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
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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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