The two new choral pieces in this fifth volume of works by Elisabetta Brusa offer a revealing look at her response to her own spirituality. The Stabat Mater was written as a trial for the Requiem and is the more expressively brusque work. Both works, heard here in world premiere recordings, follow traditional models, with the Requiem evoking an archaic atmosphere with luminous elements and transcendent effects. Previous volumes of Brusa's music can be heard on 8.574263 (Vol. 4), 8.573437 (Vol. 3), 8.555267 (Vol. 2) and 8.555266 (Vol. 1).

The prolific and internationally admired Jia Daqun is one of China’s leading composers. The Wave of the Surging Thoughts is a large-scale symphonic concerto-suite which achieves a high degree of unity through the use of formal variations. Bashu Capriccio is an ardent symphonic prelude that celebrates the cultural traditions and simple folk customes of Bashu, the ancient name of Sichuan province. Two albums of Daqun's chamber music can be heard on 9.70241 and 8.579011, with an album of percussion works on 8.579028.

Written for the Opéra in Paris, Gaetano Donizetti’s La Favorite contains some of his most famous arias. This superb production from the Donizetti Opera Festival in his birthplace of Bergamo returns the work to its rarely heard 1840 French grand opera origins, and uses the critical edition by Rebecca Harris-Warrick which includes all of the original ballet music and the cabaletta of the duet between Léonor and Alphonse. Set in 14th-century Spain, the tragic story is of a pious novice (Fernand) who falls in love with a noble lady and abandons the cloister. He becomes a war hero and asks the King for her hand, later finding out to his horror that she is Léonor de Guzman, the King’s beloved mistress.

The latest instalment in this popular series turns to the life and times of Robert Schumann. The text is written by Davinia Caddy, narrated by Leighton Pugh, and features excerpts from some of Schumann’s best-known works.

Franz Hauk has spearheaded the rediscovery of Johann Simon Mayr work’s during the last two decades. This latest premiere recording presents the substantial Messa solenne in D minor which sets the full ordinary. The Simon Mayr Chorus and Concerto de Bassus are joined by a team of stellar soloists.

The guitar works on this album are by two towering figures of Catalan music – pianist Federico Mompou and cellist Gaspar Cassadó. Both shared a friendship with Andrés Segovia who inspired these pieces. Performed by Italian guitarist Eugenio Della Chiara.

John Adams’ City Noir was inspired by the cultural and social history of Los Angeles, with the composer himself calling it ‘an imaginary film score’, while Fearful Symmetries exemplifies his steamroller motor rhythms. The album ends with a capricious ‘Spider Dance’ of memorable rhythmic drive – a work dedicated to Marin Alsop who leads the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in these performances.

REVIEWS:

Marin Alsop has been quietly championing John Adams abroad—and now at the Met Opera conducting his El Nino— for decades. A new Naxos recording with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra demonstrates her flair and feeling for his distinctive idiom. City Noir, premiered by the LA Phil in 2009, is a vivid, multi-textured score inspired by mid-20th century urban California. With its jazz inflections and brooding canvases, the debt to the City of Angels and film noir are equally clear. This is the work’s third recording but well worth acquiring for Alsop’s theatrical bite and detailed interpretation. Punchier than Robertson and livelier than Dudamel (though Robertson’s ravishing sonics make for essential listening), she holds the attention with a sure eye for the work’s architectural twists and turns. The companion piece is Fearful Symmetries from 1988, one of Adams’s most infectious scores and yet only receiving its second outing on disc. Alsop takes the chugging basic pulse a tad faster than the composer’s own recording without sacrificing any of the infinite variety to be found in Adams’s orchestral details. It’s a joyous, carefree work and beautifully recorded. The same goes for the recorded premiere of Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance. Happily rehabilitated after getting the chop from Girls of the Golden West, this six-minute essay in wriggling cross rhythms is laced with sardonic wit.

-- Musical America (Clive Paget)

John Adams’s City Noir has been pretty well represented on disc in the fifteen years since its 2009 premiere: Marin Alsop’s new recording of the score with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony is the work’s fourth. In general, this celebration of the city of Los Angeles benefits from her approach. It’s swift and characterful...its structure emerges nicely intact in Alsop’s hands. The central “The Song is for You” boasts a series of idiomatic solos (especially from alto saxophone and trombone), at times seeming to channel Gershwin. [The] ORF’s woodwinds, trumpets, and jazz drummer really shine here. By about any measure, this is some brash and chill Adams.

Even more welcome is the pairing’s account of Fearful Symmetries, a half-hour-long study in rhythm and texture that’s only been recorded once before. Granted, that earlier release was led by the composer and it’s aged well. But Alsop’s new take is downright invigorating. The conductor brings a strong sense of drive to the music, drawing out a beautiful blend of colors – from invitingly swooning saxophone quartet playing to unexpected synthesizer colors – from her forces. What’s more, hers is a reading that manages to vigorously illuminate the sophistication of Adams’s compositional language, circa 1988. It’s a keeper.

-- The Arts Fuse

On this latest release in the Guitar Laureate series, Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo, winner of the 2022 European Bach Guitar Award, presents a selection of works transcribed for guitar from the rich repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach. Dimitrov-Jojo’s beautiful sound and poetic interpretations bring an intimate connection to Bach’s boundless imagination, crowned in this substantial programme by the famous Ciaconna, BWV 1004.

This sixth album in this series is rich in music that ranges across Auber’s creative periods where finesse of orchestral detail and piquant harmonies are met by verve and wit. It includes some of Auber's least well-known music, some in world premiere recordings, as well as scores that explore vivid dance themes. Previous volumes can be heard on 8.574335 (Vol. 5), 8.574143 (Vol. 4), 8.574007 (Vol. 3), 8.574006 (Vol. 2) and 8.574005 (Vol. 1).

All the arrangements on this album are of instrumental works that Astor Piazzolla composed for his Quinteto Nuevo Tango. Most prominent is the Vivaldi-inspired Las cuatro estaciones porteñas reimagined in concerto style for solo violin and string orchestra by Leonid Desyatnikov. The seven other companion pieces are heard here in world premiere recordings of arrangements by conductor Ken Selden, who leads the Martingale Ensemble.

The first volume in this series of Erich J. Wolff’s complete songs introduces a composer of astonishing gifts, whose Romanticism is as daring as his formal sophistication. Wolff’s serene, lyrical and masterful songs are interpreted here by soprano Samantha Gaul, tenor Daniel Johanssen and pianist Klaus Simon. 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Wolff’s birth.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This album features works by Sor, Tárrega, Bach, Paganini Rodrigo and Myers.

Fernando Lopes-Graca's importance to 20th-century Portuguese music cannot be overestimated. His study of native songs and traditions has been compared to that of Bartok, and the soulful melodies of the Tr�s cancoes corais are an early example of his highly effective integration of folk style into rigorous historically established forms. From the reverence and purity of the Christmas Cantata songs to the harmonic density of the Tr�s liricas castelhanas de Camoes, the powerful and often deeply moving combination of Lopes-Graca's use of classical structure alongside his country's musical heritage finds it's zenith in his writing for voices.

The Royal Danish Orchestra's performing history stretches back to 1448, making it the oldest orchestra in the world, with Carl Nielsen counted amongst it's distinguished former members. His 16 years of experience as one of the orchestra's second violinists helped shape him as a composer, and it was this ensemble that introduced his symphonies to the world. From the 'imminent storm of genius' of the First Symphony to the disarming outlandishness of the Sixth, Nielsen's symphonies are recognised as among the greatest in their genre, heard here in recordings made with a league of conductors whose bond with Denmark and Nielsen's music is second to none.

Rhapsodies is the fourth album on Naxos dedicated to the lauded American composer Margaret Brouwer - renowned for her music's lyricism, imagery and emotional power. Marin Alsop conducts the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in this programme of world premiere recordings including Symphony No. 1 'Lake Voices' and the dazzling Rhapsody, Concerto for Orchestra.

This latest instalment in the Great Composers series focuses on the life and times of Richard Wagner. Written by Davinia Caddy, narrated by Nicholas Boulton and featuring excerpts from Wagner’s best-loved operas and more.

Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez was a key figure in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro. The primordial power of Batuque, the final movement of his Afro-Brazilian influenced suite Reisado do Pastoreio, gained the composer international fame. Without ever abandoning his Brazilian roots, in his later career Lorenzo Fernandez moved away from explicit nationalism towards a more universalist idiom as can be heard in the vigorously themed and atmospheric First Symphony of 1945 and the programmatic Second Symphony, inspired by the life and death of the heroic 17th-century explorer Fernao Dias Paes Leme. Symphony No. 1 is a world premiere recording.

"Heiko Quinto" is the sixth album release on Naxos by the award-winning composer Daron Hagen. Composed for Duo YUMENO, the piece is based on the Japanese medieval text "The Tale of the Heike." Scored for Japanese koto, cello, and two voices, the work presents a compelling and expressive narrative. World premiere recording.

The award-winning Quartetto Adorno present Castelnuovo-Tedesco's complete works for string quartet. He began composing chamber music during the 1920s, and these works date from 1929, 1948 and 1964 respectively. Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 are world premiere recordings. This is a major addition to the comprehensive catalogue of Castelnuovo-Tedesco albums on Naxos.

Franz Clement was a composer and violin virtuoso who premiered Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Clement's solo violin works heard here display a lexicon of technical demands, suave lyricism, wit and imaginative writing. The award-winning violinist Haoli Lin performs this programme of world premiere recordings.

Ukrainian guitarist Marko Topchii (b. 1991), winner of the 2023 Guitar Foundation of America Competition, presents a diverse programme of music from across the centuries. Includes the world premiere recording of his countryman Konstantin Bliokh's Sonata No. 6 'Kharkiv'.

Carl Teike's Alte Kameraden is one of the most popular marches in the world but surprisingly little is known of it's composer or the circumstances surrounding his compositions. This release is the first volume in a comprehensive edition of Teike's marches, made with The Royal Swedish Navy Band conducted by Alexander Hanson.

Ausias Parejo won the 2022 'Alhambra' International Guitar Competition at the age of 17. In this programme he includes works by Leo Brouwer, Ponce and Guastavino, as well as works by Juan Erena, Lorenzo Palomo (a premiere recording) and Ausias's father Ruben.

Christoph Poppen and his Cologne forces continue their critically acclaimed exploration of Mozart's Masses. Featuring Mass No. 7 'Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis' and two Missae brevis in D major and B flat major respectively. Volume 1 is on 8.574270, Volume 2 is on 8.574417.

The is the fourth volume of orchestral works by Toshio Hosokawa, Japan's leading living composer. These world premiere recordings were recorded in the presence of the composer. Featuring soloists violinist Paul Huang and Belgian trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts, with the Residentie Orkest The Hague conducted by Jun Markl.