Backtrack of the week. Ibert.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Capriccio label (C71028) is from a recording of the Flute Concerto by French composer Jacques Ibert (1890–1962). Composed in 1934, the work has often Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Mendelssohn.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Oehms Classics label (OC528) presents a performance of the second movement from Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6. Much of Mendelssohn’s chamber music is gracefully Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Monteverdi.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Naxos label (8.555310) is taken from Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603. The collection continued the expressive innovation that had characterised his Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Prokofiev.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Ondine label (ODE1060-2) features a short piano movement by Sergei Prokofiev. In 1940, the Bolshoi Theatre commissioned Prokofiev to write a new full-length ballet, Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Richard Strauss.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Dynamic label (CDS499) is an extract from Richard Strauss’ tragic opera Daphne in a scene featuring the conflicting characters of Daphne, a nymph (soprano), Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Caldara.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Capriccio label (C67124) is supplied by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Caldara (1670–1736), one of the most famous and glittering personalities of his time. Featuring Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Hoffmeister

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Orfeo label (C622051A) is a movement from Franz Anton Hoffmeister’s Sinfonia concertante No. 1 for two clarinets and orchestra. Hoffmeister, both a composer and Read More …

Backtrack of the Week. Tippett.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Naxos label (8.557611) features British composer Michael Tippett’s piano sonatas, specifically the neo-classical First Sonata which, in Tippett’s own words, is “a young man’s Read More …

Backtrack of the week. Rautavaara.

Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime. This week’s pick from the Ondine label (ODE1041-2) is a movement from Cantus arcticus by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016). It’s a highly original orchestral work that incorporates recorded Read More …