The 20th-century Lithuanian composer’s dialogue between modern forms of expression and folk motifs is well represented in the four works in this recording. There is a sense of playful lightness in the Romantic aesthetic of Gruodis’s work, while Banaitis incorporates national lyricism with personal grief in his Sonata. Composed under the restrictions imposed by Soviet occupation, Vainiunas’s Sonata, Op. 38 is suffused with tragedy and sorrow, while Juzeliunas’s distinctive style had an enormous impact on the future of Lithuanian music. All of these pieces are symbolic of survival and represent being truthful to one’s creative identity while under the harshest of conditions.

Italian piccolo virtuoso, Francesco Viola, presents this highly personal album of concertos for his instrument by Eastern European composers. Baksa’s Grande concerto piccolo and Viola’s arrangement for piccolo of Hida’s Oboe Concerto are both world premiere recordings. Viola is accompanied by the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim conducted by Salvatore Percacciolo.

The cello was a vital part of Catalan musical expression in the first half of the 20th century. Pablo Casals as composer and cello virtuoso was its revolutionary force, and his student Gaspar Cassadó joined him in writing superb transcriptions and expressive original works with a strong sense of tradition and national melodic flavour. Casablancas’ Cant per a Frederic Mompou ‘Remembrança’ pays homage to another great friend and colleague, while Enrique Granados’s soulful Madrigal is accompanied by delectable arrangements of piano works with cello such as the Goyescas.

Angel Stanislav Wang (b. 2003, California), winner of the 2022 Jaén Prize International Piano Competition, presents his debut recital featuring Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor accompanied by the Bretón String Quartet, plus excerpts from Granados's Goyescas and the competition imposed work Poema a un amor eterno by Laura Vega.

Ulrich Eisenlohr’s critically acclaimed series of Brahms’ complete songs reaches its fourth volume and features the Opp. 6, 14, 19 and 48 sets. On this instalment Eisenlohr is joined by soprano Alina Wunderlin and tenor Kieran Carrel. Volume 1 is on 8.574268, Volume 2 is on 8.574345 and Volume 3 is on 8.574346.

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

American guitarist Billy Arcila spent his childhood in Colombia and is today one of California’s foremost guitarists. This album of all world premiere recordings is the first to be made of his music, interspersed with the music of other admired composers in original versions and arrangements that feature Colombian nationalist elements, such as the bambuco and pasillo rhythms.

Both Zygmunt Noskowski and Władysław Żeleński were leading exponents of Polish nationalism in the period from the last quarter of the 19th century. Noskowski is best remembered as a symphonist but his large-scale Violin Sonata in A minor is an imposing work that suggests the influence both of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata and of Brahms. Żeleński was as eminent a teacher as he was a composer, seeking to broaden Poland’s provincial outlook through works such his opera Janek (Naxos 8.660521-22). His Violin Sonata in F major typifies the essentially conservative idiom that Żeleński pursued in his maturity.

Alon Goldstein and the Fine Arts Quartet present this fourth instalment in their acclaimed series of Mozart’s piano concertos arranged for piano and string quintet by Ignaz Lachner. The previous albums are available on 8.573398, 8.573736 and 8.574164.

Between 1879 and 1880, as he approached his 40th birthday, Giovanni Sgambati completed his Piano Concerto in G minor, a work on which he had been working for about two years. It was a significant moment for Italian instrumental music: it was, in fact, the first Romantic piano concerto by a composer from the country that had given the world both the instrument, invented by Cristofori almost two centuries earlier, and the genre itself.

The Piano Concerto displays an assured compositional hand. It constitutes not only a new beginning for Italian piano music but also a synthesis of the possibilities offered by the genre. An extremely difficult work to play, it is not immediately accessible on a first hearing, given the density of its material, but reveals more about Sgambati’s inventiveness and technical mastery every time you listen to it.

The Sinfonia festiva (Ouverture de fête) was composed in 1878 or 1879, making it contemporaneous with the Piano Concerto and proof of Sgambati’s growing dedication to orchestral music. It is a short but mature work, confidently written, clearly inspired by the dance-like character of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Three main themes, the first lean and lively, the second more lyrical, the third impudent and leaping, are organized according to the principle of sonata form, with a development section in which the initial motif pops up time and again, wandering between tonalities, sometimes giving the impression of formal freedom, sometimes of obeying rondo form.

REVIEW:

A pupil of Liszt, Giovanni Sgambati (1841-1914) stood out among 19th-century Italian pianists for his advocacy of the German school and classical models. His massive three-movement Piano Concerto in G minor (1880) might be described as a hybrid that fuses the similarly scaled Brahms D minor concerto with piano writing marked by Lisztian bravura.

Imagine Liszt reworking the echt-Hungarian finale of Brahms’ Violin Concerto for piano on his own stylistic terms, and you’ll get an idea of what Sgambati’s third movement sounds like. Similarly, the grandiose first movement owes much of its existence to the arpeggiated flourishes in Beethoven’s Emperor concerto first movement and motives from Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy.

Recorded live in 2013, the (late) pianist Massimiliano Damerini handled the daunting piano part with brilliance and confidence. He positively opens up and thrives in front of an audience.

Both conductor and orchestra make a splendid case for the delightful Sinfonia festiva (‘Ouverture de fête’), presented in its world premiere recording here.

  -- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

This collection of best-loved Christmas repertoire was recorded live at the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Festival of Carols concerts in 2015 and 2016. GRAMMY award-winning vocalist Sylvia McNair adds her own unique beauty and warmth, and as ever, the programme celebrates the joys of the season with sparkling versions of family favorites. The tranquillity and magic of Christmas eve, heartfelt messages of hope, reconciliation and peace, and thrilling new compositions all combine to capture the celebratory excitement of the holiday season.

REVIEWS:

The title refers to the practice in many churches of having a ceremony of carols and traditionals during the Christmas season, a holiday for the choir when they can really open up and let 'er rip, and, quite often, a sing-along for the congregation as well. It is, after all, the most joyous time of the Christian year.

We get all of that in a well-packed program by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra under conductor Eric Stark. The substantial choir are supported by an orchestra that plays with a lot of gusto, especially the folks in the percussion section (this genre of music encourages a lot of gongs and bells). Listen for some distinguished playing by pianist David Duncan in Rob Swenson’s Christmas Hosanna with its jaunty rhythms recalling that old chestnut, Good Christian men, rejoice.

Most welcome of all is soprano Sylvia McNair, whose warm vocal presence...adds a special quality to such songs by contemporary composers as Mary, Did You Know? (Buddy Greene) in which the choir asks Jesus’ mother a series of poignant questions (“Did you know when you kissed your baby boy, then you touched the face of God?) and Grown-Up Christmas List (David Foster/Linda Thompson Jenner) with its plea for greater understanding and peace among people).

McNair does some of her best work in the two spirituals, This Little Light of Mine and Go Tell It on the Mountain, the last-named with an accompaniment by David Duncan that partakes deliciously of the spirit of the blues and R&B. Sylvia’s intimate vocal warmth and sensitive interpretation capture the special quality of both these grand old songs.

There’s something for everyone here, including J.S. Bach’s Sinfonia from the Christmas Oratorio, its lilting melodies and swaying pastoral rhythm recalling those time-honored instruments of simple shepherds, the wooden flute and the hurdy-gurdy. We also have John Rutter’s All Bells in Paradise and his Magnificat, the lastnamed animated by use of Latin-American rhythms, Mendelssohn’s Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a recounting by composer William Goldstein of ‘Twas the Night before Chistmas with delightful spoken narration by Sherry Stark, and a rousing Jingle Bells.

-- Audio Video Club of Atlanta

The next instalment in this popular series now focuses on the life and music of Mendelssohn. This insightful biography explores the breadth of his achievements, the complexities of his privileged upbringing, and the reasons for the fluctuating nature of his reputation. Written by Davinia Caddy, narrated by Leighton Pugh, and featuring many musical excerpts include the Violin Concerto, String Octet and Elijah, as well as his choral works, symphonies, sonatas and songs.

Tom Winpenny conducts this album of choral works by Elizabeth Poston (1905–1987) – an English composer renowned for her great sensitivity of word setting, a profound appreciation of ancient folk-song traditions, and timeless melodic charm. Performed by the Cathedral Girls Choir and Lay Clerks from St Albans Cathedral, located in her native Hertfordshire – this is the first album to be dedicated entirely to Poston’s work. Includes many world premiere recordings.

This album of rarely heard piano music by Mendelssohn displays the composer’s wide emotional range and features two youthful sonatas, composed when he was just eleven years old. Pianist Christopher Williams has previously recorded acclaimed albums of music by Semyon Barmotin for Grand Piano (GP799, 865, 866)and makes his Naxos label debut with this album.

Hear an episode of the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast on this release!

The Valencia Baryton Project return with their second instalment of Haydn’s fascinating trios for baryton, viola and cello. The baryton is a bowed, stringed instrument similar to the viol but with extra plucked strings that enable the performers to accompany themselves. Volume 1 (8.574188) was widely acclaimed for the ensemble’s well attuned performances and also for showcasing this virtually unknown repertoire from Haydn’s vast output.

JoAnn Falletta conducts the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic in works by four extraordinary mid-20th-century American composers who helped shape the country’s musical destiny: Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Paul Creston and Ulysses Kay. Includes two world premiere recordings – Paul Creston's Saxophone Concerto and Ulysses Kay’s poignant and elegiac Pietà.