NEWS FROM THE NAXOS MUSIC GROUP

Ondine was founded by Reijo Kiilunen in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland, where the company is still based today. The label’s extensive catalogue includes over 600 high quality recordings, many of which have received distinguished awards. From the works of its native Sibelius, and encompassing the country’s thriving classical music scene, Ondine continues to release the best of what Finnish artists produce, highlighted by fruitful associations with composers such as Einojuhani Rautavaara, Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho.

As the reputation of the label flourished, it enjoyed a shift to an increasingly international set of major artists and orchestras appearing on the roster. In addition to impeccable artistic performances, Ondine has always paid equal attention to technical quality and high recording standards.

Having celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2020, Ondine continues to demonstrate great prowess in the creation, performance and preservation of recorded music.

Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946) is one of the most prominent names among living composers today. This album by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Poga includes the first recording of Vasks’ atmospheric and pastoral Oboe Concerto written for the centenary celebrations of Latvia’s independence in 2018 and performed by one of today’s leading oboists, Albrecht Mayer. The new concerto is coupled with two early orchestral works from the 1980s, Vēstījums and Lauda – both musical manifestations from the final years of the Soviet Union when occupied Latvia started its peaceful fight to regain the country’s independence.

This album by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia conducted by Ville Matvejeff presents three works by Éric Tanguy (b. 1968), one of the leading composers in contemporary French music with two outstanding soloists, clarinetist Pierre Génisson and violinist Júlia Pusker.

Tanguy’s Clarinet Concerto was written for French clarinetist Pierre Génisson to accompany Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. However, this lyrical work in three movements does seek to establish an analogy with Mozart’s concerto. Tanguy’s Second Violin Concerto, revised in 2003, is built on a very classical form, is set in three movements and includes the archetypes of a traditional concerto, including a big cadenza, and the fast–slow–fast construction with the purpose of finding a balance with modern times. The concerto is performed by Júlia Pusker, prize-winner from the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Violin Competition in Brussels. Matka (‘journey’ in Finnish), a symphonic piece written by Tanguy to mark the 150th anniversary of Sibelius' birth, was commissioned by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia. The work is a spiritual tribute to Sibelius, a composer that has inspired Tanguy for many decades.

The first volume of the premiere recordings of Jurgis Karnavičius’ (1884–1941) string quartets performed by the Vilnius String Quartet resulted in a growing number of excellent album reviews. This second volume includes the composer’s last two quartets. Karnavičius wrote his four impressive string quartets during his study and teaching years in St. Petersburg during the 1910s and 1920s, filling the chronological and stylistic gap between the string quartets of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. Although the composer's output is admired in Lithuania, his magnificent chamber music has been performed only rarely since his death. For example, the composer’s String Quartet No. 4 had to wait until the 1980s  for a repeat performance and still remains unpublished.

Robert Trevino has rapidly emerged as one of today’s most exciting American conductors, as well as one of the most in-demand talents of the younger generation. He serves as the music director of the Basque National Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and artistic advisor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Most recently, he signed a multi-year recording contract with Ondine, that has already resulted in a widely-praised complete Beethoven symphonies cycle with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and a Ravel album with the Basque National Orchestra that was released in April 2021. Trevino’s cycle of Bruch’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, released by CPO in August 2020, received universally positive reviews.

Having won the James Conlon Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival & School, and subsequently serving as associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and New York City Opera, Trevino burst into the international spotlight at the Bolshoi Theater in December 2013, leading a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo at short notice. The Russian press wrote, “There has not been an American success of this magnitude in Moscow since Van Cliburn.” He was subsequently nominated for a Golden Mask award for “Best Conductor in a New Production”.

In recent seasons Trevino’s European engagements have included appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic and Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. He has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Toronto and Detroit and led Washington National Opera’s new production of Evgeny Onegin. In the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons Robert led the Basque National Orchestra, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra on European tours and made debut conducting appearances with the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His re-engagements included the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, São Paulo Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, SWR Symphony, and RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

The world premiere recording of Christopher Rouse’s Fifth Symphony (8.559852) received a nomination in the Contemporary category.

‘An orchestra with a notable past (and hopefully future), the Nashville Symphony rises admirably to these pieces’ not inconsiderable challenges. Sound has no lack of clarity or definition… All in all, an impressive release.’
– Gramophone

The live recording of Vienna State Opera’s centenary production of Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, featuring a stellar cast including Camilla Nylund, Nina Stemme, Stephen Gould and Wolfgang Koch, received a nomination in the Opera category.

‘A second Straussian offering this month, this time from Christian Thielemann and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra on, as Hugo Shirley puts it, breathtaking form… This is essential listening for anyone interested in this remarkable work.’ – Gramophone

‘Playing Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas is akin to embarking on a journey around the world. As one of classical music’s greatest treasure troves, they contain every possible challenge to any musician – artistic, technical or emotional.

As the project went on, I realised that the image I had of Beethoven – an angry, grumpy man with a stormy brow – was at best incomplete and superficial. After endless hours spent in his company, I became increasingly aware of the unstoppable energy coursing through his music. He faced so much personal hardship, and yet the core of his music remained forever light and full of life.

This was more than inspiring; it became a source of incredible moral support throughout 2020. And without noticing, the respect and admiration I’d always felt for Beethoven morphed into passionate love. After this pandemic, I can’t imagine my life without his music.’
– Boris Giltburg

The Naxos Music Group is delighted to be among the recipients of this year’s Russian Pure Sound Awards. The announcement was made on 3 September. Organised by the Russian Music Union, the Pure Sound awarding body is the first to acknowledge the best audio recordings of Russian music. Awards are made every two years in the eight categories: opera, choral works, orchestral music, vocal chamber music, ensemble chamber music, solo chamber music, restoration of archived recordings and a mixed category.

Naxos received the second prize in the orchestral music category for its recording of Alexander Mosolov’s Fifth Symphony and Harp Concerto, performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under Arthur Arnold. The work was described as “illuminating, demonstrating that the composer was more than a one-hit wonder” by Classical CD Choice.

Júlia Várady, one of the leading sopranos of the second half of the 20th century, celebrated her 80th birthday on 1 September 2021. To mark the occasion, the Orfeo label honoured her with the release of a new 10-CD boxed set, ‘The Orfeo Recordings’.

Born in 1941 in Oradea, Várady (real surname Tözser) was the child of a Hungarian father and a Transylvanian German mother. When she was six years old she began to have violin lessons at the Cluj Conservatory, four years later joining a youth orchestra. At fourteen, having discovered her voice, she began singing lessons: first with Emilia Popp at the Cluj Conservatory, then with Arta Florescu at the Bucharest Conservatory. Her operatic stage debut came in 1962 with the Cluj Opera. After singing small roles such as Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Varady graduated to the lyric-dramatic repertoire, singing Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Liù (Turandot), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Desdemona (Otello), Susanna, the Countess and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle) and the title role in Madama Butterfly. During this period she also performed as a guest singer with the Bucharest and Budapest opera companies.

Throughout the later 1970s and the 1980s Várady developed a considerable international presence while maintaining her links to the German operatic scene. She appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 1974 with Scottish Opera in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste and made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 as Electra, returning as Vitellia (1977) and later as Donna Elvira (1987–1988). She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in the spring of 1978 as Donna Elvira. At the Deutsche Oper in Berlin she sang the roles of the Countess (Figaro, 1978), Aida (1982), Desdemona (1991) and Elisabeth (Tannhäuser, 1991 and 1992), as well as Sieglinde in the company’s touring production of Die Walküre in Japan in 1987, followed by Senta there in 1992. She first appeared at the Royal Opera House, London as Desdemona in 1987 and returned as Senta, one of her finest roles, in 1992. She sang Electra at La Scala, Milan, in 1984, Abigaille (Nabucco) at the Paris Opera in 1995, and Leonore (Il trovatore) at the Vienna State Opera in 1996. Throughout this period she also sang as a guest performer with the major German opera companies.

This release marks the start of a significant Capriccio project to record the complete edition of the Bruckner symphonies, including all the alternative versions that are included in the new, comprehensive and authoritative Anton Bruckner Gesamtausgabe. The complete programme will be captured on some 18 hours of recording time, and the musical director throughout the project will be Markus Poschner, making this the first time that one conductor has been on the podium for all nineteen versions of the symphonies. Two of Austria‘s finest orchestras have been engaged for this cycle: the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The project is due for completion in 2024, the year that marks the 200th anniversary of Bruckner‘s birth.

Transglobal World Music Chart (TWMC) has unveiled the list of Best Albums of the 2020-21 season. The results are based on the panelists’ total votes in the period between September 2020 and August 2021. Six albums on Naxos World and ARC Music are in the Best 100 albums, and ARC Music is one of the Best 10 Labels of the year.