Schoenberg’s polyphonic tone poem Pelleas und Melisande (1902) is often compared to Debussy’s opera based on the same text by Maurice Maeterlinck. According to Schoenberg, the 1905 premiere of his work in Vienna, which he directed “provoked riots among the audience and even the critics. Reviews were unusually violent and one of the critics suggested putting me in an asylum and keeping music paper out of my reach. Only six years later, under Oscar Fried’s direction, it became a great success, and since that time has not caused the anger of the audience.”

Next, the1909 masterwork Erwartung is a monodrama for soprano and large orchestra with text by Marie Pappenheim, a young medical student who was commissioned by Schoenberg himself. Consisting of the interior monologue of a woman who has killed the lover with whom she is expecting a tryst, the action takes place between twilight and dawn near and in a forest. It begins with her search for him, her discovery of his still-bleeding corpse, and finally her realization that “light will dawn for all others, but I am all alone in my darkness,” a line set to the only tonal music in the work (borrowed from one of Schoenberg’s early songs). Among the work’s most innovative features are its continual variation of orchestral textures-not only are the instrumental combinations new, but the instruments themselves are required to produce new sounds- and the constantly changing tempi.

Robert Craft, the noted conductor and widely respected writer and critic on music, literature, and culture, holds a unique place in world music of today. He has twice won the Grand Prix du Disque, as well as the Edison Prize for his landmark recordings of Schoenberg, Webern, and Varèse. He has also received a special award from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters in recognition of his “creative work” in literature. In 2002 he was awarded the International Prix du Disque Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cannes Music Festival. In addition to his special command of Stravinsky’s and Schoenberg’s music, Mr. Craft is well known for his recordings of works by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Schütz, Bach, and Mozart. He is also the author of more than two dozen books on music and the arts, including the highly acclaimed Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship; The Moment of Existence: Music, Literature and the Arts, 1990-1995; Places: A Travel Companion for Music and Art Lovers; An Improbable Life: Memoirs; Memories and Commentaries; and “Down a Path of Wonder”: On Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Eliot, Auden, and Some Others (2005). He is in the process of recording the complete works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Webern for Naxos.

From the beginning, Anja Silja’s large and varied repertoire, including nearly every major soprano role in opera, has shaped her unique career. Born in Berlin, she began her vocal studies at the age of six, gave her first performance at the city’s Titania Palace at the age of ten, and made her stage debut at the age of 16 in Brunswick as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. She was invited to Bayreuth in 1960 and sang Elisabeth, Venus, Eva, Elsa, Freia, and Senta in Wieland Wagner’s productions, roles she subsequently performed at major opera houses throughout the world. She is especially acclaimed for her interpretation of Emilia Marty in Janáček’s The Makropoulos Case, and, recently, for her Kostelnička in Jenůfa, which she has sung in Glyndebourne and Zürich, at Covent Garden, and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Ms. Silja has performed in Erwartung with James Levine in Berlin, Madrid, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and at the Verbier Festival.

A new album of very rarely recorded Piano Sonatas and Sonatinas composed by Ferdinand Ries will be available from Naxos on August 26. Performed by Beethoven scholar and acclaimed pianist Susan Kagan, Ries’ Sonatas in F minor and E flat major and the Sonatina in A minor were written between the years of 1807 and 1812. Despite being composed before many of the Early Romantic composers were born, these sonatas show an obvious anticipation of the harmonic styles and emotional expression of many the Early Romantic greats such as Schubert and Mendelssohn.

Born in Bonn in 1884, Ferdinand Ries was found to be a talented musician at a very young age. Ries spent most of his teenage years under the tutelage of his father, musician and Beethoven tutor Franz Anton Ries. In 1801, Ferdinand was sent to Vienna equipped with a letter of introduction from his father to his former student Beethoven. Ries studied piano with Beethoven and the great composer made sure to introduce him to all of the most well-known musicians in Vienna. In return, Ries acted as Beethoven’s personal secretary, copyist and represented his publishing interests for many years. As a composer, Ries left behind eight symphonies (one unpublished), one violin concerto, six piano concertos and many chambers works.
Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, holds a Ph.D from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her dissertation on the music of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s only composition student, was published by Pendragon Press in 1988, under the title Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s Patron, Pupil, and Friend. Susan Kagan taught music history at Hunter College, CUNY, where she founded the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society in 1995. In 2002 Susan Kagan was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Award by the Masaryk Academy of the Arts in Prague for her contribution to Czech musical culture. In 2007 she received the Ira F. Brilliant Lifetime Achievement Award for Beethoven Performance and Studies from the American Beethoven Society. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Beethoven Society, the American Schubert Institute, and the Schubert Society of the United States.

On August 26, Naxos releases the most recent recording from two-time Grammy®-nominee and violinist Philippe Quint: Charles-Auguste de Bériot’s Violin Concertos Nos. 2, 3 & 5.

One of the most distinguished violinists of his time, Bériot was the father of the Franco-Belgian school of playing. His 10 violin concertos display the youthful élan and high spirits of early Romanticism. Bériot combined elements of the French School charm and taste with the new pyrotechnics pioneered by Paganini. Bériot’s Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 show the immediate influence of Paganini with their brilliant displays of virtuosity and operatic melodies, while the Concerto No. 5 shows the composer’s more playful side.

In his 34 years, Quint has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, and Africa. The Strad described him as “dazzling. He is a violinist of uncommon brilliance and flair. Intonation is impeccable, and he brings to the score the grand gestures of his Russian training.” Quint has appeared with major orchestras across the globe under the batons of noted conductors who include Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Andrew Litton, Maxim Shostakovich, Hans Graf, and Carlos Miguel Prieto.

He has been nominated for two Grammy® Awards (including one for Best Soloist with orchestra) for his Naxos debut release of William Schuman’s Violin Concerto, an album that also won “Editor’s Choice” distinctions from Gramophone and Strad magazines. The disc thoroughly established his unique identity as a champion of American music as he continued his explorations with three more critically acclaimed releases: Bernstein’s Serenade (Marin Alsop/Bournemouth Symphony/Naxos), Ned Rorem’s Violin Concerto (Serebrier/Royal Liverpool/Naxos), and Miklos Rozsa’s complete works for violin and piano.

Quint’s newest Naxos CD release in May 2008 of Corigliano/Thomson has already been received with great enthusiasm, winning Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice” for September 2008 and WNYC’s “CD Pick of the Week.” In December, 2008, Naxos releases Quint’s performance of Korngold’s beloved Violin Concerto, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting. He has also completed a new CD of works by Paganini, arranged by Fritz Kreisler, slated for release in 2009.

He will return to Carnegie’s Weill Hall on September 23, 2008 at 8 PM to perform a recital of solo violin works.

“The fierce diversity of the tracks on this compilation is reflective of 20th century music as a whole, with its staggering range of innovation and expression. Discerning listeners will note the presence of such familiar touchstones as minimalism, serialism and polystylism, but there is nothing programmatic about their application in these pieces. The dissonant modernism in the third movement to Gloria Coates’ Symphony No. 15 is worlds away from the limpid warmth of Charles Wuorinen’s Renaissance-inspired Josquiniana. The angular contours conjured in John Corigliano’s A Black November Turkey find distinct counterpoint in the adagio of William Bolcom’s serene yet stealthily subversive Cello Sonata. José Serebrier demonstrates expressive melodic grace in his Fantasia for strings while Joan Tower marshals powerful rhythmic forces to dramatic effect in her aptly titled Tambor. The hard, trance-inducing repetition of Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues is contrasted with the dark hued introspection of John Harbison’s
Piano Trio No. 1.”
-Dean Brierly

On August 26, Naxos of America releases Class of ‘38 (Naxos 8572087), a two-disc set of works by eight of America’s most compelling living composers: William Bolcom (Cello Sonata; II. Adagio semplice);
Gloria Coates (Symphony No. 15; III. What are the stars?); John Corigliano (A Black November Turkey); John Harbison (Trio, 1968); Frederic Rzewski (Four American Ballads: No. 4 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues); José Serebrier (Fantasia for strings); Joan Tower (Tambor), and Charles Wuorinen (from Josquiniana). The second bonus disc contains podcast interviews with Naxos’ Raymond Bisha and composers Joan Tower, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Charles Wuorinen, John Harbison, and José Serebrier.