W. A. MOZART
Mozart - Marches & Serenades Die Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens (conductor) [ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 24/Feb/2017 ] Die Kölner Akademie and Michael Willenshave previously recorded Mozart's complete piano concertos with Ronald Brautigam, earning praise for their fresh and colourful contributions to the series. The team now releases the first of four projected disc... |
BEETHOVEN / HAYDN / WEBER
Folk Song Arrangements [2 CD set] Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edith Mathis, Alexander Young, Julia Hamari, RIAS Kammerchor, with accompliment [ Deutsche Grammophon SBS Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/May/2010 ] "Between them these discs contain forty-six songs and over two hours of delightful and often neglected music. Taken a few at a time I find that they lift the spirits and open the ears delightfully." (MusicWeb Jan 2010) |
RICHARD WETZ
Ein Weihnachtsoratorium auf alt-deutsche Gedichte op. 53 Dombergchor Erfurt / Philharmonischer Chor Erfurt / Thueringisches Kammerorchester Weimar / George Alexander Albrecht [ CPO Records / CD - released 26/Oct/2011 ] After Richard Wetz's Requiem, a sacred composition regarded as the summit of his oeuvre, we are now releasing his Christmas Oratorio to Old German Poems, which occupied him for two years (1927-29). Wetz was a symphonist through and through, and his... |
STEFANO LANDI
Landi: Morte d'Orfeo (complete opera recorded in 2018) Dutch National Opera / Cecilia Molinari, Renato Dolcini, Alexander Miminoshvili, Gaia Petrone / Christophe Rousset, conductor [ Naxos DVD / DVD - released 20/May/2020 ] Stefano Landi wrote the operas La morte d'Orfeo (1619) and Il Sant'Alessio (1632), as well as masses, psalms, madrigals and arias. He was maestro di cappella in Padua and Rome, and later a singer in the Sistine Chapel. |
STEFANO LANDI
Landi: Morte d'Orfeo (complete opera recorded in 2018) BLU-RAY Dutch National Opera / Cecilia Molinari, Renato Dolcini, Alexander Miminoshvili, Gaia Petrone / Christophe Rousset, conductor [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/May/2020 ] La morte d'Orfeo is regarded as the first Roman-style secular opera and is considered a milestone in the development of the genre opera as a whole. The substantial ensemble numbers are typical of the Roman opera style. |
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Scriabin: Symphonies Nos 1 & 2 Ekaterina Sergeeva (mezzo-soprano) & Alexander Timchenko (tenor) / London Symphony Orchestra & chorus / Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 1/May/2016 ] "there's a great sense of freedom in this music that Gergiev manages to create ... Gergiev's volatility really works in this Scriabin." CDReview |
GLINKA
Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar) (complete opera recorded in 1947 & 1950) Elizaveta Antonova / Alexander Hosson / Maxim Mikhailov / Bolshoi Theatre Chorus / Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra / Alexander Melik-Pashayev (conductor) [ Naxos Historical / 3 CD - released 29/Jan/2006 ] Mikhail Glinka, the founder of the Russian nationalist school of opera, was the first Russian composer to have his works accepted outside Russia itself. Berlioz admired his compositions and Liszt used them as the basis for several of his piano... |
NAPRAVNIK / BLUMENFELD
Works for Piano and Orchestra Evgeny Soifertis (piano) / BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Titov, conductor [ Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos Vol 37 / CD - released 10/Aug/2005 ] 'The Concerto Symphonique is a perky, extrovert piano concerto, full of nifty passage-work, if light on musical substance, and The Fantaisie Russe, full of Lisztian flourishes and apparently much admired by Tchaikovsky, is based on three Russian folk... |
PIETRO MASCAGNI
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana Giacomo Aragall, Stefka Evstatieva, Anna di Mauro, Alzbeta Michalkova / Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Chorus, Alexander Rahbari [ Naxos Opera Classics / CD - released 2/Feb/1995 ] Recorded: 1 - 10 April 1992 Recording Venue: Concert Hall of the Slovak Radio, Bratislava |
GEORGE ENESCU
Enescu: Piano Quintet in D major / Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major, Op. 11 (arr. piano & string quintet) Fine Arts Quartet, Alexander Bickard (double bass), Gisele Witkowski & Fabio Witkowski (piano) [ Naxos / CD - released 18/Aug/2023 ] It was in Paris just before the end of the 19th century that George Enescu began to compose prolifically, but it is only in recent years that a number of these scores have emerged. The Piano Quintet in D major is one such work, lost for decades, but... |
Erno DOHNANYI
Dohnanyi: Symphony No. 2 & Two Songs Florida State University Symphony Orchestera, Alexander Jiménez [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Jun/2014 ] Dohnányi's powerful Symphony No. 2 was composed toward the end of the Second World War but its large canvas reflects not so much his wartime experience as his own artistic credo as a Romantic composer. Of the symphony and its philosophy he wrote:... |
BELLINI
La Sonnambula (complete opera recorded in 1992) Francesco Ellero d' Artegna / Alexander Papadjiakou / Raul Gimenez / Netherlands Radio Choir / Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra / Alberto Zedda [ Naxos Opera Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Aug/2007 ] "The singing is of amazingly high quality.. Orgonasova is simply wonderful - vibrant, girlish, fluid, singing off the text and with no problem with the role's sometimes outlandish upper reaches....I can't imagine a finer current exponent of the role.... |
ANTOINE & MAX BOHRER
Bohrer: Grande symphonie militaire Friedemann Eichhorn (violin) Alexander Hülshoff (cello) / Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicolás Pasquet [ Naxos / CD - released 16/Feb/2024 ] The Bohrer family produced a succession of distinguished musicians of whom the brothers Antoine, a violinist who studied with Rodolphe Kreutzer in Paris, and cellist Max were the most eminent. |
PROKOFIEV
Complete Music For Violin (Includes Violin sonatas & Cinq Malodies, Op. 35b) Frank Peter Zimmerman (violin), Alexander Lonquich (piano) / Berliner Philharmoniker under Lorin Maazel / Philharmonia Orchestra under Mariss Jansons [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 28/Mar/2006 ] Prokofiev did not play the violin himself. Nevertheless he composed a substantial amount of varied works for this instrument: orchestral and chamber music. |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Symphonies, Vol 10: Symphony No. 14 in G minor, Op. 135 Gal James (soprano), Alexander Vinogradov (baritone) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Apr/2014 ] At its première in June 1969 Shostakovich described his Symphony No. 14, in effect a symphonic song cycle, as 'a fight for the liberation of humanity... a great protest against death, a reminder to live one's life honestly, decently, nobly...'... |
THEA MUSGRAVE
Concerto for Orchestra / Clarinet Concerto / Horn Concerto / Monologue / Excursions Gervase de Peyer (clarinet) Barry Tuckwell (horn) Thea Musgrave, Malcolm Williamson (pianos) / London Symphony / Scottish National / Alexander Gibson, [ Lyrita / CD - released 1/Aug/2007 ] Like many composers of her generation in Britain - the generation that first began to attract notice in the middle 1950s - Thea Musgrave came of age musically in that 'rite of passage' which involved acknowledging the primary importance of Bartók and... |
LEOS JANACEK
Janacek: Jenufa (complete opera recorded in 1989) Glyndebourne Opera / Anja Silja, Roberta Alexander, Philip Langridge / Andrew Davis (cond) [ Kultur / Channel 4 DVD / DVD - released 28/Dec/2001 ] "State-of-the-art filming of a state-of-the-art production, cunningly cast and passionately played and conducted...hugely recommended." - International Record Review Dec 2001 |
EBERHARD
Piano Concerto 'Shadow Of The Swan' Halida Dinova (Piano) / St Petersburg Cappella Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Tchernoushenko [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 1/Sep/2010 ] St. Petersburg Cappella Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Tchernoushenko |