Updates from the world's leading classical music label
Naxos announces a new partnership to distribute North/South Recordings, an innovative, nonprofit classical concert and recording organization based in New York City. The partnership launches with two new releases from the label, largely dedicated to supporting and promoting works by living composers: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, featuring North/South founder Max Lifchitz at Read More …
Teatro Real’s production of Handel’s vivid tragedy Tamerlano stars a Lear-like Plácido Domingo as the Turkish sultan Bajazet, defeated and taken prisoner by Tamerlano, the Tartar emperor. Displaying the uniquely heroic quality of his voice, Domingo heads a superb cast, including Sara Mingardo, Monica Bacelli, and Ingela Bohlin-all magnificently responsive to Paul McCreesh’s authentic and Read More …
Krzysztof Penderecki’s Utrenja, inspired by the Orthodox liturgy of Holy Saturday, depicts the lamentations of Christ’s death and the Easter Sunday service commemorating the Resurrection. The work is scored for three male voices (tenor, bass and basso profondo, which correspond, respectively, to the roles of the chaplain, deacon, and lector) and two female voices (soprano Read More …
On April 28, Naxos releases the second of a three-disc series of recordings of orchestral suites created from operas by Czech composer Leoš Janáček. The second volume of suites, arranged and conducted by Czech-born Peter Breiner, features performances by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The two suites in the release include orchestral themes and vocal Read More …
The acclaimed Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings two major song cycles by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), and four other songs by the composer (”Der Nussbaum,” “Er ist’s,” “Loreley,” and “Widmung”), on a new recording from naïve. Pianist Daniel Blumenthal accompanies Lemieux in the Liederkreis (Op. 39) and Frauenliebe und-leben (Op. 42), both written in 1840 when Read More …
In recent years it has been an enormous thrill hearing my music being performed by The Dmitri Ensemble. This excellent young ensemble brings a breath of fresh air to music-making in this country and is fortunate to have in their director Graham Ross one of the most exciting new musicians to appear on the radar. Read More …
This week Naxos of America’s Collin Rae weights in on Italian movie soundtrack music of the 1960s and 1970s: So much has already been written about Italian movie soundtrack music of the 1960’s and 70’s that I certainly won’t shed any new light on this subject, instead I will simply highlight some of the wonderful Read More …
John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan Garners Two Wins: Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Vocal Performance; The Pacifica Quartet Wins Best Chamber Music Performance for Elliott Carter’s String Quartets Nos. 1 & 5; The Los Angeles Opera Production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Read More …
On January 27, Naxos releases the latest recording by Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy®, and Grawemeyer winner John Corigliano, Symphony No. 3, ‘Circus Maximus’ (Naxos 8559601). Scored for a large concert band encircling the audience, the work is performed here by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, led by Jerry Junkin. The recording also features Corigliano’s 1979 Read More …
For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time. – Brian Eno In 1978, Brian Eno composed his revolutionary ambient masterwork Music for Airports. 20 years later, in what seemed like a perfect marriage of barrier-breaking music and innovative musicians, Bang on a Can released a new interpretation of Read More …