NEWS FROM THE NAXOS MUSIC GROUP

Following his ICMA award-winning recording of the Fourth Piano Concerto and Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings by the Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin, Frank Dupree presents a selection of the little-known master‘s works for solo piano, performed as originally written, while bassist Jakob Krupp and drummer Obi Jenne improvise around him. There is surely no better example of jazz poured so expertly into a classical mould.

Andrew Carwood was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to choral music. Music Director of St Paul’s Cathedral and founder of The Cardinall’s Musick, he appeared on a 1995 release of Purcell’s Music on the Death of Queen Mary as a member of the Oxford Camerata.

Another recipient of an MBE is Peter Broadbent, one of Britain’s leading choral conductors, and founder of the Joyful Company of Singers. Together they recorded Malcolm Williamson’s choral works, including the Symphony of Voices and Requiem for a Tribe Brother, which received a Gramophone ‘Recommends’ accolade: ‘they deliver [with] conviction and a real depth of feeling … Broadbent and his singers relish the music, singing with understated emotion’.

The Conductor takes the audience into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists, the internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop – the first woman to serve as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The documentary gives us backstage passes to the artistry and energy that rewards her audiences and inspires her students. With unprecedented access, the director and film crew accompany Marin Alsop to concerts around the world, from Mozart’s The Magic Flute in São Paulo to Mahler’s First Symphony in Lucerne, Bernstein’s Mass in Baltimore, and her opening concert in Vienna. The film also features a combination of intimate interviews with Alsop, a look into her private life and unseen archival footage with her mentor Leonard Bernstein.

This ‘riveting dynamic portrait’ (Bay Area Reporter), directed by Bernadette Wegenstein, is now screening in select theatres across the United States, starting 27 January. The Quad Cinema, New York premiere will also include a Q&A session with Alsop and Wegenstein, moderated by Jamie Bernstein.

The 2023 event will welcome back conductor Franz Welser-Möst, who’s been collaborating with the orchestra since 1998. He has conducted two New Year’s Day Concerts (2011 and 2013) in addition to leading the orchestra in subscription concerts in the Musikverein and on tours to Japan, China, Europe and the USA. The historic memorial concerts in Sarajevo in 2014 and Versailles in 2018 were performed under his direction. He has also regularly led the orchestra in opera and concert performances at the Salzburg Festival.

He recorded Gottfried von Einem’s Philadelphia Symphony, Geistliche Sonate and Das Studenlied, with the Vienna Philharmonic for Orfeo, ‘all of them in excellent performances.’ (Pizzicato)

For 20 years, Franz Welser-Möst has shaped an unmistakable sound culture as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestra has been repeatedly praised by international critics for its musical excellence. Their discography includes audiovisual recordings of Der Rosenkavalier and Salome from the Salzburg Festival, among many others.

Ondine’s release of Janáček’s piano music, performed by Lars Vogt, won the Solo Instrumental category. The jury stated that ‘Vogt expresses the intimacy of the music very sensitively … [He] is a singer at the piano, combining tension with naturalness, and turns accents into nuanced, music-inherent developments, unobtrusive throughout in the character of an improvisational reflection.’

Conductor Ádám Fischer received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his ‘interpretations of 18th-century repertoire,’ that ‘enable the listeners to experience new views.’ His 2019 Naxos release of Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Danish Chamber Orchestra previously won the 2020 ICMA ‘Recording of the Year’ and Opus Klassik Award for Best Symphonic Recording.

The third volume in Gottlieb Wallisch’s 20th Century Foxtrots series for Grand Piano caught a spotlight recently in The New York Times, which recommended that the album had just the right sort of fizz to help brighten up the New Year’s Eve weekend. Alongside suggestions for four other cultural activities to entertain aficionados of TV, dance, drama and children’s pursuits, the journal singled out Gottlieb’s foxtrot album as the chosen attraction for music lovers: ‘[Vols 1 and 2] surprised and delighted in equal measure; this latest album on the Grand Piano label extends the streak,’ it declared. Credit was also given to Mario Piccinini’s liner notes as ‘another valuable part of this zesty ongoing series.’

We started getting visitors… from every universe. Spider⁠-⁠Man: No Way Home is the highest-grossing film of 2021, and featured the Naxos release of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in G major, RV 516: II. Andante Molto, recorded by violinists Béla Bánfalvi and Zsuzsa Nemeth, and the Budapest Strings.

This follows their critically acclaimed recording of music for violin and piano by Wolfgang Rihm, which received the Diapason d’Or and the International Record Review ‘Outstanding’ Award: ‘The astounding technique of Yang and Rimmer bring these pieces vividly to life. My impression of Yang as a blisteringly incisive and stylish musician is only bolstered by this recital and she’s well served by Naxos’ clear recording.’

One of Naxos’ top artists, Tianwa Yang’s discography includes the violin concertos of Brahms, Lalo, Prokofiev and Rihm. She won the ECHO Klassik ‘Artist of the Year’ 2015 for her recording of Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (8.572995), and the Best Up-and-Coming Artist 2014 and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics 2014 for her recordings of the Mendelssohn Violin Concertos (8.572662) and Sarasate’s Complete Violin Music.

With Two Marimbas in Berlin, the award-winning duo DoubleBeats presents world premiere recordings of four pinnacles of the keyboard repertoire alongside two modern classics in their own remarkable arrangements for marimbas and percussion. Soft, resonant tones and high drama emerge through the duo’s exceptional dexterity and control in works by Chopin and Rachmaninov, as well as in Bach’s iconic Goldberg Variations. Haydn’s lighthearted Variations contrast with the thrills of Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango, and the album finishes with Minoru Miki’s poignant Marimba Spiritual.

The music video for Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5 comes out exclusively on Apple Music this Friday, 28 Jan 2022. Stream the video via the Apple Music Classical Live playlist.

Take the world of jazz wherever you go with mobile applications for Apple devices. Log in to 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 practising, relaxing, exercising or eating dinner.

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

In the Henle Library app you’ll also discover the techniques used by more Naxos artists, including Tianwa Yang and Henning Kraggerud, in performing music by Brahms, Bruch, Lalo and others.

www.henle-library.com

Ferdinand Ries is remembered as Beethoven’s one-time pupil, secretary and copyist, but the discovery of his many compositions showed him to be a forward-looking composer in his own right. Now conveniently housed in one box set, and standing alongside those of Hummel as the finest and most important of their kind from the early decades of the 19th century, Ries’ eight piano concertos (together with a number of varied companion pieces) combine intense lyricism with rugged Beethovenian grandeur.

‘Hinterhuber makes this music sing and sparkle, and the florid passages are executed with head-shaking smoothness.’

– Fanfare on Concerto No. 3
(8.557844, Disc 2)

‘This is a real discovery.’

– American Record Guide on Concertos Nos. 2 and 9
(8.572742, Disc 5)

Christopher Hinterhuber is the recipient of numerous prizes and honours at international piano competitions, including those held in Leipzig (Bach), Saarbrücken (Bach), Pretoria (Unisa), Zurich (Geza Anda) and Vienna (Beethoven). As ‘Rising Star’ 2002–03, he performed with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in the international series at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and at numerous important musical centres in Europe. Hinterhuber’s recordings of Ries’ piano concertos under conductor Uwe Grodd gained praise for his ‘verve and conviction’ (Gramophone). Fanfare added: ‘Hinterhuber makes this music sing and sparkle, and the florid passages are executed with head-shaking smoothness.’