyaeva, Harps Klaudiusz Baran, Rafał Grząka, Accordions Chopin University Chamber Orchestra • Mariusz Smolij
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The Polish-born composer, Marta Ptaszyńska, studied under Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, and since 1972 has worked in the United States where she forged cultural links between the two countries. Ptaszyńska has composed in all major genres and has worked with many leading musicians and ensembles. Her harmonic writing is often refined and translucent, with an expressive intensity generated through contrasts. The orchestral works in this album illustrate her gifts for creating evocative atmospheres. Dedicated to and premiered by Yehudi Menuhin, the Concerto Grosso explores Baroque archetypes. Key features: • Conductor Mariusz Smolij is a Polish music specialist and has recorded several acclaimed Naxos albums. The New York Times has written of his ‘compelling performances’. His album of works by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz won a 2015 ‘Fryderyk’ Award (Naxos 8.573229), the Polish equivalent of an American GRAMMY. In 2019 the president of Poland awarded him the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit for the promotion of Polish culture. • He has a long and successful series of recordings by Polish and other composers on Naxos, amongst them Bacewicz, Malawski and Paderewski but also a multi-volume series devoted to Hungarian Eugene Zádor. ‘[Smolij’s] sense of nuance and his choice of tempos seem ideally suited to these works, and the performances suggest that everyone involved was in love with them. The orchestra plays magnificently. One could not ask for more from a performance. The recorded sound is excellent’ ( Fanfare on 8.573800).
8.579173 Release date: 11 Jul 2025 Companion titles – Mariusz Smolij, Conductor
8.573229
8.573800
Click to listen to SE-TA (Sequenza e Tarantella): Tarantella: Vivo, molto energico
8.579159
8.579085
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NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2025
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
History of the Russian Piano Trio, Vol. 7 Lost in Russia ALOIZ • WINKLER The Brahms Trio
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The two composers featured on this album worked in Russia during a period when it had become part of international musical culture, with many European musicians choosing to make a living there. Famous Czech cellist, Vladislav Aloiz, whose cosmopolitan Piano Trio in F major is an inspirational mix of beauty, passionate virtuosity and wit, moved to St Petersburg where he was awarded a professorship at the Conservatoire. Born in Kharkiv to an Austrian family, Alexander Winkler also found himself at the centre of Russian music at the turn of the century. The laconic themes of his masterfully written Piano Trio in F sharp minor are reminiscent of late Brahms. Key features: • The first part of our History of the Russian Piano Trio edition concluded with a fifth volume (Naxos 8.574116) released in July 2021, resulting in a highly collectable anthology which was the first of its kind. Gramophone concluded that ‘together with the excellent fourth volume and the preceding three, this “History of the Russian Piano Trio” is a set to treasure’. •
8.574688 Release date: 25 Jul 2025
Companion titles – Previous releases in the series
The Brahms Trio returns with its follow-up in May 2025 with a second part devoted to the Silver Age and Russian Art Nouveau. The first of these, (Vol. 6, Naxos 8.574687) contained core elements of the piano trio repertoire and of pre-revolutionary Russian music in the form of Rachmaninov’s two Elegiac Trios .
Nikolai Sachenko , Natalia Rubinstein and Kirill Rodin
8.574114
8.574115
Click to listen to WINKLER, A.: Piano Trio in F sharp minor, Op. 17: II. Vivace
NEW
LISTEN
8.574116
8.574687
Carl TEIKE (1864–1922) Marches, Vol. 2 Graf Zeppelin-Marsch Hansa-Marsch Heil Potsdam The Royal Swedish Navy Band Alexander Hanson
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Carl Teike achieved great success at the beginning of his career with Alte Kameraden (available on Naxos 8.574317), renowned as the German ‘march of marches’. Characterised by a clear structure, inventiveness and a wide range of tone colours, Teike’s marches significantly enriched the German concert march genre. On this second of three volumes they range from the festive Aus allen deutschen Gauen (‘From All Regions of Germany’) composed for veterans, marches with patriotic titles such as Der Kaiser kommt and Kaiser- Parole or dedicated to major cities in Northern Germany, to Die Welt in Waffen (‘The Weaponised World’), which gave rise to political scandal in its day. Key features: • This release is the second volume of a three-volume set in a comprehensive edition of Carl Teike’s marches. Both of the first two volumes have been recorded with the excellent The Royal Swedish Navy Band conducted by Alexander Hanson , admired in Vol. 1 (8.574317) by the American Record Guide for its ‘professional renditions that are crisp and balanced, with assured dynamic contrast’. •
8.574318 Release date: 11 Jul 2025 Companion titles – Recommended band music releases
The Royal Swedish Navy Band has appeared on Vols. 11 and 12 of our American Classics edition of the Music for Wind Band of John Philip Sousa, of which Vol. 11 (8.559690) was considered ‘another desirable addition to a very desirable series’ by MusicWeb International .
8.574317
8.559691
Click to listen to Treu Deutsch
LISTEN
8.557545
8.579135
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RETURN HOME
Oscar LORENZO FERNANDEZ (1897–1948) Piano Works Suítes Brasileiras Nos. 1, 2 & 3 Prelúdios do Crepúsculo Sonata Breve Clélia Iruzun, Piano
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Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez belonged to a key group of Brazilian composers including Villa-Lobos, Mignone and Guarneri, who radically transformed the landscape of Brazilian classical music and shaped future generations of composers. Lorenzo Fernandez was essentially a miniaturist, with many of his piano pieces being both richly inventive and short in duration. From the Iberian sonorities of earlier pieces such as the expansive Noturno , via the nationalist flavours of the Suítes Brasileiras , to his final piano work, the technically challenging Sonata Breve , Lorenzo Fernandez’s refined sophistication and originality can be heard in every piece.
8.574593 Release date: 25 Jul 2025 Companion titles – The Music of Brazil series
Click to listen to Suíte Brasileira No. 1: III. Saudosa Seresta
LISTEN
8.574225
8.574591
8.574595
8.574486
INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Manuel BLANCAFORT (1897–1987) Complete Songs, Vol. 2 Cançons de muntanya Cançons per a infants * Cançons tradicionals catalanes ** Anna Alàs i Jové, Mezzo-soprano Miquel Villalba, Piano * WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING ** WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF ARRANGEMENT
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Manuel Blancafort’s music has a concise tonal directness that draws on his fondness for French composers. His Cançons are not simply evocative but embody an increasing use of the Noucentist aesthetic: the Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that was a reaction against Modernisme . Blancafort rejected the Romanticism and Wagnerian pathos of the modernist Lied in favour of Classicism and beauty – sentiments he shared with his Catalan contemporaries Toldrà, Gerhard and Mompou. Intimate, sensitive and playful, his Catalan songs connect both to his country’s past and also to a wider European musical culture. Key features: • Vol. 1 in this series is on 8.579012: ‘One would be hard pressed to imagine a more sympathetic interpreter of Blancafort’s songs than the impressive Catalan mezzo-soprano Anna Alas i Jové , whose keen artistry brings delicate nuance and subtle shadings to the Catalan texts’, wrote American Record Guide . • Pianist Miquel Villalba has recorded a sequence of five albums of Blancafort’s piano music. Vol. 3 is on 8.557334 and is praised in ClassicsToday.com : ‘Pianist Miquel Villalba upholds the reference standards he’s set in Volumes 1 and 2. His warm tone, sensitive ear for nuance, and utterly natural phrase shaping almost are as addictive as the music itself’.
8.579170 Release date: 25 Jul 2025 Companion titles – Spanish Classics
8.579012
8.574072
Click to listen to Cançons tradicionals catalanes: Muntanyes regalades
8.573548
8.570707
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