NEWS FROM THE NAXOS MUSIC GROUP

For over thirty-five years, Ondine has remained true to its founding principle: the uncompromising devotion to excellence in recorded music. The label’s mission is to support new creative efforts in the field of contemporary music, and to showcase renditions by top-rank artists which bring a new dimension to established works of the classical repertoire.

Building on the extraordinary abundance of musical talent in Finland, Ondine has since its beginnings maintained a strong commitment to championing the best in Finnish contemporary music and world-class Finnish artists, including star sopranos Karita Mattila and Soile Isokoski, pianists Olli Mustonen and Paavali Jumppanen, clarinetist Kari Kriikku, guitarist Timo Korhonen and violinist Pekka Kuusisto, to name only a few. In parallel, the label developed its international profile by recording with star artists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Midori, Lars Vogt†, Truls Mørk, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky†. Prestigious ensembles include the Latvian Radio Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Meta4 Quartet, among others.

In this new concerto album one of the greatest violinists of his generation, Christian Tetzlaff, offers profound interpretations of two deeply dramatic and lyrical concertos – those of Brahms and Berg – together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati.

Final volume in the first-ever complete recording cycle of symphonies by Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919–2008), one of the most prominent post-WW2 composers in Latvia and Canada. This album includes three of the composer’s eight numbered symphonies performed by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Andris Poga.

The beloved classic comes to life in an all-new live-action Pinocchio. Watch the trailer and stream the movie now on Disney+!

See if you can catch an excerpt from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, courtesy of Naxos.

Congratulations to ARC Music for winning the Transglobal World Music Chart’s ‘Best Label’ award for the 2021–2022 season.

ARC Music is a leading record label and publisher in the field of world and folk music, with an unrivalled repertoire comprised of many hundreds of albums from over 120 countries and cultures the world over.

The label bendigedig (a sub-label of ARC Music) also garnered the fifth spot in the Top Labels list.

Frank Dupree’s recording of Kapustin’s Piano Concerto No. 4 on Capriccio, fresh from its win at the 2021 International Classical Music Awards, is nominated in the Concerto category. Critic Jeremy Nicholas commented: ‘The fourth [concerto] is a riot. If it was played at the BBC Proms in the right hands, it would bring the house down. The right hands are certainly present on this recording.’

Ondine’s release of Magnus Lindberg’s orchestral works received the Contemporary category nomination, featuring performances by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Hannu Lintu. The central work on the album is Lindberg’s best known: ‘Aura’s mosaic-like structure alternates concertino-style subdivisions with visceral, full-blown tutti sections. The introduction, featuring low strings, thudding bass drum and contrabassoon, emerges out of the shadows of silence. It’s brilliantly captured here by the FRSO. Lintu maintains greater clarity and focus during the dense tutti sections.’

Nominated in the Opera category is Christof Loy’s Deutsche Opera Berlin production of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, starring soprano Sara Jakubiak in the title role. The magazine wrote: ‘Musically, it’s tremendous. Singing with blazing conviction and remarkable tonal lustre, Jakubiak has all the vocal glamour and staying power that the exacting title-role needs.’

In the Orchestral category, Robert Trevino’s Ondine release Americascapes with the Basque National Orchestra gets a nod. ‘Robert Trevino has put together a cleverly varied programme of little-known American orchestral works. What’s remarkable … is the sense of unity he creates given such diversity.’ The performances are ‘authoritative, played with great polish, and the recorded sound is first-rate.’

Brazilian composers in the 19th century often sought state scholarships to enable them to study in Europe where they were to become influenced by the German, Italian and French compositional schools. They also became involved in the vogue for writing suites based on ancient dances, such as Nepomuceno’s delightful Ancient Suite, premiered at Grieg’s home, or Braga’s Madrigal-Pavana which evokes the belle époque ballrooms of Rio de Janeiro. Miguéz’s Suite in the Old Style is polyphonic and lively, while Gomes’ Sonata for Strings is his finest non-operatic work.

Heitor Villa-Lobos once confessed that he loved to write string quartets, stating ‘one could say that it is a mania’. His 17 quartets form a substantial part of his chamber music output, covering a long career that embraced national pride and musical experimentation leading to the rarefied atmosphere of the final masterpieces. Often drawing on the musical folklore of Brazil, these quartets are an outpouring of spontaneous and daring invention. Ranging from austere polyphony to compelling expressiveness and virtuosity, they represent one of the most distinctive bodies of chamber works in 20th-century music.

Almeida Prado’s colossal piano cycle Cartas Celestes (‘Celestial Charts’) offers a paradigm of audacious invention but between 1985 and 1991 this prolific Brazilian composer also wrote a set of 14 nocturnes that display the genre’s lyrical impulses. Along with abstract elements and features such as synesthesia, used in homage to his teacher Messaien, the full range of influences can be felt in Almeida Prado’s Nocturnes: Chopin, Scriabinesque colour, bossa-nova, Brahms-like intervals, serenity and radiant songfulness. Ilhas (‘Islands’) is a mystical but programmatic work, the predecessor of Cartas Celestes in many essential elements. Aleyson Scopel is an award-winning Brazilian pianist and one of Almeida Prado’s greatest contemporary advocates.

Having recently celebrated her 15th anniversary as a Naxos artist, violinist Tianwa Yang was named ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ for her Prokofiev Violin Concertos disc with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jun Märkl.

Clarinetist Sharon Kam’s Orfeo disc of music by Hindemith was the winner of the Chamber Music Recording category. ‘Sharon Kam is a world-class performer. Listening to her play is always a joy. Her clarinet has a rich, dark tone that’s never muddy in the lower register. And her upper register is equally fine, with a clear, rounded sound. Her technique is superb. But Kam’s more than a technical performer – she’s a musical one.’ (WTJU)

The Choral Recording category was won by the ensemble Singer Pur for their OehmsClassics album Among Whirlwinds. ‘On this CD, Singer Pur presents a purely female programme with a successful mixture of music from the 12th to the 21st century. This is done very artfully, through both homogeneity in ensemble and individually contoured voices. Above all, this cultivated singing is also soulful and intense in expression.’ (Pizzicato)

Finally, Vol. 5 in Capriccio’s Schnittke Film Music series, recorded by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Frank Strobel, received the award in the film music category.