CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
Shakespeare Overtures Volume 2 West Australian Symphony Orchestra / Andrew Penny [ Naxos / CD - released 6/Dec/2010 ] The art of Shakespeare was a recurring fascination for Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In addition to two operas and numerous settings of songs and sonnets, he wrote 11 Shakespeare Overtures which here receive their first ever complete... |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Variations on a Theme by Paganini / Rhapsodies, Op. 79 (recorded 1929-32) Wilhelm Backhaus (piano) / BBC Symphony Orchstra / Adrian Boult, conductor [ Naxos Historical Great Pianists / CD - released 7/Aug/2003 ] Wilhelm Backhaus was born in Leipzig in 1884. A major pianist of the twentieth century, Backhaus was not a pupil of any of the major teachers of his time, and the only pianist of note who had any bearing on his development was Eugen d'Albert |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 / Haydn Variations (1940 - 1950) Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwangler [ Naxos Historical Great Conductors / CD - released 28/May/2007 ] "Ward Marston's transfers sound well. He's retained some surface hiss and those higher frequencies, thankfully, but whilst other restoration engineers might have reached for their graphs and "restored" that recessive percussion he's given us a natura |
SERGEI RACHMANINOV / FRANZ SCHUBERT
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Schubert: Waltzes and Dances / Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata (1946-1952) William Kapell (piano) / NBC Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Golschmann (cond) with Edmund Kurtz (cello) [ Naxos Historical Great Pianists / CD - released 27/Jun/2005 ] "this newcomer is worth investigating for the sake of the Rachmaninov Sonata." Penguin Guide |
BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Schubert's Waltzes and Dances) (rec 1946-1952) William Kapell (piano) / NBC Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Golschmann (cond) with Edmund Kurtz (cello) [ Naxos Historical Great Pianists / CD - released 25/Sep/2006 ] "It looks as though Kapell’s recordings have to be taken as evidence of what might have been rather than as already complete statements. But what might have been was so full of promise that those interested in the history of piano-playing in the 20th... |
MEREDITH WILLSON
Willson: Symphonies Nos.1 & 2 Moscow Symphony Orchestra, William T Stromberg [ Naxos / CD ] "My three-word description of these scores is tunes, tunes, tunes." Fanfare |
Williams/Ukraine National So
Hadley:symphony No.4/The Ocean [ Naxos / CD - released 4/Jun/2001 ] |
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI
Penderecki: Symphonies Nos 1 & 5 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Jan/2010 ] "These CDs are excellent readings of this 'modern' music by Anton Wit and his National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who are probably very familiar with this stuff - because it shows in their passionate performances. The CDs have excellent sound,... |
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI
Penderecki: Symphonies Nos 2 & 4 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit [ Naxos / CD - released 3/Jul/2000 ] "These CDs come at a bargain price, but they don't skimp on anything other than the cost. They are excellent readings of this 'modern' music by Anton Wit and his National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who are probably very familiar with this stuff... |
SCHUMANN
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Jun/1996 ] The Symphony No.1 in B flat major, Opus 38, scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, with four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, three timpani, triangle and strings, is still generally known by the title Schumann first proposed... |
ERNEST BLOCH
Suite for Viola and Orchestra / Baal Shem (arr. Hong-Mei Xaio) / Suite hébraïque Hong-Mei Xiao (viola) / Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Mariusz Smolij [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Aug/2013 ] "This performance, by superb viola soloist Hong-Mei Xiao, is as fine as any on disc, and there have been quite a few." (ClassicsToday.com) |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Piano Trios Vol. 3: Piano Trio No. 3 / Symphony No. 2 (arr. piano trio) Xyrion Trio [ Naxos / CD - released 7/Jul/2009 ] Haydn's misgivings about Beethoven's third piano trio were not entirely unfounded: symphonic in conception, it was a breakthrough work-Beethoven's first masterpiece and eventually one of his most popular chamber pieces-and retains its power to amaze... |
ARIBERT REIMANN
Zyklus / Kumi Ori / etc Yaron Windmuller (baritone) Axel Bauni (piano) Saaebrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra / Gunther Herbig [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Jan/2010 ] "Reimann's output for solo piano has been small, but the four works documented on the first disc show a composer with awesome understanding of the DNA of the piano, especially the unerring "rightness" of his chord voicings and ability to exploit the... |
PAVLOVA
Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 Yaroslav Krasnikov (violin) / Georgy Khachikyan (organ) / Moscow Radio Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Fedoseyev (conductor) [ Naxos / CD - released 23/Oct/2005 ] "This work was done with very special inspiration. As a general comment, I can say that the concept of Symphony No. 4, to me, is very close to the idea of the painting by Nicholas Roerich Path to Shambala. I see this symphony as my personal 'path to... |
W.A. MOZART
Violin Concerto No. 3 (with Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 1 (recorded 1934-1952) Yehudi Menuhin (violin) / London Philharmonic Orchestra / Paris Symphony Orchestra / Adrian Boult / George Enescu / Pierre Monteux [ Naxos Historical Great Violinists / CD - released 12/Jan/2007 ] Not often does a recording change the public perception of a piece of music and its composer, but it happened when the 18-year-old Yehudi Menuhin set down this recording of Paganini’s First Concerto in Paris in May 1934. |
MENDELSSOHN / LALO
Violin Concerto / Symphonie Espagnole (with Chausson: Poeme) Yehudi Menuhin (violin) / Paris Symphony Orchestra / Orchestre des Concerts Colonne [ Naxos Historic Great Violinists / CD - released 3/Mar/2002 ] |
SCHUMANN / DVORAK
Violin Concertos (recorded 1936 & 1938) Yehudi Menuhin (violin) / Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. Barbirolli [ Naxos Historical Great Violinists / CD - released 3/Sep/2002 ] "Rarely performed or recorded, this concerto nonetheless is stirring and evocative of Schumann's broader orchestral writing" Classics Today |
W.A. MOZART / BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 / Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (Furtwangler, Commercial Recordings 1940-50, Vol. 3) Yehudi Menuhin (violin) / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Wilhelm Furtwangler (conductor) [ Naxos Historical Great Conductors / CD - released 19/Jun/2006 ] "Furtwängler's commercial legacy wasn't huge so collectors will welcome this latest instalment with alacrity" (MusicWeb July 2006) |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 7 Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Edlinger [ Naxos / CD - released 30/Jun/1998 ] "there are few to match him [Edinger] for his immediacy of communication" - Penguin Guide |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" / Leonore Overture No. 2 CRR Symphony Orchestra, Michael Hahasz [ Naxos / CD - released 30/Jun/1988 ] Recorded in the Concert Hall of Czechoslovak Radio, March 1988 |