Naxos Classical Spotlight

Host Raymond Bisha presents a exclusive first look at Sri Lankan-British pianist Tanya Ekanayaka's Piano Prisms, featuring music influenced by classical traditions, as well as music from her Sri Lankan homeland. The resulting music and performances are full of imagination and beauty.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new release of music by three Baroque titans: Lully, Telemann and Rameau. The latter two were hugely influenced by the music of Lully, who was powerfully positioned as the chief musician of King Louis XIV of France. Lully left a rich legacy of dramatic music scored for orchestra. It left an indelible impression on all who heard it, with its masterly balance of grandeur and finesse. Yet, unlike the manuscripts of solo and chamber works of the time, Lully left us little clarity regarding the intricate ornamentation that would have been used spontaneously by the performers. Conductor Barthold Kuijken’s painstaking research now restores that beating heart to the music.

Invented during the early part of the nineteenth century, the accordion’s popularity soon soared and has been sustained ever since by its adaptability to many styles of music, from folk to heavy metal. Virtuoso performer Hanzhi Wang presents an intriguing compilation of classical works from Denmark, where numerous composers have followed the example of Per Nørgård in creating some of their most personal expressions for this instrument. Raymond Bisha takes us through a unique programme that exploits the full range of the instrument’s textural and tonal possibilities.

Kenneth Fuchs celebrates a 15-year association with conductor JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra upon the release of these world premiere recordings of three concertos (respectively for piano, electric guitar and alto saxophone) and a song cycle for countertenor and orchestra. Variety is the hallmark of the works’ scoring, while an easy-sounding mastery is the hallmark of Fuchs, one of the finest composers in the United States today. Raymond Bisha samples this brilliant buffet of a line-up that features an outstanding assembly of soloists, conductor and orchestra.

Born in Hungary in 1894, Eugene Zádor moved to the USA in 1939 and remained there as a naturalised citizen until his death. He left a sizeable catalogue of works that includes more than 120 film scores, 13 operas and a wide variety of concert music. Zádor has been described as a classicist, a romantic and a modernist all rolled into one, demonstrated by Naxos’ ongoing series of his orchestral music. This now reaches Volume 5 with a programme of works that were all written later in the composer’s life, yet all reflect his Hungarian roots. The new release is introduced by Raymond Bisha.

Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner (1791–1856) was a much admired figure in his day, referred to glowingly by such distinguished musicians as Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, who acknowledged respectively his gift for composing operas and his skill as an orchestral conductor. Like the 21 operas he wrote, Lindpaintner himself has since been virtually forgotten, which makes this month’s release of the world premiere recording of one of his operas particularly notable. Raymond Bisha introduces us to the 4-act Il vespro siciliano (The Sicilian Vespers), modeled on the Parisian grand operas popular at the time, and set in Sicily in the year 1282.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new release of three American orchestral triumphs in stunning performances by the youthful ranks of the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic under GRAMMY Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller. Carl Ruggles’ Sun-treader, Steven Stucky’s Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 and John Harbison’s Symphony No. 4 constitute the programme’s towering trio of symphonic masterpieces.

The composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco moved from Italy to the US during the turmoil of the Second World War. That he should have been immediately befriended by such musical giants as violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky speaks reams about the respect the Italian engendered. His Cello Concerto was commissioned by Piatigorsky, who premiered the work in 1935. This recording captures the first ever performance since that occasion. The programme is completed by transcriptions that Castelnuovo-Tedesco made especially for Heifetz and Piatigorsky, including the work that gained the distinction of being the last piece that Heifetz performed in public. Raymond Bisha introduces soloist Brinton Averil Smith in this long overdue affirmation of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s legacy for the cello.

Raymond Bisha helps turn the pages of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, following the release of Boris Giltburg’s fine performance of the work with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. Noted for its length and technical difficulty, ‘Rach 3’ (its popular moniker) is reckoned to have more notes than all of Mozart’s piano concertos put together. Boris Giltburg shows how Rachmaninov’s gift as a story-teller in music reaches a high point in the work, unfolding a narrative tapestry equal to that of a great novel.

Although storm clouds were starting to gather over Robert Schumann’s mental health in the years 1849–50, it proved a remarkably fertile period for his musical output, not least as reflected in works featuring the cello. The majority of the pieces on this new release were composed during that period, some with the instrumentation as originally conceived, others in arrangements by the soloist and Naxos artist Gabriel Schwabe, who comments: “Each piece develops its own unmistakable character, giving us a fascinating insight into the incredibly prolific and imaginative phase towards the end of Schumann’s life.” Raymond Bisha takes us through the programme that opens with the most substantial work, the Cello Concerto in A minor.