News from the Naxos Music Group
February 2020
Naxos Audiovisual
Label of the Month – Naxos Audiovisual
Established in 2016, the Naxos Audiovisual Division is one of the most recent within the Naxos Music Group. Based in Berlin, the Naxos Audiovisual team coordinates new recordings and rolls out a release schedule of DVD and Blu-rays as well digital releases at iTunes and other digital platforms with a commitment to maintaining a high profile in artistic and editorial quality.
Naxos Audiovisual’s releases rank amongst the finest recordings and have been awarded and acclaimed by the critics, such as ICMA finalist Das Wunder der Heliane staged by Christof Loy; Gramophone, Diapason and Opéra magazines choice L’Étoile staged by Laurent Pelly; Opera News and Opéra critics’ choice La Nonne sanglante staged by David Bobée and many more.
Naxos Audiovisual cooperates closely with renowned venues such as Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Bayerische Staatsoper, Theater an der Wien. Watch for many more exciting releases to come!
HIGHLIGHT RELEASES
![CHABRIER, E.: Étoile (L') [Operetta] (DNO, 2014) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/images/feature/mar19/2.110595.png "CHABRIER, E.: Étoile (L') [Operetta] (DNO, 2014) (NTSC)")
2.110595 [DVD]
Also available on Blu-ray
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![KORNGOLD, E.W.: Wunder der Heliane (Das) [Opera] (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2018) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/images/feature/jun19/2.110584-85.png "KORNGOLD, E.W.: Wunder der Heliane (Das) [Opera] (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2018) (NTSC)")
2.110584-85 [DVD]
Also available on Blu-ray
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2.110399 [DVD]
Also available on Blu-ray
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‘Alsop’s conducting divulges her total sympathies with the music as she shapes the scores effectively.’
– MusicWeb International
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NEW
![WEBER, C.M. von: Euryanthe [Opera] (Theater an der Wien, 2018) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/images/feature/feb20/2.110656.png "WEBER, C.M. von: Euryanthe [Opera] (Theater an der Wien, 2018) (NTSC)")
2.110656 [DVD]
Also available on Blu-ray
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The Veil of Pierrette
Dohnányi’s The Veil of Pierrette
![DOHNÁNYI, E.: Schleier der Pierrette (Der) (The Veil of Pierrette) [Pantomime]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/C5388.jpg "DOHNÁNYI, E.: Schleier der Pierrette (Der) (The Veil of Pierrette) [Pantomime]")
The Veil of Pierrette premiered in 1910 as a ballet-pantomime based on a story by Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931), one of Austria's most prominent fin-de-siècle figures. Ernst von Dohnányi provided the accompanying score that proved an immediate international success. Movements such as the Wedding Waltz, for example, were frequently heard on radio request shows at the time, giving the equally popular waltz sequence from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier a run for its money. The pantomime genre was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the age. Following the large-scale, plot-laden ballets of late Romanticism, pantomime explored a more intimate and naturalistic form of expression. We can all take a step back to that era now with this first complete recording of Dohnányi’s exquisite score, superbly performed by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony orchestra under conductor Ariane Matiakh.
OTHER RECORDINGS OF DOHNÁNYI’S WORKS
– MusicWeb International
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★★★★★
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– Fanfare
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★★★★★
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★★★★
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★★★★★
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★★★★
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Celebrate Beethoven
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth
In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birth year, we have curated a special Celebrate Beethoven playlist which is refreshed monthly according to various interesting themes based on his life, compositional periods, genre, and more. The tracks are sourced from the Naxos Complete Beethoven Edition, a new 90-disc boxed set also released to mark the anniversary year, hailed by the critics or being the most comprehensive set available.
This month we focus on his MIDDLE COMPOSITIONAL PERIOD (c.1803–1815).
Follow the Celebrate Beethoven playlist on your favourite streaming platform to discover a wide range of works from one of the most influential composers in the history of classical music.
Each month, we also have corresponding digital albums that you may download and enjoy again and again. Please click on the cover image to your left to download this month's release and remember to come back and visit our mini‑site each month for more amazing music!
NEW RELEASES
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.
Visit and bookmark the mini-site for this release, which will be regularly updated.
A brand new educational platform – Naxos MusicBox
With years invested in making classical music accessible to new audiences, and with proven success in bestselling children’s books about music, Naxos has created Naxos MusicBox – specifically for younger eyes and ears.
Naxos MusicBox is a brand new, carefully produced and beautifully presented music resource for children. It is intended to enhance the music education of children aged 4–12. With a colourful, clear design and specially written texts, it aims to attract a young audience whilst also providing teachers at school and parents at home with plenty of material to try out with their children. Playing to Naxos’s strengths, the site is based predominantly around classical music. There are activities included: some are interactive (e.g. multiple-choice listening questions that children can themselves answer online); some are printouts (e.g. word searches); and some are specific class activities for teachers to work through in a classroom. The site will be continually updated and expanded.
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- Friendly, informative texts and tailored playlists for:
- 50 great composers
- All the main instruments of the orchestra
- Different voice types and choirs
- Film music
- Ballet
- Opera
- Musicals
- Listening questions and puzzles.
- Classroom activities including audio and video, all with guidance and resources for teachers (school subscriptions only).
- Themed playlists
- Audiobooks on classical music
- History shown graphically in scrollable timelines
- Dictionary
- Over 4,000 audio tracks across all sections
Contains over 350 hours of music, easy-to-understand information, and interactive activities written by qualified music teachers. Visit naxosmusicbox.com for a free 24-hour trial now!
Beethoven 32
Boris Giltburg embarks on Beethoven 32
Pianist Boris Giltburg has set himself the challenge of undertaking filmed performances of all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas this year. He has created Beethoven 32, a ground-breaking project which will see him learn all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the majority of which are not currently in his repertoire.
‘To celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, I will be learning and filming all 32 of his sonatas over the course of 2020. This is a massive undertaking – I have played 9 of them so far, so 23 will be completely new, including some of the most challenging.’– Boris Giltburg
Working with brand new audio-visual label Fly On The Wall, he will film his performances and share them as live, uncut visual albums at regular intervals throughout the year with a global audience via Apple Music and YouTube. The first 2 sonatas are available now:
To bring the project together, Giltburg has launched a dedicated website beethoven32.com, where he will post additional supporting written material and video content to help his audience connect with the sheer scale of the undertaking.
Alongside this landmark project, Giltburg will complete his recording cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko for Naxos this year.
BORIS GILTBURG’S BEETHOVEN RECORDINGS
– Gramophone
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★★★★
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★★★★
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★★★★
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– Pizzicato ★★★★
★★★★
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★★★★
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★★★★
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Visit naxos.com to view Boris Giltburg’s complete discography.
Christoph Eschenbach!
Happy 80th birthday, Christoph Eschenbach!
Christoph Eschenbach is celebrating his 80th anniversary on February 20th. He is a phenomenon amongst the top league of international conductors. Universally acclaimed as both a conductor and pianist, he belongs firmly to the German intellectual line of tradition, yet he combines this with a rare emotional intensity, producing performances revered by concert-goers worldwide.
To mark this special event, Ondine is releasing the first volume in a series of Paul Hindemith’s Kammermusik on March 6th, 2020 together with exciting young musicians from Kronberg Academy Soloists and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. This album continues Eschenbach’s multi-volume and award-winning discography on Ondine which started over 15 years ago and has resulted already in 23 albums to date filled with exciting repertoire alongside with some of the cornerstone works from the symphonic tradition. Eschenbach’s recordings of the music of Paul Hindemith are particularly noteworthy, including the world premiere recording of Hindemith’s Klaviermusik mit Orchester, and a GRAMMY‑winning album of the composer’s Violinkonzert.
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FEATURING CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH
Visit naxos.com to view Christoph Eschenbach’s complete discography.
Sundance film Worth
Opera hits in Sundance film Worth
Naxos has three tracks in the new film Worth, which follows an attorney in Washington D.C. who battles against cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11. The film stars Michael Keaton, Amy Ryan, Stanley Tucci, Tate Donovan, Shunori Ramanathan, Talia Balsam and Laura Benanti and had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020.
Music featured in Worth:
Alfredo Catalani: La Wally : Ebben? Ne andro lontana
Léo Delibes: Lakmé: Viens, Mallika … Sous le dôme épais
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth: Salve, O Re!
Need to license some music for a project and don’t know where to start? Visit Naxos Licensing to find out how!
An Evening with the Royal Opera
Opus Arte has released a visual album showcasing some of the finest performances from Royal Opera House, featuring best-loved opera works including Hansel und Gretel, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, La Traviata and more!
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.
Staged treasures
Segment Catalogue – Italian Opera. Staged treasures
This segment catalogue presents audio and audiovisual recordings of Italian opera released by Naxos and its affiliated labels. The contents help explain why Italy is known as both the cradle of opera and an ongoing contributor to the art form. The full range of musical styles of generations of Italian composers is listed: from the early Baroque works of Monteverdi and Cavalli, to bel canto masterpieces by Rossini and Donizetti, Puccini’s searing verismo statements and noted contemporary works such as Luca Mosca’s Signor Goldoni.
For the complete Italian Opera catalogue, please visit www.naxos.com.
![ROSSINI, G.: Zelmira [Opera]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.660468-70.jpg "ROSSINI, G.: Zelmira [Opera]")
![MORLACCHI, F.: Tebaldo e Isolina [Opera] (1825 Dresden version)](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.660471-72.jpg "MORLACCHI, F.: Tebaldo e Isolina [Opera] (1825 Dresden version)")
![LEONCAVALLO, R.: Pagliacci [Opera] (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 2019) (NTSC)](https://www.naxos.com/images/feature/feb20/37863.png "LEONCAVALLO, R.: Pagliacci [Opera] (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 2019) (NTSC)")
![ROSSINI, G.: Eduardo e Cristina [Opera]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.660466-67.jpg "ROSSINI, G.: Eduardo e Cristina [Opera]")
– Fanfare
![DONIZETTI, G.: Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth [Opera]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CDS7834.02.jpg "DONIZETTI, G.: Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth [Opera]")
– MusicWeb International
– Opera News
Blu-ray
If you’d like to discover more arias performed by leading sopranos such as Mariella Devia, Carmela Remigio and Daniela Barcellona, listen to this Belcanto Soprano arias playlist.
chief conductor and curator
of Ravinia Festival
Marin Alsop named chief conductor and curator of Ravinia Festival
The Ravinia Festival has recently appointed Marin Alsop its chief conductor and curator. The position was created specifically for Alsop, the first person to have the title in Ravinia’s 116-year history. Under the two-year appointment, she will conduct two weeks of concerts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), including events celebrating legendary women and the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Over the last two summers, Alsop has directed Ravinia’s multi-season celebration of the Leonard Bernstein centennial. As Bernstein’s final protégé, Alsop was particularly suited for her Ravinia curatorial role. At Ravinia, she conducted many Bernstein standards, including acclaimed performances of the composer’s rarely staged Mass.
Visit naxos.com to view Marin Alsop’s complete discography.
For more information about the Ravinia festival, please visit www.ravinia.org
Some musical notes.
From the Recording Studio: Kenneth Fuchs and the United States Coast Guard Band
Kenneth Fuchs, the GRAMMY Award-winning American composer, is no stranger to followers of our burgeoning American Classics Series, in which he is represented by six fine releases, including the GRAMMY‑winning album with “Spiritualist” piano concerto (8.559824) from last year’s award ceremony. His next recording, a programme of music for wind band, will be available in August 2020.
As part of the preparations for that release, Kenneth has been working on a couple of video presentations, which he reports on here:
“I’m currently at the video production stage for the August 2020 release of my recording with the United States Coast Guard Band. Simon Wall of TallWall Media in London (who created the videos for my GRAMMY album (8.559824) will create two videos for this release: a trailer (about 2 mins) for the entire album; and a second video featuring the title work, Point of Tranquility.
We recently had a productive morning with conductor Commander Adam R. Williamson, Kenneth Best and the team from UConn Communications, shooting videos in my home studio. I also took part in some solo interviews with Simon when I was in London last October. The videos will feature excerpts from the album, footage of the band in performance, excerpts from the interviews, and footage of me working in my studio.”
Followers of Kenneth’s highly attractive releases should keep a look-out for these video presentations and make a note that August 2020 has a treat in store.
Kenneth Best (L) & Commander Adam R. Williamson (R)
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Setting up for recording
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Kenneth Fuchs (L) & Commander Adam R. Williamson (R)
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★★★★
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★★★★
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– Expedition Audio
– The Claremont Institute
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★★★★★
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★★★★
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★★★★★
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February
Playlists for February
Looking for new music? Our selection of curated playlists has you covered with music to complement the season, moment, or activity! This month, find the perfect soundtrack for your next reading adventure with Classical Music for Reading, discover the tender side of classical music with Classical is for Lovers, and explore stunning music from black composers and performers in unCLASSIFIED’s Hues of Music: Black Voices playlist. Happy listening!
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the Month
Artist of the Month – Christof Loy, director
When you're caught up in the excitement of watching an opera on stage, DVD or Blu-ray, television or at the cinema, it's not only the artistic work of the great singers, orchestras and conductors that underpins this emotion. When you're moved by a performance, a large part of the experience is created by a stage director, who is in charge of the creative vision of a production. Their goal is to bring out the best performance from the actors and tell the story of the play in a most unique and compelling way.
Our Artist of the Month is an award-wining stage director of the most praised Naxos Audiovisual release, Das Wunder der Heliane: Christof Loy.
Christof Loy is one of the internationally most sought-after opera and acting directors of his generation. His meticulously elaborated productions have earned him numerous prizes and honours. He was voted Director of the Year several times by the magazine Opernwelt. In 2010 he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (Covent Garden London) and in 2017 he was named Director of the Year at the International Opera Awards, where he also won the prize for "Best New Production" for Britten's Peter Grimes at the Theater an der Wien in 2016.
He has worked closely and regularly with many of the world's leading opera houses: Theater an der Wien (Peter Grimes, Maria Stuarda and Euryanthe), the Bavarian State Opera (Lucrezia Borgia, Roberto Devereux and Nozze di Figaro), the Zurich Opera House (La Straniera, Alcina, Capuleti e Montecchi and Don Paquale), the Salzburg Festival (Armida, Theodora, Frau ohne Schatten and Ariodante), the Royal Opera Stockholm (La Fanciulla del West, Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier), Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lulu and Tristan und Isolde), De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (Les Vèpres Siciliennes, Arabella, Khovanshchina La Forza del Destino and Tannhäuser), the Grand Théâtre de Gèneve (Medea and Merry Widow) and many others.
His most recent works include Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Tosca in Helsinki, Euryanthe in Theatre an der Wien, Capriccio at the Teatro Real Madrid and Don Pasquale in Zürich.
Projects in the current season include Elektra in London and Boris Godunov at Salzburger Festspiele.
PRODUCTIONS DIRECTED BY CHRISTOF LOY
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