Naxos releases 2011

[Brian]

Some pretty exciting stuff, as they roll out a wave of Blu-Ray releases, continue the 19th century violin series, and embark on a Haydn trios series as well. Highlights (to my tastes):

- William Alwyn's Violin Concerto (Lorraine MacAslan, Royal Liverpool PO, Lloyd-Jones)
- Malcolm Arnold's Cello Concerto (Raphael Wallfisch)
- Three volumes of Rodolfo Halffter's chamber music
- The Kungsbacka Trio begins recording Haydn's piano trios
- Kapustin's 24 Preludes in Jazz Style (Catherine Gordeladze)
- Karlowicz symphony, violin concerto (Antoni Wit)
- Mahler's First (Marin Alsop, Baltimore SO)
- "Martinu, Kodaly, Enescu: Works for Viola and Piano" (Sarah-Jane Bradley, Anthony Hewitt)
- Mozart: Divertimento for 3 strings K563 (Henning Kraggerud, Lars Anders Tomter, Christian Poltera)
- Schickele, P.D.Q. Peter: A Year in the Catskills (Blair Woodwind Quartet)
- Schulhoff: Piano jazz music (Caroline Weichert)
- Schumann: Scenes from Faust (Antoni Wit & Co)
- Shostakovich: Symphonies 1, 3, 6, 12 (Vasily Petrenko, Royal Liverpool PO)
- Taneyev: Quartets 2 and 4 (Carpe Diem SQ)

The full catalog PDF is here; the future releases section is right at the back.

[DavidW]

This of interest (well to me at least):

■ HAYDN: Missa brevis (1805 revision) •
"Schöpfungsmesse"
Ann Hoyt / Julie Liston / Richard Lippold / Nacole Palmer /
Nina Faia / Kirsten Sollek / Daniel Mutlu / Matthew Hensrud /
Andrew Nolen / Trinity Choir / Rebel Baroque Orchestra /
J. Owen Burdick / Jane Glover.....................................8.572127
■ HAYDN: Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo "Kleine
Orgelsolomesse" • "Theresienmesse"
Ann Hoyt / Dongsok Shin / Nacole Palmer /
Kirsten Sollek / Daniel Mutlu / Andrew Nolen /
Trinity Choir / Rebel Baroque Orchestra /
J. Owen Burdick / Jane Glover.....................................8.572128

[Antoine Marchand]

This of interest (well to me at least):

■ HAYDN: Missa brevis (1805 revision) •
"Schöpfungsmesse"
Ann Hoyt / Julie Liston / Richard Lippold / Nacole Palmer /
Nina Faia / Kirsten Sollek / Daniel Mutlu / Matthew Hensrud /
Andrew Nolen / Trinity Choir / Rebel Baroque Orchestra /
J. Owen Burdick / Jane Glover.....................................8.572127
■ HAYDN: Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo "Kleine
Orgelsolomesse" • "Theresienmesse"
Ann Hoyt / Dongsok Shin / Nacole Palmer /
Kirsten Sollek / Daniel Mutlu / Andrew Nolen /
Trinity Choir / Rebel Baroque Orchestra /
J. Owen Burdick / Jane Glover.....................................8.572128

It's quite curious, but those two discs were released almost a year ago because they were included by Naxos in the complete edition of the masses -CD7 and CD8- to celebrate the "Haydn Year", here:



Therefore, the box set was released before than the single discs.

[DavidW]

Ha!  I didn't know that... well that also means that I should be able to listen on nml!

[Antoine Marchand]

Ha!  I didn't know that... well that also means that I should be able to listen on nml!

You're a smart guy, David.    Anyway, I have the box set and it's excellent: fine performances, excellent sound and informative booklet (89 pages), overall excellent presentation.

[Brahmsian]

Some pretty exciting stuff, as they roll out a wave of Blu-Ray releases, continue the 19th century violin series, and embark on a Haydn trios series as well. Highlights (to my tastes):


- "Martinu, Kodaly, Enescu: Works for Viola and Piano" (Sarah-Jane Bradley, Anthony Hewitt)
- Shostakovich: Symphonies 1, 3, 6, 12 (Vasily Petrenko, Royal Liverpool PO)
- Taneyev: Quartets 2 and 4 (Carpe Diem SQ)

Hi Brian, I knew about the Taneyev upcoming release, but I'm also interest in the other two releases.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Mirror Image]

- William Alwyn's Violin Concerto (Lorraine MacAslan, Royal Liverpool PO, Lloyd-Jones)
- Karlowicz symphony, violin concerto (Antoni Wit)

These are the two recordings I'm really interested in. Alwyn's and Karlowicz's Violin Concertos are not played enough! Two great works and plus I've been eagerly awaiting the third installment from Wit's Karlowicz series. I don't own the Lloyd-Jones Alwyn recordings, which will soon change as I love Alwyn's music. I do own Hickox's complete Alwyn series on Chandos though, but it wll be nice to have alternative recordings to his readings.

[Daverz]

Looks like some great stuff, but:

Mahler's First (Marin Alsop, Baltimore SO)

Who cares?  But it does remind me that I need to transfer the Comissiona/Baltimore recording of Pettersson's 8th.

[The new erato]

The creation of the marvellous Naxos catalogue is a wonderful achievement, probably one of the greatest in the history of recorded music.

The items of most interest to me, are:

ALDRIDGE: Elmer Gantry
CASELLA: Symphony No.3 • Elegia eroica
FUCHS, R.: Serenades Nos. 1 & 2
GHEDINI: Piano Music
HALFFTER, Ernesto: Carmen (music for the 1926 silent film)
LIAPUNOV: Violin Concerto • Symphony No. 1
MADERNA: Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra (1941)• Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra (version for two pianos, 1946) • Concerto per due pianoforti a strumenti(1948) • Quadrivium for orchestra (1969)
PIZZETTI: String Quartets
MOZART: Divertimento for string trio in E flat, K. 563 •Fragment for string trio in G major
(because  of the artists; Henning Kraggerud / Lars Anders Tomter / Christian Poltera
STANFORD: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 (again with a very strong team, the Gould Trio)
TANSMAN: Clarinet Concerto • Oboe and Clarinet Concerto • 6 Movements for Strings

Among the wealth of Naxos releases crying out for attention, these seems predestined to end up on my groaning shelves.

[Brian]

erato, I've already listened to the Fuchs Serenades and Lyapunov Violin Concerto, which were posted on NML a few months ago, and they will definitely be worthy additions to your/my collection. The Fuchs adds very charmingly to the tradition of romantic serenades for strings, and the Lyapunov concerto is stupendous, one of my favorite "obscure concertos" for any instrument. The Aldridge should be interesting; his clarinet concerto this year certainly was.

These are the two recordings I'm really interested in. Alwyn's and Karlowicz's Violin Concertos are not played enough! Two great works and plus I've been eagerly awaiting the third installment from Wit's Karlowicz series. I don't own the Lloyd-Jones Alwyn recordings, which will soon change as I love Alwyn's music. I do own Hickox's complete Alwyn series on Chandos though, but it wll be nice to have alternative recordings to his readings.

Good news, mate: that's not one but two Karlowicz discs! The symphony and concerto each have couplings, the concerto comes with a Serenade for Strings and the symphony with Bianca da Molena, a Symphonic Prologue.

Daverz: I've heard Alsop to Mahler's First live. It was fairly good, especially in the finale, but I didn't exactly leave wishing for a CD.

[Wanderer]

Their Medtner piano sonatas project (supposedly with Paul Lewis) is long overdue.

[karlhenning]

Looks like some great stuff, but:

Mahler's First (Marin Alsop, Baltimore SO)

Who cares?

Agreed! And FWIW that really strikes me as Naxos moving entirely away from its initial mission of highlighting underrepresented (and new) music, and avoiding the lit which is already represented by libraries-ful of recordings.

[71 dB]

ELGAR - Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata + other works for Violin and Piano
Marat Bisengaliev / Benjamin Frith / West Kazakhstan
Philharmonic Orchestra / Bundit Ungranzee ............8.572643-45

I suppose 2 of these 3 discs are licenced from Black Box label "Re-discovered works for Violin and Piano I & II". I have those.

[DavidW]

Agreed! And FWIW that really strikes me as Naxos moving entirely away from its initial mission of highlighting underrepresented (and new) music, and avoiding the lit which is already represented by libraries-ful of recordings.

That is quite wrong Karl.  If you look at the upcoming 2011 releases you'll see that 95% are underrepresented works.  Having an occasional re-record of a warhorse won't hurt Naxos' mission in the least.

[karlhenning]

That is quite wrong Karl.  If you look at the upcoming 2011 releases you'll see that 95% are underrepresented works.  Having an occasional re-record of a warhorse won't hurt Naxos' mission in the least.

In principle, I have no quarrel with your rebuttal, Davey.

In this specific case, though, Alsop's Brahms cycle was a nearly universal disappointment. My expectations for a Mahler First conducted by her are low.

Now, if instead Naxos were to issue the performance Alsop led of Steve Reich's Tehillim in Denver . . . .

[DavidW]

Oh you're anti-Alsop!

Her Barber is fine, but that's all I've heard from her.  I think that the tops on the Naxos label are Wit, Kuchar and Sakari.

[Brian]

I think we have to distinguish between Naxos recording core repertoire in the abstract, and in the specifics. The idea of Alsop leading a Mahler cycle conjures to mind ten-to-twelve discs of competence but not genius, and I'm skeptical about her after the dismal failures that are her Dvorak Seventh and Brahms Second. On the other hand, 2012 will see the release of Antoni Wit and the Warsaw PO's Janacek album - Sinfonietta and Glagolitic Mass - which I am already excited about based on his track record in weird music calling for huge forces (Mahler 8, Turangalila, various Polish passions and requiems, etc). (Sarge should be, too, given Wit's tempi always bring out the nobility and monumentalness of music like that!) And on the other other hand, Naxos hasn't recorded Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in 20 years and I am already hoping they get Tianwa Yang to do the honors sometime soon. Moreover, a live bootleg of Vasily Petrenko and his Liverpool band in Tchaikovsky's Sixth suggests to me that if Naxos recorded that cycle, with those forces, the series would have limitless potential.

In theory we should agree that Naxos should record core repertoire if the artists involved will produce work of distinction. We wouldn't want to be without Craft's Stravinsky, Petrenko's Shostakovich, Sakari's Sibelius, Muller-Bruhl's Bach, or various Kodaly Quartet series, as another example. The question is the execution.

In the meantime, I think it's obvious that they remain focused predominantly, indeed almost exclusively, on new repertoire. The 2011 repertoire continues the 19th Century Violin Series and reveals new details about their brand-new Italian Classics line, which will be expanded to chamber music by Pizzetti and Piatti, and will include a completion of Respighi's sketched-out violin concerto. As erato pointed out, the American Classics line will include a new opera by Robert Aldridge. There's still a lot of promising stuff to be recorded and released.

[Bulldog]

Agreed! And FWIW that really strikes me as Naxos moving entirely away from its initial mission of highlighting underrepresented (and new) music, and avoiding the lit which is already represented by libraries-ful of recordings.

I don't know about that.  My impression of Naxos has always been that the company records all the core repertoire in addition to the unfamiliar.  Essentially, record EVERYTHING.

As for Alsop's Mahler 1st, I look forward to it and will surely acquire it.

[Octo_Russ]

Looks like Petrenko is now releasing the Tenth in November, i've never heard of him before, so what's he like?, is his Shostakovich cycle worth acquiring?, the Tenth is my second favourite Symphony by Shostakovich, so it might be good to start by trying him here, the Eighth is another i'm curious about with Petrenko.

[karlhenning]

Her Barber is fine, but that's all I've heard from her.

Her Barber is very good; and those discs give the best possible impression of Alsop.