Naxos recommendations

Started by DavidW, April 16, 2011, 12:03:31 PM

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Octave

Indeed, I think it is Karl who mentioned that Busoni; I'm on a burgeoning FB kick right now, plus two-piano music is of interest to me generally.  And I think it's you I have to thank for the Jando/HUNGARIAN recommendation!  It is hard for me to remember where all the input comes from, even with me being a GMG homebody in terms of classical music info.

One more batch of items I'm interested in.

27. Carissimi: at least a few discs by Consortium Carissimi [curious how they compare with the recent Brilliant box set by Seicentonovecento/Colusso, and also a much-praised disc by Les Voix Baroques on Atma]
28. Brahms/Schumann piano quintets by Kodaly/Jando [I might be approaching overkill on both of these evergreens, but I have heard this disc singled out for praise several times, various places]
29. Bloch: VIOLIN SONATAS 1 & 2, SUITE HEBRAIQUE [Kramer/Over]
30. Bloch: FOUR EPISODES & TWO POEMS
31. Weber: SYMPHWS 1 & 2 (Queensland/Georgiadis)

Also interested in 20c/21c composers and works that I might not yet know.
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The new erato

Quote from: Octave on April 05, 2013, 12:08:56 AM

Also interested in 20c/21c composers and works that I might not yet know.
The Meyer and Hindemith string quartet series.

mc ukrneal

Quote from: Octave on April 05, 2013, 12:08:56 AM
31. Weber: SYMPHWS 1 & 2 (Queensland/Georgiadis)
These are good. If I had continued my list, they might been in the second grouping. These are definitely on the lighter side (for the most part).
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

Brian

Quote from: Octave on April 05, 2013, 12:08:56 AM
Also interested in 20c/21c composers and works that I might not yet know.

Hindemith quartets, Avner Dorman concertos, Robert Aldridge, "Echoes" with the Seattle Symphony, Glass string quartets, a Fine Arts Quartet CD featuring quartets by Bernard Herrmann and others, "Azerbaijani Piano Concertos" (this features two full-length concertos that are absolutely superb coupled with some filler that's astonishing in its terribleness; still worth hearing), "Concertos of the Jazz Age" with a fun work by Ms. Dana Suesse, Rafael Aguirre's two guitar recitals (one features Ibert and Rautavaara - unconventional fare!).



I apologize for bankrupting you.  :)

Octave

#44
All of you guys are terrible.   8)
I really will be buying a lot of these.  People will stop giving me recommendations if they see me always buying stuff other than what they recommend.
Already through samples I think I need much of what's been suggested.  I guess there is no rush; Naxos is a big label and these sales do seem to happen....in fact, it looks like at least three of the major online classical sellers are having big Naxos sales at once.  Breathe, Octave.
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Mirror Image

If you don't own the William Schuman/Schwarz , Stravinsky/Craft, Schoenberg/Craft, Roussel/Deneve, or the Poulenc chamber music box set, then you should definitely remedy this ASAP.

vandermolen

Quote from: Octave on April 05, 2013, 07:48:35 AM
All of you guys are terrible.   8)
I really will be buying a lot of these.  People will stop giving me recommendations if the see me always buying stuff other than what they recommend.
Already through samples I think I need much of what's been suggested.  I guess there is no rush; Naxos is a big label and these sales do seem to happen....in fact, it looks like at least three of the major online classical sellers are having big Naxos sales at once.  Breathe, Octave.

And don't forget this!  ;D
[asin]B00BBAVVT2[/asin]
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Brian


Mirror Image


mc ukrneal

Quote from: Octave on April 05, 2013, 07:48:35 AM
All of you guys are terrible.   8)
I really will be buying a lot of these.  People will stop giving me recommendations if the see me always buying stuff other than what they recommend.
Already through samples I think I need much of what's been suggested.  I guess there is no rush; Naxos is a big label and these sales do seem to happen....in fact, it looks like at least three of the major online classical sellers are having big Naxos sales at once.  Breathe, Octave.
The past few years the sale at abeille (French site) has had Naxos discs (not the latest releases though) at about $6 per disc. And if you get 16+ discs, shipping is free (and if you know you want 32 discs or more, split it into 2 orders so that you can earn the points on the first order and use them to reduce the cost of the next one). Barnes and Noble had a good Naxos sale the past couple of years in Sept/Oct (though who knows if they will repeat this year) with discs at 6/6.5. Others have had similar sales, so I would just accumulate your wish list and eventually you will be able to unleash your purchases (if you don't figure it out in time for this sale)! There will be another one... :)
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

kishnevi

Quote from: Octave on April 03, 2013, 08:39:39 PM
Thanks a lot everybody for these recommendations; a number of items I've never heard of, and a little sampling makes me glad you mentioned them.  More recommendations would still be appreciated.  Here are some more I was thinking of getting.  In many if not most cases of these I am mentioning, here and in my earlier post above, there's already been some discussion/recommendation of the discs at GMG, in case anyone wants to collect some opinions on their own.

14. Tveitt: PIANO CONCERTO 4 etc
15. Liszt: HUNGARIAN RHAPSODIES [Jeno Jando] (vols. 12/13 of his Liszt series)
16. Philip Glass: VIOLIN CONCERTO [Adele Anthony]
17. Gubaidulina: FACHWERK/SILENZIO
18. Ligeti: STRING QUARTETS (Parker 4tt)
19. Moeran: SYMPHONY & SINFONIETTA [Lloyd-George] - I think there was a Lyrita I was also considering...
20. Finzi: ENGLISH SONG SERIES vols. 12 & 15 ["I Said To Love", "Earth & Air & Rain"] - ....and/or other Finzi?
21. Bartok: three discs w/Pauk [SONATA/44 DUOS + RHAPSODIES + VIOLIN SONATAS
22. Busoni: MUSIC FOR TWO PIANOS [Schiller/Humphrey]
23. Enescu: STRING QUARTETS 1 & 2 [Ad Libitum 4tt]
24. Rihm: COMPLETE VIOLIN/PIANO
25. Buxtehude: MEMBRA [Fasolis]
26. Dunstaple: SWEET HARMONY [Tonus Peregrinus]

Quadruple yeah for the two I bolded.  The others I don't have.
Don't forget Petrenko's Shostakovich series, and the French Violinist Composer series, especially Wang's Sarasate recordings.
Konstantin Scherbakov's recording of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues
I have to admit I wasn't nearly as keen on that Azerbajaini Piano Concerto CD as Brian is. 
As MI mentioned, Roussel/Deneve.

Over the years,  I've found that Naxos is hit or miss, and very often miss, on "mainstream" or "major" composers and music,  but incredibly good on stuff that's not so mainstream.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2013, 05:40:30 PMthe French Violinist Composer series, especially Wang's Sarasate recordings.

You know, I need pick those recordings up myself. How are they?

Wakefield

#52
Some of my favourite discs on Naxos (although I think I have written a list before):

[asin]B000053W48[/asin][asin]http://B00005A7JW[/asin][asin]B0000060D7[/asin][asin]B0000060D8[/asin][asin]B0000014EX[/asin][asin]B000026B8A[/asin][asin]B00008OP1Q[/asin][asin]B001AE4PGK[/asin][asin]B000REGIVE[/asin][asin]B00007DWM4[/asin][asin]B000Q6ZUXK[/asin][asin]B0037TTQA6[/asin][asin]B007WB5CWG[/asin][asin]B002IVRBBU[/asin][asin]B0000502AH[/asin]

... and almost every thing recorded by Wilson on Naxos.

... and all the Bach harpsichord concertos performed by Helmut Müller-Brühl and his Cologne Chamber Orchestra, plus their excellent oboe concertos.  :)
"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire

kishnevi

#53
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 05, 2013, 05:43:09 PM
You know, I need pick those recordings up myself. How are they?

They're very good, but I'm not sure if you're really interested in the music:  mostly 1800 to 1875 orchestral and chamber music (I'm referring to the entire series, not just the Sarasate.)

And Gordon properly pointed out their box of Haydn masses, and the Beghin box of Haydn keyboard works, to which I would add their set of Haydn concertos.

And Elizabeth Farr's double CD of Bach's concertos for solo harpsichord (but not her double CD of music for lute/harpsichord/Lautenwerk, which I think (to be very blunt) stinks like a skunk in smog.  Gordon obviously has a different opinion about that recording!)

And anything by the Oxford Camerata.

It strikes me that one could almost wander blindly through Naxos catalogue,  pick at random, and come up with all winners if one avoided  works that are often recorded by other labels.

And even there are some winners.  Slatkin's Rachmaninov, for example.

Brian

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2013, 05:40:30 PM
I have to admit I wasn't nearly as keen on that Azerbajaini Piano Concerto CD as Brian is.
Is this even accounting for the fact that I described the three shorter works as "terribleness"?

kishnevi

Quote from: Brian on April 05, 2013, 06:09:39 PM
Is this even accounting for the fact that I described the three shorter works as "terribleness"?

If I remember correctly, I thought the main featured works were worse than the fillers!

Wakefield

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2013, 06:06:13 PM
And Elizabeth Farr's double CD of Bach's concertos for solo harpsichord (but not her double CD of music for lute/harpsichord/Lautenwerk, which I think (to be very blunt) stinks like a skunk in smog.  Gordon obviously has a different opinion about that recording!)

No doubt. Playing, instrument and sound quality are, IMO, first class.
"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire

kishnevi

Quote from: Gordon Shumway on April 05, 2013, 06:21:51 PM
No doubt. Playing, instrument and sound quality are, IMO, first class.

I thought the playing and the instrument were very clunky.

But at least I agree with you about the sound quality  ;D

Wakefield

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2013, 06:39:40 PM
I thought the playing and the instrument were very clunky.

But at least I agree with you about the sound quality  ;D

Well, admittedly some listeners have some problems to be used to the sound of the lute-harpsichord. Personally, I loved the instrument since the first time I listened to it (Robert Hill &  Kim Heindel).

IMO, this Keith Hill instrument (built under Bach's specifications) is probably the best modern attempt of reconstruction of this lost kind of keyboard.

For those interested, here can be read some reviews on Farr's 2-CD set:

http://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.570470-71&languageid=EN

:)
"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire

Octave

The last slew of recommendations was incredibly useful; it guided a lot of buying and even more listening.

I think most of the recommendation, by far, were for normal Naxos titles, modern if not recent recordings.  Would anyone be willing to offer some essential Naxos Historical titles?
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