NEW ON NAXOS | AUGUST 2025
Arrigo BOITO (1842–1918) Nerone Tragedia in four acts
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ed. Antonio Smareglia and Vincenzo Tommasini under the supervision of Arturo Toscanini (1924) Valentina Boi, Soprano
Deniz Uzun, Mezzo-soprano Mikheil Sheshaberidze, Tenor
Roberto Frontali, Franco Vassallo, Baritones Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari Francesco Cilluffo, Conductor
Arrigo Boito is remembered today for his only completed opera Mefistofele . The score for Nerone was left unfinished at the composer’s death – a performing version was completed by the composers Vincenzo Tommasini and Antonio Smareglia, along with Arturo Toscanini who conducted the world premiere at Teatro alla Scala in 1924. The narrative focuses on Emperor Nero during a time of conflict between beliefs in Imperial Roman gods and Christianity, and ends with tragic dramas amidst the Great Fire of Rome. With influences that include Wagner and Sibelius, Boito’s rarely performed Nerone uses a truly exciting harmonic palette delivered through a masterly handling of huge orchestral forces. Key features: • This recording is a disc edition from Dynamic label released in November 2024 (DYN- 38047 [DVD] and DYN-58047 [Blu-ray]). • Conductor Francesco Cilluffo describes Nerone as the summation of Boito’s 60 years of life as an artist, and as ‘an opera sustained by a harmonic imagination that I would define as unique and without any direct precedent, but also destined to have no equals in the future’. • ‘Francesco Cilluffo… is a splendid advocate for Boito’s complex score, drawing out the opera’s sombre harmonies and brassy monumentalism, and the chorus of the Teatro Lirico make splendid contributions’ ( Gramophone ).
8.660582-83 Release date: 8 Aug 2025 Companion titles – Recommended opera recordings
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Click to listen to Act I: Queste ad un lido fatal
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Antonio SOLER (1729–1783) Keyboard Sonatas Nos. 99–111 Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, Piano
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Antonio Soler enjoyed high prestige at Spain’s royal palace, the Escorial, where his contributions to keyboard technique, harmonic innovation and his Spanish musical identity served to bridge the stylistic gap between the late Baroque and early Classicism. Soler’s innovations have often been overlooked but the intricate modulations and rhythmic vitality found in his sonatas offer compelling evidence of their importance. Sonatas Nos. 99–111 offer a wealth of entrancing features, which include sophisticated ornamentation, a synthesis of contrapuntal and Iberian folkloric traditions, and humorous cadences. Key features: • Twenty-five-year-old Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko was Winner of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition and recipient of the Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medal. A few months before that major win he became the first Canadian Grand Prize Laureate in an instrumental edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal in May 2024. • Vol. 11 is on 8.574418 played by Daumants Liepiņš who recently topped Pianist Magazine ’s list of ‘Four pianists to look out for in 2020’: ‘Liepiņš conveys enthusiasm without sacrificing refinement. He also stands out in the finale, delivering crisp, effervescent passagework even in the most intricately figured gestures’, wrote Fanfare .
8.574666 Release date: 8 Aug 2025 Companion titles – Previous releases in the series
Click to listen to Sonata No. 104 in D minor
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