The April New On Naxos celebrates the 150th anniversary of Sergey Rachmaninov. Boris Giltburg records a new album of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos & Naxos Historical release the Legendary Recordings of Rachmaninov as a 9CD box set. Other highlights include the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's first full-length album, a second volume of Orchestral Works by Vítězslav Novák and a new production of Puccini's opera Tosca with the Dutch National Opera.
NEW ON NAXOS The World’s Leading Classical Music Label
APRIL 2023
YEARS
E R
H
MA
1 8 7
3
This Month’s Other Highlights
© 2023 Naxos Rights US, Inc.
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
MASTERED FOR
8.574528 Release Date: 14 Apr 2023
Boris Giltburg © Sasha Gusov
Companion Titles – Critically-acclaimed Rachmaninov recordings by Boris Giltburg About Boris Giltburg, Piano Pianist Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling musician. In 2020 he recorded on audio and audiovisual all 32 Beethoven sonatas, released in a box set in 2021. The first volume in his complete Rachmaninov concerto recordings series, coupled with the Études-Tableaux and subsequently the Corelli Variations and performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto, won the award for Best Solo Recording at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards, and his recital discs of Rachmaninov, Liszt and Schumann have been similarly well received. Sergey RACHMANINOV (1873–1943) Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Boris Giltburg, Piano Brussels Philharmonic • Vassily Sinaisky Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto was composed while he was a student at the Moscow Conservatoire, then fully reworked before he left Russia in 1917 and again in 1919. It is hard to explain why it never achieved a higher level of popularity – it has all of the melodic beauty, passion and brilliance found throughout the composer’s music. The Fourth Piano Concerto was much revised after harsh criticism at its premiere but it occupies a unique place in Rachmaninov’s oeuvre , showing a progression from lush Romanticism towards the muscular transparency of his later works. The electrifying Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a concerto in all but name – the work’s sense of fun and demonic bravura has ensured its place among the most-loved and often performed works for piano and orchestra. E R H MA 1 8 7 3 YEARS
Click to listen to Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1 – III. Allegro vivace LISTEN
Key Features: •
This recording of the First and Fourth Piano Concertos completes Boris Giltburg’s recordings of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos. It follows on from a recording of the Second Piano Concerto (8.573629) which was an American Record Guide Critic’s Choice and considered ‘compulsive listening’ by BBC Music Magazine. Giltburg’s recording of the Third Piano Concerto (8.573630) shatters the encrustation of reputational habit, offering instead a vividly imaginative recreation of a score that lives and breathes with irresistible vitality.’ ( Gramophone ) • Conductor Vassily Sinaisky ’s reputation in Russian music has been established over a career that spans five decades, including posts as principal conductor of the Russian State Orchestra and at the Bolshoi in Moscow. His Naxos recordings include Franz Schmidt’s complete symphonies in a set that was ‘unreservedly recommended’ by Gramophone . • The Brussels Philharmonic makes regular appearances in the major European capitals, and international representation by IMG Touring has resulted in further tours and concerts. It has also received praise for its expertise in film music, including the Academy Award-winning score for The Artist . The orchestra’s discography, released by Deutsche Grammophon and Palazzetto Bru Zane among others, has garnered international acclaim, with releases receiving ECHO Klassik, Choc de Classica de l’année and Diapason d’or de l’année awards. Its recordings for Naxos include a contribution to the complete symphonies of Belgian composer Marcel Poot (8.574292-93), ‘a set not to be missed’ ( Gramophone ).
8.574025
8.573630
8.573629
8.573469
2
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
8.559927 Release Date: 21 Apr 2023
Alexander Mickelthwate and Noah Bendix-Balgley © Simon Hurst
Jonathan LESHNOFF (b. 1973) Elegy • Violin Concerto No. 2 * Of Thee I Sing ** Noah Bendix-Balgley, Violin * • Canterbury Voices ** Oklahoma City Philharmonic • Alexander Mickelthwate This is Naxos’s fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. He was GRAMMY-nominated for his album Violins of Hope (Naxos 8.559809) and is among the most frequently performed of living composers. The themes of these recent works are remembrance, memorialization, and hopefulness. Elegy addresses ideas of harmony and discord through contrasting thematic ideas. The Violin Concerto No. 2 follows the ‘symphony-concerto’ model with a resonant and lyrical slow movement inspired by Jewish mysticism at its core. Pulsating harmonies eventually subside into serene and hopeful writing in Of Thee I Sing , written in an act of creative transcendence to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Click to listen to Violin Concerto No. 2: IV. Fast LISTEN
Key Features: •
This recording is Oklahoma City Philharmonic ’s first full-length album since its establishment in 1988 and this year marks the 35th anniversary of their formation. • In 2018, Alexander Mickelthwate became music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in 2018, and has embraced Oklahoma City and its rich and colourful tapestry. Artistically, he has programmed several concerts with a Native American theme, and has created some touching tributes to the city’s history. • First concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Noah Bendix-Balgley regularly appears with leading international orchestras and as a soloist. Recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, and solo engagements around the world, with extensive tours throughout Asia and Europe. • Now in its fifth decade, the prize-winning ensemble Canterbury Voices is Oklahoma’s premier symphony chorus, performing three concerts per season at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City. Often accompanied by the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and other community partners, Canterbury consistently offers artistic and educational experiences of the highest caliber to the broadest and most diverse audiences possible in the Central Oklahoma region.
Oklahoma City Philharmonic
Canterbury Voices
3
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Marek Štilec © Antonín Bína
Click to listen to Slovácká suita, Op. 32 (‘Moravian-Slovak Suite’): IV. U muziky (‘The Ball’) LISTEN
8.574369 Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
Vítězslav NOVÁK (1870–1949) Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 Moravian-Slovak Suite • Two Wallachian Dances De profundis * Pavel Svoboda, Organ * Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava • Marek Štilec Vitĕzslav Novák was one of the most important Czech composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Moravian-Slovak Suite is one of his most popular works, evoking an eventful and romance-filled day in a Slovakian village. Recorded here for the first time since its rediscovery by producer Jiří Štilec, the Two Wallachian Dances further invoke Novák’s passion for folk music. De profundis was written during the dark days of the Second World War. It includes an important part for organ which is unleashed with full force in one of the most triumphant conclusions in all of 20th-century music. About Marek Štilec, Conductor Czech conductor Marek Štilec is known as an interpreter of Classical orchestral repertoire and is a specialist in Czech Romantic and contemporary music. A prolific recording artist, he has made over 30 discs for labels including Naxos, ArcoDiva, cpo and Supraphon. In the field of historically informed performance Štilec has collaborated with ensembles including Czech Ensemble Baroque and Ensemble 18+. He is also the founder of the Wranitzky Kapelle and artistic director of Academy Prague Mannheim with Das Kurpfälzische Kammerorchester Mannheim. Since 2020 he has been the permanent principal choirmaster of the Czech Boys’ Choir, Boni Pueri.
Key Features: •
Despite his undoubted skill as a master portrayer of poignant atmosphere and monumental landscape, the music of Vitĕzslav Novák is surprisingly little known outside of his Bohemian homeland. Most of the alternative recordings for these works are relatively antique versions with Czech national orchestras on the Supraphon label, though De profundis has appeared more recently on a Chandos recording with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Libor Pešek. Inhabiting comparable worlds to those of Smetana and Dvořák as well as introducing the luminous influence of Debussy, Novák’s works merely need a little extra exposure to become more mainstream and popular, and this new Naxos edition will certainly help raise his reputation with wider audiences. • This second volume of orchestral works by Vítězslav Novák follows on from a first volume (8.574226) released in December 2020 to wide acclaim. ‘Štilec’s performance can hold its head up high as an overall first choice, both interpretively and sonically’ ( Fanfare ). ClassicsToday.com concluded that this is ‘juicy stuff, succulently performed here by Marek Štilec and the Moravian Philharmonic… lovely performances, warmly engineered.’
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Companion Titles – Vitĕzslav Novák, Composer
Marek Štilec, Conductor
8.574226
8.573683
8.574399
8.574336
8.574120
8.574047
4
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
Malin Byström as Floria Tosca and Gevorg Hakobyan as Il barone Scarpia © Marco Borggreve
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858–1924) Tosca Opera in three acts (1900) Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou Malin Byström, Soprano • Joshua Guerrero, Tenor Gevorg Hakobyan, Baritone Chorus of Dutch National Opera Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Lorenzo Viotti, Conductor • Barrie Kosky, Stage director Tosca is a melodrama of love, betrayal and death set in the revolutionary unrest of 1800. The story concerns the opera singer Floria Tosca who tries to save her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, from the brutal chief of police, Scarpia. Through-composed and expertly orchestrated it contains some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias and remains one of his most performed operas. In this 2022 production, an eminent cast is directed by the acclaimed Australian director Barrie Kosky – ‘the Amsterdam audience was completely swept off its feet by Kosky’s stunning production’ ( Opera News ).
WATCH VIDEO TRAILER
2.110752 Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 Language: Italian Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Korean Region code: 0 (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 1 (DVD 9) Release Date: 14 Apr 2023 Key Features: • Tosca is the first of Dutch National Opera’s short Puccini cycle by director Barrie Kosky. • Director Barrie Kosky is one of the most internationally sought-after stage directors of today presenting productions all over the world. In 2016 he was named Director of the Year by Opernwelt and in 2017 Kosky’s production of Saul won six out of seven categories at the Helpmann Awards, including Best Opera and Best Opera Direction. In 2018 Kosky’s Bayreuth Festival production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was announced as Production of the Year by Opernwelt . In 2020 he was the recipient of a Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, in recognition of his unique and influential contribution to the Australian Arts world. • Opera News commended Malin Byström ’s ‘radiant and polished singing’ as Floria Tosca. In a previous review of another production it said that ‘Byström … made the character’s passage from sinner to saint fluid and believable. She commands a pristine soprano of distinctive colour and strength…’ • ‘Armenian baritone Gevorg Hakobyan grew into a terrifying Scarpia. Stripped by Kosky of savoir faire and elegant cynicism, Hakobyan offered a harsh, almost plebeian approach to the character that made him a horrifying adversary for Byström's Tosca.’ Opera News also wrote that ‘ Joshua Guerrero ’s Cavaradossi showed an impressive, more metallic timbre.’
Also available on Blu-ray Video: NBD0166V Picture format: HD 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-MA 5.1 Language: Italian Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Korean Region code: A, B, C No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) Release Date: 14 Apr 2023
Barrie Kosky, Stage director
Companion Titles – Giacomo Puccini, Composer
2.110728 (NBD0148V)
2.110385 (NBD0059)
2.110731 (NBD0150V)
2.110677-78 (NBD0122V)
5
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
Anton RUBINSTEIN (1829–1894) Piano Works Six Preludes and Fugues in Free Style, Op. 53 Three Pieces, Op. 71 • Concert Étude in C major ‘On False Notes’ Martin Cousin, Piano
Anton Rubinstein’s remarkable virtuoso career during the 19th century coincided almost exactly with the final developments of the modern piano. The increasing popularity of the instrument combined with Rubinstein’s formidable execution earned him enormous popularity as a performer. The Six Preludes and Fugues in Free Style are major works, each piece dedicated and alluding to famous composers and performers of the day. The charming Three Pieces are small-scale character works, while the Concert Étude in C major is a witty display piece in which ‘wrong notes’ are instantly corrected, like an errant pupil attempting to disguise mistakes. Key Feature: This release is the second of two albums, following on from Martin Cousin ’s previous programme of Anton Rubinstein’s Piano Works (8.574426) released in February 2023. Previous solo piano recordings of works by Anton Rubinstein on the Naxos label include Le Bal (8.574216) played by Warren Lee and summed up as ‘stunning and imaginative’ by MusicWeb International , and his Piano Sonatas (8.573989) played by Han Chen, described as ‘forthright, effective, and often original’ in Records International .
8.574427 Release Date: 28 Apr 2023 Companion Titles – Anton Rubinstein, Composer
NEW
8.574426
8.574300
Click to listen to Six Fugues en style libre introduites de préludes, Op. 53: Fugue No. 1 in A flat major – Allegro risoluto (À Édouard Lalo)
LISTEN
8.574216
8.573989
Franz LISZT (1811–1886) Complete Piano Music, Vol. 60 Schubert Song Transcriptions, Vol. 3 Goran Filipec, Piano
Seldom has the art of song transcription been more creatively fashioned than in Liszt’s homages to Schubert. In this third volume of elegant and virtuosic pieces, Liszt’s prodigious capacity for colouration, shifting textures and use of myriad pianistic devices to suggest changing verses, brings refinement and beauty to each selected song. In songs such as Erlkönig and Die Forelle Liszt excels in drawing the music from the salon to the concert platform. In this recording, Goran Filipec, whose previous Liszt discs were praised by Gramophone as ‘nothing short of superb’, includes some rare versions of Liszt’s transcriptions. Key Features: • The first volume of the Schubert Song Transcription series can be heard on 8.553062: ‘Oxana Yablonskaya has a fine feeling for pianistic texture.’ ( Gramophone ). Volume 2 is on 8.554729 and won a 9/9 award from ClassicsToday.com . • Goran Filipec plays on the Vol. 51 of Liszt’s Complete Piano Music series on 8.573794. Gramophone wrote, ‘A seasoned and perceptive Liszt player, Filipec commands vast technical resources and a shimmering, beautifully expressive sound. His idiomatic grasp is such that, if we didn’t have the final versions of these works, Filipec’s take on the earlier drafts would go a long way towards compensation. With its blend of unusual yet recognisable repertory and first-class pianism, this is a release you won’t want to miss.’
8.574095 Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
Click to listen to 12 Mélodies de François Schubert: No. 1. La sérénade, S559a
LISTEN
Companion Titles – Previous recordings in Liszt’s Complete Piano Music series
8.574172
8.574147
8.574106
8.574148
8.574149 8.574059
8.573773
8.573714
8.573794
8.573805
6
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Laurent PETITGIRARD (b. 1950) Si Yeou Ki (The Journey to the West) Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Budapest • Laurent Petitgirard
The eclectic career of multi award-winning composer Laurent Petitgirard has seen him become one of France’s leading musicians and conductors, as well as taking him into the worlds of opera and ballet. The Journey to the West is a ballet that tells the story of a monk named Xuanzang who is sent on a perilous journey of redemption from China to India in order to seek out the scriptures of Truth in the Land of Buddha. The ordeals of Xuanzang and his companions are expressed in music that reflects the poetry and spiritual elevation found in this great monument of Chinese literature. Key Features: • Laurent Petitgirard ’s composing career has already spanned five decades, achieving prominence with operas such as Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man (Naxos 8.557608-09 and DVD Marco Polo 2.220001) in a score that is a ‘very French sound-world… with barely a hint of Messiaen and Boulez. …there is a place in our musical world for operas whose virtues include strong construction and secure understanding of the operatic form, along with fine musical craftsmanship’ ( MusicWeb International ). Naxos recordings of his orchestral music include States of Mind (8.574034), considered ‘very interesting, accessible music’ in the American Record Guide , and The Twelve Guardians of the Temple (8.570138), which includes another ballet, Euphonia , considered ‘dramatic and attractive… very impressive’ in MusicWeb International . • Based on the Chinese text Si Yeou Ki, The Journey to the West is a vast, immersive musical canvas that embraces both the high drama and spiritual evolution of the monk Xuanzang’s travels. This recording has the ultimate stamp of authenticity, having been conducted by the composer himself. Creating music for The Journey to the West evolved as an idea since the composer first encountered this book at the age of 16. It is a significant achievement by any cultural standards and will inevitably generate a great deal of interest both in Europe and China.
8.574392 Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
WATCH VIDEO TRAILER
Companion Titles – Laurent Petitgirard, Composer and Conductor
8.574034
8.573113
8.660300-01 8.570138
Equinox 21st-Century Orchestral and Chamber Works – SHUYING LI • JESS LANGSTON TURNER • KEN STEEN GILDA LYONS • ROBERT CARL • JOSEPH TURRIN Robert H. Davis, Annmarie Kelly Davis, Narrators Foot in the Door Ensemble • Glen Adsit, Edward Cumming, Conductors
Foot in the Door is The Hartt School’s new music ensemble. The music featured on this album was written for – and premiered by – the ensemble, and is the work of Hartt alumni, or current and former faculty members. The pieces owe their inspiration to a TV series, to the mutations of fire, aerosol physics, political resistance, the process of breathing in meditation, and to the beauty of rebirth in the spring. The music is crafted to showcase the virtuosity and stylistic variety of this ensemble. Key Features: • The Hartt School’s Foot in the Door Ensemble is one of the most recognised collegiate new music groups in the United States. Past composers-in-residence include Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Bright Sheng, Michael Colgrass, John Corigliano, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty. • Edward Cumming is director of orchestral activities at The Hartt School. He was music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for ten years, twice receiving ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. Before coming to Hartford, Cumming was resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, during which time he also led the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
8.559896 Release Date: 14 Apr 2023
Companion Titles – Recent American Classics releases
NEW
NEW
8.559925
8.559926
8.559920
8.559867
Featured Composers
8.573342 8.572109 8.579070
Click to listen to LI, Shuying: The Last Hive Mind
LISTEN
7
NEW ON NAXOS | APRIL 2023
Mario CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895–1968) Greeting Cards – 21 pieces for guitar Andrea De Vitis, Guitar
Between 1953 and 1967, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote a series of Greeting Cards . These 52 musical folios, 21 of which were written for the guitar – an instrument that had inspired him since he first heard Segovia perform – are pen portraits of admired colleagues. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s imagination and technical mastery are reinforced by the use of rhythms associated with the dedicatees’ nationality or through evocations inspired by their names. The cycle offers a surprising, generous and rewarding body of musical cryptology that belies its small-scale form. Key Feature: Andrea De Vitis is considered one of the most talented guitarists of his generation and has won over 40 awards at several prestigious competitions, including the Guitar Masters International Guitar Competition in Wrocław, the ‘Altamira’ Guitar Competition in Iserlohn, and the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition.
8.574246 Release Date: 14 Apr 2023
Companion Titles – Andrea De Vitis, Guitar 8.573983 | 8.573984
Click to listen to 52 Greeting Cards, Op. 170: No. 6. Rondel on the Name of Siegfried Behrend
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Composer 8.570778 | 8.570779 | 8.572252-53 | 8.574319
LISTEN
Dieter AMMANN (b. 1962) Core – Turn – Boost & unbalanced instability Simone Zgraggen, Violin • Basel Sinfonietta • Baldur Brönnimann
Dieter Ammann has won numerous international awards and is now one of the most renowned Swiss composers of his generation. The multilayered unbalanced instability is a concerto for violin and chamber orchestra that seeks unpredictability and shifting perspectives between solo and orchestra. Ammann’s slowly developed orchestral triptych reflects his meticulous working methods. Core reshapes and transcends its improvised origins, while the slowly unfolding Turn serves as an adagio in the set. The irrepressible energy of Boost forms the kind of dramaturgy of tension and release that led Boulez to describe Ammann’s music as ‘artistic reflected spontaneity at the highest level’. Key Features: • This release will be Dieter Ammann ’s debut on our label. • Ammann is renowned in his native Switzerland and beyond, with numerous works recorded on the Musiques Suisses label, as well has having significant works such as the Piano Concerto ‘Gran Toccata’ released on the BIS label (BIS-2310), and The Freedom of Speech on Hat Hut Records (hat[now]ART 158).
8.551474 Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
Companion Titles – Swiss Composers 8.555411 | 8.570829 | 8.573241 | 8.572192
Sergey RACHMANINOV (1873–1943) Pianist and Conductor Legendary Recordings, 1919–1942 Sergey Rachmaninov, Piano • Conductor The Philadelphia Orchestra • Leopold Stokowski • Eugene Ormandy
YEARS
E R
H
MA
1 8 7
3
Rachmaninov’s 78rpm discs constitute one of the most important recorded legacies in the history of music. He started recording for Edison in 1919 but thereafter was a Victor artist for the remainder of his life. These acoustical and electrical recordings attained technical and interpretative heights seldom equalled and saw collaborations with conductors Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy in the four piano concertos. Rachmaninov performs a broad selection of his own solo piano works as well as favourites from his repertoire by other composers. Symphony No. 3 and The Isle of the Dead can also be heard with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the composer’s baton. The set includes discs not issued at the time and the critically acclaimed remastering has been carried out by Ward Marston and Mark Obert-Thorn.
8.109001 [9 Discs] Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
Companion Titles – Other Great Pianists on Naxos Historical 8.111387 | 8.112052 | 8.111116 | 8.111366
Naxos Historical recordings are not available in the United States
8
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker