A prizewinner at several prestigious international competitions including the Carl Nielsen and Jean-Pierre Rampal contests in 1998 and the Geneva in 2001, Kazunori Seo has won attention as one of the world’s outstanding flautists through his numerous appearances as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. As a chamber player he has performed with, notably, Patrick Gallois, Jean-Michel Damase, Emile Naoumoff and Jörg Demus, while as a soloist he has appeared with orchestras in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In 2020 he performed Penderecki’s Flute Concerto with the Mariinsky Orchestra in St Petersburg.

A passionate and dedicated pianist and record producer, Kazunori Seo has made recordings with musicians including Patrick Gallois, Svetlin Roussev, Nicolas Dautricourt, Nicolas Baldeyrou, Laurent Wagschal, Jong-hwa Park and Makoto Ueno for Naxos and his own label, Les Ménestrels and Virtus Classics.

Kazunori Seo was born in Kitakyushu, Japan, in 1974. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Raymond Guiot, Kurt Redel, Patrick Gallois, Benoît Fromanger and Alain Marion. In 1998 he was awarded the Conservatoire’s Premier Prix in flute.

For more information, visit www.kazunoriseo.com.

The Hungarian Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia was formed in 1992 from members of the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra by Ibolya Toth, of the Hungarian Phoenix Studio, initially as a recording orchestra for Naxos. Under its permanent conductor, the flautist Béla Drahos, resident conductor of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), the Sinfonia also undertakes regular public concerts.

The orchestra has among its musicians the principal wind players of major Hungarian orchestras, many of whom have already recorded concertos for Naxos, and draws on the leading players in Budapest. The Sinfonia ranges in size from a baroque string orchestra to an ensemble suitable for Haydn or Mozart, or, augmented, for performances of Beethoven. It has also recorded crossover or seasonally popular works, as on its Marco Polo/Naxos collections of popular Chinese melodies and Christmas baroque favourites.

The recordings by the orchestra of Haydn’s symphonies on Naxos have met with particularly warm critical acclaim. In addition, the ensemble has committed Vivaldi’s flute concertos, complete sets of Beethoven’s symphonies and overtures, concertos by Krommer, Stamitz and Hoffmann, cello showpieces by Popper as well as orchestral works by Cannabich, Vanhal, Dohnanyi and Lalo to disc.

The orchestra played on the complete Fidelio on Naxos Opera Classics, which was acclaimed as “One of the Top Ten Recordings of 2000” by Opera News with a whole host of superlative reviews from the entire classical music press.

Bela Drahos entered the Győr Conservatory in 1969 to study the flute, taking the first prize in the 1971 Prague International Flute Competition and, a year later, in a flute competition staged by Hungarian Television. Having continued his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he graduated with distinction in 1978, Drahos featured successfully in many more competitions, notably the 1979 Bratislava Interpodium. As a flautist he has combined symphonic, chamber, and solo playing with great success. Since 1976 he has been the principal flautist of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (also known as the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) which is part of the Hungarian Television and Broadcasting Organisation. He is a founding member and the leader of the Hungarian Radio Wind Quintet, and has performed as a soloist throughout Europe and as far afield as New Zealand.

Among the many significant awards which Drahos has won are the Hungarian Liszt Prize in 1985, his selection as Hungarian Artist of the Year in 1986, and the Bela Bartok-Ditta Pasztory Prize in 1988, one of Hungary’s highest musical honours. In addition to his activities as a flautist, he has developed a parallel career as a conductor: since 1993 he has conducted both the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra (established in 1923 as the Budapest Municipal Orchestra, re-organized after World War II as the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, and now known also as the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

For the Naxos label Drahos has conducted repertoire focused principally upon the Viennese Classical composers, notably the complete symphonies of Beethoven and many by Haydn, as well as the same composer’s ‘Nelson’ Mass. Additionally he has directed, as well as taking the solo part in, flute concertos by Vivaldi, and has conducted oboe and flute concertos by Leopold Hofmann. In the majority of these recordings Drahos has directed the Hungarian Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia, an ensemble formed in 1992 from members of the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra by Ibolya Toth of the Hungarian Phoenix Studio, initially as a recording orchestra for Naxos. Drahos’s recordings with this orchestra have received consistent praise both for the high technical standards of performance and for the conductor’s ability to realise to the full the character of the works themselves as well as the varied instrumental writing which they contain.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).

A violinist and organist, Leopold Hofmann enjoyed a considerable reputation also as a composer in the Vienna of his time, regarded by some, and certainly by himself, as a rival to Haydn. He was organist and master of music at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna from 1772 until his death. Mozart was appointed his unpaid deputy in 1790, with the right of succession, but Hofmann, though ailing, outlived him.

Church Music

Hofmann wrote a quantity of church music in the style current in Vienna – the Baroque modified by more recent Italian influences.

Orchestral Music

In writing for the orchestra Hofmann drew on the influence of Mannheim, coupled with current trends in Vienna. He wrote a number of symphonies and concertos, the latter including works for solo harpsichord, for flute, for violin and for cello.