News from the Naxos Music Group
April 2020
Label of the Month – Dynamic
Established in 1978, Dynamic is an independent record label with offices in Villa Quartara, located on the quiet Righi hill overlooking Genoa.
Its production schedule embraces the entire field of classical music, but focuses chiefly on the immense heritage of Italian and European music of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially opera and works for violin. Dynamic also specialises in world premiere recordings, and works that stand outside the traditional repertoire.
Known all over the world as the first record label to have reappraised Niccolò Paganini, Dynamic has also since 2004 recorded and filmed lyrical operas, releasing them first on DVD and later in high definition Blu-ray. Recently its video productions have switched to 4K technology, which adds a higher value to the quality of its contents. Thanks to this, over the last few years the label has extended its range of interest to the field of opera through highly fruitful partnerships with various European festivals and opera houses. In doing so, it has produced recordings of popular and rare titles by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Rossini, Verdi, Haendel, Galuppi, Bellini, Donizetti, Pacini, Massenet, Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky, Korngold and of course many others. Outstanding productions in this field include recordings of operas staged at La Fenice theatre in Venice, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Valle d’Itria Festival in Martina Franca, the Donizetti Opera, the Liceu of Barcelona, and Teatro Real in Madrid. Its catalogue boasts over 750 titles, with some 30 new titles being added every year.
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Many artists of international standing have recorded on the Dynamic label: instrumentalists Massimo Quarta, Salvatore Accardo, Felix Ayo, Stefan Milenkovich, Leonidas Kavakos, Ruggiero Ricci, Bruno Canino, Rocco Filippini, Ovidiu Badila, Federico Guglielmo, Franco Mezzena, Črtomir Šiškovič and Roberto Loreggian; singers Mirella Freni, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Placido Domingo, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, William Matteuzzi, Iano Tamar, Mariella Devia, Patrizia Ciofi, Jessica Pratt, Maria José Siri, Sonia Prina, Sara Mingardo, Franco Fagioli, Annick Massis, Veronique Gens, Dimitra Theodossiou, Daniela Dessì, Philippe Jaroussky, Danielle De Niese, Joseph Calleja, Maxim Mironov, Francesco Meli and José Cura; conductors Georges Prêtre, William Christie, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Diego Fasolis, Renato Palumbo, Federico Maria Sardelli, Fabio Biondi, Marcello Viotti, Antonio Florio, Fabio Luisi, Alberto Zedda and Pinchas Steinberg; and emerging talents that include Elisa Tomellini, Giacomo Scinardo and Xabier Anduaga.
Dynamic is today's leading Italian record label for classical music as well as one of the foremost European producers of operatic DVDs and Blu-ray discs. The label is also becoming increasingly important as an audio visual content producer and provider for the main international broadcasting companies and platforms.
NEW RELEASES
![SPONTINI, G.: Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique [Opera] (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 2019) (NTSC)](images/DYN-37868.png "SPONTINI, G.: Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique [Opera] (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 2019) (NTSC)")
Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique (‘Hernán Cortés, or The Conquest of Mexico’) was Gaspare Spontini’s second French grand opera. This is the opera's world premiere audiovisual recording in modern times of the original 1809 version. It was recorded in October 2019, exactly 500 years after Cortez’s first arrival in Mexico. ‘Extremely well sung, superb diction, and the leads are fabulous’ was how Opera Lounge judged the performance, while Classical Music Daily reported that Cecilia Ligorio’s production for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival ‘seriously deserves to be considered for the Abbiati Prize, the Italian Oscar award for operas.’ OperaWire, impressed by the cast of singers, commented in particular on ‘the standout solo performance of the evening … from the Greek soprano, Alexia Voulgaridou, in the role of Amazily, whose expressive performance uncovered the nobility and suffering of her character.’
![VERDI, G.: Nabucco [Opera] (Teatro Regio di Parma, 2019) (NTSC)](images/DYN-37867.png "VERDI, G.: Nabucco [Opera] (Teatro Regio di Parma, 2019) (NTSC)")
Verdi's thoughts of abandoning music after the failure of his second opera were knocked off course by a commission to compose Nabucodonosor. Retitled, it became his iconic Nabucco, which was a triumph at its premiere at La Scala in 1842 and has proved enduringly successful ever since. This recording of the production from last September's Festival Verdi in Parma is not only musically superb, but also powerfully creative, the result of an engaging project by the directing partnership of Ricci/Forte; the duo won the coveted Abbiati Prize in 2018 for their production of Turandot at the Macerata Festival. A striking feature of the staging is that the action takes place in 2046 on a military ship; Nabucco is portrayed as an oppressive dictator, obsessed with his own image; the Hebrew slaves are portayed as refugees – you get the updated picture. Opera Now gave the performance a resounding thumbs-up: ‘Amartuvshin Enkhbat defined Nabucco with his sonorous baritone. Saioa Hernández as Abigaille sang with a voice of steel, both in fury and sadness. Michele Pertusi made a convincing Zaccaria. Francesco Ciampa conducted with determination and grace.’
Artist of the Month – Antonio Florio, conductor
Born in Bari, Italy, Antonio Florio received a classical training, earning diplomas in cello, piano and composition at the Bari Conservatory under the guidance of Nino Rota. He then went on to study early instruments and Baroque performance practice.
After forming the I Turchini ensemble in 1987 (now Cappella Neapolitana), he launched into a busy concert schedule and intense musicological research, focusing particularly on 17th- and 18th-century Neapolitan repertoire, retrieving unpublished operatic masterpieces from oblivion and presenting them in the most prestigious Italian and European venues.
The many titles rediscovered by Florio include La colomba ferita (1670), Il schiavo di sua moglie (1671) and La Stellidaura vendicante (1674) by Francesco Provenzale; Il disperato innocente by Francesco Boerio (1673); La finta cameriera by Gaetano Latilla (1673); Li Zite’n Galera by Leonardo Vinci (1722); Il Pulcinella vendicato by Giovanni Paisiello (1767); La Statira by Francesco Cavalli (1666 Naples edition); and Motezuma by Francesco De Majo (1765). In 1999 and 2000 he conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Santiago de Compostela in La serva padrona and in the Stabat Mater by Giovan Battista Pergolesi.
Equally dedicated as a teacher, Florio has held seminars and master classes on Baroque singing and chamber music at the Centre de Musique Baroque of Versailles, the Fondation Royaumont and the Conservatory of Toulouse. He is a professor of chamber music at the ‘San Pietro a Majella’ Conservatory in Naples, where he holds a university course in Baroque style and repertoire. He is the artistic director of the ‘Scarlatti LAB’, a baroque music laboratory of the ‘Associazione Scarlatti’ of Naples. In 2008 he conducted, at the Teatro Valli of Reggio Emilia and at the Mercadante of Naples, the opera Alidoro by Leo, a DVD production which won the prestigious Diapason d’Or and Orphèe d’or-Paris-accadémie du disque lyrique awards. Additionally, in Oviedo, Spain, he won the Luis Gracia Iberni award for Best Music Direction on the occasion of the first modern performance of the opera Ottavia restituita al trono by Domenico Scarlatti. In March 2018 he conducted Orfeo by Monteverdi at Turin’s Teatro Regio, which was judged a resounding success by the public and critics alike. Among his most recent and future engagements are a production of Siroe, Re di Persia at the Teatro di San Carlo and a performance, in January 2019, at the Clermont-Ferrand theatre, of the cantata Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra by Hasse. In 2019 he served as artistic director of the Misteria Paschalia Festival, which takes place in the beautiful city of Cracow.
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
The programme for this world premiere recording consists of six unpublished works by Domenico Antonio Nola, five motets, a dialogue, and the sequence Stabat Mater, the manuscripts of which are all located in the Archive of the Girolamini Oratory in Naples. Additionally, there is a work for instrumental ensemble by Pietro Marchitelli, a Sonata a tre composed in Naples in Nola’s time. This monographic programme was prepared by Antonio Florio for Cracow’s 2019 Misteria Paschalia Festival, of which he is the artistic director, to celebrate Easter week. The Neapolitan conductor leads the ensemble Cappella Neapolitana and a group of solo singers who are all specialists in this repertoire.
![VINCI, L: Siroe re di Persia [Opera]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CDS7838.03.jpg "VINCI, L: Siroe re di Persia [Opera]")
– American Record Guide
– ClassicsToday.com
![LEO, L.: Alidoro (L') [Opera]](https://www.naxos.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CDS588.jpg "LEO, L.: Alidoro (L') [Opera]")
– The Scotsman
– Gramophone
Home Music Berlin – virtual concert series at Schinkel Pavillon
Concert halls are silent: empty seats, dark stages and an absence of applause now characterise the venues we used to frequent to experience some great musical and emotional moments.
During the past few weeks, when people have been obliged to stay at home and musicians have had to face up to the reality of all their performances being cancelled, an initiative has been spearheaded by a group of internationally acclaimed artists based in Berlin, the award-winning film producer Jan Schmidt-Garre, and Naxos Audiovisual. Their aim was to set up a series of concerts performed and filmed at Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin.
In the coming weeks, a new concert will be available on Naxos Music Youtube channel every Tuesday and Friday at the following times: 4pm (Germany) 3pm (UK) 7am (PT) 9am (CT) 10am (ET)
While many private concerts are being streamed these days, the concerts from Schinkel Pavillon distinguish themselves by an excellent roster of artists and a high-end level of production quality.
Among the artists contributing to the series are pianists Francesco Piemontesi, Nicholas Rimmer and Zlata Chochieva, violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Veronika Eberle, cellist Gabriel Schwabe, and baritone Dietrich Henschel. Additional artists have already committed to join.
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Francesco Piemontesi
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Christian Tetzlaff
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Veronika Eberle
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Gabriel Schwabe
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Dietrich Henschel
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Nicholas Rimmer
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Zlata Chochieva
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The concerts take place without an audience, and both the artists and the production team strictly observe regulations on distancing and protection against infection.
The Schinkel Pavillon concerts are produced by Jan Schmidt-Garre’s PARS Media and Naxos Audiovisual Division, the Berlin branch of Naxos Music Group.
With every concert, a donation will be made to Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung to support artists suffering from loss of income during the coronavirus crisis.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and watch the full concerts.
From stage to solace – Concerts from Home
Concert halls may be closing, but artists have been opening up the new ways of connecting with audiences around the world from the intimacy of their homes. With spirits as irrepressible as their performances, they're now enjoying the spotlight in new formats:
Pianist Boris Giltburg gives lunchtime recitals and masterclasses from his home every Monday and Wednesday. The lunchtime concerts will be going out at 1pm (CET), 12pm (GMT), 8am (EST) on Twitter or Facebook.
Nicolas Horvath has launched a daily Philip Glass concert series on his YouTube channel. Listen to this special arrangement of Paul Simon's The Sound of Silence, the only known arrangement that Philip Glass ever did:
Lars Vogt who is enjoying recent rave critical acclaim for his new recording of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, has also been livestreaming himself at the piano, with the most recent live recital occurring last Sunday on his Instagram, Twitter and Periscope. The videos may still be watched on Periscope.
Little Sunday house concert with some of the most wonderful and miraculous music ever written: Beethoven Bagatellen op. 126 and his last piano sonata op.111. @OndineRecords @AskonasHolt @KDSchmid @Kajimoto_News @orchambreparis @Sage_Gateshead @RNSinfonia @Kajimoto_News https://t.co/O3QXmrmUGU
— Lars Vogt (@lars_vogt) April 19, 2020
Conductor Darrell Ang displays his skills at the harpsichord, instead of at the podium, in several videos on Facebook and Instagram.
The incomparable Marin Alsop was recently interviewed by fellow conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, during which she talks about her experiences, thoughts and during confinement. In addition, she published an article with an inspirational and uplifing message on the World Economic Forum on the way to find joy in times of crisis, citing Beethoven as a key role model, tying in particularly to his Ninth Symphony, with its message of joy, hope, optimism, goodness and unity. Click here to read the full article.
stream at home
The show must go on: Performances to stream at home
With concert halls and opera houses closed, organisations and musicians across the world are livestreaming concerts from their homes, or from empty halls, and opening up their digital archives so that every one can still enjoy great music:
The Royal Opera House & The Royal Ballet have launched #OurHouseToYourHouse, a programme of free online content including weekly broadcasts (on YouTube and Facebook ) of full-length productions: from Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte, in Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed staging, to the Royal Ballet’s performance of The Winter’s Tale, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and scored by Joby Talbot.
The Vienna State Opera is broadcasting recordings of previous opera and ballet performances daily via its streaming platform www.staatsoperlive.com – worldwide and free of charge. You may now enjoy top-class performances with renowned singers and great conductors in different casts on their platform.
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin will regularly post exclusive video streams of selected concerts and opera productions on their website.
The Malmö Symhpony Orchestra is doing smaller-ensemble and chamber concerts. This week's live-streamed concert will be chamber music with MSO musicians and the pianist Julia Siciliano. Visit MSO Live for more details: https://bit.ly/2xJuv8m
Celebrating Shakespeare's birthday on April 23rd, six acclaimed productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company are available for free on BBC iPlayer. Shakespeare's Globe is also streaming full-length plays for free on their YouTube channel for this month. One play will be available for free every two weeks and currently available for free viewing is the 2009 staging of Romeo and Juliet.
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.
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020)
All at Naxos were saddened to hear of the passing of Krzysztof Penderecki in Kraków, Poland on 29 March 2020. Penderecki made a rich and invaluable contribution to both the music of his era and, by extension, the Naxos catalogue. He found a notable champion of his works in the conductor Antoni Wit, himself a former student of Penderecki, who has recorded numerous definitive performances of the composer's works for the Naxos label.
‘Krzysztof Penderecki’s departure undoubtedly marks the end of a particular era in music. I am convinced that his prolific output and outstanding achievements over the last 60 years in all music genres, including symphonic and opera, will long continue to be performed in concert halls all over the world.
Penderecki’s death is an especially poignant moment for Poland, where for a long time he had been regarded as the most influential personality among living Polish composers. In the 1960s I had the privilege of being his student and, following this important period, the performing and recording of his works in his presence was an invaluable and memorable experience.
Over 20 years ago Naxos started recording a series of Penderecki’s music, with around 17 volumes now completed and more being planned for the future. It is a wonderful, life-long idea in which I am both proud and honoured to be participating.’ – Antoni Wit
A full list of recordings of Krzysztof Penderecki's music can be reached by following this link.
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 LATE COMPOSITIONAL PERIOD.
Although Beethoven’s later years were marked by ill health and deafness, the works from this period are some of his most ambitious. Solo and chamber pieces were intended for musical connoisseurs, with Beethoven’s new sound combining intense counterpoint and powerfully dramatic gestures. He declared the Missa solemnis the greatest piece of music he had ever written, and its universal message of peace joins that of brotherhood in the famous Ninth Symphony. This celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary brings together some of his finest music in acclaimed recordings from the Naxos catalogue.
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
UPCOMING 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.
Check out DeepDiscount.com’s unboxing video of the Naxos Beethoven Complete Edition:
Randall Thompson’s choral masterpiece
From the Recording Studio: Male soprano Samuel Mariño’s debut album ‘Care pupille’
‘Gluck and Händel, these are my two masters. They are such important composers to me, and they even performed together in London. It’s a wonderful idea to present again this programme.’
– Samuel Mariño, male soprano
Samuel Mariño has already appeared as soloist on European stages. In 2017/18, he won the interpretation award at the Opéra de Marseille International Singing Competition and the audience prize at the Neue Stimmen competition in Gütersloh. In 2018, he made his opera debut at the Handel Festival in Halle in the opera Berenice, singing the role of Alessandro. His sensational performance led to several nominations for Best New Artist by the Magazine Opernwelt. He will also appear in the Händel Festspiele 2020 as Teseo in the opera of the same name.
His debut album on ORFEO includes first recordings of works of Christoph Willibald Gluck that are sensationally beautiful and that have never been heard before, accompanied by Händelfestspielorchester Halle under Michael Hofstetter.
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
– MusicWeb International
is captivating’
– Opera News
for April
Relaxing and uplifting playlists for April
Music speaks in a universal language, and has the power to comfort us even in the darkest of times. This month, we’re featuring playlists designed to evoke feelings of solace and inspiration. Immerse yourself in the soothing sounds of Rachmaninov and Brahms in our Uplifting Piano Tunes playlist, centre your mind with unCLASSIFIED’s Mindfulness playlist, jump into our fun compilation of children’s classics with Classical for Kids, and lift your spirits with Grand Piano’s latest collection. Then, listen to sacred and choral classics with our annual Easter playlist. Happy listening!
Also Recommended: The Naxos Podcasts
Did you know that we have podcasts? In Naxos Classical Spotlight, host Raymond Bisha shares stories about our latest releases and the musicians who make them. In Sounds Interesting, host Richard Kennedy dives into lesser-known facts and quirks of classical music and its influence throughout history. Then, in the Naxos Audiobooks Podcast, go behind-the-scenes with the narrators and authors from our award-winning audiobook productions.
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Beethoven’s fiery piano sonata featured in Radioactive film
The Naxos licensing team is happy to be a part of a British biographical film Radioactive, a story of the scientific and romantic passions of Marie Sklodowska-Curie (Polish scientist) and Pierre Curie, and the reverberation of their discoveries throughout the 20th century. Directed by Academy Award ® nominated director Marjane Satrapi, the film is a bold, visionary depiction of the transformative effects and ensuing fallout of the Curies' work and how this shaped the defining moments of the 20th century. Jenő Jandó’s recording of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata can be heard in the film
Need to license some music for a project and don’t know where to start? Visit Naxos Licensing to find out how!
a Swedish Portrait
Fredrik Lindborg – a Swedish Portrait
Since the 1950s Swedish jazz has had a unique sound. The fire of American jazz, mixed with the melancholy of Swedish folk music, evolved into a genre of its own. The great baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin composed music in this way with ingredients from jazz, Swedish folk music and the classical repertoire.
Saxophonist Fredrik Lindborg pays tribute to Lars Gullin in his latest recording. This album features a programme of works by Lars Gulllin that emphasises these elements and gives new life, not only to his music, but also to Swedish jazz. Creating the multi-layered music we hear on this recording is a seven-piece constellation consisting of saxophone, two violins, viola, cello, bass and drums, in which every instrument plays an important role.
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