NEW ON The World’s Leading ClassicalNAXOS Music Label MARCH 2018 This Month’s Other Highlights Select Music and Video Distribution Limited: Unit 8, Salbrook Industrial Estate, Salbrook Road, Salfords, REDHILL, RH1 5GJL Tel: 01737 645600 · Fax: 01737 644065 · Email: [email protected] © 2018 Naxos Rights US, Inc. NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2018 8.573534-35 Adriane White © 2 CDs 7 47313 35347 7 Marin Alsop Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Key Features: • Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet is his best loved and most Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 commercially successful stage work by a long way, having been (Complete Ballet) recorded widely both as here in its complete form, as well as in Baltimore Symphony Orchestra the two suites prepared by the composer when it seemed a full Marin Alsop production seemed unlikely. The last Naxos recording of the full score was back in 1995 (8.553184-85), and subsequent to Marin Based on Shakespeare’s most famous romantic play, Prokofiev’s Alsop’s triumphant completion of her Prokofiev symphonic cycle realisation of Romeo and Juliet as a full-length narrative ballet this is a perfect time for a new release. was audacious in its day. It was written during a period of artistic • Marin Alsop’s recently completed cycle of Prokofiev’s turmoil under a Soviet regime in which arguments raged over such Symphonies has been widely acclaimed. Of her recording fundamental aspects as the choice between a happy or a tragic of the Fourth Symphony and The Prodigal Son (8.573186), ending. Famous movements such as the Dance of the Knights International Record Review wrote: “Conductor and orchestra have helped maintain Romeo and Juliet as Prokofiev’s best- both shine with the excitement of a special relationship in the loved stage work. Marin Alsop’s acclaimed cycle of Prokofiev’s ascendant”, and Gramophone wrote that the First Symphony Symphonies has been described as ‘an outstanding achievement’ (8.573353) “has many delightful touches—the finale has just the by BBC Music Magazine. right kind of fizz and sparkle.” About Marin Alsop • Marin Alsop’s association with the GRAMMY® Award-winning Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has also brought us numerous music scene, a music director of vision and distinction who successes, including Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Music passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives”. for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (8.572486) considered by Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director ClassicsToday.com to be “a splendid performance of this oft- of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Her success as the recorded work… a memorable and wholly successful effort, BSO’s music director has garnered national and international attention excellently engineered to boot. …this is very, very good, for her innovative programming and artistry. Alsop is often making and wholly recommendable as a pairing of these two iconic history: in 2005 she was works.” This partnership will have been given a further boost the first conductor to be with our celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centenary, a box awarded a MacArthur set (8.508018) that includes all of Marin Alsop’s recordings of Genius award, and in Bernstein’s orchestral music on Naxos, released in February September 2013 as the 2018. first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms in London – an honour that she repeated in 2015. © Ed Steven Parke Companion Titles – Prokofiev Symphonies Series NBD0044 • 8.573353 NBD0047 • 8.573452 NBD0038 • 8.573186 NBD0031 • 8.573029 8.573518 8.573620 2 NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2018 Richard WAGNER (1813–1883) Orchestral Music from Der Ring des Nibelungen Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta The essential meaning of Wagner’s magnum opus Der Ring des Nibelungen is wrapped up in the composer’s own lifetime pursuit of transcendent romance, with the redemption of eternal love one of the primary tenets of this and his other music dramas. Wagner’s gift for orchestral colour and scenic characterisation make his operas highly suited to the genre of the tone poem, and these seven tableaux evoke major scenarios in the saga, as well as providing a sense of the course and spirit of the greatest operatic drama ever written. Key Features: • Recordings of highlights and orchestral excerpts from Wagner’s operas have had an enduring popularity, but themed releases with orchestral music from The Ring are relatively rare. • The Naxos label is riding high with Wagner’s music at the moment – the highly acclaimed new Ring cycle conducted by Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will be completed towards the end of 2018. • Conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra have shone in romantic repertoire such as Glière’s 8.573839 Third Symphony (8.573161), BBC Music Magazine stating that “Falletta and her excellent orchestra give a visceral account of 7 47313 38397 9 the score projecting its wide range of moods, from mystery and Guerin Blask enchantment to violence and tragic intensity, with far greater © immediacy than the refined if comparatively staid interpretation from Companion Titles – Edward Downes and the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos.” The sheer versatility of JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic the Buffalo Philharmonic is reflected in numerous acclaimed contemporary music NEW releases that include the GRAMMY® Award winning recording of John Corigliano’s Mr Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (8.559331). 8.573838 8.573683 8.573460 8.573307 INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS Michael DAUGHERTY (b. 1954) Dreamachine 1† Trail of Tears 2† • Reflections on the Mississippi 3 Evelyn Glennie, Percussion 1 • Amy Porter, Flute 2 • Carol Jantsch, Tuba 3 Albany Symphony • David Alan Miller † WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty explores the relationships between machines, humanity and nature in three unique concertos. Dreamachine for solo percussion and orchestra is a colorful tribute to the imagination of inventors who dreamed of new machines, both real and surreal. The flute concerto Trail of Tears dramatizes the tragic governmental forced relocation of Native Americans in 1838 and meditates on how the human spirit discovers ways to deal with adversity. Reflections on the Mississippi for tuba and orchestra is a musical voyage down the legendary Mississippi River from Iowa to Louisiana. The Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller, delivers mesmerizing performances by three outstanding women soloists: GRAMMY® Award- winning percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, flutist extraordinaire Amy Porter, and Carol Jantsch, the remarkable principal tuba of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Key Features: • Naxos has a very successful series of Michael Daugherty recordings, 8.559807 which had won numerous recognitions including six GRAMMY® Award wins, particularly Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 2011 for his piano concerto Deus ex Machina (8.559635) and in 2017 Carlos Simon 6 36943 98072 9 for the cello concerto Tales of Hemingway. © Companion Titles – Michael Daugherty, Composer • Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie has previously recorded Daugherty’s UFO with the Colorado Symphony and Marin Alsop (8.559165). Glennie also recorded Corigliano’s percussion concerto Conjurer (8.559757) with the Albany Symphony and David Alan Miller, which won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. She recently released a disc of purely improved music as part of The Core-tet Project (8.573804). 8.559798 8.559635 8.559165 8.559749 3 NEW ON NAXOS | MARCH 2018 Kara KARAYEV (1918–1982) Symphony No. 1 Violin Concerto * Janna Gandelman, Violin * Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra Dmitry Yablonsky Kara Karayev was one of the most prominent figures in the music of 20th-century Azerbaijan, and an inspiration to subsequent generations of Azerbaijani composers. His eloquently expressive and tautly dramatic First Symphony is a significant work in Karayev’s output, reflecting both the harmonies and melodic characteristics of the South Caucasus region and, in its orchestral brilliance, the influence of his mentor Shostakovich. The Violin Concerto shows a notable shift in style, exploring the serial techniques that add astringency and inventive depth to Karayev’s already richly coloured and vividly diverse palette. Key Features: • These two significant works by Kara Karayev have yet to break through into wider recognition. • The Naxos recording of Karayev’s Third Symphony (8.570720), also conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky, was considered “an 8.573722 important release” by ClassicsToday.com, and given “a prime recommendation” by Fanfare. In 2013 Naxos also released a recording of ballet suites The Seven Beauties and The Path of 7 47313 37227 0 Thunder (8.573122), works both considered “very special” by Yablonsky, and acclaimed as “red-blooded performances” by BBC Companion Titles – Dmitry Yablonsky, Conductor Music Magazine. MusicWeb International adds that “this disc is a prime example of the splendid work that Naxos has done over the past twenty-plus years in giving listeners the opportunity to hear little known music, excellently played.” • One of Israel’s ‘best kept secrets’, violinist Janna Gandelman is concertmaster of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and others, and has performed widely as both soloist and chamber musician alongside the likes of Gidon Kremer, Isaac Stern and 8.570720 8.573122 8.573598 8.573601 Sol Gabetta. Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Works for Flute, Vol. 1 Duos for Flute and Bassoon 1 Duo for Two Flutes 2 • Serenade 3 Kazunori Seo, Flute • Patrick Gallois 2, Flute • Mitsuo Kodama, Bassoon 1 Asuka Sezaki, Violin 3 • Koichi Komine, Viola 3 Ludwig van Beethoven stands as a giant in music history for his great symphonies, piano sonatas and string quartets, and the challenges of deafness later in life. This programme shows the younger Beethoven’s facility as a creator of light and entertaining chamber works as enjoyable to perform as they are to hear.