Naxos Classical Spotlight

For those unfamiliar with the name of Nikolay Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, Raymond Bisha’s podcast presents the composer’s calling card as the ‘father of the Soviet symphony’. Having lived from 1881 to 1950, Myaskovsky spent all his life under the restrictive influence of Joseph Stalin, yet managed to produce 27 symphonies that preserved his individual voice. This release contrasts the Symphony No. 1 (1908), that earned Myaskovsky the Glazunov Scholarship at the St Petersburg Conservatory, with his Symphony No. 13, written 25 years later with darker tones reflecting the troubled world in which he lived.

Raymond Bisha talks with Barthold Kuijken about the historical perspective and informed interpretation behind a new release of Baroque flute concertos that feature Kuijken as soloist, accompanied by the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra.

Raphaël Feuillâtre, winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America’s 2018 International Concert Artist Competition, shares his success with the public through this attractively varied programme; a recording contract with Naxos forms part of the winner’s bundle of opportunities each year. Raymond Bisha presents his selection of intimate compositions.

There are scintillating sounds aplenty in our new release of orchestral works by Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987). Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of two overtures and a pair of symphonies by the Russian composer who endeavoured to position himself as both a progressive and a conservative during his country’s difficult Soviet era. The performances are by familiar Naxos artists: the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and conductor Darrell Ang already have some 40 highly successful recordings for the label in the catalogue.

Complementing the artist line-up of Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony on this recording are the Violins of Hope, a poignant collection of restored instruments that survived the Holocaust. Jonathan Leshnoff wrote his Symphony No. 4 with this unique set of orchestral voices in mind; Raymond Bisha introduces the performance and the background to its conception. Leshnoff is one of America’s most frequently performed living composers and the programme on this new recording also includes Starburst, his most frequently performed work, and his Guitar Concerto, which Guerrero considers “one of the greatest additions to guitar and orchestra repertoire in recent years.” The soloist is Jason Vieaux.

Manuel de Falla is renowned as the greatest Spanish composer of the early 20th century, whose genius rested in part on his ability to meld diverse stylistic, folk or literary influences into distinctive new musical languages, forging masterworks that would ultimately become cultural emblems of his homeland. Raymond Bisha presents a new release of a 2-work programme that embodies this principle of synthesis: Falla’s heartfelt representation of Gitano or Roma (the preferred term for people commonly referred to as ‘gypsy’) culture in the original 1915 version of El amor brujo (Love, the Magician), and his 1923 puppet opera based on scenes from Miguel de Cervantes’ classic Don Quixote, in El retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show).

The Icelandic singer/composer Björk released her concept album Vespertinein 2001. Raymond Bisha introduces a new audio recording of an opera that was born of that release. The inherent theatricality of Björk’s original was the inspiration for an expert creative team to effect the transition from studio to stage, from sound tracks to symphonic support. Scored for four soloists and two choirs, and with all the original electronic sounds re-imagined on an array of acoustic instruments, Vespertine the opera is a stunning new creation, not merely an adaptation.

Yvar-Emilian Mikhashoff (1941–1993) was an American pianist who collaborated with the publishing house Quadrivium Press to commission composers from all over the world to write piano pieces based on the tango dance form. An intriguing selection of those 100-plus commissions are performed on this Grand Piano release by Hanna Shybayeva, the works’ eclecticism reflected in some dangerous cheese, Japanese fathers flying kites with their sons, and an appearance by Janet Jackson. Raymond Bisha takes the steps to explain.Yvar-Emilian Mikhashoff (1941–1993) was an American pianist who collaborated with the publishing house Quadrivium Press to commission composers from all over the world to write piano pieces based on the tango dance form. An intriguing selection of those 100-plus commissions are performed on this Grand Piano release by Hanna Shybayeva, the works’ eclecticism reflected in some dangerous cheese, Japanese fathers flying kites with their sons, and an appearance by Janet Jackson. Raymond Bisha takes the steps to explain.

Berlioz left us a number of Shakespeare-inspired works, chief among them his masterpiece Roméo et Juliette. The work took a decade to complete and is cast in an innovative form, a kind of ‘super-symphony’ that incorporates elements of symphony, opera and oratorio. Raymond Bisha introduces this new recording by Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon, an impeccable pairing for Berlioz’s music as demonstrated by their two previous, highly acclaimed recordings of his works. Also on the programme are the overtures to Béatrice et Bénédict and Le roi Lear.

Aaron Copland did as much as anyone in establishing American concert music on the world stage, and his ballet scores proved to be among his most important and influential works. Grohg is the most ambitious example of his Parisian years, a precociously brilliant one-act ballet scored for full orchestra, inspired by the silent film expressionist film Nosferatu. The first example of Copland’s new ‘Americanized’ music of the 1930s was Billy the Kid, based on the life of the 19th-century outlaw and heard here in its full version. This was the first fully fledged American ballet in style and content: brassy, syncopated, filmic and richly folk-flavored. Host Raymond Bisha introduces this release in the latest episode of Naxos Classical Spotlight.