The Naxos Blog

Raymond Bisha discusses Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.573016    

Marin Alsop and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra continue their Naxos survey of the Symphonies by Prokofiev, with the new release of the Symphony No 4. Composed in 1930 for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Fourth contains refashioned material from the earlier Prokofiev ballet based on the biblical tale of The Prodigal Son. The Symphony’s premiere received a cool response and Prokofiev revised it after returning to the USSR. It’s this later 1947 version that is featured on the new Naxos release, as well as the ballet The Prodigal Son. Now rightly considered one of his finest symphonies, the Fourth features many of the classic traits of Prokofiev – from the tender and lyrical, to the powerful, to his wonderful dance-like gifts. Here Rick Phillips walks us through this 20th century masterpiece. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573186

Vasily Petrenko’s award-winning survey of the Shostakovich symphonies with the RLPO, now reaches the ninth instalment with the release of the Fourth Symphony. Here he talks to Edward Seckerson about the work. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573188

Le Roi et le fermier made Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny famous in France and beyond. Set in an evocative and at times stormy Sherwood Forest it tells of a King’s encounter with a humble farmer, blending comedy with serious issues. Its numerous innovations foreshadow Romanticism, making it a milestone in operatic history, with librettist Michel-Jean Sedaine admiring Monsigny’s daring in taking “the risk of setting a new genre to music”. “This production should be noted and remembered in the annals of Versailles, for the intelligence of its staging, the beauty of its sets, and its high musical quality.” (Opéra Magazine) Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.660322

Vasily Petrenko’s Award-winning survey of the Shostakovich symphonies with the RLPO, now reaches the eighth instalment with the release of the epic ‘Leningrad’ Symphony. Here he talks to Edward Seckerson about the work. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.573057  

Leonard Slatkin enjoys close ties to Sergei Rachmaninov: his great-uncle brought the composer to the US and conducted the première of his second symphony. Slatkin tells Gail Wein about his recordings of Rachmaninov Symphonies with Detroit Symphony, and his life in Motor City. Album Details... Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.573051

Mohammed Fairouz’s music is distinctive for his blending of western and middle-eastern sonorities. He talks about how a musician can have the same effect as a storyteller, and tells us about a lullaby for a newborn baby…and a 300-year-old violin. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.559744  

Duke Ellington wrote serious music for symphony orchestras […] with great power. I feel that he single-handedly elevated jazz to a level of artistry comparable to all the other art forms. The music is very beautiful; it’s very symphonic, very orchestral. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.559737 The album will be released in Europe throughout February, and in the US and Asia Pacific from 26 February.

Gail Wein discusses Tan Dun's recording of Concerto for Orchestra Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.570608

Raymond Bisha discusses The King's Singers' recording of Pater Noster - A Choral Reflection on the Lord's Prayer. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.572987

Raymond Bisha introduces us to the contemporary Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s superb new recording Dreamscapes. Her Violin Concerto featuring soloist Kristin Lee is an intensely lyrical and virtuoso work in which West and East collide to create music of remarkably fresh sophistication. Glimpses and her piano concertoDreamscape, for prepared piano, explore contrasts ranging from hauntingly sustained calm and tranquillity to moments of brutal power. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.573009

Kenneth Fuchs is one of America’s leading composers and his latest collaboration with award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra reveals the breadth of his achievement. Its opening work, Atlantic Riband, evokes the struggle and ultimate victory of ocean-crossing immigrants to America in an orchestral showpiece of power and splendour. In this podcast, Raymond Bisha introduces us to this, and to Fuchs’ other orchestral and chamber works on this wonderful new recording. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.559723

In this podcast, conductor Gerard Schwarz first takes us through the transformation of Seattle Symphony during his 26 years tenure at the helm. He then talks to Gail Wein about the thrill of recording, and how he found the symphonies of the legendary American composer, educator and administrator William Schuman his most interesting project—‘a revolution and a great joy’! Listen to find out why Schwarz finds Schuman’s 8th Symphony “exquisite, brilliant and wonderful”! Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.505228

In this podcast, Raymond Bisha helps you discover Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s delightful wind concertinos. The Italian composer is better known for his operatic compositions but he wrote a number of sublimely and expressive orchestral works, including the three melodic, rhythmically buoyant, and at times elegiac wind concertos featured on this new release. Album Details... Catalogue No.: 8.572921

‘As many of Weinberg’s works for solo piano have been virtually unknown until recently, by virtue of the fact that this music survived both Nazism and Communism they would merit further investigation. This music has themes to which anyone can relate—to survival in the midst of war and/or oppression, to love, to despair, and to hope. Weinberg’s music richly embodies these, often through the most seemingly simple, folk-like means that continue to engage one’s curiosity’. In this podcast, Allison Brewster Franzetti talks to Gail Wein about the enigmatic composer’s rich piano repertoire. Album Details... Catalogue No.: Grand Piano GP610