naxos music recommendations

[Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber]

off the top of my head here's some good stuff: most of the cds of solo guitar (ponce, lauro, barrios-mangore, their laureate series, giuliani, villa-lobos...) are good, as are beethoven's complete works for cello/piano (kliegel/tichman), gabrieli's complete works for brass, edinger's bach solo violin stuff... imho the naxos releases in the last couple years are generally very good; the older releases are more hit-&-miss.

[Scott]

The Stravinsky series of recordings conducted by Robert Craft.

[not edward]

The Lutoslawski series is mostly good, with some performances that are truly outstanding (Cello Concerto, Livre, Mi-Parti.

The Poulenc chamber music is similarly good: the first volume is a little weak but the rest is uniformly excellent.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Love this disc (and that's an order!):

[cx]

Some Naxos I've enjoyed:

Bliss: A Colour Symphony.
The Arnold symphonies.
Bewald symphonies.

-CS

[knight66]

I urge the Glass Violin Concerto on any possible victim. A very good performance as far as I can tell.Adele Anthony violin, Ulster Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuasa.

The disc also has Prelude and dance from Akhnaten and four short pieces entitled Company. Despite all this...it lasts 51 minutes in total, so not a long disc, but a satisfying one.

Mike

[71 dB]

I second Philip Glass' Violin Concerto.

Also:

Buxtehude Organ Music
Charpentier Sacret Music
Clerambault Cantatas
Elgar Symphonies
Elgar String Quartet/Piano Quintet
Elgar Sacret Choral Music
Elgar Falstaff/Elegy/The Sanguine Fan
Haydn Die Schöpfung
Hofmann Violin & Cello Concertos
Lully Grand Motets
Mendelssohn/Bruch Octets
Vanhal Symphonies/Sacret Music
Weiss Lute Sonatas
The Art of Baroque Trumpet

imho the naxos releases in the last couple years are generally very good; the older releases are more hit-&-miss.

Naxos is a 20 years old label. The first 5 years were the hit-&-miss period, then Naxos started to be a big label and could do things better. The last 10 years did not contain many bad releases (~200 new CDs released every year!) and the overall quality is good.

[stingo]

Holst's The Planets comes to mind - the one with The Mystic Trumpeter on it.
Offenbach's Gaite Parisienne - the Monte Carlo orchestra gives a very fine interpretation, full of wit and bounce
Respighi's Pines and Fountains of Rome - the track listings on the disc I have are incorrect, but I'd imagine they'd've been corrected by now. An outstanding reading.

[mahlertitan]

Philipe Glass: Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" / The Light 

[karlhenning]

Elgar Falstaff/Elegy/The Sanguine Fan

Nah.  That recording made me think that Falstaff was a dull piece;  and I knew it could not be, so I resented the Naxos disc from the first hearing.

There's 30 other Naxos discs which are unalloyedly excellent.  But not this one.

[71 dB]

Nah.  That recording made me think that Falstaff was a dull piece;  and I knew it could not be, so I resented the Naxos disc from the first hearing.

There's 30 other Naxos discs which are unalloyedly excellent.  But not this one.

Could you tell me a better recording of Falstaff?
(I don't find this performance dull...)

[stingo]

What I've heard of their Vaughan Williams symphony cycle are good - though they used two different conductors to complete it.

[Classy Guy]

The following is a post I made in the old forum:

The Kodaly Qt's recodings of Haydn's string quartets and Tintner's complete set of Bruckner's symphonies have received favorable reviews.  Purchasing anything from these two sets would likely be a safe investment.

If you like 20th Century music, you may want to acquire the following discs:

- Solo Piano music of the Second Viennese School (Peter Hill)
- Varese's Arcana, Integrales and Deserts (Christopher Lyndon-Gee)
- Boulez' three piano sonatas (Idil Biret)

Naxos' American Classics series is excellent.  If provides an extensive catalog of the music of the following somewhat lesser known composers: David Diamond, Roy Harris, William Schuman, Walter Piston, Ned Rorem and Paul Creston.  It also boasts excellent recordings of Barber's orchestral music and John Cage's music for prepared piano. 

Finally, Naxos Historical Series is invaluable.  It provides an inexpensive means of acquiring classic recordings by the likes of Schnabel, Cortot, Beecham, Furtwangler, etc.  Well worth investigating, imo.

[karlhenning]

If you like 20th Century music, you may want to acquire the following discs:

- Solo Piano music of the Second Viennese School (Peter Hill)

Yes, I can vouch for the excellence of this, as well!

[Don]

Wolfgang Rubsam's Bach recordings (organ and piano) are top-rate and distinctive; not for the folks who prefer mainstream interpretations.

[hautbois]

Koehne - Inflight Entertainment

is a must!!!

I think the Berio Sequenzas were highly rated too, if you like that kind of music. And the Vaughan Williams symphonies under Kee Bakels are absolutely fantastic.

Howard

[karlhenning]

. . . And the Vaughan Williams symphonies under Kee Bakels are absolutely fantastic.

Howard, I will entirely agree on the discs with the Fifth/Ninth and the Seventh/Eighth.

There was a third disc (I think with the Pastoral but I am not sure which other) which, when I had listened to a sample of it, didn't 'grab' me (admittedly, a potentially misleading measure).

[karlhenning]

Wolfgang Rubsam's Bach recordings (organ and piano) are top-rate and distinctive; not for the folks who prefer mainstream interpretations.

What instrument(s) on the organ works, Don?

[karlhenning]

Could you tell me a better recording of Falstaff?

Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder

[Bogey]

These two are definitely worth one's shelf space: