The October New On Naxos celebrates the return of the Vasari Singers, on a new festive album 'Music on a Christmas Morning'. Other highlights include the second instalment of Haydn's Late Symphonies series, an album of works by Kodály conducted by JoAnn Falletta, and a new production of Lakmé with Pygmalion, conducted by Pichon and featuring soloists Sabine Devieilhe & Stéphane Degout. Enjoy!
NEW ON NAXOS The World’s Leading Classical Music Label
OCTOBER 2023
This Month’s Other Highlights
© 2023 Naxos Rights US, Inc.
NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
Vasari Singers © Matt Pereira
INCLUDES A WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Music on Christmas Morning A festive mix of fresh and favourite carols CHILCOTT • FARRINGTON • FINZI • HOWELLS LLEWELLYN • PAISH • PEACOCK • RUTTER Roderick Williams, Baritone • Martin Ford, Organ Vasari Singers • Jeremy Backhouse Christmas is a time for special musical experiences, from gentle traditional carols to rousing calls for worship. This recording fully represents the Vasari Singers’ renowned seasonal programmes, mixing familiar festive fun with newly inspired creations such as the world premiere recording of Helena Paish’s beautiful setting of words by the youngest of the Brontë sisters. From the evocative narrative of Finzi’s In Terra Pax to the joyous potpourri of A Merry Little Christmas , this, like the Vasari Singers’ previous Christmas release, A Winter’s Light (Naxos 8.573030), is a recording to treasure. Key Features: • This festive release follows on from The Vasari Singer’s highly successful Christmas collection A Winter’s Light (8.573030) which appeared back in November 2012 so is due for a partner disc. The latter in this substantial programme includes the world premiere recording of a Vasari-commissioned carol by up-and-coming and indeed award-winning young composer Helena Paish entitled Music on a Christmas Morning . • The main soloist for this album is Roderick Williams , one of the UK’s most sought-after concert and opera baritones and winner of the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award. His Naxos recordings include the Vaughan Williams album Willow-Wood (8.557798) receiving a Gramophone Award nomination, and was considered ‘an essential addition to the Vaughan Williams discography’ in ClassicsToday.com. •
8.574542 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
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Click to listen to Traditional: Ding dong! Merrily on high
About the Vasari Singers The Vasari Singers was founded in 1980 and is regarded as one of the leading chamber choirs in Britain. Under the direction of its founder-conductor Jeremy Backhouse , Vasari Singers performs a wide range of repertoire from Renaissance to
contemporary. The choir regularly sings at major concert venues and other locations in London and elsewhere, including abroad. The ensemble’s extensive discography includes a large collection of premiere recordings, many of which are of works commissioned by Vasari Singers, as well as two collections of Christmas music. Many of the choir’s recordings have received high acclaim, achieving chart successes and similar recommendations.
The Vasari Singers has previously collaborated with Roderick Williams in a recording of Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs (8.574416). Gramophone wrote Williams and organist Martin Ford ‘are at the top of their game and generate a fervent rapport with the Vasari Singers’.
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
8.574517 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Adam Fischer © Nikolaj Lund
Key Features: • Adam Fischer has conducted the Danish Chamber Orchestra for over two decades. He has two major cycles already recorded for Naxos – the first is the complete Beethoven symphonies on 8.505251: ‘I find these performances utterly fascinating… The recorded sound is excellent’ ( Gramophone ). The cycle won both the Opus Klassik and International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in the Symphonic category. • ‘The Danish Chamber Orchestra’s excellent playing ensures a set in which relationships, between orchestral groups, between sections of movements, and between symphonies, are thoughtfully and provocatively delineated. These renditions showcase Beethoven’s revolutionary side in a way few other sets even come close to managing’ ( Fanfare ). The second volume in this series (Volume 1 is on 8.574516) is devoted to three more ‘London’ symphonies. No. 96 in D major ‘The Miracle’ – so named, as the legend goes, after a falling chandelier narrowly missed the audience during its Hanover Square Rooms premiere – exemplifies the grandeur of these works. The structural surprises of No. 97 in C major and the hymnal slow movement of No. 98 in B flat major reinforce Haydn’s inexhaustible compositional versatility and inventiveness. These recordings are the product of a two-decade partnership between Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra during which they have explored the most effective technical solutions necessary for performing these works. Franz Joseph HAYDN (1732–1809) Late Symphonies, Vol. 2 Nos. 96 ‘The Miracle’, 97 and 98 Danish Chamber Orchestra Adam Fischer
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Click to listen to Symphony No. 97 in C major, Hob.I:97: IV. Finale: Spirituoso
About Adam Fischer, Conductor Adam Fischer has been associated with the Danish Chamber Orchestra since 1997, serving as chief conductor from 1998, where he still is a major driving force and initiator both in Denmark and internationally. In 2019, he was awarded the international Wolf Prize for Music, was nominated Conductor of the Year by Presto Classical in the UK, and received the BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Award for his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
Danish Chamber Orchestra
Companion Titles – Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
Zoltán KODÁLY (1882–1967) Háry János Suite
Summer Evening • Symphony in C major Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta
Zoltán Kodály’s life was largely occupied with collecting his country’s folk music and devising the internationally renowned method of music education that bears his name. His orchestral output is therefore a relatively small but astonishingly colourful and rhythmic legacy, brimming with Hungarian spirit. Háry János is the charming story of a veteran soldier and the ‘tall tales’ he spins about his life, while Summer Evening is a timeless evocation of that gentle moment in the day. The Symphony in C major occupied Kodály for over 20 years, the composer’s disarming explanation being, ‘I was busy with more Kodály’s Háry János Suite is one of his most popular works, and it is joined here by the Symphony in C major which is relatively unknown, but still full of the composer’s distinctive harmonic and melodic fingerprints. • This release joins JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra ’s previous Kodály programme on Naxos 8.573838 to present his complete orchestral works. This recording was considered one in which ‘Falletta magically distils the essence of an authentic ‘‘Hungarian’’ Kodály sound. The playing of the Buffalo Philharmonic is sparkling but earthy throughout’ in MusicWeb International , and we can be sure that collectors will be eager to add this new disc to its widely acclaimed predecessor. important work’. Key Features: •
8.574556 Release Date: 27 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic
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Click to listen to Háry János Suite: V. Közjáték (‘Intermezzo’)
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Krzysztof PENDERECKI (1933–2020) Symphony No. 6 ‘Chinese Songs’ 1 Trumpet Concertino 2 • Concerto doppio 3 Jarosław Bręk, Bass-baritone 1 • Hsin Hsiao-ling, Erhu 1 David Guerrier, Trumpet 2 • Aleksandra Kuls, Violin 3 • Hayoung Choi, Cello 3 Norrköping Symphony Orchestra • Antoni Wit
Penderecki’s Symphony No. 6 ‘Chinese Songs’ is an intimate, chamber-scale work for bass-baritone and orchestra. It sets eight Chinese poems in German adaptations linked with interludes for the two-stringed erhu. It proved to be Penderecki’s last completed symphony and is imbued with great pathos as well as melodic beauty. The Trumpet Concertino is taut, spirited and full of dextrous interplay between the soloist and orchestra. His single-movement Concerto doppio for violin, cello and orchestra, is a work of keen
unpredictability. Key Features: •
8.574050 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Penderecki Symphonies conducted by Antoni Wit
Conductor Antoni Wit is a major presence in the Naxos catalogue and a performer who is admired worldwide: ‘Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra provide letter-perfect renditions that also fully capture the spirit as well’ ( Fanfare on 8.573062). Wit has also recorded the Magnificat (8.572697): ‘The ever-imperturbable Antoni Wit is in his element throughout, sustaining the tension in the quieter early stages and delivering maximum impact later on’ ( Gramophone ). • The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra is billed as one of the most exciting orchestras in Scandinavia. For Naxos, the orchestra has recorded works by Alfvén (8.557612 and 8.557828) and operas by Hallström (8.225214-15 and 8.555322-23).
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Click to listen to Trumpet Concertino: IV. Vivo ma non troppo
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
Sabine Devieilhe as Lakmé © Stefan Brion
Léo DELIBES (1836–1891) Lakmé Opéra-comique in three acts (1882) Libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille Sabine Devieilhe, Soprano • Ambroisine Bré, Mezzo-soprano Frédéric Antoun, Tenor • Stéphane Degout, Baritone Pygmalion • Raphaël Pichon, Conductor Laurent Pelly, Stage director Premiered in 1883, Lakmé remains one of the most popular of all French operas. Reflecting contemporary tastes, the original source material presented a tragic liaison between a French officer and a Tahitian woman on a Pacific island, but Delibes moved the location to British- ruled India where the two central characters are torn between passion and loyalty, and assailed by a fanatical religious leader. For this opera Delibes wrote music of indelible beauty, including the much-loved ‘Flower Duet’ and ‘Bell Song’.
2.110765 Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 Language: French Subtitles: French, English, German, Japanese, Korean Region code: 0 (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 1 (DVD 9) Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Key Features: •
Of this Lakmé performance parterre box wrote: ‘The true star of the evening was Stéphane Degout , whose Nilakantha was a commanding presence… His was a large sound, tooled into a fine instrument by a brightness of tone and a clarity of resonance, especially in the upper register. His ’Lakmé ton doux regard se voile’ was absolutely glorious – simultaneously tender and forceful’. • Alongside his ensemble Pygmalion , which he founded, Raphaël Pichon has performed at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Château de Versailles, the BBC Proms, the Bozar Bruxelles, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Kölner Philharmonie, and the Palau de la Música Catalana of Barcelona, amongst many others. • Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (2.110707/NBD0138V) is another Opéra Comique recording from the same conductor, ensemble and lead: ‘The cast is truly exquisite. Each singer etches a strikingly individual portrayal that projects the story with perfect clarity, enhanced by impeccable diction’ ( American Record Guide ). • They have also recorded Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice (in Berlioz’s edition) on Naxos 2.110638/NBD0100V: ‘Ensemble Pygmalion’s deeply moving production of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice , recorded live in October 2018 at the Opéra Comique in Paris, is not to be missed’, wrote Opera News .
Also available on Blu-ray Video: NBD0177V Picture format: HD 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-MA 5.1 Language: French Subtitles: French, English, German, Japanese, Korean Region: A, B, C No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Previous Opéra Comique productions on Naxos Audiovisual
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Heinrich August MARSCHNER (1795–1861) Overtures and Stage Music, Vol. 2 Prinz Friedrich von Homburg • Klänge aus Osten Kaiser Adolph von Nassau • Austin Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra • Dario Salvi
Heinrich Marschner developed his own distinctive operatic style that enabled him to become the leading German opera composer between Weber and the rise of Wagner. The works in this second volume of overtures and stage music (Volume 1 is on 8.574449) span much of his compositional life, from the early commission for Prinz Friedrich von Homburg , a work that explores ethical philosophy, to the sumptuous and varied excerpts from Austin . The stirring overture from his dramatic cantata Klänge aus Osten reinforces his orchestral mastery and sense of colour. Key Features: • Vol. 1 can be heard on Naxos 8.574449 with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice under Dario Salvi . ‘These performances are fine, and the [orchestra] plays its heart out. Dario Salvi seems to be making the rounds with music of this type, and he does a good job here. The sound is good too’, wrote American Record Guide. • Salvi has also recorded Bronsart’s Jery und Bätely ; ‘it may qualify as an important work by virtue of its being, allegedly, the first opera by a German female composer. That may be enough of an incentive for committed opera mavens to acquire this release’ ( Fanfare ). • Humperdinck’s music for the stage is available on Naxos 8.574177: ‘The performances are uniformly skilled and spirited. The singing from both the soloists and the chorus is excellent – lively in expression and accurate in pitch and phrasing. Salvi conducts with a flexibility most effective for theater music’ ( American Record Guide ).
8.574482 Release Date: 27 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Dario Salvi, Conductor
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Click to listen to Prinz Friedrich von Homburg: Act I: Entr’acte
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INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Ivor GURNEY (1890–1937) Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 Piano Sonata No. 2 – II. Adagio • Five Preludes • Autumn George Rowley, Piano
Ivor Gurney’s songs (Naxos 8.572151) have long earned him renown but his works for piano, composed over the period of a decade, are hardly known. The lyrically beautiful Five Preludes reflect influences as wide as Schumann and Scriabin but preserve Gurney’s expressive freshness. The Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 inhabit very different sound worlds from each other, and only one movement of Sonata No. 2 has survived, a deeply poignant elegy – all of which are heard here in world premiere recordings. His poem for piano, Autumn , offers further opportunity to discover this rarely heard music by a composer for whom the pursuit of beauty was of the utmost importance. Key Features: • Gurney is best known for his songs and Naxos has a song recital available on 8.572151: ‘[There are] many favourites, and many discoveries here: none of them to be missed’ ( BBC Music Magazine ). His arrangement of The Trumpet can be heard on Naxos 8.573426 , coupled with works by Butterworth, Finzi and Vaughan Williams. Played by Philip Lancaster, BBC Music Magazine wrote that it is a ‘high point of this disc’. • Pianist George Rowley has performed throughout the UK and abroad, including appearances at the Winchester Festival, Holywell Music Room and the Liddell Concert Series. He has reached the final stages of many competitions including the Brighton and Hove Concerto Competition, the Intercollegiate Piano Competition (Beethoven Piano Society of Europe) and the Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize.
8.574479 Release Date: 27 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – English Piano Music
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Click to listen to Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor: I. Moderato
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632–1687) Acis et Galatée Pastorale héroïque in three acts with prologue (1686) Libretto by Jean Galbert de Campistron, after Ovid’s Metamorphoses Sung in French Elena Harsányi, Soprano • Jean-François Lombard, Tenor • Luigi De Donato, Bass Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino • Federico Maria Sardelli
Jean-Baptiste Lully’s unrivalled position at the Sun King’s court gave him freedom to produce numerous grand theatre works. Acis et Galatée is acknowledged as one of his masterpieces with its adroit alternation of effects and situations and its substantial use of dances and choruses. The opera was composed as part of lavish celebrations for the Dauphin’s stay at the castle of Anet and is a pastorale héroïque , with its plot based on the love story between the nymph Galatée and the shepherd Acis. The work’s ‘heroic’ element is provided by the presence of the mythical Neptune and cyclops Polyphème who, for the love of Galatée, crushes Acis under a boulder. Key Features: •
8.660529-30 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Baroque Opera
This recording documents the belated premiere of Lully’s opera Acis et Galatée in Florence, the city of his birth. His last completed theatre work and an acknowledged masterpiece in this genre, there are surprisingly few recordings of this opera available, so we are delighted to be able to present the disc edition of this highly
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successful 2022 production with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , also available on the Dynamic label as DYN-37971 (DVD) and DYN-57971 (Blu-ray). • Federico Maria Sardelli is a Baroque music specialist and one of the most interesting and eclectic artists of today. He is a conductor, virtuoso flautist, musicologist, composer, painter, engraver, satirical writer and best-selling author with L’Affare Vivaldi , and has twice been nominated for GRAMMY Awards.
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Click to listen to Act II: Scene 6: Entrée de Polyphème et de sa suite: Marche – Qu’à l’envi chacun se presse
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Franz SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Waltzes and Écossaises Didier Castell-Jacomin, Piano
As a young composer immersed in the new bourgeois scene in Vienna, Schubert was perfectly positioned to write for the many salons that had opened in the city. The fashionable dances he wrote for them also gave him an avenue for their publication and the selling of scores. These charming gems were not intended for the concert stage but offer a surprising and seemingly spontaneous outpouring of melody and harmonic wit – and even imitations of Tyrolean yodelling. The 12 Écossaises, D. 299 are known to be the first work Schubert composed away from Vienna. Didier Castell-Jacomin employs the 1982 Henle edition based on manuscripts and first editions. Key Features: • Steinway Artist Didier Castell-Jacomin has been described as ‘a sparkling pianist’ by well-known commentator Norman Lebrecht; Paul Badura-Skoda, after they had played together, said he was ‘a true Mozartian’. On Naxos 8.574012 he joins the Vienna Chamber Symphony Quintet for a ‘delightful transcriptions of works by Mozart’ ( ResMusica.com ). • Schubert’s Rarities and Short Piano Works can be heard on 8.574135 played by the Polish pianist Wojciech Waleczek: ‘Fascinating, rarely heard Schubert, played with impeccable taste and fluency by a superb pianist’ ( MusicWeb International ).
8.574165 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Other releases of Schubert Piano Music
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Click to listen to 38 Waltzes, Ländler and Écossaises, Op. 18, D. 145: Waltzes Nos. 1–12
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NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2023
Armenian Brilliance ABRAMIAN • ARUTIUNIAN • BAGDASARIAN • BARKHUDARIAN BEKARIAN • KHACHATURIAN • KOMITAS • MIRZOIAN Nikolay Madoyan, Violin • Armine Grigoryan, Piano Small in form yet rich in artistic significance, these delightful Armenian works for violin and piano are both evocative and songful. Komitas Vardapet’s poetic examples include Krounk (‘The Crane’), the anthemic symbol of the motherland, whilst Khachaturian is represented by his enticing Dance in B flat major , his first ever work, and by violin arrangements from his popular ballet Gayane . This album presents some of Armenia’s finest composers in a programme of nostalgic evocations, folkloric infusions and exquisite melodies. Key Feature: This recording is violinist Nikolay Madoyan ’s debut album for Naxos. In 2017 he was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the ‘The Longest Violin Performance’ which lasted for 33 hours, 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
8.574535 Release Date: 13 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Armenian Composers 8.573467 | 8.570988 | 8.550800 | 8.570324
Click to listen to VARDAPET, K.: Tsirani Tsar (‘The Apricot Tree’)
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INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Lorenzo PEROSI (1872–1956) Piano Quintets Nos. 3 and 4 String Trios Matteo Bevilacqua, Piano • Roma Tre Orchestra Ensemble
Lorenzo Perosi was both a priest and a composer, enriching Italian music with a large body of transcendent choral music that was admired by Puccini. Much less well known is his chamber music, written during a creative outpouring after serious illness between 1928 and 1931. The piano quintets are marked by rich melodic ideas and a buoyancy of mood. The String Trio No. 1 in G minor is admirably concise and the accompanying six string trios reflect a strong command of counterpoint. Perosi’s piano quartets and String Trio No. 2 are available on Naxos 8.574375. Key Feature: This recording follows Perosi’s Piano Quintets Nos. 1 and 2 and String Trio No. 2 (8.574375): ‘The playing is ebullient and committed, and sometimes really sparkles… There is much that is dramatic and cinematic about this music’ ( Gramophone ).
8.574484 Release Date: 27 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – 20th Century Italian Classics 8.574375 | 8.579042 8.572628 | 8.557661-63
Click to listen to Piano Quintet No. 3 in A minor: III. Vivo senza correre
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Leopold GODOWSKY (1870–1938) Piano Music, Vol. 15 53 Studies on the Chopin Études, Vol. 2 Konstantin Scherbakov, Piano
Leopold Godowsky began composing his 53 Studies on the Chopin Études in 1894 when he was only 23, finishing two decades later. His fertile musical imagination and exceptional virtuosity ensure that the studies sound vastly more complex and daringly inventive than Chopin’s original material. Late Romanticism informed Godowsky’s conception and his use of the left hand, for example, reinforces the many demands that he considered necessary for contemporary virtuosity, with music that is fearsomely challenging and boundlessly inventive. This release completes the full set of Études that began with Volume 1 (Marco Polo 8.225372). Key Feature: Volume 14 (8.225372) was a MusicWeb International ‘Recording of the Month’ and received a 9/9 mark from ClassicsToday.com : ‘ Konstantin Scherbakov is a one-of-a-kind pianist, as his prolific output demonstrates. He’s well known not only for his attempts to record all of Godowsky’s works, but also for his interpretations of Beethoven’s. There is no one better for Godowsky’, wrote American Record Guide .
8.225385 Release Date: 27 Oct 2023
Companion Titles – Previous releases in Leopold Godowsky Piano Music series 8.223793 | 8.223794 | 8.223795 | 8.223898 8.223899 | 8.225187 | 8.225267 | 8.225274 8.225226 | 8.225276 | 8.225350 | 8.225364 8.225367 | 8.225372
Click to listen to Seven Études, Op. 10 – No. 2 in D flat major
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