It was natural for virtuoso performer Franz Liszt to expand his repertoire by transcribing his songs for solo piano. The human voice is the purest of musical instruments, and composers have always been inspired by its warmth, expression and emotional power. Liszt’s masterful command of the piano and his ability to transform vocal lines into purely instrumental sounds is evident throughout this album: the dramatic narrative in both versions of Die Loreley, the watery, arpeggiated texture of Am Rhein im schönen Strome and the orchestral qualities of Gastibelza being only a few examples of these pianistic treasures. Considered an ‘extraordinary musician’ by Martha Argerich, critically acclaimed Steinway Artist Alexandre Dossin enjoys active performing, recording and teaching careers. A prizewinner of several international piano competitions, Dossin received First Prize and the Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires. Other international awards include the Silver Medal and Second Honourable Mention at the Maria Callas Grand Prix, and Third Prize and the Special Prize at the ‘W.A. Mozart’ International Piano Competition, in addition to several awards from competitions in Brazil. An active recording artist, his discography comprises 15 albums released across several labels, including seven albums with Naxos.

This new release features three of the greatest piano works by Schumann, superbly performed on fortepiano. DAVID HYUN-SU KIM has distinguished himself as one of the most thoughtful and distinctive musicians to emerge from the newest generation of American pianists. His concerts have been praised as “emotionally expansive” and “idiomatically perfect,” his interpretations as “spectacular,” and his Schumann playing has been singled out as “splendid and moving … His Florestan was elegantly calamitous, and his melodies representing Eusebius were like a dear friend whispering arcane truths to only you.” A sought-after pedagogue and adjudicator, David has taught at Yale and Harvard Universities. His students have gone on to win prizes in international competitions and been accepted for graduate study at Eastman, Oberlin, the University of Michigan, CCM, Indiana University, and similar institutions.

• A 1767 Tartini autograph memoir contains a report about his income over the last forty years. He also mentioned his activity as a music teacher in Padua, started in 1727. What Tartini was referring to was his “School of Nations” private tutoring activity. The name was given to Tartini’s school because he taught music to countless violinists who came to Padua practically from all Europe. Thanks to these students, Tartini’s violin technique and style were disseminated all over Europe."

Thesauri inventio 1 & 2 is in fact two albums in one digipack, one featuring music from the Di Martinelli Music Collection and other from the Kromeríž Music Collection. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, numerous music compilations appeared that gather together handwritten copies. Both archives contain a surprisingly large amount of repertoire for violin and continuo, some of which remains unexplored up to the present day. Antoinette's previous albums for Globe Records, Phantasia Musica (GLO 5265), Pieter Hellendaal (GLO 5271) and Johann Fischer (GLO 5274) have earned international critical acclaim.

In the face of the devastation wrought by the First World War, Alexander Kastalsky conceived a musical service of remembrance for the fallen. A pivotal figure in Russian musical life- he was a student of Tchaikovsky and acclaimed as the founder of a new, national church music- Kastalsky composed a choral-orchestral Requiem, for the concert stage. Simultaneously, he worked on the a cappella version heard on this recording to be sung in Russian Orthodox churches. Following the basic structure of the Orthodox Panihida, or memorial service, Memory Eternal, and the short sacred pieces that end the programme, reveal Kastalsky’s masterful use of choral sonority and color, his weaving of complex polyphonic textures, and his graceful use of ancient chant melodies.

"...The Clarion Choir, under the sure direction of Steven Fox, turn in a thrilling performance, recorded with clarity and not too much resonance in St. Jean Baptiste Church in New York. This recording (together with its publication from Musica Russica) represents the rehabilitation of a major work, which nobody interested in Russian music of the 20th century should miss."
--Ivan Moody, GRAMOPHONE

The Austrian-born composer Egon Wellesz (1885-1974) is a barely recognized figure in the history of western music. + For his rarely heard two-act Die Bakchantinnen, one of his half-dozen operas, Wellesz wrote his own libretto based on the ancient Greek play The Bacchae of Euripides. + This Vienna, 1960 performance, conducted by Mitiades Caridis features at least two well-known singers, the baritone Paul Schöffler and the tenor Fritz Uhl. + A most enticing item for the opera-collecting completist.

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

Emerging from a cultural environment of silent resistance behind the Iron Curtain, Lithuanian composer Onute Narbutaite has become one of the outstanding Baltic artists of recent decades. Her output has developed from distinctive chamber music into the concerto-like symphonic style heard in the works on this recording. Described by conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee as music that ‘transcends time and place… [and] resists any attempt at stylistic categorization of pigeonholing,’ these works convey powerful forces that flow between symbols and associations while probing direct emotional connections. Narbutaite’s imposing ‘Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae’ can be heard on Naxos as well: “a mind-blowing listening experience.” (American Record Guide).

Caroling is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years as a joyful part of the winter holiday season. Since the Eisenhower administration, the Singing Sergeants have been caroling at the White House each December for guests from around the country and throughout the world. In the spirit of that tradition, this album contains some of the band's favorites, including songs that tell the Christmas story, celebrate the Hannukah tradition, and inspire hope, peace and joy. All of the songs are performed in the a cappella tradition. Caroling, directed by Captain Chad A. Steffey, is dedicated to all of the men and women of the United States Air Force who are away from home during the holiday season.

Bhajan is a free-wheeling yet meditative four-section work for electric violin and live electronics, which one critic described as “a pas de deux between violin and electronics,” was written for and features noted new-music violinist Robin Lorentz. Nicholas Chase has headlined festivals in Europe and the US as a composer, performer, and improviser, His interactive, site-specific composition NOVA: Transmission was exhibited as part of the Whitney Biennial in New York and his Ngoma Lungundu opened the New Music+ Festival at the Jana ek Academy, Czech Republic. He was an inaugural Composer Fellow at the 2011 international Other Minds Festival in San Francisco and in 2015 was honored by the International Center for Japanese Culture, Tokyo, Japan.

Christopher Glynn continues his series of late Schubert song cycles in English, joined by celebrated soloists Sir John Tomlinson, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss and Alec Frank-Gemmill. Titled by the works first published following Schubert’s death, ‘Swansong’ D 957 sets the words of poets Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl in songs that cover a variety of different emotional states. The lighthearted ‘Love Message’ with its rippling accompaniment, addresses a murmuring brook with the hope of true love. The bone- chilling ‘Doppelganger’ with its stark, slowly tolling chords, finds the protagonist crazed with a nocturnal vision of himself agonizing at the empty doorstep of his lost love. Renowned for his clear diction and powerful voice, Sir John Tomlinson brings his insight and nuance to these profound works. Reminiscent of the scoring for The Shepherd on the Rock and composed in the same year, ‘On the River’ combines soprano, clarinet and horn in a setting of a poem by Ludwig Rellstab. Originally given to Beethoven who did not live long enough to set it, Schubert took up the words in a work that is a subtle homage to the composer. The 1828 work The Shepherd on the Rock sets words by Wilhelm Muller and German playwright Helmina von Chezy, and was composed in gratitude to the soprano Anna Milder-Hauptmann. Here performed by Sophie Bevan and Julian Bliss, it tells the story of a shepherd lamenting the distance between him and his beloved before a reflection on loneliness and grief. The final section celebrates the arrival of spring in a hopeful conclusion.

The American Brian Asawa, who died tragically young in 2016, became one of the world’s foremost countertenors before he was 30, acclaimed for the exceptional size, richness, agility and beauty of his voice. In 1991 he was the first countertenor ever to win the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and soon he was singing with opera companies all over the world. He was also a gifted recitalist and made a notable series of recordings for RCA/BMG. All reissued here, they range from Elizabethan Lute Songs to a disc of songs by Ned Rorem and include excerpts from the complete recording of Handel’s opera Serse conducted by Nicholas McGegan, in which BBC Magazine singled out for praise Brian Asawa’s “luscious legato” in the role of Arsamene.

The Heritage of the March Collection remains the largest single march music record series in history. Altissimo is continuing the release of this series with Volumes 5 & 6 in a two-CD set. Volume 5 features the marches of Frank Losey & Gian Mantagazzi. Volume 6 features the marches of Charles Barnhouse & Viktor Widqvist.

This is the third and final volume of the string quartets of the important but long-neglected Basque composer Andres Isasi (1890-1940). Initially influenced by Grieg and Dvorak, Isasi studied under Humperdinck in Berlin, where he acquired a love of Germanic culture, reflected in both quartets heard on this recording. Much of the violin sonata's thematic material has tangible links to Basque melodies and songs though there is also an element of Richard Strauss. His remaining quartets can be heard on Naxos 8.572463 and 8.572464, while Isasi's symphony no. 2 and suite no. 2 are available on 8.557584.

The other three pieces have all received previous recordings but that doesn’t lessen the interest when they are presented as persuasively as they are here by Stanislav Khristenko. The Piano Sonata No.4 dates from 1948 and is a four-movement work of powerfully contained expression. The conjunction, in the slow movement, of both extrovert and more interior gestures is amplified by Krenek’s precise application of sonorous incident – brief but telling – amidst a generally refined tonal color. Marked con passione this is the work’s core but the Rondo offers a rather whimsical example of Krenek’s sort-of modified Boogie patterns with the Jazz references powerfully engaged. His ear for the vernacular was, after all, long practiced. The finale is a Minuet, perhaps surprisingly – perhaps that’s the point – and its variations, one or two a touch crepuscular, or withdrawn, mark a telling way to end the sonata.

The George Washington Variations, Op.120 followed two years later, the result of a commission from a wealthy Los Angeles businessman for his daughter. This genial and clever set of variations takes in the ballroom and subjects its material to deconstruction and reconstruction, as the notes suggest, with much playfulness. Washington’s Grand March is a central focus, and subject to pithy and witty examples of lightly applied atonalism, jazz-hinting rhythms and much more. Playfully ironic in places it in no way outstays its thirteen-minute length. The brief two-minute Prelude packs quite a punch for so short a piece. As Peter Tregear notes in his excellent booklet, the application of twelve-tone is accomplished here with the utmost of lyricism.

The final piece is Krenek’s completion of Schubert’s Sonata in C major, D840, which he wrote in 1921, just less than a century after Schubert had left it a torso. The first two movements had been completed as had the trio of the Menuetto and the first 272 bars of the finale. It was the pianist Eduard Erdmann, a prominent musician then and later, who encouraged Krenek to take Schubert more seriously. In time he came to understand and share Erdmann’s enthusiasm and undertook a study of the composer’s work. His completion of the sonata is a valuable sidelight to his interests at the time and also of his application of compositional process. As Krenek wrote: ‘in both unfinished movements the thematic material was completely established…so Schubert was [not] still composing by proxy, as it were, but I had only to use my knowledge of, and feeling form Schubert’s style and technique in order to supply what he might have done. I think I did a fairly creditable job.’ He noted that the finale might have been longer had Schubert actually gone through with it.

Given the quality of this inaugural volume we can look forward to the second volume with confidence.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

In nineteenth-century Portugal, Italian opera was king. During this time, however, instrumentalists still emerged. Piano prodigies Jose Viana de Mota and Guilherme Daddi did considerable work to advance concert life in Portugal throughout their careers. Not only were these gentlemen outstanding pianists, they were also virtuosic composers. Their entertaining and challenging pieces helped to draw Portugal into the scene of European music-making. Performing these works is Sofia Lourenco, an outstanding pianist and educator.

This recording brings together eleven leading composers whose origins in or strong associations with Canada are manifest in their central position in Canadian musical life. In a program through which the power of tradition and faith flows strongly, themes are explored ranging from paradise and heavenly fulfillment to tragic loss; and from timeless hymn and psalm texts to an exploration of the brevity of human existence in the title work, I Saw Eternity. One of the finest chamber choirs in Canada and beyond, the Elora Festival Singers' 'must-have' (Gramophone) program of Eric Whitacre (8.559677) is just one of their many acclaimed recordings.

Bruce Levingston is one of today’s celebrated figures in contemporary classical music. The New Yorker has called him “a force for new music” with “a gift for innovative and glamorous programming.” The title of pianist Bruce Levingston’s haunting new album is taken from the beautiful suite by acclaimed American composer James Matheson, heard here in its world premiere recording. This evocative, richly-colored work depicts the exquisite stained glass windows of Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse inspired by ancient imagery and scripture. These works, which reflect a myriad of overlapping artistic influences, led Levingston, an artist known for his cutting-edge programming, to seek out other composers who have been inspired by multiple art forms. Robert Schumann was an immediate choice. His intimate Kinderszenen, a series of distilled little jewels that offer fleeting glimpses of childhood, is paired with the urbane, elegant Arabeske.

Distinguished British-American composer David Bruce is also heard here in the premiere recording of his touching work, The Shadow of the Blackbird, inspired by the music of Schumann as well as the moving poetry of Wallace Stevens. It seemed fitting for Levingston to program these three inspired, and inspiring, composers together. Their works, old and new, represent aural windows through which their extraordinary visions may be heard, sensed and felt.

REVIEW:

The label's resonantly ample engineering particularly lends itself to Matheson’s vibrant writing and Levingston’s compelling, colorful pianism.

– Gramophone

Philippe Hersant (b. 1948) was once a student of Andre Jolivet, and since then has embraced tonality and modality, and found his own eclectic voice, establishing himself as one of the most noticeable and successful modern French composers. This new recording focuses on Hersant’s bassoon music, brilliantly showcasing an often neglected instrument. Featured are duos for bassoon and viola, 8 Pieces for bassoon and instrumental ensemble, and several works for solo bassoon. Italian bassoonist Andrea Bressan performs these works. Bressan is notable in the chamber music community, and has won several awards in international competitions for chamber music.

The lockdown of Spring 2020 allowed Sonya Yoncheva and conductor Leonardo García Alarcón to make the album they had been considering for ten years. Rebirth is a message of hope but also the exploration of an idea: that silence and inactivity are the best prelude to creative renewal. Yoncheva’s fourth solo album for Sony Classical includes music spanning more than five centuries, from folksong to pop, via some of the most powerful moments in seventeenth-century opera. All the music, in Yoncheva’s view, is contemporary. ‘Certain styles of musical composition have remained surprisingly close to us through 500 years of history, combining enormous emotional thrust with great simplicity,’ she says. From the dawn of opera and music by Monteverdi, the album plots a thematic journey from the Italy of Cavalli, his pupil Strozzi and heir Stradella to the England of Dowland, Gibbons and Ferrabosco – whose motet Hear me, O God employs the same four-note theme as ABBA’s Like an Angel Passing Through My Room. After dance-inspired works from Spain and Latin America, and Alarcón’s reconstruction of an aria by Antonio Draghi, Yoncheva offers a traditional folksong from her Bulgarian homeland. Media were full of praise after Sonya Yoncheva performed her album repertoire at the Salzburg Festival after the lockdown in August 2020. ‘Music that moves you to tears’ wrote the APA and the FAZ raved about her Bulgarian folksong ‘Zableinano mi agunce’ being “an unforgettable emotional experience.” Rebirth was recorded in the concert hall of La Chaux-de-Fonds, with Alarcón and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, during the first European lockdown. The feeling of the acoustic, Alarcón says, was equivalent to ‘playing inside a vast lute.’

One of the 20th century’s great conductors, Leopold Stokowski was also a prolific transcriber of music for the symphony orchestra, creating a unique repertoire by bringing masterpieces to the concert hall that were often unfamiliar to audiences of the time. José Serebrier was Stokowski’s associate conductor in New York, and drawing on memories of his special quality of orchestral sound has revived and revised the best of these sumptuous arrangements. These include a GRAMMY nominated Mussorgsky recording and Stokowski’s signature piece, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, immortalized as part of the soundtrack to Walt Disney’s film Fantasia.

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REVIEW:

Anyone who doubts the sustained power of Stokowski’s most famous transcription, Bach’s mighty Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, should experience Serebrier’s enthralling performance.

– Fanfare