The caliber of the Nishizaki-Loeb partnership is outstanding. They provide expressive playing that is light and delicate. Their performances overflow with imagination and a high degree of intimacy. Nishizaki is highly experienced and has sold possibly the most recordings of any violinist. She has the advantage of a technique that is comfortably secure with a pleasing tone that is crisp and cool. There is a purity to her playing, fused with a relaxed manner that is hard to resist. The elaborate piano part in the hands of Loeb is natural and unforced. The duo's choice of speeds tends to be rather on the slow side for my taste. However, in the allegro of K570 (track 6) the players demonstrate that they can quicken when they choose. I especially enjoyed their sensitive performance of the adagio of the Sonata K570 which is tender and highly compelling. Also impressive is the closing movement rondo of the same Sonata, dazzlingly played with joy and vitality, and totally free of affectation. Something special is also happening in the Sonata, K403 at several points in the allegro - allegretto (track 4) especially at points 1.27-2.11; 3.30-4.09 and 5.18-6.26 where the unison playing is exceptional.

A follow-up to Latino Ladino, which focuses on the music of the Sephardic diaspora after the 1492 expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain, the programme for Exaltation is drawn from Medieval and Baroque Europe, Turkey and the Near East, and includes beautiful examples of the Sephardic and Sufi traditions. This essentially joyful album, which combines instruments from different cultures and ages to include distinctive timbres such as the didgeridoo, ney flute, flamenco guitar and more, topped by Yaniv d'Or's haunting countertenor voice, celebrates the spirit that binds the wandering communities, the gods they worship and the hopes they share for a harmonious coexistence. The unique countertenor voice of Yaniv d'Or has confirmed his status as one of the stars of the modern international music scene. He was complimented by Gramophone for "his rich, honeyed falsetto," and Fanfare admired NAYA's "perfect foundation for d'Or's clear and highly nuanced voice."

Classical Music

Agustin Barrios Mangore was one of the greatest guitar virtuosi of his time and something of a pioneer in making recordings, which he began as early as 1910. His compositions offer a lexicon of technical and expressive devices for the guitar, from both the South American and European traditions. This penultimate volume in the series offers the scintillating Estudio No. 6 which demonstrates some of the composer's finest artistic characteristics such as poignant treble melodies and a mastery of harmonic progression. Other works include examples of the Paraguayan polka, the Zamba, Creole airs, the Serenata and many other pieces attesting to Barrios's inexhaustible individuality and variety. Celil Refik Kaya was awarded First Prize at the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition in 2012 and has since received multiple awards from several prestigious American guitar competitions, as well as the Rising Young musician of the Year by the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul in 2017. Kaya has performed in the most prestigious concert halls and festivals around the US and Turkey, including Carnegie Hall, the Frick Collection Museum, NYCGS, Round Top, Brevard and Ankara International Music Festival, as well as numerous radio and TV broadcasts throughout the US and Turkey. Kaya is also an avid composer, with his chamber and instrumental works being performed throughout the US, Turkey, South Korea, and Australia.

Anton Rubinstein was the equal of Liszt as a pianist and a technically gifted composer but, in his own words, he was perceived by his contemporaries as too German to be Russian and too Russian to be German, and his music was frequently disparaged. Although occasionally derivative, the first two sonatas are impressively bravura and passionate works which pianist Han Chen approaches as if reading a 19th-century Russian novel, digging down to the very essence of the human soul. It is perhaps an irony of the history of taste that Rubinstein's very real achievements are beginning to be valued only some 125 years after his death.

The Iranian conductor and composer Alexander Rahbari grew up with and trained in traditional Persian music with it's most influential maestros. His eight symphonic poems, My Mother Persia, of which this is Volume 1 of 2, are full of melodies, rhythms and improvisations in these traditional styles, brought to life with the colors of modern orchestration. The first of these is an emotional violin concerto in which the soloist plays the role of the Nohe Khan, usually a tenor who sings in traditional Persian style at various religious ceremonies. Mother's Tears refers to a gathering of orphans and to Rahbari's own experiences of tragedy, contrasting with a subtext of mischief in Children's Prayer.

Political crises and rising anti-Semitism in Europe during the first half of the 20th century prompted many leading musicians to immigrate to America. An influx of refugees formed a flourishing artistic community centered within a few square miles near Hollywood and this exceptional gathering of composers transformed America's musical landscape. This survey explores their diverse output through music for cello and piano, including arrangements by the composers and their fellow expatriate performers never before heard on the cello.

Chamber music played a substantial role in the renewal of Portuguese music that took place during the 20th century. Freitas Branco's kaleidoscopic Trio has an experimental feel, brimming with his typical rhythmic fluidity and sweeping melodic style, while Frederico de Freitas's Preludio, coral e fuga is both colorful and technically impressive. Braga Santos's infectious lyricism is evident in his Trio, and the origins of Delgado's Trio Camoniano as a sequence of songs connects the worlds of classical music and fado. Volume 1 of Trio Pangea's 'superbly played' (MusicWeb International) Portuguese Piano Trios can be heard on Naxos as well.

Brahms' fascination with music of the 16th to the 18th centuries was nurtured during his appointment in Vienna as conductor of the Singakademie. His own choral compositions had gradually moved from an almost pastiche Renaissance style towards a fully mature, Romantic approach, culminating in his large-scale choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem. This performance is sung in a new English translation prepared by Lara Hoggard that fits the original German declamation and with the piano four-hands accompaniment written by Brahms himself.

Darko Nikcevic and Srdjan Bulatovic have gained international acclaim for virtuosic guitar duo performances providing a unique blend of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern mysticism. Their works are varied in terms of character, style, technique, rhythm and tempo, and share a common thread of Montenegrin traditional music, movie soundtracks, world music and popular contemporary movements. Their acclaimed album The Sea can be found on Naxos 8.573943. Darko Nikcevic is a guitarist, composer and audio engineer. He has played guitar since the age of six, and since then has felt a constant need to create his own music. He began composing the repertoire that he currently records and performs in the early 1990s. In addition to classical music, which he has played since his childhood, his discovery of flamenco music, with all it's advanced guitar techniques, opened up new aspects and ways of musical expression to him. Srdjan Bulatovic is a guitarist and composer. He completed his doctoral studies on the subject The Influence of Flamenco on the Development of Classical Guitar Playing Techniques at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade. To date, he has given numerous international concerts, including at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2016and 2017. He is the author of the book The Collection of Compositions and Etudes for classical guitar (2003) and co-author, with Darko Nikcevic, of the textbook Guitar for Beginners (published in 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2016).

STRAVINSKY, I.: Soldier's Tale Suite / Octet / Les Noces (Tianwa Yang, Virginia Symphony Chorus, Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, Falletta) The three works on this recording were composed at a crucial juncture in Stravinsky's musical life. The Soldier's Tale, a small-scale theatrical work for instrumental septet, narrator and two speakers completed in 1918 [Naxos 8.573537]. It is performed here in the suite premi�red in 1920. The Octet marked a new element in Stravinsky's writing, inaugurating a turn to neo-classicism, whilst Les noces (The Wedding) is a ballet cantata impelled by dramatic motor rhythms, and once again saturated in his Russian background. Scored for pitched and unpitched percussion, vocal soloists, and mixed chorus, it is a pivotal work in Stravinsky's development.

Frderic Kummer, one of the founders of the Dresden School of cello-playing, and Francois Schubert, composer of the delightful L'Abeille (The Bee) and no relation to the more famous Viennese Fran Schubert, delighted audiences with their violin-cello duos. Superb instrumentalists and joint composers, they crafted virtuoso works full of brilliant effects based on popular operatic tunes of the day. These three sets of duets feature fast runs, double stops and chords, pizzicato and harmoncis and require a cast-iron ensemble.

Eugene Zador's long and productive career brought him success on both sides of the Atlantic, his music admired for its assured orchestration, confident mastery of form and unstoppable flow of melodic invention. The Christmas Overture captures both the festivity and solemnity of the season, while the iconic portraits of the Biblical Triptych form one of Zador's most ambitious and colorful orchestral works. The Rhapsody is filled with distinctive Hungarian flavors, and the Fugue Fantasia concludes this program with majestic triumph.

Launched by its prologue Das Rheingold (8660374-75), Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) - one of the supreme works in the history of music - continues with Die Walküre. Part II of the tetralogy centres on the young lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, whose relationship angers Ficka, goddess of marriage, and on the disobedience of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde who is sent to carry out Fricka’s wishes. Performed by an all-star international cast, the work features thrilling set-pieces such as Wotan’s Farewell and the Ride of the Valkyries.

The insatiable demand for sheet music for domestic use in the 19th century meant that popular works were widely disseminated in piano duet form. Robert Schumann's own arrangements of the 'Spring' Symphony (in collaboration with his wife Clara Schumann) and the Fourth Symphony balance playability and fidelity to the original with tremendous skill. Clara considered the Fourth Symphony to be 'another work from the innermost depths of Robert's soul', a symphony that has become one of the most quintessential of the Romantic era. This is a highly collectible set of Schumann's works in arrangement for piano duet, appearing here in world premiere recordings for versions of symphonies arranged by the composer himself along with his wife Clara. Vol. 1 (8.572877) was considered 'extremely well done' by Fanfare. Vol. 2 can be found on 8.572878, Vol. 3 included the Third Symphony 'Rhenish' and is on 8.572879, while Vol. 4 (8.572880) which was considered a 'handsome account off our symphonic works' by the Audio Video Club of Atlanta, and of the Second Symphony: 'The whole work works extremely well in this arrangement; it is also interesting to compare the details which are brought out by the arrangement - Clara and Robert clearly knew exactly what they were doing. I am very much looking forward to the next volume'.(MusicWeb International)