INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Charles Ives was a master of miniatures, and this program brings together a miscellanea of numerous shorter pieces that includes seven world premieres. Embracing ragtime before it became a craze at the end of the 19th century, Ives’ Four Ragtime Dances juxtapose the sacred and profane as part of his lifelong quest to find unity in all humanity. Chromâtimelôdtune is one of Ives’ most startling creations, appearing here alongside experiments, marches, arrangements and enticingly incomplete fragments that form a musical selection of remarkable variety.

Gabriel Fauré is best known for his Requiem and Pavane, but these are not typical of an output that focused largely on solo piano pieces, songs and chamber music, many of which were orchestrated by others. His Violin Concerto was never completed but the surviving first movement reveals Fauré’s characteristic playfulness with rhythm and harmony. The short prelude to Pénélope, Fauré’s only opera, conveys the sombre and passionate moods of its heroine, heard here alongside favourites such as the poignant Élégie, the beloved Dolly and, famous among flautists, the distinguished Fantaisie.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Dedicated to Francis Poulenc, Vittorio Rieti’s First Piano Concerto formed part of his early success in Paris during the 1920s, the work’s high spirits reflecting Rieti’s recent marriage and the birth of his son Fabio. The Second Piano Concerto started out as a harpsichord concerto for Wanda Landowska but was later recast. The Third Piano Concerto is notable for its deeply felt central Andantino, while the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra is exuberant with cinematic themes. All of these works feature witty passages for orchestral soloists in dialogue with the piano, imbued with Rieti’s original and unpredictable style.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

This seventh volume of Auber’s overtures features the ‘fairy opera’ Le Cheval de bronze (1835). The overture expresses the magical and mystical dynamism of the story, while the 1857 opéra-ballet version presents an interpolated dance sequence, exemplifying some exotic chinoiserie. Poetic and graceful, Le Lac des fées was highly regarded in Germany, and proved influential on Wagner who saw it in Paris. Marco Spada evinces some of Auber’s most accomplished and sustained mood setting. The overture to Le Cheval de bronze is also heard here in the arrangement by Engelbert Humperdinck (Das eherne Pferd, 1889).

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Ukraine has a long and vibrant tradition of Christmas carols, whose melodies and meaning – now, more than ever – hold an important place in the hearts of the country’s people. Some carols date back centuries and cover a wide variety of themes, but they are united by a common thread – an appreciation of the beauties of heaven and earth, and the coming of the Saviour. The Ukrainian violin virtuoso Solomiya Ivakhiv is the soloist in Bohdan Kryvopust’s imaginative arrangements, which bring out the variety and beauty of the carols. Kryvopust’s own Fantasia is a delightful festive montage.

Doktor Faust, which Busoni considered a personal creative drama and which occupied him for over twelve years, was left incomplete on his death at the age of 58. He had searched for a dramatic subject that he hoped would represent the apex and summary of his entire career. The opera was completed by Philipp Jarnach in 1925. As the librettist, Busoni managed to avoid comparison to Goethe, and in favouring an open, discontinuous form ‘in panels’, he developed a unique structure cast in two preludes, an orchestral intermezzo and three scenes to investigate poetic questions of operatic artifice.

Many years before Richard Strauss composed his opera on the subject of Salome and John the Baptist, Jules Massenet had explored the same relationship in Hérodiade. However, in Massenet’s opera it is the vengeful Hérodiade, Salomé’s mother, who demands John the Baptist’s head, not her naïve innocent daughter. The opera’s lyrical inwardness focuses on the characters’ most intimate feelings in a way that had not been heard before and was considered radical at the time.

After establishing a new genre with his Sonatas for Piano and Cello, Op. 5, Beethoven returned to it a decade later, working on his Sonata in A major, Op. 69 in parallel with his Fifth and Sixth symphonies. With its unexpected shifts of harmony and mood, this is a work filled with virtuoso flourishes and experimental surprise, elements shared in the defiance of convention and lyrical brilliance of the two Sonatas, Op. 102. Beethoven considered Handel to be ‘the greatest composer that ever lived’, demonstrating pianistic dexterity in the Variations, WoO 45 on the popular melody ‘See the conqu’ring hero comes’. The first volume in this series is available on Naxos 8.574529.

Franz Liszt was a unique personality in the musical world of the 19th century. He was a model and inspiration for many generations of musicians and was magnificently successful as a virtuoso pianist, educator, composer and conductor. Presenting a cornucopia of musical delights, this selection of Liszt favourites includes works inspired by folklore and Italian culture, literary texts and poetry, opera, the brilliance of Paganini and a sheer delight in pianistic virtuosity. Goran Filipec joins a long tradition of making arrangements and personal adaptations to find new vitality and freshness in this much-loved music.

The final volume in this acclaimed series of Busoni’s piano music focuses on beginnings and endings. Early works and transcriptions are featured, plus a substantial body of music that Busoni wrote for his multi-volume Klavierübung (‘Piano Exercise’). The early miniatures are teasing and witty but also inventive examples of his mastery of Bachian procedure. The excerpts from Klavierübung, in which he uses his own music and that of others, embody the full breadth of his creative vision. They make a fitting end to this series performed by Wolf Harden, whose playing of Busoni has been described as ‘the clear current benchmark’ (BBC Music Magazine on Volume 2, 8.555699).

Brahms’ three violin sonatas were composed within a decade and are central to the chamber music repertoire. These mature works display a perfect balance between the two instruments with intimate recollections, melodies based on song, poetic strength and passionate intensity. Violinist Niklas Walentin has already recorded Ysaÿe (8.574214–15) and Lou Harrison (8.574244) for Naxos whilst Christina Bjørkøe has been lauded by Gramophone for her ‘beautifully phrased and idiomatic interpretations’.

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Written over a 46-year period, Claudio Santoro’s six piano sonatas document the evolution of his creative and formal skills – together they present a survey of the composer’s entire aesthetic development. Always radiating a forceful inner power and with expressive lyricism at their heart, the early sonatas explore twelve-note technique as a unifying element, transitioning to a distinctive Brazilian nationalist character by the Third and Fourth sonatas. The Fifth Sonata, from the end of Santoro’s life, is a synthesis of the various idioms he had used over the decades. This is the first complete recording of Santoro’s piano sonatas, performed by the composer’s son, Alessandro Santoro.

Influential German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes reinvented the Passion oratorio tradition, transforming its textures into a much-admired poetic meditation that took hold of the imagination of many German Baroque composers. Of several settings Handel’s is by far the most famous, creating an eloquent and moving score from his friend’s libretto. This acclaimed staged version directed by Walter Sutcliffe extends the vision of the original by asking fundamental questions about the evolution of mankind and its dangerous implications for planet Earth.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

The three world premiere choral recordings on this album represent the enduring commitment of Musica Viva NY’s artistic director, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, to perform new works by living composers. Richard Einhorn’s The Luminous Ground is a deeply reflective and spiritually engaging work, while Gilda Lyons’ brilliantly written Momotombo is inspired by the spectacular volcanic landscape of Nicaragua. Joseph Turrin’s Crimson Roses Once Again Be Fair is a moving cantata that marks the centenary of the First World War Armistice in November of 1918 – the piece is dedicated to those who bravely fought and died, forever enshrined in history.

Regarded as a first-rate but tragically neglected composer of Lieder, Erich J. Wolff has, until recently, only been familiar to a small number of music enthusiasts. The beautiful 1909 song cycle Neun Gedichte, set to texts by the composer’s close friend Cäsar Flaischlen, is notable for its juxtaposition of rapture, joy and fear. Amongst the numerous profound, dignified and sublime settings on this album the Hafis Lieder represent a multi-faceted and oriental flavoured sequence, ranging from calm sadness and defiant heroism to a rapturous conclusion.

Though he composed in a variety of genres – choral and orchestral works and an opera among them – Erich Zeisl was a consummate Lieder composer whose songs are richly melodic, inventive, and cast in a late Romantic idiom. In his settings he responded to a range of ideas – the subjects of the night and light were potent ones, and he mined a vein of irony and humour. Forced from Austria in 1938 he did not write any Lieder after settling in America but arranged some Spirituals, drawing on the music of a people similarly oppressed as his own.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

John Rutter is probably the most acclaimed and successful composer of carols alive today. His large selection of popular sacred choral pieces in the genre reflect and celebrate the Christmas story. Rutter’s unerring sense of melody combined with a rich harmonic palette makes his music instantly accessible to both performers and audiences alike. This recording brings together a selection of his most famous Christmas carols in beautiful new arrangements for brass performed by the Black Dyke Band.

The New & Now playlist features all that is new and exciting in the world of classical music, whether it’s new music, new presentations or new performers. With more than 200 new releases each year, and artists from around the world, there is always something new to discover with Naxos.