The Naxos Blog

Although John Rutter’s musical upbringing was quintessentially British, the composer’s works today enjoy popularity on a transnational scale, not least his choral settings. Raymond Bisha gives both musical and historical context to this month’s release of Rutter’s Psalmfest: from the work’s textual inspiration to its place within the composer’s oeuvre, and the performers’ musical stewardship of Read More ...

The 1935 classic Mexican film Redes continues our series of early editions, for which the music scores have been restored and recorded in performances by the PostClassical Ensemble. This week’s podcast introduces the world première recording of the complete score by Silvestre Revueltas, which accompanies a restored print of the film, released this month on Read More ...

Quirky, catchy and disturbing, Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale is also one of his most immediately engaging works. Conceived as a rich procession of narration, acting, dancing and instrumental interludes, the work leaves the listener ruminating on its message long after the final shot from the percussion. Raymond Bisha introduces the work, from its individual parts to the moral sum of its whole. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573537

Enrique Granados was a Spanish nationalist composer and outstanding pianist whose orchestral works have remained understandably overshadowed by the popularity of his piano compositions. This imbalance is now redressed by Naxos with the release of three volumes of orchestral music to mark the centenary of the composer’s death in 1916. Raymond Bisha presents the works on the first volume, which are all receiving their world première recordings. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573263

Raymond Bisha presents a new recording of two works written only three years apart at the very end of the 19th century: Albéric Magnard’s Chant funèbre (Funeral Song) and Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). The former may have been unduly neglected, but the latter is testament to the enduring popularity of Strauss’ tone poems, sustained by the composer’s gift for soaring melodies and peerless orchestration skills. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.573563

Being a contemporary of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven was both a blessing and a curse for Simon Mayr: while he was able to deftly assimilate and rival the triumvirate’s output, he became overshadowed by them in posterity. Raymond Bisha presents the world première recording of Mayr’s Requiem in G minor, a stunning blend of Germanic construction and Italianate vocalism, that makes some amends for the work’s undue neglect over the centuries. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.573419-20

Raymond Bisha’s latest podcast focuses on two works by William Bolcom that have been recently recorded for the Naxos American Classics Series. The emotional spectrum of his “Canciones de Lorca” and “Prometheus” is reflected in colourful orchestrations and a mix of musical styles that swing between intense drama and surreal humour. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.559788

Known principally for his prodigious output of concertos, Antonio Vivaldi was also a prolific composer of operas, so it’s perhaps no surprise that an engaging and demanding operatic vocal style also permeates Vivaldi’s sacred music. Raymond Bisha introduces both the music and the performers on this fourth volume of Naxos’ survey of Vivaldi’s catalogue of works written for the church.   Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573324

It was the great virtuoso Wanda Landowska who spearheaded a revival of interest in the dormant harpsichord at the turn of the 20th century. Working closely with Pleyel of Paris, the instrument manufacturer, she helped develop and promote a sturdier and more sonorous instrument than was hitherto the case. Composers of the time weren’t slow to respond with wit and eccentricity, composing colourful new works that may have glanced to the past but were in clear harmony with the times. Raymond Bisha explores a selection of them on this month’s new release from leading contemporary harpsichordist Christopher D. Lewis. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.573364

Fantasy, fairy tales and Maurice Ravel’s flair for orchestral colour are all to the fore in this new release of two examples of the composer’s music for the stage—the scores for his opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges and his ballet Ma mère l’Oye. This highly imaginative music, projected through a childlike lens, is instantly attractive to both the young and the young-at-heart. Simultaneously simple and complex, entrancing and seductive, music doesn’t come more magical than this. Album details… Catalogue No.: 8.660336

Two disparate experiences in sound occupy this month’s new CD of works by American composer Christopher Rouse. From the schizophrenic to the sublime, ‘Seeing’ and ‘Kabir Padavali’ are scored respectively for piano soloist and soprano soloist, plus orchestra. Ranging from notions of insanity to the exquisite beauty of 15th-century Indian poetry, Rouse explores the striking extremes of his orchestral palette. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.559799

Raymond Bisha delves into the stunning new Naxos recording of three choral works by Leonard Bernstein. The performances are conducted by Marin Alsop, a protégé of the composer and one of today’s leading interpreters of his work. A fervent spirituality permeates The Lark, the Missa Brevis (the last choral work to be completed by Bernstein) and the Symphony No 3, ‘Kaddish’, which was premièred weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and dedicated to his memory. With a starry line-up of performers, Marin Alsop presents sound proof of the musical power of “this musician who changed the world.” Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.559742 Available in North America on 13 November 2015.

Dramatic tension is never far from the surface in Gordon Chin’s music, exemplified by this new recording of two of his formidable orchestral works. Literary inspiration for the Cello Concerto No. 1 came from the pens of Shakespeare, Pascal and Samuel Johnson, while the disturbed history of Chin’s native Taiwan formed the bedrock of his Third Symphony. Raymond Bisha explores the works’ emotional ride. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.570615

Raymond Bisha dips into the latest Naxos recording of works by Jean Sibelius that have been obscured by the popularity of his symphonies and the violin concerto, including many pieces he wrote to complement stage works. Although these might be termed incidental and occasional, they belie such labels by constituting an extraordinary treasure house of the most charming and melodically rich pieces from Finland’s first internationally recognised composer. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.573301

Franz Ignaz Beck (1734–1809) was a member of the Mannheim school of composers, based at the court of Mannheim in the mid-18th century. The Mannheim orchestra was one of the largest and finest in Europe, and the Mannheim school’s spearheading of developments in orchestral style, technique and expression influenced symphonic composers during the rest of the 18th century and well into the nineteenth, including Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. This new Naxos release features the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kevin Mallon in Beck’s Op. 2 set of six symphonies. In this podcast, Rick Phillips reveals the importance of Beck on the European musical scene and explains some of the compositional techniques to be found in his Op. 2. Album details... Catalogue No.: 8.573323