Naxos was founded in 1987 and has developed from being known primarily as a budget label focusing on standard repertoire into a virtual encyclopaedia of classical music with a catalogue of unparalleled depth and breadth. Innovative strategies for recording exciting new repertoire with exceptional talent have enabled the Naxos label to develop one of the largest and fastest-growing catalogues of unduplicated repertoire. Over 10,000 titles are currently available at affordable prices, recorded in state-of-the-art sound, both in hard format and on digital platforms. Naxos works with artists of the highest calibre and its recordings have been recognised with numerous GRAMMY awards, Penguin Guide 3-star recommendations, Gramophone Editor’s Choice Awards and many other international honours. Through relentless search for new repertoire, and through affordable prices, Naxos has enabled newcomers and life-long classical music lovers alike to discover both music they love and music they didn’t know existed.
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings.
In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birth year, we've curated a special Celebrate Beethoven playlist that will be refreshed once per month with various themes based on his life, compositional periods, types of works, and more. The tracks will be sourced from the Naxos Complete Beethoven 90-disc box set. Follow this playlist as we celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday with fresh updates each month throughout 2020! This month we focus on his GREATEST HITS.
Visit and bookmark the mini-site for this release, which will be regularly updated.
In this new concerto album one of the most sought-after violinist of our time, Christian Tetzlaff, performs two standard violin concertos in fresh new interpretations together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin directed by the orchestra’s exciting new music director, Robin Ticciati.
Both Ludwig van Beethoven and Jean Sibelius made outstanding contributions to the history of music as among its greatest symphonists. Both composers also wrote a violin concerto – Beethoven wrote his D major concerto in 1806, Sibelius his D minor concerto a century later, completing it in 1905. Although these works do not share much in common in style, both concertos are much more than virtuosic showpieces – it is music with great depth and feeling which has immortalized both composers. Today, these monumental masterpieces by Beethoven and Sibelius are among the most performed concertos by violinists throughout the world.
MORE ACCLAIMED RECORDINGS FEATURING CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF
For the complete discography of Christian Tetzlaff, please visit ondine.net.
Kalibé is an imaginary musical society where elements of different cultures come together in harmony. The heart and voice of this album is Mãe da Lua, a poet, singer, and activist from Brazil. With her deep and intense voice she sings about the need to preserve the environment, the meaning of existence, and the importance of universal love. All the songs have a strong message of tolerance and peace, with the belief that music can unite people.
MORE NEW RELEASES ON NAXOS WORLD
The music on this album represents profound and direct communication between two human beings. Jon Hemmersam & Asal Malekzadeh had never met prior to the recording of this album, but they had the deep desire to create something beautiful together. In an entirely improvised set, they combine the sounds of the acoustic guitar and the Daf, a Persian drum.
Code Sangala is a musician, broadcaster, and activist from Malawi. He is a member of Kapirintiya, a group he co-founded with his younger brother, Shadre. He has now embarked on a musical journey as a solo artist with the aim of exploring ways to incorporate traditional Malawian elements into his music, and in Mizu, Code Sangala digs deep into Malawian culture. ‘Mizu’ means roots in Chichewa, Code’s mother-tongue and the vernacular language of Malawi. The album is a celebration of traditional dances such M’ganda, Tchopa, Malipenga, Gule Wamkulu, from which Code draws his inspiration. Code draws inspiration from legendary Malawian musicians such as Allan Namoko, Michael Yekha, Dr Daniel Kachamba, the Ndingo Brothers and Fumbi Jazz, amongst others.
This Folk Music of China series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured in Vol. 2 (NXW76089-2) are from five minority ethnic groups – Mongol, Daur, Oroqen, Evenki and Hezhen. The music of the five minority groups incorporate elements of Shamanic tunes, which are usually short in structure and intense in rhythm.
In Vol. 3 (NXW76090-2), programme includes folk songs of three of the minority ethnic groups of Yunnan province – Wa, Blang, and De’ang. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin.
Marin Alsop begun her tenure as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra on October 24 when she conducted the opening concert of the orchestra’s subscription series at the Wiener Konzerthaus.
Widely acclaimed for the range of her repertoire and a refusal to accept the routine, Alsop’s opening concerts were no exception. Her first concert (October 24) featured the world premiere of a work by Lera Auerbach, Eve’s Lament – O Flowers, That Never Will Grow, alongside Hindemith’s rarely performed one-act opera Sancta Susanna and his symphony Mathis der Maler. The following week, Alsop and the Vienna RSO opened the Wien Modern Festival with a performance of Agata Zubel’s Fireworks and Clara Iannotta’s Moult alongside works by Peter Ablinger and Jon Leifs. They were joined by The Swingle Singers to perform Berio’s Sinfonia (October 31).
Alsop is celebrated as one of the leading conductors of our time and one who has been a pioneer for greater opportunities for women conductors. Alsop becomes the first woman to take up the prestigious role of chief conductor of Vienna RSO and is also the first woman to have been appointed head of major American, British and South American orchestras. She made history when she became the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the BBC Proms in 2013.
LATEST RECORDINGS FEATURING MARIN ALSOP
These live performances from Snape Maltings Concert Hall present some of the most popular classical works for younger audiences. Their perennial appeal is a result of vivid melodies, witty instrumental characterisation, and, in three works, the use of spoken texts to illuminate the narrative. Whether composed to amuse, entertain or educate, each possesses marvellous vitality, lyricism and bravura. The performances are conducted and narrated by Marin Alsop, one of the world’s most inspirational musical communicators.
Check out Marin Alsop leading the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Orchestra in an performance of Ravel's Mother Goose suite and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals suite in the latest Naxos visual albums, available exclusively on Apple Music!
Visit naxos.com to view Marin Alsop’s complete discography.
On November 20, artists, engineers and producers from Naxos and its affiliated and distributed labels were honoured with seven GRAMMY nominations. The recordings are from the Naxos, Opus Arte and Ondine catalogues. The nominations are in the categories for Best Orchestral Performance, Best Opera Recording, Best Classical Compendium and Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Producer Of The Year (Classical).
The 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards winners will be announced on January 26, 2020. Congratulations to the nominees and everyone involved!
Recordings from the Naxos label and its affiliated labels were among the recently announced nominations for the 2020 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). The Naxos Music Group received 37 nominations appearing in 11 categories.
We received six nominations in the Choral Music category, including the recordings of Beethoven’s only oratorio Christus am Ölberge and Elegischer Gesang (8.573852), Carl Loewe’s Das Sühnopfer des Neuen Bundes (OC1706), Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and nine sacred choruses (ODE1336-2), Sibelius’ Kullervo (ODE1338-5), and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s recordings featuring of Liszt’ Via Crucis, and Arvo Pärt’s sacred choral works (ODE1337-2), and Hans Werner Henze’s Das Floß der Medusa (SWR19082CD).
“The nominations in the Opera category go went to the recordings of Auber’s revolutionary grand opera La Sirène (8.660436), Franco Faccio’s Amleto (‘Hamlet’) (8.660454-55) and Marschner’s Hans Heiling (OC976). More nominations include two Weber’s works, Oberon (OC984) and Euryanthe (C5373), presented by Stadttheater Gießen and Theater an der Wien respectively.
Boris Giltburg’s widely acclaimed performance of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante (8.573981) and Lars Vogt’s recording of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas (ODE1318-2) received the nominations in the Solo Music catagory.
We received four nominations in the Chamber Music category, the first for a programme of music by Castelnuovo-Tedesco (8.574003), including his Third Violin Concerto, String Trio and Sonata for Violin and Cello. The second nomination in this category is for an attractive programme of flute works by André Jolivet (8.573885), performed by Hélène Boulègue and François Dumont. Another nomination is for a programme of Zara Levina’s chamber works (C5356), featuring pianists Maria Lettberg and Katia Tchemberdji, violinist Yury Revich, violist Gernot Adrion and cellist Ringela Riemke. Cellist Norbert Anger and pianist Michael Schöch also received a nomination in this category for their recording of works by Richard Strauss and Wagner (OC1701).
Naxos’ nomination in the Concertos section fell to the Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Double Concerto recording (8.573772), performed by acclaimed Naxos artists Tianwa Yang and Gabriel Schwabe conducted by Antoni Wit. Two Ondine recordings also received nominations in this category: star violinist Christian Tetzlaff’s recording of violin concertos by Beethoven and Sibelius (ODE1334-2) and a recording of works for horn and orchestra, performed by Markus Maskunitty, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo (ODE1339-2).
The Symphonic Music category saw seven nominations: Beethoven’s complete symphonies performed by the Danish Chamber Orchestra under Ádám Fischer (8.505251); Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus by Leif Segerstam and the Turku Philharmonic Orchedtra (8.573853); the original 1915 version of El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla (8.573890); Nikolay Myaskovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 13, featuring the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Rudin (8.573988); Weinerg’s Chamber Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 performed by East-West Chamber Orchestra and Rostislav Krimer, celebrating the centenary of composer’s birth (8.574063); a special album of containing two recordings of Michael Gielen conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, made 42 years apart (SWR19080CD); and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition performed by Dmitrij Kitajenko and Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (OC469).
In the Contemporary Music category, we have two nominations. The first is for Richard Danielpour’s music featuring the conductor Misha Rachlevsky and Russian String Orchestra (8.559857). The second nomination wend to the world premiere recording of three works by Kaija Saariaho, presented by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu (ODE1309-2).
SWR Music received a nomination in the Historic Recordings category for the recording of Friedrich Gulda from five concerts from 1966 to 1979 (SWR19081CD). All the recordings in this set are being released for the first time.
Three audiovisual recordings were nominated for the Video Performances category, including Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane (2.110584-85), Verdi’s Stiffelio (NBD0084V) and Barber’s Vanessa (OABD7258D). Another audiovisual recording Mstislav Rostropovich – The Indomitable Bow (NBD0082V) received the nomination in the Video Documentaries category.
Finally our 90-disc Beethoven Complete Edition (8.500250) received the nomination of Best Collection. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.
Multiple recordings from “Charlie Chaplin's score for Modern Times” are included in Joker, presented by Warner Bros. Pictures. Director Todd Phillips’ Joker centres on the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, stand-alone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night … but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study. Check out a new side of the classic Batman foe in the trailer below.
Click here to explore CPO's recording of Charlie Chaplin's restored score for Modern Times.
Need to license some music for a project and don’t know where to start? Visit Naxos Licensing to find out how!
A new classical supergroup of four leading European soloists, the Skride Piano Quartet is touring through Australia from 1 to 20 November, appearing in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaïde, Canberra and Hobart. Sisters, soloists and regular duo partners Baiba and Lauma Skride were joined by two of their favourite chamber music colleagues, Lise Berthaud and Julian Steckel.
The Skride Piano Quartet was formed in autumn 2016 by sisters Baiba and Lauma Skride, Lise Berthaud and founding cellist Harriet Krijgh, who has since left the group; she is replaced for this tour by Julian Steckel. Whilst maintaining their own high-profile solo careers, the four are united by their passion for chamber music. The quartet released their first disc together for the Orfeo label in April 2019, which featured piano quartet repertoire by Mahler, Mozart and Brahms.
‘This may be a debut disc, but the Skride Piano Quartet shows it already has bags of personality. The group finds a balance between generous sound, overall architecture and telling detail.’
– BBC Music Magazine
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
For more recordings by Baiba Skride, please visit naxos.com.
Soprano Ermonela Jaho stars as Violetta Valéry, with Charles Castronovo as her lover Alfredo and Plácido Domingo as Alfredo’s stern father Giorgio Germont, in The Royal Opera House’s much-loved production of Verdi’s La traviata.
One of the greatest of all operas, La traviata is based on the novel and play La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, inspired in turn by the life and death of the real Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis. The opera tells the profoundly moving story of a courtesan prepared to sacrifice everything for love, and contains some of Verdi’s most beautiful arias and duets.
Richard Eyre’s engrossing naturalistic production features stunning designs by his regular collaborator Bob Crowley. Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda conducts Verdi’s sublime score, which offers a wonderful showcase for the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus.
‘Jaho gives everything she has, especially an exceptional diversity of soft singing, intimate, vulnerable, dream, apprehensive, intense and the result is a deeply moving portrayal.’ – The Financial Times
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Violetta Valéry | Ermonela Jaho |
Alfredo Germont | Charles Castronovo |
Giorgio Germont | Plácido Domingo |
Doctor Grenvil | Simon Shibambu |
Stephen Annina | Catherine Carby |
Baron Douphol | Germán E. Alcántara |
Flora Bervoix | Aigul Akhmetshina |
Gastone de Letorières | Thomas Atkins |
Marquis d’Obigny | Jeremy White |
Conductor | Antonello Manacorda |
Director | Richard Eyre |
Designer | Bob Crowley |
Lighting Designer | Jean Kalman |
Director of Movement | Jane Gibson |
Extra Features: Introduction to La traviata; Behind the Movement; Interviews with Richard Eyre and Bob Crowley; Cast Gallery
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.
Celebrate this Christmas with The Royal Ballet's much-beloved production of The Nutcracker, a classic with a special place in hearts of ballet fans around the world!
Peter Wright’s timeless and enchanting interpretation of The Nutcracker has been in The Royal Ballet’s repertory for over thirty years. Presented in a festive period setting, this charming and magical production features Marianela Nuñez as the exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy and Vadim Muntagirov as her charming Prince.
Vivid designs and spellbinding stage effects which include authentic Christmas tree decorations that magically come to life, and Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous, iconic score combine to create the quintessential Christmas ballet – an opulent treat for the senses for audiences of all ages.
Naxos, the world's leading performing arts DVD distributor, brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, operas, ballets, live concerts, documentaries, and much more!
Watch the world's greatest opera houses, ballet companies, orchestras and artists perform on demand. Stream any video in the library from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
After J. S. Bach’s solo cello suites in the early 18th century, the genre experienced a fallow period until Zoltán Kodály set the pace with a monumental sonata for solo cello in 1915. It inspired a variety of similar works, but Kodály’s 30-minute sonata still stands “like Mount Everest”, to quote Daniel Müller-Schott, the soloist on this recording. His programme also includes music by Prokofiev, Hindemith, Henze, Crumb and Casals, and features a work of his own for the first time: Cadenza continues the tradition of compositions that other cellists have always added to their recital programmes.
‘Here, you can recognise influences of the solo works that have influenced me over the years. In Cadenza, the contrasting elements of the world of my instrument appear in the closest space – the cello in pure lyricism, just as sequences catapulting themselves into the highest registers in rhythmical savagery and immediately concluding the movement after a final culmination.’ – Daniel Müller-Schott
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FEATURING DANIEL MÜLLER-SCHOTT
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For the complete discography of Daniel Müller-Schott, please visit www.orfeo-international.de.
Looking for new music? Our selection of curated playlists has you covered with music to complement the season, moment, or activity! This month, set the perfect mood for the dinner table with our Music for Thanksgiving playlist, celebrate Beethoven with our collection of greatest hits, and discover iconic ballet works with unCLASSIFIED’s Pure Ballet playlist. Then, explore exciting new compositions from critically-acclaimed pianists with Grand Piano. Happy listening!
The Moscow-born Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling musician. Born in 1984 in Moscow, he moved to Tel Aviv at an early age, studying with his mother and then with Arie Vardi. He went on to win numerous awards, most notably the First (and audience) Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, 2013.
Giltburg has appeared with many leading orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony, WDR Cologne, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Oslo Philharmonic, the St Petersburg Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony.
He made his BBC Proms debut in 2010, his Australian debut in 2017 (with the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras), and has frequently toured South America and China, as well as Germany with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He has played recitals in leading venues such as the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Southbank Centre in London, Bozar in Brussels and the Louvre.
In 2018 he won Best Soloist Recording (20th/21st century) at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards for his Naxos recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto, coupled with the Études-tableaux (8.573629), winning many plaudits also for his follow-up recording of the Third Piano Concerto and Corelli Variations with the same forces (8.573630). He won a Diapason d’Or for his first concerto recording of the Shostakovich concerti with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, coupled with his own arrangement of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet (8.573666) — and his solo recordings of Rachmaninov (8.574025), Liszt (8.573981), Schumann (8.573399) and Beethoven (8.573400) have been similarly well received.
Boris is an avid amateur photographer and blogger, writing about classical music for a non-specialist audience.
HIGHLIGHTED RECORDINGS
Beethoven’s first two piano concertos share an abundance of lyric and virtuosic qualities. Concerto No. 1 in C major is expansive and richly orchestrated with a sublime slow movement that is tender and ardent, and a finale full of inventive humour. Concerto No. 2 in B flat major marries energy with elegance, reserving poetic breadth for its slow movement and quirky wit for the finale. Also included is the jovial Rondo, WoO 6, which Beethoven originally intended to be the finale of Concerto No. 2.
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For more recordings by Boris Giltburg, please visit naxos.com.