The last disc in Marangoni's highly acclaimed four single disc survey of Clementi's monumental Gradus ad Parnassum.

Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer-composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary virtuosity. Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer described it) is framed by an opening movement rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo. The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and Krakowiak are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and bravura which pay tribute to the music of Chopin’s homeland. Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano concertos was ranked ‘among the finest’ by Gramophone.

Complementing his highly praised Naxos series of Turina' piano music, Jordi Maso Acute joins Eva Leo Acute to present Turina's two violin sonatas.

RACHMANINOFF Preludes (complete) • Eldar Nebolsin (pn) • NAXOS 8.570327 (77: 44)


The technical and musical demands of the Rachmaninoff preludes are legion. A partial catalog might include: the ability to negotiate massive chords, sensitively voiced and often in quick succession; seamless arpeggios; perfect thirds, sixths, and other double-note figurations; a wide variety of attack and release strategies; the most delicate, leggierissimo fioratura; infinitely calibrated effects of crescendo, diminuendo, accelerando , and meno mosso ; intelligent rubato; and perhaps above all, the ability to launch and sustain a singing line. To these requirements might be added some suggestion of that special attribute (of which Rachmaninoff himself was the unexcelled exemplar) namely, the ability to suggest aural planes—a vivid foreground, mid-distance, and background—capable of revealing the most complex textures to the listener. Happily, this new recording reveals Eldar Nebolsin as a pianist equal to these demands.


After encountering Ashkenazy’s recording of these pieces from the mid 1970s (Decca 475 8238), I find Nebolsin’s interpretations are a breath of fresh air. Each piece unfolds as a miniature drama with its own unique character, lending the entire set great variety of mood—from serene tranquility, to ebullient joy, to the most crushing sadness. Nothing in these interpretations suggests the routine. Nebolsin is hypersensitive to each of Rachmaninoff’s articulation indications, pedal markings, and dynamic subtleties. And while the performances are thoughtful, they never sound fussy. In every instance, one has the feeling that this bouquet of late-Romantic expression emanates directly from the pianist’s heart.


The highest compliment that may be paid Nebolsin’s technique is that, in its complete subordination to the music, one is simply never aware of it. His sound is always beautiful, whether in the transparency of the most massive fortissimos or in the rainbow of subtly contrasted pianissimos. If the soaring op. 23/2 takes flight effortlessly, its fierce left-hand figurations never obtrude on the ebb and flow of exultant musical substance. The exquisite op. 23/10 breathes all the freshness of dew on delicate blossoms opening to the morning sun; the voice leading is simply gorgeous. The great B-Minor Prelude (op. 32/10) begins with a heart-rending sadness, so immobilized and still that the subsequent chordal section assumes an awesome grandeur of uncanny power and eloquence.


The recording was made in Westleton, Suffok, U.K., this past January and is, in all technical aspects, commendable. One hopes that, despite the inevitable vicissitudes of career-building, this 33-year-old pianist will continue to exhibit this degree of instrumental prowess in the service of a sensitive and deeply artistic musicality. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Patrick Rucker

Handel' oratorio Semele was composed in 1743 and tells of a beautiful mortal, whose short but spectacular love affair with Jupiter. King of the Gods, comes to a terrifying end in consequence of both her own vanity and the scheming of Jupiter' insanely.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Some of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' most imposing and important music for solo instruments can be heard in his cycle of ten Strathclyde Concertos, composed for, and premiered by the soloists of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The ingeniously structured Seventh Concerto, for double bass, is both tense and haunting. The more conventionally laid out Eighth Concerto, for bassoon, is by turns playful and lyrical, and features an important role for timpani. A Spell for Green Corn was written to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the SCO and Maxwell Davies' 60th birthday.

Works for violin and piano are an important part of Cyril Scott’s chamber music. This disc presents three sonatas which span his output. The capricious and ruminative First Violin Sonata ranks among the most convincing and successful of his earlier large-scale compositions. Sonata Melodica is a more relaxed yet equally quixotic work, while the Third Violin Sonata is one of the most inventive from his later years.

Award winning American keyboard-player Glen Wilson follows up his acclaimed releases of Buxtehude' harpsichord music "strongly gestural and rhetorical", Couperin' Tombeau de M. de Blancrocher "considerable technical virtuosity", Farnaby' Harpsichord.

Gerda Struhal's clean fingerwork and ornamentation, strongly projected yet never exaggerated bass lines, and her solid rhythmic sense and good taste bode well for Scarlatti. Among this release's high points include a lyrically shaped and crisply delineated F major K. 151, the subtle use of dynamics for harmonic coloring in the C major K. 309, and the F minor K. 186's musically purposeful distinctions between legato and detached articulation. To be sure, Struhal may not match more forceful and inspirational personalities in certain works. Compare, for example, Maria Tipo's hushed tonal magic in the G major K. 425 alongside Struhal's relatively matter-of-fact reading, and you'll understand what I mean. At the same time, Struhal will split the difference between interpretive extremes like Tipo's gentle, dulcet E major K. 381 and Christian Zacharias' far brusquer, aggressive antipode. A fine addition to Naxos' ongoing Scarlatti cycle.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The multifaceted and multi-award winner Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music. The Symphonic Poem on Three Notes describes an evolutionary arc from nature through industry and back to nature, the traditional orchestra augmented with a range of unorthodox sound sources such as wind, stones and car brake drums. The drama of Orchestral Theatre centres on memories of ritual from the composer’s childhood, linking folk music styles to Western atonality, while the Concerto for Orchestra describes the exoticism of Marco Polo’s geographical, musical and spiritual journeys.

HAYDN Organ Concertos: in C, Hob XVIII:1,8,10. Harpsichord Concertos: in C, Hob XVIII:5; in F, Hob XVIII:7 • Helmut Müller-Brühl, cond; Harald Hoeren (org); Ketil Gaugsand (hpd); Cologne CO • NAXOS 8.570486 (72:46)


These early concertos—from the 1750s, although some were revised in the 1760s—were written to be played by either organ or harpsichord, which is why this disc is entitled “Keyboard Concertos.” In Brilliant Classics’s recent 150-CD “Haydn Edition,” all five of these works were played on an organ. The music is conventional, having elements both Baroque and rococo, but it is still Haydn, which means spirit and quality as well as competence. The only lack is individuality; I would hate to face a blind audition of each movement—especially if you switched solo instruments. These performances are also conventional, too much so. The modern-instrument band produces very little color, and less variety of it. Bland, tubby recorded sound reinforces that feeling; trumpets in the C-Major pieces are barely noticeable, and drumbeats are little more than extra reverberances. By contrast, Brilliant’s period-instrument Ensemble Dolce Risonanza produces vibrant colors and violent explosions. The tables are turned with the soloists, however; Brilliant’s Anton Holzapfel can hardly get a note in edgewise among all those dolce risonanzas, whereas both Hoeren and Gaugsand take the lead when called upon and give imaginative, well-rounded performances. The best things here are the Allegro finales, which are taken at spirited, upbeat tempos.


This disc is in no way necessary, but you’re sure to enjoy it.


FANFARE: James H. North

Includes work(s) for guitar by Fernando Sor. Soloist: Goran Krivokapic.

The A–Z of Opera 2nd edition has been expanded to include even more composers, operas, and 130 bonus tracks. The 1,096-page book details the lives of hundreds of opera composers, and like the range of Naxos recordings itself, this set highlights the extraordinary breadth of opera and its composers across the centuries in a rich and inspiring resource.

Every note is taken seriously and every bar is chock-full of ‘pizzazz’

This, at least for me, is possibly the ‘best’ of the three Naxos CDs of Leroy Anderson’s music released to date. But that is simply because it has my favourite Anderson piece on it – the Serenata. Here is a miniature that conjures up the summer sunshine in Majorca or the Costa del Sol. But not just sunshine – there is quite definitely a beautiful senorita with smouldering eyes, blatantly portrayed by the ‘major’ key part of this piece ... But there are other reasons why this CD is ‘top of the pops.’ For example, it would be a stern person indeed who did not laugh out loud at the antics of the ‘band’ in the 1947 arrangement of Old MacDonald had a Farm – complete with a battery of animal noises, Surely a piece like this would bring the Albert Hall down on the ‘Last Night’?

The CD opens with a rather fun pre-war work - the Harvard Sketches which supposedly describes the antics of the students. The number opens quite innocuously with an impression of the Lowell House Bells, yet soon there is a change of mood when a clarinet strikes up a jaunty tune in Harvard Square. As it is a ‘freshman,’ I guess he does not realise this is ‘not appropriate music’ for the old Alma Mater. There are lots of ‘wrong’ notes! The silence of the Widener Reading Room is presented in a quiet reflective mood – only to be interrupted by strange noises representing chattering and of course the librarian ‘rapping the desk for silence.’ Harvard Sketches ends with a Confetti Dance. Surely the listener cannot help but be reminded of Charles Ives in this piece.

Melody on Two Notes is quite simply lovely. The tune is, based on the notes G and D but is presented in such a way that interest is never lost. However, it is the harmonies and the orchestration that bring character to this work. Alas, it is painfully short.

Mother’s Whistler, from 1940 and the Penny Whistle Song written eleven years later are typical Anderson numbers. The former was lost to the world until it was discovered in the Boston Pops library – this is its first recording. Apparently the composer was not happy with the piece. Look out for the barking dog! The Penny Whistle Song is really a quiet piece with a catchy tune; it is well-described as ‘happy go lucky.’

The Phantom Regiment is supposed to ‘depict a nameless body of soldiers marching into and then trotting across the scene – before marching away.’ It is interesting balance of military march and up tempo quick step. I guess that Plink, Plank, Plunk needs little introduction save to say that it has an infectious tune that stays in my brain for days after hearing it! It was written as a ‘sequel’ to the equally memorable Jazz Pizzicato. Anderson composed Promenade whilst he was still in the Army – and this is certainly obvious in the military atmosphere of this tune. It is no amble in ‘Central Park before Dark’ but is much more West Point on a passing-out parade day. The Sandpaper Ballet is one of those pieces that every one knows but can never quite put their finger on. I guess it is the rubbing of the various grades of sandpaper replicating the old ‘soft shoe shuffle’ that gives the game away – but just try to recall the title the next time you hear this piece! The Saraband is my least favourite number in this collection – however I know that Anderson’s ‘take’ on the baroque dance –for example, suddenly doubling the speed of the music - is popular in many quarters.

Of Sleigh Ride I need say little – save it is one of the most Christmassy pieces I know of. It makes me dream of the deep snow that we had way back in 1963! Other well-known tunes include The Typewriter with its ‘Oh, so obvious’ sound effect – yet it still makes people smile when they hear it for the umpteenth time. And then there is the Trumpeter’s Lullaby which was composed as a ‘show piece’ for the Boston Pops lead trumpet player – Roger Voisin. The Syncopated Clock was used as a theme tune for the CBS-TVs ‘The Late Show’ and became a ‘household’ jingle. It does not need a listener to be a genius to deduce that Anderson will make the clock ‘tick’ both on and off beat! This is a great tune to wrap up the CD.

However there are two other works that deserve mention. In fact, the Suite of Carols for Brass Choir is the longest work on this disc. Of course, it is the wrong time of year for listening to this kind of music - as it is for the Sleigh Ride - but it was well worth hearing. Leroy Anderson wrote three ‘carol’ suites for a special ‘Holiday’ season album – one for strings, one for winds and the present Suite. Rarely for the composer, this music is almost entirely devoid of the usual ‘fingerprints.’ They are actually well-written, neo-classical arrangements and should be listened to as such. The carols selected include:- In Dulci Jubilo: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming: I Saw Three Ships: From Heaven High I Come to You; We Three Kings of Orient are and March of the Kings.

And last, but not least, is the arrangement of George Gershwin’s Wintergreen for President. This is a number from the show Of thee I sing which is set in the White House! This is one of the composer’s earliest pieces – but certainly deserves our attention with its ‘bustling manner’.

It is self-evident that Leonard Slatkin and the ‘band’ enjoy themselves playing this music. There is, I guess, an ever-present danger that players could be condescending to Anderson’s music when they have perhaps been wrestling with Mahler, Boulez or Pärt. However, in this recording, every note is taken seriously and every bar is chock-full of ‘pizzazz’.

A great disc – and I am looking forward to what I imagine will be the fourth and final CD?

-- John France, MusicWeb International

Also available - Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Music Vol 1
Jeffrey Biegel's rendition of the terrific Piano Concerto is the best yet. The playing by the BBC Concert Orchestra is relaxed and charming. Under Slatkin's baton the melodies flow effortlessly, and clearly a good time was had by all. -- ClassicsToday.com

Also available - Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Music Vol 2
If you enjoyed Vol. 1 in this ongoing series of Leroy Anderson's warm and beautifully crafted orchestral works, then you'll surely want this release as well. The performances are just as fine, and once again we get several important premieres. Anderson's brand of melodious charm is timeless. -- ClassicsToday.com

In the late 1980s, Naxos released a perfectly decent bargain version of Rodeo, recorded in Bratislava under the direction of Stephen Gunzenhauser. Listening to it again it’s still very enjoyable. However, the label has steadily progressed over the years and in this latest offering Rodeo isn’t just a good bargain version. It’s a very good version at any price and should be snapped up by anyone remotely interested in the music of Aaron Copland.

In Rodeo Leonard Slatkin doesn’t match the snappy, hard driven virtuosity of Bernstein on CBS - nobody does - but many find that disc lacking in relaxation and quite wearing. The general approach in Detroit is somewhat more laid-back - refined, even - but that doesn’t imply that the execution isn’t rhythmically tight. This is playing of the highest calibre and time and again Slatkin reveals details that can be hidden or glossed over in other recordings. The timings for the opening Buckaroo Holiday are 7:00 (Bernstein) and 7:55 (Slatkin). In listening to both, putting the hair-raising Bernstein virtuosity to one side for a moment, I find the Slatkin to be more engaging and involving. It doesn’t just pass you by; it draws you in. From the opening bars you hear a deep sonorous bottom end, full-toned brass, clean string sound and biting transients. Later on the throatily realistic double bass section introduces some trombone playing that just about stays this side of becoming tasteless. The glissandi are pretty outrageous but it’s a piece that’s full of fun at the end of the day. The extended version of Saturday Night Waltz includes an entertaining honky-tonk piano solo. Corral Nocturne is suitably sensuous and the concluding Hoe-Down clocks in at 4:47 compared to 3:06 (Bernstein), 3:16 (Gunzenhauser) and 3:18 (Johanos/Dallas, a fine disc on Vox). These timings are somewhat misleading. Admittedly, Slatkin does take the music at a slightly slower tempo than usual but he also includes a substantial section of music that isn’t to be heard in the other recordings. It brings Rodeo to a very satisfying conclusion.

I have never heard Dance Panels before and quite frankly I’m amazed that such a great piece has been so overlooked. The music is closer to the sound-worlds of Quiet City and Appalachian Spring and makes a welcome contrast to the preceding Rodeo. The music is gentle, ruminative and sophisticated in nature. Even in the more invigorating passages such as the Scherzando of the third movement and the mercurial Con brio of the fifth section (a percussion showcase) the orchestration remains controlled and the very opposite of brash. The woodwind excel throughout and there are some gorgeous sonorities and beautiful tunes. This is Copland at his finest and it’s quite a find. I challenge anyone not to fall for this music.

The two fillers are despatched with aplomb. El Salón México is superb, opening as it does with its sleazy trumpet solo and cheeky bassoons. Slatkin yet again demonstrates that music such as this doesn’t have to be fast and furious to make its mark. The slow sections conjure up scenes of lazy days in the sun and that’s what Mexico, as pictured by the composer, should be all about isn’t it? The playing is never over the top. It’s done with great taste and refinement but there’s not one boring bar to be heard. All the orchestral soloists have a field day. The closing bars are as thrilling as you could wish for. The concluding Danzón Cubano, one of Copland’s real pot-boilers, brings the disc to a rousing end.

In summary, this is a great CD featuring top recommendations for Rodeo and El Salón México and a wonderful rarity in the shape of Dance Panels that I urge everyone to hear. The Detroit Orchestra, in superb form for their inspirational conductor, are captured in spectacular and beautiful sound.

– John Whitmore, MusicWeb International

The Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo continues to present early works by Donizetti that have been unjustly neglected for decades. Alfredo il Grande, a love story that explores the defeat of the invading Danish army by the victorious Britons, was first performed in 1823 and was revived in this production two centuries later. Skilfully orchestrated, it features memorable arias for the hero Alfredo, and includes a superb concluding rondo for the heroine Amalia, as well as a radiant quintet. The opera is heard here in Edoardo Cavalli's 2021 critical edition. Gramophone called it 'a vocally accomplished performance' and 'a fine revival'.

Maritana was one of the most popular of mid-nineteenth-century British operas. It's 1848 premiere was a triumph and was soon followed by performances in opera houses from Vienna to Philadelphia.

“Petrenko and the RLPO have achieved a triumph. The orchestral playing is ripe, detailed, lithe, concentrated and intense.” – The Telegraph on Symphony No. 10

“The final instalment of Petrenko’s remarkable Liverpool Shostakovich cycle is a world-class achievement.” – The Sunday Times on Symphony No. 13

“This is a model of clarity… yet another Petrenko performance to join the greats.” – BBC Music Magazine on Symphony No. 8

Featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra and Choir conducted by Vasily Petrenko
Additional featured choirs:
The Huddersfield Choral Society; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, male section.
Vocal soloists: Gal James, soprano; Alexander Vinogradov, bass.

Blindekuh ('Blind Man's Buff') was Johann Strauss II's sixth operetta and his least known. Neglected for well over a century, it was revived by Dario Salvi and the forces on this album in January 2019. The work's initial lack of success is hard to explain but it may have been caused by a confusing libretto - the music itself is vibrant and captivating with waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, marches and bel canto arias. Performed in a concert version without dialogue, and in accordance with performing traditions, this production restores the work to the status of one of Strauss' most melodically seductive works. Dario Salvi is a Scottish-Italian conductor, musicologist and researcher who specializes in the restoration and performance of rare works. Salvi has conducted symphonic works, opera and operettas across Europe, the Middle East and the US. His passion is the rediscovery and performance of long-forgotten masterpieces by the likes of Supp�, Meyerbeer, Rumshinsky, Gen�e, Auber, and many others. He is collaborating with Naxos on recording a series on Romantic ballets, including works by Minkus, Pugni, Adam and others, and a series on Auber's overtures and orchestral music. Two other important projects include recording the last three missing operas by Johann Strauss II and three never before recorded operatic works by Giacomo Meyerbeer.

Georg Philipp Telemann was the most famous of all German composers during his lifetime and a master of all musical genres. Every piece in this album dates from his triumphant years in Hamburg, where he was the city's music director. They are heard in exciting new arrangements reflecting Telemann's own practice in transcribing his works for various instruments. The two Sonatinas come from the collection Neue Sonatinen of 1730-31, a rich source of material, while the Fantasias derive from the Fantasias for viola da gamba, with much polyphonic writing cast in galant style.

In his vast compositional activity Ferdinand Thieriot manifested himself first and foremost as a worthy representative of the German Romantic movement. The well-known music theorist and critic Hermann Kretzschmar definitively stated in 1895: “… His contribution to Romantic music is characterized by the way it unfolds simply and naturally, by its amicable elegance of mood, and in particular by the unsurpassed clarity of musical form and language.” In 2004 the Amadeus Verlag published his two string trios for violin, viola and violoncello in D major and in A minor. Both works are full of the lyricism so characteristic of Thieriot’s writing, while also manifesting a refined precision of musical language, elegance of form and irreproachable taste. Undoubtedly the two string trios make a valuable addition to the international chamber repertoire. On this album, the works are interpreted by the successful Trio Lubotsky (Mark Lubotsky, Katarina Andreasson and Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky)

Ferdinand Ries occupies a remarkable place in the history of music. He was famously a friend and pupil of Beethoven and a virtuoso pianist. His extensive oeuvre opened up the musical aesthetics of Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. Completed in 1826, the Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 143 features two lively, fast movements surrounding a poetic Adagio, reminiscent of the era's finest opera arias. Very different is the Grand Trio in F minor, WoO 86. It features four thematically interwoven movements that traverse emotions from despair to passion and eventual peace.

The New Zealand String Quartet' first Naxos recording of Mendelssohn' string quartets was praised as 'an auspicious start' by Gramophone and 'opulently recorded' by Classic FM magazine. It's warmly affectionate accounts continue with this second of t.

When Emperor Joseph II established a professional wind ensemble drawn from the Viennese court orchestra in 1782, he initiated an influential trend that gave composers an important opportunity to popularize their operatic music. The beautifully craft.