News from the Naxos Music Group

Gramophone recently announced the list of nominees for its 2019 Classical Music Awards. Naxos and its affiliated labels Ondine and Opus Arte have received five nominations among 60 shortlisted recordings from 10 categories.

Naxos’ audiovisual recording of Terry Gilliam’s production of Benvenuto Cellini received a nomination in the Opera category.

‘There are some excellent musical performances, not least from Mark Elder, who brings out some fizzingly punchy playing from the Rotterdam Philharmonic. John Osborn is ideal as Cellini, too, dealing with the often stratospheric demands of the role with style, panache and a lovely command of colour and honeyed voix mixte… Michèle Losier is a terrific Ascanio, stealing the show with her brief appearances. The lower male roles are well taken, too.’ – Gramophone

The Chamber category sees the nomination of Dvořák’s Third and Fourth Piano Trios, performed by violinist Christian Tetzlaff, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt.

‘The virtuosity here is entirely at the service of the music, capturing the full symphonic grandeur of Dvořák's vision... This disc sounds, and feels, like a recording born of love, and I urge you to listen.’ – Gramophone

‘This excellent CD fills significant gaps in the Anderson discography. At the same time it reminds us of the huge gap left by the death of Oliver Knussen. This pair of live performances radiates the clarity and conviction he brought to the most challenging contemporary scores, and the subtle balances and rich colours of the music are beautifully caught in these recordings... In both 'The Comedy of Change' and 'Heaven is Shy of Earth' Julian Anderson’s feeling for the bridges that can be built between music’s timeless acoustic essentials and present-day transformational resources is unfailingly distinctive and acute.’ – Gramophone

‘Benjamin and Crimp had already proved that they can produce work of exceptional quality and that is true again of Lessons in Love and Violence. At just 90 minutes, this is an opera of impressive concentration with not a word or note wasted… Everyone in the cast fits perfectly, headed by the double act of King and Gaveston, sung by Stéphane Degout and Gyula Orendt, seemingly two sides of the same person. Hannigan is outstanding as the Queen, who humiliates a delegation of the starving poor in one of the opera’s most chilling scenes. Peter Hoare is his dramatically astute self as power-hungry Mortimer.’ – Gramophone

‘The drama unravels thrillingly, shockingly, touchingly. Screen viewing allows for total focus on an astonishing central performance from Allan Clayton. His portrayal of Hamlet’s decline would be noteworthy even without singing that is full of expressive meaning and always imbued with stringent beauty even in rage.’ – Gramophone

Sharon Kam is one of the world’s leading clarinetists. For her debut album on Orfeo (and performing for the first time in this trio line-up), she delivers a dramatic, sharply contrasting programme that is presented chronologically. Performing with her brother Ori Kam (viola) and the pianist Matan Porat, the programme begins and ends with music by Mozart and Bartók, the latter's Contrasts producing possibly the most original and captivating contribution to the repertoire for this combination of instruments. In between are works by Schumann and Brahms that contain multi-layered biographical references and are closely related in their romantic spirit.

We’re thrilled to share that Orfeo’s recording of Gottfried von Einem’s Philadelphia Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Franz Welser-Möst has won an Opus Klassik 2019 award in the category of Symphonic Recording, 20th / 21st Century.

Originally released to celebrate the centenary of the composer’s birth, the album has enjoyed great critical success. It was an ICMA nominee and also received a ‘Supersonic’ award from Pizzicato, which praised the featured programme as ‘excellent performances’.

On 13 October, the Konzerthaus Berlin will host the awards ceremony for the second OPUS KLASSIK, Germany's new cultural award for classical music. The event will be televised on ZDF.

Naxos artist Leonard Slatkin celebrated his 75th birthday in style, throwing the first pitch at the St Louis Cardinals game on his birthday on 1 September.

With six Grammy awards, 33 Grammy nominations, and over 40 recordings on Naxos and Vox under his belt, Leonard shows no signs of slowing down. Last month, he released the world premiere recording of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto with flautist Marina Piccinini and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra.

This month, the maestro teams up again with the Orchestre National de Lyon for the next volume in his critically acclaimed Maurice Ravel cycle on Naxos. Their recording of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé was an AllMusic Editors’ Choice and also the Recommendation of the Month from Record Geijutsu while American Record Guide described their interpretation of Antar as ‘opulent.’

‘Verdi’s opera is propelled by blazing dramatic extremes, while Wilson’s cool trademark style is aesthetically and emotionally its antithesis.’ – Financial Times

Extra Features (DVD and Blu-ray): Interview with the curator of the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta (where the Teatro Farnese is located.)

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.

Available on the App Store for iOS devices (iOS 9.0 or later).

Congratulations to pianist Alessandro Marangoni, who received the Franco Abbiati Prize (Premio Abbiati) of the Italian Critics (Associazione Italiana Critici Musicali), the most important and prestigious prize of Italian critics, for the complete works of Rossini’s Péchés de vieillesse: Chamber Music and Rarities.