News from the Naxos Music Group
February 2019
Label of the Month – Prophone
Prophone is a high-quality independent label focusing on jazz with a touch of Sweden. It was founded by Erland Boëthius, the son of Proprius’ founder Jacob Boëthius. The label shares Proprius’ reputation as an ‘audiophile label’. Since its inception in 1990, many internationally renowned artists have contributed to its catalogue: Esbjörn Svensson, Alice Babs, Jacob Karlzon, Rigmor Gustafsson, Steve Dobrogosz and Jeanette Lindström, to name a few.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
Boris Giltburg plays Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes
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Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante enshrine the spirit of High Romanticism, embodying extremes of expressive drama and technical virtuosity. His encyclopedic approach to technique is shown at its most dazzling in this cycle, heard here in the 1852 revision which Liszt himself declared ‘the only authentic one’. Integration of musical and technical elements is absolute, and the music’s narratives are supported by dramatic physicality, an orchestral richness of sonority, and an exceptional colouristic quality.
RECENT RELEASES FEATURING BORIS GILTBURG
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Visit naxos.com to view the complete list of Boris Giltburg’s discography.
Centennial Celebration
The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration
Acclaimed for decades as one of the world’s finest symphonic ensembles, the Cleveland Orchestra celebrated its 100th anniversary season in 2017–18 and its 100th birthday in December 2018. At the orchestra’s anniversary gala on September 29, 2018, documented in this video recording, music director Franz Welser-Möst programmed works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions. Opening with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, featuring soloist Lang Lang, a regular collaborator with the orchestra since 2000, it also includes works by Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss II, concluding with Ravel’s cataclysmic La Valse.
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The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918. Over the ensuing decades, it quickly grew from a fine regional organisation to being one of the most admired symphony orchestras in the world. Seven music directors have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound: Nikolai Sokoloff, 1918-33; Artur Rodzinski, 1933-43; Erich Leinsdorf, 1943-46; George Szell, 1946-70; Lorin Maazel, 1972-82; Christoph von Dohnányi, 1984-2002; and Franz Welser-Möst, since 2002. The opening in 1931 of Severance Hall as the orchestra’s permanent home brought a special pride to the ensemble and its hometown, as well as providing an enviable and intimate acoustic environment in which to develop and refine the orchestra’s artistry. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confirmed Cleveland’s place among the world’s top orchestras.
Franz Welser-Möst has also conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in a series of acclaimed video and audio productions, further enhancing the ensemble’s storied recorded legacy.
MORE ACCLAIMED RECORDINGS OF FRANZ WELSER-MÖST AND THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
![DVOŘÁK, A.: Rusalka [Opera] (2008)](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/C792113D.jpg "DVOŘÁK, A.: Rusalka [Opera] (2008)")
61st GRAMMY® Award winners
Naxos among the 61st GRAMMY® Award winners
Naxos is delighted to be among the recipients of this year’s GRAMMY® awards, announced on 10 February at Los Angeles’ Staples Centre. Naxos received the citation for Best Classical Compendium for a programme of music by Kenneth Fuchs, one of America’s leading composers. The recording of three new concertos and an orchestral song cycle was released in August 2018 and celebrated Fuchs’ unique fifteen-year recording history with conductor JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra (8.559824).
The concertos (and soloists) are respectively for piano (Jeffrey Biegel), alto saxophone (Timothy McAllister) and electric guitar (D. J. Sparr), while the soloist in Poems of Life for countertenor and orchestra is Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. The world premiere recordings represent yet another outstanding release in the celebrated Naxos American Classics series.
JoAnn Falletta was invited by Buffalo WIVB’s News 4 to talk with anchor Jacquie Walker about the acceptance of her third GRAMMY® award:
Additionally, Blanton Alspaugh was named Producer of the Year, Classical. Among the recordings supporting the award is a Naxos release of choral works by the Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen (8.573788) performed by Kantorei under conductor Joel Rinsema. It received excellent critical reviews and was named CD of the Week by America’s KDFC Radio.
the São Paulo SO’s China debut
Marin Alsop and the São Paulo SO’s China debut
The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra made its thrilling China debut this month, becoming the first South American orchestra to tour the country. Led by its music director Marin Alsop, the orchestra visited Shanghai (February 14), Jinan (February 15) and Beijing (February 16) before travelling on to Hong Kong for their residency at the Hong Kong Arts Festival (February 19 to 22). Also marking her debut in China, Alsop conducted repertoire which portrays the rich variety of musical styles from South America: works by Villa-Lobos, Ginastera and Guarnieri appeared alongside core European works such as Strauss’ Rosenkavalier Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The Chinese violinist Ning Feng joined the orchestra in performances of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
ACCLAIMED RECORDINGS FEATURING MARIN ALSOP AND SÃO PAULO SO
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For the full list of Marin Alsop’s extensive discography with Naxos, please visit www.naxos.com.
Discover Marin Alsop’s best-loved music with Artist Spotlight: Marin Alsop playlist, and enjoy some of the best of Classical music from Brazil with Music of Brazil playlist.
Visiting the home of Alexandre Tansman
Few composers in the 20th century have enjoyed such an exceptionally wide-ranging career as Alexandre Tansman. Born in Poland in 1897 at Łódź, which was also the birthplace of his friend, the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, Tansman studied at both the Łódź and Warsaw conservatories. After winning the three first prizes in the 1919 National Composition Competition organised in the newly established Polish Republic, Tansman settled in Paris, where he benefited from the support and encouragement of Ravel and Roussel.
In 1927–28 he made his first tour of the United States with Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony performing his Second Piano Concerto, a work dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, who was present in the concert hall. In 1932–33 Tansman embarked on a world tour during which he had the opportunity, in India, to meet Ghandi. In New York he had the surprise of hearing his Four Polish Dances programmed by Toscanini with the New York Philharmonic. Later it was thanks to a committee established by Toscanini, Chaplin, Ormandy and Heifetz that he and his family were able to leave France, occupied at the beginning of the Second World War. During his exile in America his career underwent considerable development and his works were played by the best American orchestras (New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, St Louis, Washington, and Cincinnati). He lived in Los Angeles and counted Stravinsky among his closest friends. This almost daily contact later produced a book on the Russian composer that is still regarded as authoritative.
In the following video Mireille and Marianne Tansman, the composer's daughters, speak from their father's old, memento-filled Parisian house:
The career of Polish composer Alexandre Tansman flourished in Paris after the First World War, though it’s only in recent years that it has begun to be explored in depth on disc. A refined but spiritually engaged neo-Classicism remained a constant feature of his music-making in Europe and in his temporary American exile, whether in the beautifully evocative travelogue Visit to Israel or in the clarity of the Interludes and Caprices.
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS OF TANSMAN’S WORKS
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from commisery?
Did King Arthur suffer from commisery?
Naxos licensing in the UK recently teamed up with the online real estate agent Purplebricks to work on a series of TV, online and cinema adverts exploring the idea of regret. It raised commisery to epic proportions, showing the dramatic, desperate and hilarious moments of regret when people realise they have needlessly paid a commission fee when they could have chosen Purplebricks to sell their home instead. The ad features a catchy track from Henry Purcell's King Arthur: What Power Art Thou, Who from Below, Hast Made Me Rise, "Cold Song" on Glossawhich works perfectly with the creative exposition.
Need to license some music for a project and don’t know where to start? Visit Naxos Licensing to find out how!
Emma Award for Ondine’s Lutosławski recording
IFPI, the Finnish association of record producers, announced the Emma Awards for Classical Music at the Emma gala on 3 February. Ondine’s recording of Lutosławski’s Symphonies 1 & 4 and Jeux vénitiens Hannu Lintu and the Finnish RSO won the Classical Recording of the Year 2019 Award.
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Witold Lutosławski was one of 20th century’s greatest composers and a remarkable symphonist. The three works on this album, performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu, represent three important stages in Lutosławski’s career: his First Symphony was one of his earliest significant works; Jeux vénitiens was the first work in his best-known stylistic phase; and his Fourth Symphony was his last extensive work.
LATEST RECORDINGS FEATURING HANNU LINTU AND FINNISH RSO
– Gramophone
– Pizzicato ★★★★★
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– Gramophone
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Akram Khan's Giselle
Acclaimed dancer-choreographer Akram Khan ‘speaks tremendously of tremendous things’ (Financial Times) and this new Giselle reimagines the classic narrative ballet for the 21st century.
Giselle has become a former garment factory migrant worker, Albrecht, a member of the wealthy factory-owning class. An abandoned ‘ghost factory’ haunted by the memory of female migrant workers, many of them victims of industrial accidents, replaces the traditional glade of Act II. There, Giselle’s desire to break the cycle of violence will lead her to reconciliation with Albrecht and his release from the retributive justice of the Wilis.
![LAMAGNA, V.: Akram Khan's Giselle [Ballet] (English National Ballet, 2017) (NTSC)](images/OA1284D.png "LAMAGNA, V.: Akram Khan's Giselle [Ballet] (English National Ballet, 2017) (NTSC)")
‘Giselle has been transformed for the ENB by Akram Khan into the ballet event of the year. Staggeringly beautiful and utterly devastating, it is an electrifying triumph which any dance or theatre fan must not miss.’
– The Daily Express ★★★★★
‘This is an epic Giselle, and a triumph.’ – The Evening Standard ★★★★★
Direction and Choreography - Akram Khan
Visual and Costume Design - Tim Yip
Composition and Sound Design - Vincenzo Lamagna, after the original score of Adolphe Adam
Orchestration - Gavin Sutherland
Lighting Design - Mark Henderson
Dramaturgy - Ruth Little
Assistant Choreographer - Andrej Petrovic
Rehearsal Director - Mavin Khoo
Sound Designer - Yvonne Gilbert
English National Ballet Philharmonic
Music Director - Gavin Sutherland
Cast -
Tamara Rojo CBE (Giselle); James Streeter (Albrecht); Jeffrey Cirio (Hilarion); Stina Quagebeur (Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis); Begoña Cao (Bathilde); Fabian Reimair (Landlord); Jung Ah Choi; Adela Ramírez; Maria José Sadles (Giselle's Friends); Artists of the Company (Outcasts, Wilis)
More full-length videos? NaxosVideoLibrary.com brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. Watch the world's greatest opera houses, ballet companies, orchestras and artists perform on demand! NaxosVideoLibrary.com offers over 2,800 full-length videos, accessible anytime, anywhere.
Naxos Music Library JAZZ
Naxos Music Library Jazz is one of the most comprehensive collections of jazz music available online. It offers over 207,000 tracks from more than 17,500 albums. It boasts a wide range of jazz music, from jazz legends to contemporary jazz. Recordings of over 32,000 artists are represented. Naxos Music Library Jazz comprises the catalogues of over 250 labels, including Warner Jazz, EMI, Fantasy and others.
Visit www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/jazz and get free 15-minute preview!
Take the world of jazz wherever you go with mobile applications for Apple devices. Login the NML Jazz app with your member playlist account and listen to the playlists that you have created. Scroll through the categories list to find the style you want to listen to. Play on a Bluetooth speaker while practicing, relaxing, exercising, or eating dinner.
Orchestral works by Alberto Nepomuceno:
Brazil’s nationalist music starts here.
From the Recording Studio: Braunfels’ monumental works
Walter Braunfels’ music died twice: first, when the Nazis declared his music ‘degenerate art’; and again when postwar Germany largely rejected tonal music, with arbiters of taste declaring any form of romantic music (almost the whole pre-war aesthetic) to be tainted. This seventh volume in Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition again demonstrates the considerable range of Braunfels’ colourful music. The focus here is on his great, early orchestral work Fantastical Apparitions of a Theme by Hector Berlioz, Op. 25 (1914–1917). The first complete recording of this amazing composition is coupled with his last orchestral work, the Sinfonia brevis, Op. 69 (1948).
In the following video, conductor Gregor Bühl and Susanne Bruse, Braunfels' granddaughter, take a closer look at Braunfels’ life and his epic works:
MORE WORKS BY BRAUNFELS ON CAPRICCIO
![BRAUNFELS, W.: Ulenspiegel [Opera] (EntArteOpera, 2014) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/C9006.jpg "BRAUNFELS, W.: Ulenspiegel [Opera] (EntArteOpera, 2014) (NTSC)")
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– MusicWeb International
– Pizzicato ★★★★
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– Classical Lost and Found
for February
Playlists for February
Celebrate the month of love with four fantastic classical playlists! Cozy up on the couch with your sweetheart and unClassified’s Date Night In, a playlist of romantic tracks curated to set the mood for a relaxing night in. Take a musical trip to through your favorite film soundtracks with Classical at the Movies, featuring iconic scores from Star Wars to Jaws. Celebrate the Year of the Pig with Journey to China, an exciting collection of works by Chinese composers. Explore calming classical works from Satie to Glass with Grand Piano’s Romantic Piano.
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the Month
Artist of the Month – Joel Lyssarides, pianist/composer
‘Jazz at its highest level‘
– Per A F Åberg, Uppsala Nya Tidning (Sweden)
Joel Lyssarides is a multi-award winning Swedish jazz musician. Having started piano lessons at the age of four, Lyssarides claims that one of his early jazz inspirations was hearing Charlie Parker’s Blue Bird.
Only 25 years old, Joel Lyssarides already has a 10-year career behind him, and has toured and collaborated with artists such as Anne Sofie von Otter, Dirty Loops, Benny Andersson, Nils Landgren and Silvana Imam.
Over the years Lyssarides has received a number of notable awards. At the age of 21 he won the Jan Wallander Award, which gave him a Steinway grand piano and access to a studio in central Stockholm. Joel has also been the recipient of an award from the Swedish Association of Composers and was nominated ”Newcomer of the Year” by Swedish Radio.
In 2018, he released his debut album Dreamer on Prophone. Joined by Niklas Fernqvist (upright bass) and Rasmus Svensson Blixt (drums), the album features music inspired by flamenco and Americana styles, as well as composers such as Scriabin and Astor Piazzolla. The album was highly acclaimed and earned Lyssarides the Swedish Society of Composers Award 2018 and the J:son Lindh Award 2018.
‘[Joel Lyssarides] is a truly flighty pianist, a poet with print ability, resilience and great musical reference frames and he fills his varied songs with life, pulse and movement.’ – Alexander Agrell, Sydsvenskan
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