Since the first performance of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, there has been a steady stream of arrangements of the piece. By the end of the 19th century, there were already more than 600 published arrangements. Some were note very good, but others, such as the music featured in this podcast, were excellent. On this CD, Quatour Franz Joseph performs an arrangement of Don Giovanni for string quartet, made sometime around 1800.
Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was one of the more colorful characters among Italian Renaissance composers. He wrote unusual and highly emotional music, and he was a murderer. This podcast looks at both his personal life (sometimes gruesome) as well as his music. Music by Gesualdo’s fellow composers Pomponio Nenna and Luzzasco Luzzaschi is also included. The featured artists in this podcast, and on the CD are Concerto Italiano conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini.
With his CD of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Alfred Schnittke’s Viola Concerto, New York-based violist David Aaron Carpenter puts himself onstage as one of the leading violists of the new generation. His performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto also makes a compelling case for performing the piece more often on viola. In this CD, Carpenter is accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.
Johan Svendsen was the one of the leading figures in Norwegian music during the romantic era, both as a composer and a conductor. This podcast introduces you to his Norwegian Rhapsodies, as well as the music he wrote for Romeo and Juliet, and his piece Zorahayda, based on the story Rose of Alhambra by the American author Washington Irving (who also wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). The performers are the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Bjarte Engeset.
The inspiration for Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony can be traced all the way back to his youth, as he watched on television as the caped superhero rescued humanity - as especially Lois Lane - from all kinds of deadly situations. Daugherty’s ability to allow the visual world to inspire the musical is evident in many of his works such as Deux Ex Machina, included on this CD, and Fire and Blood that was inspired by murals by Diego Rivera. The performers on this present CD include the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, pianist Terrence Wilson, and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.
Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos American Classics 8.559635
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