The Spectacular Naxos Blu-ray Audio Experience Always at the forefront of technological advances, Naxos is proud to present the audiophile circle with the Blu-ray Audio disc: a combination of spectacular audio fidelity with convenient usage. Each High- Definition audio disc contains both stereo and surround versions of the programme, originally recorded at 24-bit 88.2/96kHz native resolution, thereby presenting exactly what the producers and recording engineers intended. Each programme can be played and navigated without a video monitor using the remote control, just like playing a CD. Users can select the preferred audio format at any time, by pressing the coloured buttons on their remote. Facts about Naxos New Blu-ray Audio Series: • Each disc features both stereo (in PCM) and surround (in DTS-HD Master Audio) versions of the programme. • Blu-ray discs can store 5 times more information on a single disc than a regular DVD. This means Blu-ray Audio can offer absolutely complete, lossless audio. • With proper listening equipment, the consumer will hear exactly what the producers and recording engineers intended. • Stereo and surround versions are interchangeable by use of the coloured buttons on the Blu-ray remote. • Naxos Blu-ray Audio discs have on-screen navigation options, or can be navigated by the Blu-ray remote. Texts and other visual material are available on-screen. • To listen to the music without a video monitor, simply insert the disc into your player, wait for the disc to start up and press PLAY on your remote control. • Naxos will not offer up-sampled older digital or analogue recordings in the Blu-ray Audio format. • A Blu-ray player is required to play Blu-ray Audio discs. Blu-ray Audio discs are incompatible with standard CD or DVD players. THE SPECTACULAR NAXOS BLU-RAY AUDIO EXPERIENCE 3 LISTING BY COMPOSER 7 30099 00426 8 7 30099 00296 7 NBD0042 Duration: 70:30 NBD0029 Duration: 70:25 BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869) BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869) Harold en Italie • Rêverie et Caprice • Symphonie fantastique Le carnaval romain • Benvenuto Cellini Orchestre National de Lyon / Leonard Slatkin Giovanni Radivo, violin / Lise Berthaud, viola / Orchestre National de Lyon / Leonard Slatkin Immensely influential, the remarkable Symphonie fantastique was composed while Hector Berlioz Prix de Rome winner, Harold en Italie was intended was suffering an intense and unreciprocated for the great violinist Paganini who, having initially passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Its rejected the work, later repented, giving it his autobiographical tale describes a young musician’s highest praise. The brilliant concert overtures opium-poisoned nightmares of jealous despair and Benvenuto Cellini and Le carnaval romain are fatal justice following the murder of his beloved. among Berlioz’s most popular works. Quickly taken Berlioz wrote a second movement cornet solo into up by several celebrated violinists of the time, the a subsequent revision of the score, here included elegant Rêverie et Caprice is his only work for solo as an optional extra. He wed his sweetheart violin and orchestra. Leonard Slatkin’s acclaimed actress but, recuperating in Nice, wrote Le corsaire Lyon recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique after the final break-up of their marriage. can be heard on Naxos Blu-ray NBD0029. HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz PCM Surround Recordings 96 kHz PCM Surround Recordings Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo - PCM 2.0 Stereo - PCM 4 7 30099 00396 4 7 30099 00116 8 NBD0039 Duration: 75:16 NBD0011 Duration: 67:42 BRAHMS, Johannes (1833-1897) CHOPIN, Fryderyk (1810-1849) Ein deutsches Requiem Piano Concerto No. 1 • Christiane Libor, Soprano / Fantasia on Polish Airs • Krakowiak Thomas E. Bauer, Baritone / Eldar Nebolsin, Piano / Warsaw PO / Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Antoni Wit Antoni Wit Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated The longest work in Brahms’s entire oeuvre, by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer- A German Requiem was almost certainly triggered composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary by the death of his mother, although it also seems virtuosity. Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in likely that the tragic loss of his friend Robert one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer Schumann, some years earlier, added to its depth described it) is framed by an opening movement and eloquence. Taking inspiration from Bach’s rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo. contrapuntal genius but avoiding overt religious The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and Krakowiak tradition, Brahms chose the texts himself, placing are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and an emphasis on an affirmation of life with the bravura which pay tribute to the music of Chopin’s suggestion that he would gladly have substituted homeland. Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano ‘human’ for ‘German’ in the title. concertos (8.570517) was ranked ‘among the finest’ by Gramophone. HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz PCM Surround Recordings 88.2 kHz PCM Surround Recordings Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo - PCM 2.0 Stereo - PCM THE SPECTACULAR NAXOS BLU-RAY AUDIO EXPERIENCE 5 LISTING BY COMPOSER 7 30099 00116 8 7 30099 00126 7 7 30099 00376 6 NBD0011 Duration: 67:42 NBD0012 Duration: 62:53 NBD0037 Duration: 70:11 CHOPIN, Fryderyk (1810-1849) CHOPIN, Fryderyk (1810-1849) COPLAND, Aaron (1900-1990) Piano Concerto No. 1 • Piano Concerto No. 2 • Rodeo (Complete Ballet) • Dance Panels • Fantasia on Polish Airs • Krakowiak Variations on Là ci darem la mano • El Salón México • Danzón Cubano Eldar Nebolsin, Piano / Warsaw PO / Andante spianato and Grande Detroit SO / Leonard Slatkin Antoni Wit Polonaise brillante Eldar Nebolsin, Piano / Warsaw PO / Antoni Wit While Copland’s hugely successful celebration of the Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated American West, Rodeo, has become an American by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer- Using the new Polish National Chopin Edition, classic, Dance Panels is barely known despite composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary acclaimed pianist Eldar Nebolsin and Poland’s working beautifully as a concert work. Based on virtuosity. Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in national orchestra conducted by the renowned popular Mexican melodies, the glittering, even exotic one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer Polish conductor Antoni Wit, here present fresh El Salón México is one of Copland’s most frequently described it) is framed by an opening movement interpretations of Chopin’s great works for piano and performed works. Of his rhythmically complex Danzón rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo. orchestra. The Second Piano Concerto was written Cubano, inspired by a visit to a dance hall in Cuba, The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and Krakowiak before the first and completed in 1830, the year in in which there were two orchestras playing at both are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and which the composer set out for Vienna and then ends, the composer himself wrote: “I did not attempt bravura which pay tribute to the music of Chopin’s Paris. Chopin’s Variations on Là ci darem la mano, to reproduce an authentic Cuban sound but felt free homeland. Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano to add my own touches of displaced accents and bear witness to his admiration for Mozart, instilled by ® concertos (8.570517) was ranked ‘among the finest’ his earliest teacher, the Bohemian Wojciech Żywny. unexpected silent beats.” GRAMMY Award-winning by Gramophone. The Grande Polonaise brillante in E flat, Op. 22, conductor Leonard Slatkin’s recording of Copland’s was written in Vienna, and later augmented with the Lincoln Portrait (Naxos CD 8.559373–74) received introductory Andante spianato. “the kind of performance that brought tears to my eyes” (Audiophile Audition). HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 88.2 kHz PCM Surround Recordings 88.2 kHz PCM Surround Recordings 96 kHz PCM Surround Recordings Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz Presented in HIGH DEFINITION 24-bit, 96 kHz 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround - DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo - PCM 2.0 Stereo - PCM 2.0 Stereo - PCM 6 7 30099 00086 4 7 30099 00466 4 NBD0008 Duration: 52:54 NBD0046 Duration: 1:37:48 CORIGLIANO, John (b. 1938) DVOŘÁK, Antonín (1841-1904) Symphony No. 3, “Circus Maximus” • Requiem Gazebo Dances Christiane Libor, Soprano / Ewa Qolak, Alto / University of Texas Wind Ensemble / Daneil Kirch, Tenor / Janusz Monarcha, Bass / Jerry Junkin Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Antoni Wit The Circus Maximus of ancient Rome was a real place. The largest arena in the world, it entertained over Antonín Dvořák’s huge popularity in England was 300,000 spectators daily for nearly a thousand years. built largely on the success of his Stabat Mater, Chariot races, hunts and battles satisfied the Roman which he had conducted there in 1884 and 1885. public’s need for grander and wilder amusement as It was well suited to the country’s choral traditions the Empire declined. The parallels between the high and led eventually to a commission for a Requiem, decadence of Rome and our present time are obvious. which was premièred in Birmingham in 1891. Entertainment dominates our culture, and ever-more- Written in ten months during tours to Russia, extreme ‘reality’ shows dominate our entertainment.