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
BUY NOW!
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 Most of Florence Price’s compositions remained unpublished at her death, and her String Quartet in A minor was not performed in her lifetime.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first African American female to have a symphonic work performed in Chicago back in 1933, coupled with Leo Sowerby’s unpublished String Quartet in G minor .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.
8.559827
8.559897
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
LISTEN
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
BUY NOW!
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
8.574057
Anna Feith
Markus Schäfer
Click to listen to Gloria in excelsis Deo
LISTEN
8.573909 8.573782
6
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker