The New on Naxos for March 2024 highlights Strauss' ballet and orchestral work 'Josephs Legende' based on the parable about struggles between good and evil. Naxos celebrates another recording of works by Guerra-Peixe with Neil Thomson conducting the Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra, and recognises the powerful String Quartets written by Florence Price and Leo Sowerby and expertly performed by the Avalon String Quartet. Naxos Audiovisual shares two new productions: the Deutsche Oper Berlin's Die Walküre (originally released in a set) and Carl Nielsen's 'Maskarade' with the Oper Frankfurt. Enjoy!
NEW ON NAXOS The World’s Leading Classical Music Label
MARCH 2024
This Month’s Other Highlights
© 2024 Naxos Rights US, Inc.
NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
8.574551 Release Date: 8 Mar 2024
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Fabrice Bollon © M. Korbel
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Click to listen to Plötzlich tritt eine dumpfe Stille ein (‘Suddenly there is an ominous stillness’): Moderato
Richard STRAUSS (1864–1949) Josephs Legende Staatskapelle Halle • Fabrice Bollon
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Not many associate Richard Strauss with the world of ballet, and Josephs Legende is one of his less well-known orchestral scores. There are a few recordings around, and our recording of the orchestral suite with the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnn Falletta (8.572041), was considered ‘utterly glorious’ in MusicWeb International , but this work has long been overshadowed by the popularity of Strauss’s other stage and orchestral pieces. A complete recording of this evocative work will be a major attraction amongst this year’s new releases. • The Staatskapelle Halle is one of the largest and greatest symphony orchestras in central Germany, and is traditionally deeply rooted in the world of concerts and music theatre productions. Fabrice Bollon has been its musical director and chief conductor since the 2022/23 season.
Richard Strauss’s single-act ballet Josephs Legende emerged in 1914 just as the world’s attention was turning to war. But with its exotic instrumental colouring and the composer’s intent to rejuvenate dance into a ‘purely inspirational form’ dedicated to ‘absolute beauty’, it reveals a great ballet composer and demonstrates his orchestral mastery to the full. Josephs Legende is a parable about struggles between good and evil based on the familiar Old Testament story of the slave boy Joseph. The work’s dramatic tale is set with alluring sensuality expressed through Strauss’s gift for soaring themes. About Fabrice Bollon, Conductor Fabrice Bollon has made numerous appearances with many renowned European orchestras, and from 2009 to 2021 served as general music director/chief conductor at Germany’s Theater Freiburg, overseeing numerous recordings for Naxos including a remarkable interpretation of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane in 2018 (8.660410-12). His work in Freiburg garnered international acclaim, including Editor’s Choice accolades in Gramophone magazine and Diapason d’Or Awards, among others. He has been chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Halle and general music director of the Halle Opera since August 2022. Bollon is also an acclaimed composer, and his operas Oscar und die Dame in Rosa and The Folly have been highly acclaimed by both critics and audiences. In 2020 his album of original compositions released on Naxos (8.574015) received a Choc de Classica award and an ICMA nomination.
Companion Titles – Richard Strauss, Composer
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
8.573924 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
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Neil Thomson © Rafaella Pessoa
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About Neil Thomson, Conductor Neil Thomson has been the principal conductor and artistic director of the Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra since 2014, leading the orchestra to national prominence with its championing of Brazilian and contemporary repertoire. He also enjoys a busy international career working with all the major UK orchestras and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (Osesp), WDR Rundfunkorchester, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the Romanian National Orchestra, among others. He has performed with many distinguished soloists including Dame Felicity Lott, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir James Galway, Nelson Freire, Jean Louis Steuerman and Antonio Meneses. César Guerra-Peixe is one of the leading composers associated with musical nationalism in Brazil. A Retirada da Laguna is a programmatic suite that describes one of the most dramatic moments in the Paraguayan War of 1864–70, while his Concertino is a clever hybrid between folk music timbres and sophisticated high art ambitions. Museu da Inconfidência is one of the composer’s most admired works, taking us through a museum of 18th-century rebellion and heroism. Guerra-Peixe’s Symphonic Suites Nos. 1 and 2 can be heard on Naxos 8.573925, acclaimed by ClassicsToday.com as ‘absolutely world-class’. César GUERRA-PEIXE (1914–1993) A Retirada da Laguna Concertino * • Museu da Inconfidência Abner Landim, Violin * Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra • Neil Thomson
Click to listen to X. Canção à fraternidade universal
Key Features: •
This release joins César Guerra-Peixe’s Symphonic Suites in the series (Naxos 8.573925), a recording much acclaimed by critics: ‘Neil Thomson leads some sparkling performances from the Goiás Philharmonic, and the engineering allows instrumental detail to shine through’ ( Gramophone ). • Since its creation in 1980, the Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra has committed itself to promoting classical music in the Brazilian state of Goiás by placing particular emphasis on Brazilian music in its programmes. Neil Thomson was appointed principal conductor and artistic director in 2014, and under Thomson’s leadership the orchestra has rapidly grown into an ensemble of national importance and is now widely regarded as one of the top three orchestras in Brazil. •
The orchestra has also recorded symphonies by Claudio Santoro for our ‘Music of Brazil’ series, joining forces with violinist Abner Landim in their second volume of this complete edition (8.574406) with its ‘impressive and rarely heard works all played with absolute conviction and panache’ ( Gramophone ).
Companion Titles – The Music of Brazil series
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
The cast of Maskarade © Monika Rittershaus
2.110762 Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 and DTS 5.1 Language: German Subtitles: German, English, Japanese, Korean Region code: 0 (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 1 (DVD 9) Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
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Carl NIELSEN (1865–1931) Maskarade (sung in German) Comic opera in three acts (1906) Libretto by Vilhelm Andersen
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With its lively dances, superbly acted and witty libretto, and Carl Nielsen’s highly individual sense of harmony and lyrical expressiveness, this is a comic opera that ‘has it all’, having that rare quality in this genre of being genuinely funny. Maskarade has always had an exciting aura of freshness and discovery about it, and that frisson between neo-Classical modernity and 18th-century Enlightenment sensibility adds further dimensions to its wildly entertaining fascination. •
based on a comedy by Ludvig Holberg New German translation by Martin G. Berger Monika Buczkowska, Susan Bullock, Sopranos Michael Porter, Tenor • Liviu Holender, Baritone • Alfred Reiter, Bass Chor der Oper Frankfurt Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester Titus Engel, Conductor Tobias Kratzer, Stage director Nielsen’s Maskarade is regarded as Denmark’s national opera. It combines folk-song character, Mozartean elegance and virtuoso surprises to create what conductor Titus Engel describes as ‘musical comedy that’s both witty and of the highest calibre’. Based on an 18th- century play by Ludvig Holberg, the story revolves around Leander and Leonora who meet at a masquerade ball, swear undying love, and then have to deal with the complicated consequences of their situation, all accompanied by Nielsen’s irresistibly sparkling score. This acclaimed contemporary staging from Oper Frankfurt is sung in a new German translation and directed by Tobias Kratzer.
This 2021 Frankfurt production received critical acclaim: ‘The cast was solid, led by the German bass Alfred Reiter as Jeronimus, with a flexible voice, well-emitted bass and a controlled register that he showed with intelligence of means and an ideal performance. The American tenor Michael Porter showed the light of a showy timbre, with great ease in the entire upper third… The winner of the evening was the Austrian baritone Liviu Holender as Henrik… Full voice, smooth colour of full lyrical baritone, convincing actor, he knew how to live up to a committed and central role, he was the last to come out to say hello and received the loudest ovation of the night’ ( plateamagazine.com ). ‘ Titus Engel highlighted Nielsen’s magnificent orchestration with a sufficiently agile and transparent work, which shone even more than in the overture, in the other orchestral passages, such as the beautiful prelude to the second act – splendid woodwinds – with a lyricism that contrasted appropriately with the fast-paced finale of the first act…’ ( codalario.com ).
Michael Porter
Liviu Holender
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Also available on Blu-ray Video: NBD0174V Picture format: HD 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo and
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Language: German Subtitles: German, English, Japanese, Korean Region: A, B, C No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Titus Engel
Companion Titles – Other Oper Frankfurt productions
NEW
NEW
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2.110770 (NBD0181V)
2.110739 (NBD0155V)
2.110738 (NBD0154V)
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde © Bernd Uhlig
2.110741-42 Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo Language: German Subtitles: German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean Region code: 0 (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 2 (1 DVD 9 and 1 DVD 5) Release Date: 8 Mar 2024
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Richard WAGNER (1813–1883) Die Walküre Nina Stemme, Elisabeth Teige, Sopranos Brandon Jovanovich, Tenor • Iain Paterson, Bass-baritone Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’) comprises four operas of which Die Walküre (‘The Valkyrie’) is the second, famous for its spectacular set-pieces such as the Ride of the Valkyries and Wotan’s Farewell. The plot focuses on the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde and on the disobedience of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who defi es the edict of Fricka, the goddess of marriage, to punish them. With Die Walküre Wagner achieved a perfect synthesis of poetry and music. Sir Donald Runnicles conducts an internationally acclaimed cast in this innovative new production by Norwegian director Stefan Herheim. Sir Donald Runnicles, Conductor Stefan Herheim, Stage director
Key Features: •
The individual operas from the acclaimed Deutsche Oper Berlin Ring cycle released in DVD (2.107001) and Blu-ray (NBD0156VX) sets on Naxos in November 2022 are now being made available to buy separately starting with Das Rheingold (2.110740 / NBD0157V) in February, then Die Walküre in March, Siegfried in April and Götterdämmerung in May. • It is directed by the award-winning Norwegian director Stefan Herheim who is acclaimed as one of the most important directors of the moment, known for his emphasis on the historical contexts of ideas.
Wagner expert Sir Donald Runnicles , in addition to working with the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin , is currently continuing his Ring interpretations at the opera houses of Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna and San Francisco, and at the BBC Proms in London, the Edinburgh International Festival and The Metropolitan Opera in New York.
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Also available on Blu-ray Video: NBD0158V Picture format: HD 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 Language: German Subtitles: German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean Region: A, B, C No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) Release Date: 8 Mar 2024
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Florence Beatrice PRICE (1887–1953) Leo SOWERBY (1895–1968) Music for String Quartet Avalon String Quartet
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Florence Price and Leo Sowerby were both prominent members of the Chicago music community in the 1930s and 1940s, and they are known to have respected each other’s work. Most of Florence Price’s compositions remained unpublished at her death, and her String Quartet in A minor was not performed in her lifetime. Its African American vernacular idioms and colorful harmonic language are characteristics shared in the famous melodies woven into the later Five Folksongs in Counterpoint . From its brooding opening through propulsive rhythms, expressive lyrical melodies and fugal finale, this premiere recording of Sowerby’s String Quartet in G minor reveals a work undeserving of its decades of obscurity. Key Features: • This recording is very much part of an encouraging rediscovery of Florence Price, the first African American female to have a symphonic work performed in Chicago back in 1933, coupled with Leo Sowerby’s unpublished String Quartet in G minor . This is the kind of release that adds significantly to our knowledge of American classical music in the 1930s, topped off with the attraction of Price’s better- known Five Folksongs in Counterpoint from 1951. •
8.559941 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – American Classics titles
Described by the Chicago Tribune as ‘an ensemble that invites you – ears, mind, and spirit – into its music’, the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of America’s leading chamber music ensembles. In 2018 they released an acclaimed recording of the complete quartets of Matthew Quayle for Naxos (8.559851): ‘Vividly recorded and thoughtfully annotated (by Quayle himself), this is a welcome introduction to a composer from whom one looks forward to hearing more’ ( Gramophone ). In 2018 they have also recorded Aqua by Harold Meltzer for Bridge Records, a recording which received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Classical Compendium.
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From left to right: Blaise Magnière , Cheng-Hou Lee , Marie Wang and Anthony Devroye
8.559028 8.559851
Click to listen to SOWERBY, L.: String Quartet in G minor, H. 226: III. Slowly; rhapsodically
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WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Johann Simon MAYR (1763–1845) Messa solenne in D minor Anna Feith, Bogna Bernagiewicz, Sopranos • Freya Apffelstaedt, Alto Markus Schäfer, Fang Zhi, Tenors • Niklas Mallmann, Bass Simon Mayr Chorus • Concerto de Bassus • Franz Hauk
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Johann Simon Mayr’s music stands on the cusp between the Classical and Romantic eras. The expressive lyrical qualities in his religious music reflects a career in which he composed nearly 70 operas. The Messa solenne follows the Italian tradition of messa concertata and contains the full ordinary – a rarity for Mayr’s output in this genre. The work’s polyphonic sections made an especially lasting impression on churchgoers of the time, as witnessed by Mayr’s first biographer, Girolamo Calvi, who wrote enthusiastically about this work’s ‘exquisite vocal writing’ and ‘profoundly thrilling’ virtuosity – qualities that have remained hidden for nearly 200 years. Key Features: • Franz Hauk is the world’s leading expert and exponent of the music of Johann Simon Mayr, and his numerous new editions and recordings of operatic and other vocal works by this composer is internationally recognised as highly significant: ‘Naxos’s project of recording the major works of Simon Mayr is an extremely important event, introducing to most of us a composer of genuine individuality and importance’ ( Fanfare on the cantata Arianna in Nasso , 8.573065). •
8.574524-25 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Franz Hauk, Conductor
The strong and trusted ensemble of soloists for this recording include soprano Anna Feith , who has been part of several Mayr recordings for Naxos including Franz Hauk’s acclaimed release of the Messa di Gloria (8.574208). Renowned tenor Markus Schäfer was praised by the American Record Guide for his role as Gutrumo in Mayr’s Alfredo il grande (8.660483-84) displaying ‘a refined tenor with a variety of colors and dynamics’.
8.574203
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Anna Feith
Markus Schäfer
Click to listen to Gloria in excelsis Deo
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8.573909 8.573782
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Reza VALI (b. 1952) The Being of Love Janna Baty, Mezzo-soprano Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen • Fawzi Haimor
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Award-winning composer Reza Vali is a native of Iran but is now based in the United States after studies in Europe. Vali’s distinctive cross-cultural style is founded in a quiet rebellion that saw him return to his Persian musical heritage. Following the dazzling concert opener Ravân , Vali has taken a text by 13th-century poet and mystic, Rūmī, two traditional texts, and words by Vali himself, to create the moving cycle The Being of Love , with each song evoking a different aspect of love. Isfahan uses Persian modes and forms, and is among Vali’s most striking microtonal works, pushing the orchestra beyond its usual twelve-note sound- world in an exciting way. Key Features: • Reza Vali has been described as the ‘Persian Bartók’, and as ‘a composer of wonderful clarity, precision and effectiveness’ in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . The Being of Love sees the release of three premiere recordings, all of which were commissioned and given their first performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. • Also part of our 21st Century Classics edition, The Being of Love joins a previous release of Vali’s orchestral works on the Naxos label (8.557224) which includes Folk Songs (Set No. 10) and was much admired by critics. ‘Vali’s trademark mix of Persian and Western music makes for an unusual and evocative texture that is enormously appealing… The opulent sound and spirit of soprano Janna Baty, a Boston favourite who just finished a run in Boston Lyric Opera’s Così fan tutte , is ideally captured here in a memorably thrilling performance’ ( Boston Herald ). • Praised by the London Financial Times for her ‘eloquent dignity and vibrant tone’, and by the Boston Herald for possessing ‘a voice brimming with richness and confidence’, award-winning soprano Janna Baty has garnered accolades internationally for her exceptionally versatile career both in opera and concert music, specialising particularly in contemporary repertoire.
8.579150 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – 21st Century Classics
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8.579023
8.574208
8.660424-25
Click to listen to The Being of Love: No. 3. Sogvâreh
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INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Paul REALE (1943–2020) American Mosaic Kim Cook, Cello • John Jensen, Paul Reale, Pianos Yale Symphony Orchestra • William Boughton
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Paul Reale’s composing career blossomed in the last years of his life, but he was long held in high esteem as a renowned educator, and as a “mighty maestro with a unique expressive voice.” The New Hampshire state motto “Live Free or Die,” provided the impetus for Reale to finally complete his Cello Concerto in a mere 17 days, spurred on by a diagnosis of terminal illness. This work and the First Piano Concerto gestated over many decades, and both share Reale’s signature toolbox of expressive melody, Baroque counterpoint, references to many types of jazz, and extensions of tonality. The program concludes with the Sixth Piano Sonata , each movement of which ties in with T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land but within a cinematic structure that departs from any traditional form. Key Features: • Kim Cook has performed to critical acclaim as a soloist in 30 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, where she toured as Artistic Ambassador for the US State Department. Cook received enthusiastic reviews for her recordings, including the solo sonatas by Kodály, Crumb and Hindemith, and concertos by Dvořák, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Lalo and Shostakovich. Her recording of concertos by Schumann, Elgar and Strauss ( Don Quixote ) with the St. Petersburg State Symphony was released in 2018, as well as a recording of premieres of works by Paul Reale for Naxos, which received Fanfare ’s Top 5 Award for the year. • Pianist John Jensen has worked with acclaimed orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and he is in great demand as a chamber musician. The music of Paul Reale has been a constant in his pianistic life and Jensen has recorded solo piano music by Reale on both the Music & Arts and Naxos labels.
8.559898 Release Date: 8 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Paul Reale, Composer
8.559879 8.559820
Other piano concertos from the American Classics series
Click to listen to Piano Concerto No. 1: III. –
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NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2024
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Michael DELLAIRA (b. 1949) The Leopard Opera in two acts (2018) Libretto by J.D. McClatchy (1945–2018) Yaqi Yang, Coloratura soprano • Margarita Parsamyan, Soprano Robynne Redmon, Mezzo-soprano • Minghao Liu, Frank Ragsdale, Tenors
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Kim Josephson, Baritone • Kevin Short, Bass-baritone Frost Opera Theater • Alan Johnson, Music Director Frost Symphony Orchestra • Gerard Schwarz
Michael Dellaira has earned a considerable reputation for his series of operas, of which the latest to be recorded is The Leopard . The libretto, by the distinguished poet J.D. McClatchy, is drawn from the 1958 novel written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It charts social and political upheavals during the Italian Risorgimento and, as the young idealist Tancredi tells his uncle, the Prince of Salina, ‘If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.’ The opera’s premiere, conducted by Gerard Schwarz, was exceptionally well received and described by Opera Magazine as ‘superbly crafted.’ Key Features: • Conductor Gerard Schwarz has won eight Emmy Awards and received fourteen GRAMMY nominations. • In 2017 The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30-disc boxed set set of previously unreleased or limited release works spanning his entire recording career was released by Naxos (8.503294).
8.669052-53 Release Date: 8 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Opera titles in the American Classics series 8.669012-13 | 8.669049 8.669001-02 | 8.669140-41
Click to listen to Act I: Scene 5: Tancredi! I know it!
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Franz LISZT (1811–1886) Complete Piano Music, Vol. 61 Transcriptions from Operas Les Huguenots • Il giuramento • Lohengrin • Jean de Nivelle Martin Cousin, Piano
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Nearly half of Franz Liszt’s early output consisted of transcriptions and arrangements, filling out his virtuoso concert programmes with some of the grandest and most popular operas of the day. He cleverly weaves themes through a dramatic Grande Fantaisie on Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots , while the Fantasia on Mercadante’s Il giuramento is a superb example of Liszt’s flamboyant and virtuosic earlier style. All of these works require delicate brilliance and precision alongside a superb technique to meet their fearsome challenges – the Rondeau fantastique on Manuel García’s ‘El contrabandista’ is one of the most technically demanding pieces Liszt ever composed. Key Feature: Our ongoing Liszt Complete Piano Music edition is already an internationally recognised reference for his greatest works as well as for less frequently performed early versions, transcriptions and other rarities. International Piano declared that ‘scholars will pounce on this release’ with regards to Vol. 53 (8.573773), which was also considered ‘first-rate’ and with ‘excellent sound’ by MusicWeb International . Vol. 54 (8.574059) was singled out as ‘particularly interesting’ by Gramophone , and ‘excellent’ by the American Record Guide .
8.574545 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Previous recordings in Liszt’s Complete Piano Music series 8.574095 | 8.574172 | 8.574147 | 8.574106
Click to listen to Fantasia on Italian Operatic Melodies and Mercadante’s Il giuramento , S458/R294 ‘Réminiscences de La Scala’
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Gaspar CASSADÓ (1897–1966) Federico MOMPOU (1893–1987) Complete Solo Guitar Works Eugenio Della Chiara, Guitar
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This album presents the complete solo works for guitar by two Catalan contemporaries, the cellist Gaspar Cassadó and the pianist Federico Mompou. Cassadó wrote six guitar works connected to his friendship with Andrés Segovia, mostly based on folk elements such as the sardana , a traditional Catalan circle dance. In Mompou’s works for guitar, the influence of his mysticism and attachment to Catalan folklore are undeniable. He composed primarily for piano but he also wrote three pieces for guitar, notably Suite compostelana for Segovia. The hypnotic, austere and lyrical elements in this work distil Mompou’s compositional genius. Key Feature: As a soloist, guitarist Eugenio Della Chiara has been a guest of the orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, working with conductors such as Diego Ceretta and Tohar Gil. He has recorded three albums for Decca, and regularly performs with violinist Piercarlo Sacco, guitarist Andrea Dieci, pianist Alberto Chines and tenor Juan Francisco Gatell, as well as collaborating with numerous contemporary composers, who have dedicated around 20 solo and chamber works to him.
8.579103 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Other recordings featuring works by Cassadó and Mompou 8.572142 | 8.572647 | 8.579097 | 8.570457
Click to listen to CASSADÓ, G.: Catalanesca
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Fernando LOPES-GRAÇA (1906–1994) Songs and Folk Songs, Vol. 3 Susana Gaspar, Soprano Nuno Vieira de Almeida, Piano
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Fernando Lopes-Graça, one of Portugal’s most prolific and innovative 20th-century composers, was steeped in the folk songs of various provenances. In this third instalment (the earlier volumes are on 8.579039 and 8.579082) Lopes-Graça sets some of the greatest of all Portuguese poets. His exploration of harmonic complexity and progressive writing is distantly rooted in Debussy and laced with other subtle French elements. Premiere recordings of the kaleidoscopic Old English and French songs, which run the gamut of emotions, are among his earliest settings of foreign folk songs. Key Feature: • Vol. 1 of this series is on 8.579039: ‘This is a valuable offering and a worthwhile sortie into the work of a somewhat neglected composer’ ( American Record Guide ). ‘The recording is perfectly fine. …This disc contains some beguiling repertoire and anyone who has been impressed by this composer’s large-scale orchestral works will find much to enjoy here’ ( MusicWeb International ). • Vol. 2 is on 8.579082: American Record Guide wrote that ‘these performances are first rate… Soprano Susana Gaspar … has a rich creamy voice with a mezzo timbre.’ Of this recording, Fanfare also praised pianist Nuno Vieira de Almeida for contributing ‘the most life and imagination to this enterprise, which is generally well mannered, well prepared…’
8.579152 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Fernando Lopes-Graça, Composer
Click to listen to Six Vieilles chansons françaises, Op. 50 (‘Six Old French Songs’): No. 6. La Vigne au vin (‘From Vine to Wine’)
8.579039
8.579082
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8.574373 8.572817
GREAT COMPOSERS IN WORDS AND MUSIC Robert SCHUMANN (1810–1856) By Davinia Caddy • Read by Leighton Pugh
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The unresolved and ambiguous details of Robert Schumann’s psychological decline and death have tended to dominate his biography. Yet in his time Schumann was lauded as a protean Romantic literary genius whose writings, as a music critic, poet, novelist and dramatist, eclipsed his musical creativity. How did Schumann reconcile these elements? Does his music suggest he suffered from bipolar disorder? How did his pianist wife, Clara, influence his compositions? The narration is illustrated with some of Schumann’s finest works including excerpts from the symphonies, his song cycle Dichterliebe , the piano works Papillon and Carnaval , and the Piano Concerto , among others. About Davinia Caddy, Author Davinia Caddy studied music at the University of Cambridge, where she graduated with a BA (Hons), MPhil and, in 2005, a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation was broadly based on French musical culture from 1890 to 1914. She has since taught at the Universities of Oxford, Oxford Brookes and Auckland. Her books include The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Music and Dance in Belle-Époque Paris (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2020, co-edited with Maribeth Clark), and How to Hear Classical Music , a contemporary guide to the Western classical repertoire written for the general public (Awa Press, 2013). About Leighton Pugh, Narrator Leighton Pugh trained at LAMDA, after studying Modern Languages at Queen’s College, Oxford. His radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4 and the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist . Leighton has been in five productions for the National Theatre, most recently The Lehman Trilogy (NT Live 2018–19, New York, West End). For Naxos AudioBooks he has recorded, among other things, The Diary of Samuel Pepys , Zola’s Germinal , Nana and L’Assommoir , and featured in Walton’s The Compleat Angler .
8.578375 Release Date: 22 Mar 2024
Companion Titles – Previous releases in the series
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8.578362 8.578363
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