To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vaughan Williams, we are proud to reissue this outstanding symphony cycle. Started in 1999 by Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra, this was the first Vaughan Williams symphony cycle to be recorded in Surround Sound and released on Hybrid SACD. Tragically, Richard Hickox died before he was able to complete the project – a task that was undertaken by Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. This reissue is priced at 6 discs for the price of 2, and features almost an hour of bonus material – broadcast interviews with Sir Adrian Boult and Sir John Barbirolli, and reminiscences from both Ursula Vaughan Williams and the composer himself.

Praise for previously released recordings included in this set:

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 / Hickox, London Symphony

Richard Hickox gives us the chance to hear VW's original, hour-long canvas – and riveting listening it makes too! Sprawling it may be, but this epic conception evinces a prodigal inventiveness, poetry, mystery, and vitality that do not pall with repeated hearings. An essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.

-- Gramophone (2001 Recording of the Year)

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 / Hickox, London Symphony

This is an exceptionally powerful yet deeply moving account of the Fifth. Aided by glowing, wide-ranging engineering, Hickox's is an urgently communicative reading. The first and third movements in particular emerge with an effortless architectural splendour and rapt authority, the climaxes built and resolved with mastery.

-- Gramophone

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 8, "Sinfonia Antartica" / Davis, Bergen Philharmonic

The Bergen Phil finds a clear affinity with the Sinfonia Antartica...There’s an inexorability about this performance and a strong tragic undertow that makes it a compelling listen throughout. Davis authoritatively builds up the tension without any fussiness.

-- The Sunday Times (UK)

Choral music holds a central position in Villa-Lobos’s catalogue of works, but among these famous pieces is a series of little-known transcriptions for a cappella choir taken from the standard classical repertoire. They were intended for a teachers’ chorus and for use in schools, and through astonishing alchemy they achieve a true ‘orchestration’ of largely piano originals, adding a fresh new repertoire for vocal ensembles. This album also includes the first ever recording of Villa-Lobos’s complete set of a cappella transcriptions from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

REVIEW:

Unbelievable Villa-Lobos Choral Transcriptions

The Bottom Line: Don’t miss this disc! These transcriptions for unaccompanied choir of keyboard music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Villa-Lobos himself have to be heard to be believed. They are extraordinary. Check out the sound samples in the video and add this splendid Naxos release from the São Paulo Symphony Choir under Valentina Peleggi to your collection post haste.

ClassicsToday.com

These transcriptions for unaccompanied choir of keyboard music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Villa-Lobos himself have to be heard to be believed. They are extraordinary.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

CONTENTS:

• Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Book 2 (6), Op. 30, No. 3
  
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 8 in E♭ minor, BWV853
• Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15, No. 7 ‘Träumerei’
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1, No. 1 in C major, BWV846: Fugue
• Schubert: Schwanengesang, D957, No. 4: Ständchen
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 21 in B♭ major, BWV866: II. Fugue
• Chopin: Waltz No. 7 in C# minor, Op. 64 No. 2
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 1 No. 22 in B♭ minor, BWV867: Prelude
• Rachmaninoff: Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 2 in C# Minor, Prélude
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 14 in F sharp major, BWV883: Prelude
• Massenet: Elégie
• Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue Book 2 No. 5 in D major, BWV 874: Fugue
• Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 'Pathetique': Adagio cantabile
• Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 for chorus or string orchestra

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

Mandolinist Alon Sariel continues his series of Bach transcriptions with Plucked Bach II. On his first Plucked Bach album, Sariel played the Cello Suites on a wide range of plucked instruments. Yet in this new recording, he performs works for the lute, organ and violin - all performed on 'only' two types of mandolins. By offering a distinctive and groundbreaking interpretation of his own transcriptions and arrangements, Sariel manages to breathe new life into some very well-known works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The iconoclast Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565) for the organ receives a contemplative and intimate character on the mandolin. Excerpts of the Lute Suite (BWV 998) and the Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major (BWV 1006) are drawn in a whole new palette of colors. For Bach's Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor (BWV 1003), Alon Sariel shows the in-credible suitability of the mandolin for Bach's music. And as an encore, you will hear his rendition of Ysaÿe's dazzling Obsession. Alon Sariel is one of today's most versatile performers, known as a multi-instrumentalist in the realm of plucked strings with a growing reputation as a fascinating Bach interpreter.

The Prague-based ensemble Collegium 1704 and its founder Vaclav Luks here perform an oratorio by the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. This edifying work, typical of the oratorios produced during the Counter-Reformation, presents the faithful with an imaginary meeting of Mary Magdalene, King David and St Peter at the Tomb of Christ. After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and White collections (a total of sixty reissues) which gave a new lease of life to the pearls of the Baroque catalogues from our house labels, here are fourteen new titles which offer a chance to discover other treasures, whether Baroque or dating from an earlier or later era. Like the most recent series, this sixth instalment opens out onto the Classical repertory (Mozart by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini) and the Renaissance (Févin by Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre); recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. Fourteen reissues performed by the leading musicians in the field, most of which received one or more awards on their original release. Proper booklets accompany the discs, with notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from all over the world have been selected to illustrate the covers, this time with the guiding thread of the color green, a symbol of nature, fertility... and hope!

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Ensemble Oni Wytars, Ensemble Unicorn.

Following his recent acclaimed recordings of Haydn and Beethoven Sonatas, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet turns from the Classical to the Romantic era, and the works of Schumann. The programme is built around the Grand Sonata (no.3). This impressive, large-scale work was originally composed in 1834, later revised in 1853 and eventually premiered (6 years after the composer's death) by Schumann's young prot�g� Johannes Brahms. Jean-Efflam first discovered the work though a recording by Vladimir Horovitz in the 1980s, and got to play it to and discuss the work with Horowitz in Paris in 1985. Like Horovitz before him, Jean-Efflam combines elements from both the original and revised versions of the work on this recording. Bavouzet has chosen to couple this with another early work - the "Faschinsschwank aus Wein" - and then the much later work the "Drei Fantasiest�cke". He closes with the "Gesange der Fr�he" which were among the last compositions that Schumann wrote before his attempted suicide and incarceration in February 1854. As always with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's albums, the booklet features an insightful personal note by the performer.

With interpretation, execution, and sound taken in tandem, there is no finer Dvorák cycle than this one.

Václav Neumann's Dvorák cycle certainly stands with the classic sets by Kubelik, Kertesz, and Rowicki, and it's better recorded (by far) than any of them. Still Neumann has been dogged principally by the fact that he was not Karel Ancerl, despite being a fine conductor in his own right. His principal weakness seems to have been a sort of stiffness that could on occasion paralyze his ability to make the music flow (sort of like Horenstein's chronic tempo problems, though on a much smaller scale). Here however it's all smooth sailing. Even where Neumann takes special care over rhythmic detail, such as the five-note accompaniment figures in the First Symphony's opening movement, or in the deliberate but hair-trigger precise finale of the Third Symphony, the result has the effect of giving the music an extra breadth and weight.


Perhaps the best performance in this set, however, is of the gorgeous Second Symphony. Dvorak was right to revise this early work and have it published later in his life, and it is fully characteristic of him. The third movement remains his largest and most melodically abundant scherzo, and who can fail to thrilled at the finale's second subject--a widely ranging melody accompanied by ear-catching, ponticello string tremolos? Neumann is also at his very best here, to say nothing of the incomparable Czech Philharmonic, which offers playing that pretty much eclipses the competition in charm, rhythmic snap, and sheer timbral beauty. Sonically speaking, Supraphon made some of the very best early digital recordings, and so they remain. A must-have if you love Dvorák. [3/1/2003]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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This central panel in Václav Neumann's excellent Dvorák symphony cycle starts out with the inestimable advantage of the Czech Philharmonic in top form, but it won't do to diminish the quality of artistic insight coming from the podium. Take the Fourth Symphony, for example: Listen to how Neumann has the winds in the scherzo emphasizing their dotted rhythms against the triple-time accompaniment, and the increased musical tension this generates. Smart man! The finale takes one of Dvorák's most interesting formal experiments (it's the earliest extant prototype for the Romantic finales of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov's Second and Third Piano Concertos and Second Symphony) and weds it to arguably the least interesting principal tune that he ever wrote. The movement has never sounded better than it does here. Neumann understands the need to soft-pedal the "one-two-three" motive and stress lyrical elements wherever possible, and the result makes a musical silk purse out of a real potential sow's ear.


Both the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies are of course masterpieces all the way through, and from the first sound of those inimitably Czech clarinets that open the Fifth, you know it's going to be smooth sailing. A beautifully flowing slow movement, breezy scherzo, and brilliant finale with a hugely exciting coda characterize an exceptional performance. The same virtues hold true in the Sixth, where Neumann doesn't put a foot wrong. Of course there will be other performances of this glowing work with something special to offer: Ancerl's for example, with this same orchestra, and no one touches Kubelik in the scherzo. But Neumann more than holds his own in this august company, and as regards interpretation, execution, and sound taken in tandem, there is no finer Dvorák cycle than this one. [3/8/2003]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Václav Neumann concludes his remarkable Dvorák symphony cycle on a high note, turning in what is arguably the finest and most consistent set of the last three symphonies since George Szell. All of the competition in this area has problems: Kubelik's Seventh isn't fabulous, and neither is Kertesz's (who did a better "New World" in his earlier VPO rendition). Rowicki, also less good in the Seventh than in the later two works, like Kertesz has an LSO whose playing is no match for that of the Czech Philharmonic. Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw offer a stunning Seventh and a decent "New World", but an unremarkable Eighth. Järvi turns in fine accounts of Nos. 8 and 9, but makes heavy going of the Seventh, and he's cavernously recorded too. Neumann, by contrast, shines in the Seventh, perhaps Dvorák's greatest symphony. His attack on the first movement's climax remains unrivaled, and he milks the finale's tragic foreboding for all it's worth but never lets the music bog down (those marvelous Czech winds help a lot too).


The Eighth is noteworthy for its effortless sense of flow, and also for a finale that, in the Czech tradition of Talich, takes the scherzo variations in tempo yet still has sufficient rhythmic kick to provide an exciting conclusion. Neumann recorded the "New World" Symphony more times than I care to count, his last efforts revealing sadly diminished capacity. This is his best version, a "traditional" performance in the sense that it doesn't bring new revelations to this oft-played symphony, but it's also one whose feeling of "rightness" (note the beautifully relaxed yet seemingly self-propelled Largo and the trenchantly argued finale) married to superb playing places it among the handful of great accounts. Supraphon's first-rate sonics also distinguish this, the most consistently excellent of all complete Dvorák symphony cycles, from the rest of the pack. Supraphon's happy decision to offer the nine symphonies in sets of three also means that you don't have to commit to the whole production until you've had a chance to sample--but sample you certainly should. [3/22/2003]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

In 1995 Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan began the monumental task of recording J.S. Bach’s extant church cantatas – an adventure that was brought to a close 18 years later. But Bach also composed a number of cantatas for secular occasions of which some twenty works have survived intact. Released on individual discs between 2004 and 2018, Masaaki Suzuki’s recordings of these works have now been gathered in a box set, available as a limited edition. The secular cantatas were written (both the texts and the music) for special events in the family, social, academic or political calendar – a wedding, a birthday celebration, an academic ceremony or a tribute to a prince. Although they were normally only performed once in their original form, Bach was keen to reuse material from them, if the opportunity arose. The best-known examples of using secular arias and choruses with new sacred texts are found in the Christmas Oratorio, for which Bach drew extensively on three festive cantatas written for the Prince-Elector of Saxony and his family. Included in the release is a 156-page booklet with an introduction by Bach specialist Dr Klaus Hofmann (in English, German and French) and the texts of the cantatas with English translations.

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Excerpts of reviews from previously released volumes included in this set:

Bach: Secular Cantatas, Vol. 10 - Cantatas of Contentment:

We celebrate here, as always, many of Suzuki’s finest qualities of expressive lucidity, unforced coherence, and the quiet nobility of one serving the music as the most natural of reflexes.

– Gramophone

Bach: Secular Cantatas, Vol. 8 - Celebratory Cantatas:

Schleicht, spielende Wellen (‘Flow, playful waves and murmur’) follows the dramma per musica template of allegory – this time with four competing rivers yearning for the primacy of the monarch’s affections. However ludicrous, Bach constructs a very significant work which Suzuki treats as an undertaking of serious critical engagement. After 22 years of intensive Bach recording, Suzuki and his forces just seem to get better.

– Gramophone

Bach Secular Cantatas, Vol. 5 - Birthday Cantatas:

Lithe choral singing, balletic rhythms, and a detailed yet transparent sound. Joanne Lunn is agile and fleet as the goddess of War…Robin Blaze is lyrical as the goddess Pallas…Makoto Sakurada's lucid tenor is particularly effective in the rhetorical and declamatory recitatives, while bass Dominik Wörner paints the words to vivid effect.

– BBC Music Magazine

Bach Collegium Japan was first noticed internationally for undertaking the huge project of recording the complete church cantatas of J. S. Bach. Although the ensemble's discography consists of predominately vocal works, the participating instrumentalists have attracted acclaim ever since the outset. On the present offering, it is Bach's two great sets of orchestral works that form the programme and the choir of the BCJ is silent. Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki first recorded the Brandenburg Concertos in 2000, but now return to these great works. The new recording took place in the recently completed MUZA Kawasaki Hall, a venue that is highly suitable to an approach focussing on the chamber music qualities of this music.

In four of the concertos Masaaki Suzuki has chosen to replace the traditional cello with the violoncello da spalla - a smaller instrument played horizontally on the shoulder or held against the breast. The instrument has already featured in the BCJ Cantata series, and opens for new possibilities in timbre, for instance in Concerto No. 6, where the violoncello da spalla blends particularly well with the two solo violas and the viola da gambas. Making a new recording also provided the opportunity to record these in many ways multidimensional works in 5.0 Surround Sound, releasing them as hybrid SACDs. This is also the format of the included recordings of the Orchestral Suites, originally released in 2005 to great and universal acclaim.

The German website klassik.com called the 2-CD set 'incredibly perfect Bach!' and named it one of the reference recordings of these oft-recorded works, while the Financial Times (UK) listed it as one of the outstanding classical discs of 2005, remarking that 'Suzuki's traversal of the Bach orchestral suites combine scholarship and style without compromising the music's expressiveness.' In the Brandenburg Concertos and the Suites, Bach explored an Italian and a French genre respectively, and in his inimitable way transcended the boundaries of both. This attractive box at a very advantageous price combines both sets performed by one of the leading Baroque ensembles in high fidelity recordings - not to be missed! Please note: The music on this Hybrid Super Audio CD can be played back in Stereo (CD and SACD) as well as in 5.0 Surround sound (SACD).

Includes vesper(s) by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Ensemble: Le Concert spirituel. Conductor: Hervé Niquet.

Includes work(s) by Geirr Tveitt, various composers. Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bjarte Engeset.

"...a good mixture of Grainger's compositions, recompositions and arrangements of folk-melodies is presented. Most rewarding, perhaps, are those in which strong folk material is made the basis of works that go far beyond the score of the initial tune.
A fine instance is Green Bushes. Butterworth used a variant of this in his The Banks of Green Willow, but with Grainger it serves quite different ends in a well-organized passacaglia. The two movements from his Youthful Suite are remarkable for a teenager without formal training in composition, although it is inevitably the later scores which show the inventiveness of his orchestral writing. Blithe Bells, which takes ''Sheep may safey graze'' as its starting point, is gently iconoclastic, My Robin is beautiful in an individual way and here played with the sort of ''drowsy lilt'' Grainger indicated. And there is excellent work from Moray Welsh in the quietly rhapsodic Youthful Rapture."

-- GRAMOPHONE

Disc 5 of this set is a bonus disc titled "Serebrier on Stokowski."

Reviews of the original recordings which make up this set.


"Stokowski's Bach transcriptions have received a great deal of attention on disc lately, but this is one of the very few recordings that has the genuine flavor that Stoki himself brought to them. The obvious first question is: How do these versions compare to the "originals"? Can they be as good? The answer, quite simply, is "Yes, they can." Serebrier doesn't try to duplicate every gesture that Stokowski made. That would be impossible in any case, given the wide range of tempos and other variations among his own numerous recordings of these pieces...Aside from Bach, Serebrier includes Stokowski's own Two Ancient Liturgical Melodies, a sexy conflation of Veni Creator Spiritus and Veni Emmanuel, as well as the Handel and Purcell items. Dido's Lament sounds particularly dark and tragic in this performance. It's clear that the Bournemouth Symphony is having a great time reproducing these ultra-rich, Golden Age sonorities. The engineering supports the interpretations particularly well, giving the strings the necessary sheen and allowing the climaxes to expand hugely. This new release is an unqualified triumph." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

“José Serebrier brings to his recordings of Stokowski transcriptions the same voluptuous orchestral sheen that the old wizard himself managed on his own numerous recordings of this repertoire. However, Serebrier also has the advantage of superb modern sonics to back him up, making these productions eloquent tributes to a beloved friend and mentor, as well as perfectly valid and compelling interpretations in their own right.” -- David Hurwitz, Classics Online

"It would be hard to imagine a more sumptuous disc. Stokowski, in these 'symphonic syntheses,' enhances Wagner's already opulent orchestration with shrewdly added instrumental lines and with the vocal parts usually given to the strings. Then at times he thins the orchestration down for more transparent textures. José Serebrier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in thrilling performances, passionate in a genuinely Stokowskian manner and treated to orchestral sound of demonstration quality." -- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

"José Serebrier deploys an imaginative mix of the great man himself with other early masters. Outstanding items among the latter include Palestrina's Adoramus Te, Byrd's Pavane and Galliard, and a really yummy (but never too droopy) Boccherini Minuet. Stokowski was not really a brilliant orchestrator in terms of timbral variety, but he was a very characteristic one. Key to any successful new recording of his arrangements is string sonority, that special, luminous sheen, especially in soft passages. Serebrier understands this, as others who worked with Stokowski do not." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"Further icing on the cake: the two lovely Tchaikovsky transcriptions (the Humoresque will be familiar to knowledgeable listeners from its use in Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss), and Stokowski's own Traditional Slavic Christmas Music, a setting where once again Serebrier shows himself able to conjure a truly authentic "Stokowski sound". Mind you, these aren't mere imitations. Serebrier's flexible approach to tempo and willingness to inject a jolt of extra electricity make something quite special out of the climaxes in A Night on Bare Mountain, and it's very clear that the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is having as much fun playing this music as you will have listening to it. The engineering stands among the best from this source as well. Spectacular, sensational, skirting the boundaries of "good taste"--this is the real deal." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com