Updates from the world's leading classical music label
In their latest #ClassicalDiscoveries episode, Jens and Joe explore Shostakovich’s symphonies – works of daring subversion masked as Soviet conformity. From the banned Fourth Symphony to the sardonic Ninth, they reveal how Shostakovich smuggled private rebellion into public music. Featuring Gürzenich-Orchester Köln’s powerhouse recordings, this is Soviet-era genius at its most explosive. “Quiet in person, Read More …
In his later years, Liszt increasingly pursued his favoured causes by using piano transcriptions of other composers’ works; and his own symphonic poems appeared as transcriptions from the 1850s. In 1865 Liszt famously complained to Hans von Bülow that “I have better things to do with my time than transcribe, paraphrase, and illustrate, and from Read More …
This podcast introduces two works by Karl Weigl (1881–1949), his Symphony No. 3 and the Symphonic Prelude to a Tragedy. Both were written at the beginning of the 1930s but then suffered from decades of neglect. Weigl drew on the sound world of late Romanticism, never abandoning this aesthetic in favour of more progressive contemporary Read More …
Conductor John Jeter has been central to the rediscovery and representation of Florence Price’s orchestral works. In this podcast, he discusses with Raymond Bisha his latest recording of her piano concerto and her two violin concertos, the only works she composed in the genre. The early First Violin Concerto, with shades of Tchaikovsky and undertones Read More …
In their latest episode of their #ClassicalDiscoveries podcast, Jens and Joe take a look at the scintillating music of Charles Koechlin, a fascinating composer and forgotten French symphonist who is impossible to pigeonhole. Neither an impressionist, nor simply a romantic, dramatic, lyric, abstract, or descriptive composer, he combined revolutionary, academic, and eclectic traits. One second, Read More …
Lepo Sumera (1950–2000) was one of the most important figures in Estonian music following World War Two. He might also be considered one of the most important European symphonists during the last quarter of the 20th century, when he wrote his impressive series of six symphonies that embody imaginative orchestral colour and a skilful sense Read More …
In this podcast Raymond Bisha introduces an album of sacred choral music by Philip Stopford in which all the items were composed between 2013 and 2022 and are heard in their world premiere recordings. Beautifully crafted, memorable, colourful and deeply rooted in the Anglican tradition, Stopford’s works are immediately attractive and widely admired in the Read More …
Working amidst political and personal setbacks, Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–96) flourished as a composer, admired by Shostakovich and championed by the leading Soviet musicians of the day. His death in Moscow in 1996, however, went largely unnoticed. More happily, his extensive catalogue has recently secured an increasing number of performances and recordings, witness this Naxos release Read More …
This podcast presents pianist Giorgio Koukl in conversation with Raymond Bisha at the end of a five-year project to rehabilitate the complete works for piano solo and duo by Vittorio Rieti (1898–1994). Virtually self-taught, Rieti went on to establish his composing credentials, becoming the only Italian composer, for example, to be invited to write ballet Read More …
Vol. 27 in the Naxos Music of Brazil series features music by César Guerra-Peixe (1914–1993). In this podcast, Raymond Bisha discusses the life and music of the composer, known as the ‘Brazilian Bartók’ on account of his ethnomusicological research, with conductor Neil Thomson. Describing Guerra-Peixe as an “extremely prolific, incredibly rounded, complete musician”, Thomson also Read More …