One of the great ‘march kings’ of his time, Julius Fucik gained worldwide fame for his immortal Entry of the Gladiators, but after the composer’s death in 1916 many scores were lost. Painstaking editorial work has been carried out allowing us to hear the full range of Fucik’s works in these premiere recordings.

The National Museum – Czech Museum of Music has done its best to collect what remains of the composer's music, and about half of the contents of this album emanate from handwritten scores acquired by the museum but never performed, as there were no printed parts published as far as is known.

What makes this album so special is that it contains dance forms for which Fučík was little known. This recording therefore contains the first ever original orchestral performances in addition to seven pieces that have had to have performing sets created by a team of specialists who painstakingly prepared them from often poorly handwritten scores. But it is all genuine, original Fučík, and so puts this recording into a category of its own.

This third volume of music by Eduard Strauss I features many new discoveries including the Electric Lights waltz and the polka, Leaps of Pegasus, displaying Eduard’s gift for melody and orchestration. All but one of the tracks on this album are premiere recordings of the original full orchestrations. Volumes 1 and 2 can be heard on 8.225369 and 5371.

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

This, the final volume in Konstantin Scherbakov's recording of Godowsky's complete works for piano is also the second of two volumes dedicated to Godowsky’s Studies on the Chopin Études. Scherbakov performs these fearsomely challenging works with aplomb: ‘There is no one better for Godowsky’ (American Record Guide). The first volume is available on 8.225372 (volume 14 in the series).

Meyerbeer, long considered one of the greatest of operatic composers, is being rediscovered. His first music drama was Jephtas Gelübde, based on the biblical story of Jephta and his rash vow of sacrifice. The musical language is varied in expression, with an exceptionally advanced use of leitmotif and a subtle depiction of psychological process, all revealing a powerful command of material. Marches and dances of radically different moods, allied to choruses of folk-like simplicity and grandiose power, are part of a mature score in which intense monologues and gripping ensembles embody music of lyricism, drama and rapture.

This recording of Siegfried Wagner’s An allem ist Hütchen Schuld! is of an acclaimed live performance of the Bayreuth production from the year of the composer’s 125th birthday in August 2019. The production uses a new critical edition of the score created by Ulrich Leykam. It is the first complete audio recording, recorded live at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, Germany on 9–10 August 2020.

REVIEWS:

Siegfried Wagner (son of Richard) wrote Everything is Little-Hat’s Fault (An Allem ist Hutchen Schuld) during WWI. Although appreciated at the time, this fairytale opera has had sporadic stagings owing to its fanciful, complex plotline and scenic demands. This new release of a 2019 performance at the Margravial Opera House is a major improvement over the 2016 DVD, which includes some of the same performers. The DVD performance suffered from a terrible Eurotrash production where I couldn’t figure out what was going on or why. Even in this non-visual presentation, certain scenes and even placement of dialog shifts the level of meaning.

The problem with Wagner’s own libretto is that the composer can’t seem to decide if this is a light comedy with music like an operetta, or a horrific drama with music like Act 2 of his father’s Walkure. Regardless of the libretto, the music is truly impressive. The style is mostly late-romantic and influenced by his teacher, Humperdinck. Act I will remind you of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Act II is very much in the Richard Wagner style of monumental orchestration and sweeping, flowing music. Some arias, duets, and ensembles in this act have truly beautiful music often requiring the leads to sing full-out as if they are Siegfried and Brunhilde. Act III is altogether different: some scenes sound like Humperdinck, along with Debussy’s gossamer sounds and Stravinsky’s music from Petrouchka. It’s all very inventive and entertaining.

The recording is excellent. The singing by some of the leads is somewhat shaky in the opening scenes, but then everyone warms up, and all are outstanding for Acts II and III. I wasn’t expecting this level of performance. Conductor Coleman leads everything with the assurance of someone who is intimately involved with the score and knows how each scene should be played. The sound is generally good, though the microphones are at the edge of the stage, so you hear some stage movement and footfalls, particularly in Act I.

The earlier DVD production was so bad that I couldn’t enjoy the music. This new set has completely changed my mind. The composer’s excellent score can now be appreciated. Notes and synopsis are in English and German in Naxos’s usual tiny typeface.

-- American Record Guide (Elliot Fisch)

While globalization advances, all countries staunchly retain two unique features: their distinctive national flag and a bonding national anthem. The anthems reflect an enormous indigenous diversity, but relatively few are generally known by citizens of other nations, making any comprehensive compendium a source of endless interest and discovery. We invite you to take a musical tour of Naxos’ definitive set of national and regional anthems, from Algeria to Kuwait. Lapland to Zanzibar, and all stops in between. You’ll be delighted by the gems that are waiting to be discovered and compiled into either personal or family favorites. And you can check out the flags in the process with our informative supporting booklets! Welcome to the Naxos set of The Complete National Anthems of the World.

Throughout his life, Eduard Strauss's compositions were unfavorably compared with those by his elder brothers, Johann II and Josef, yet many of his works, especially those dating from the 1870's and 1880's, easily stand comparison with those crafted by his two famous siblings. Moreover, in two particular dance genres - the quick polka and the galop - Eduard was in a class of his own. As the Strauss authority Professor Franz Mailer stated: ''Posterity must make restitution to Eduard Strauss.'' It is to be hoped that, at the very least, this present recording will encourage a reassessment of ''handsome Edi's'' unique musical genius.

The Chinese music here recorded is of a thoroughly traditional kind. There are, of course, certain fundamental differences between Chinese and Western music, exemplified in the music for the qin, the ancient Chinese zither, with its emphasis on a melodic line of great subtlety, in which nuances of timbre are of great importance, coupled with its symbolic significance. While much of Western music is abstract, Chinese music tends to be programmatic, offering usually a general picture rather than a detailed sequence of events, although there are occasional examples of the latter. The present collection includes examples of regional music as well as two examples of recent compositions in traditional style. The nine pieces can be classified as follows: Moon in Xunyang is an example of Jiangnan music, traditional folk music of the Shanghai region. Bells from the Temple, Sorrow of Zhaojun, Autumn Moon in the Han Palace and Flying Birds are examples of Cantonese ensemble pieces. Beyond the Frontier and Chanting in the Temple are transcribed, the first from a well-known Tang Dynasty piece for pipa (Chinese lute) and the second from a work for qin (traditional Chinese zither). Jin Chun Luo and Resentment are original compositions, the first based in Chaozhou music. Four instruments are used for the present recording, erhu (two-string fiddle), pipa (Chinese lute), zheng (zither) and xiao (end-blown flute), played by Hong Kong musicians Lam Fung, So Chun Bo, Wong Kuen and Loo Kah Chi. The music is played by various combinations of these instruments in quartet, trio or duet, with one solo for erhu, Flying Birds.

The music of the Strauss family is justifiably famous, but many other talented composers were producing popular music of comparable quality in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn from a unique collection of original archive material compiled by The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain, much of which has been reconstructed or orchestrated by John Georgiadis, this first volume of two presents world première recordings of works by many undeservedly forgotten central European light music composers.