The Naxos Blog

This podcast from the Sounds Interesting series takes a musical week, a day at a time.

Links to the music featured in this podcast:

George Bogatko In a Monday Mood (8.572835)

The post Sounds Interesting: Day in, day out. appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

This podcast from the Sounds Interesting series considers the roots and branches of trees featured in a selection of traditional Christmas carols in various styles.

Links to the music featured in this podcast:

Roderick Elms Cherry Tree Carol (8.570793)

The post Sounds Interesting: Cherry Christmas appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

This podcast from the Sounds Interesting series spotlights a selection of fanfares composed for a variety of occasions during the last century.

Links to the music featured in this podcast:

Maurice Ravel L’Éventail de Jeanne (8.573354)

The post Sounds Interesting: All the Fun of the Fanfare appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski spent 19 years as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, from 1960 to 1979, during which time he developed it into one of the finest orchestras in North America. They made many recordings together, mostly for the VOX and Mercury labels, from which Raymond Bisha has selected two remastered albums from the VOX catalogue that demonstrate their distinguished achievements. The programmes of music by Beethoven and Mozart include Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 27, featuring Walter Klien as soloist.

Featured releases:

The post Podcast: VOX • 3. Stanisław Skrowaczewski and the Minnesota Orchestra appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was also an accomplished guitarist and cellist, and his wonderful music for the latter instrument takes full advantage of the lyrical and dramatic capabilities of the instrument. In this podcast, Raymond Bisha explores a new recording of his two Cello Concertos, together with his Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra, that features solo cellist Antonio Meneses and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Isaac Karabtchevsky.

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The post Podcast: Music of Brazil • Villa-Lobos • Works for Cello and Orchestra appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

This podcast features Raymond Bisha in conversation with conductor Kenneth Kiesler about the rediscovery, rescue and reconstruction of two operas by James P. Johnson (1894–1955). Renowned as an influential jazz pianist but with a lower profile as a composer of opera, it was Johnson’s express hope that two of his short stage works, written in the late 1930s, would one day form a double-bill. Which they did, but not until 2006, after a long swathe of tender loving care.

The post Podcast: United at Last. 2 Operas by James P Johnson. appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

Raymond Bisha’s second podcast featuring historic recordings on the VOX label explores those made of Tchaikovsky’s music by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under Maurice Abravanel, who was the ensemble’s music director for more than 30 years. From the performances, to the production team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, the liner notes by Richard Freed, and of course Tchaikovsky’s music itself, there’s a host of engaging reasons to revisit these treasured recordings from the 1970s.

Featured releases

The post Podcast: VOX • 2. The legacy of Maurice Abravanel. appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

This podcast features broadcaster Peter Hall in a conversation with JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, about her October release on the Naxos label, which is the second of two albums featuring all of Zoltán Kodály’s works for orchestra.

The post Podcast: JoAnn Falletta, the Buffalo Philharmonic and music by Zoltán Kodály appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

This podcast features American composer Jennifer Higdon in a wide-ranging conversation with Raymond Bisha, during which she describes the long swathe of influences on her composing career. The musical spotlights comprise extracts from her latest recording for Naxos of two powerfully engaging works: the Concerto for Orchestra, written in 2002 and demanding virtuosity from principal players, individual sections and the entire orchestra alike; and her pyrotechnic Duo Duel, a concerto for two percussionists written in 2020, that boasts a killer cadenza (during which you should hold on to your hat) and a diaphanous opening (for which you should hold your breath, and with which this podcast begins…)

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The post Podcast: Jennifer Higdon. 2 Spectacular Concertos • 1 Sizzling Recording appeared first on The Naxos Blog.

Raymond Bisha presents the first in a series of podcasts that explore newly remastered recordings on the VOX label dating from the 1970s. This instalment features four albums by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, in which the orchestra and solo pianists Abbey Simon and Jeffrey Siegel variously perform works by Rachmaninov and Gershwin. The ‘silent stars’, however, are Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, the albums’ original, legendary recording engineers who are credited with producing some of the finest ever examples of recorded orchestral sound.

Featured releases

The post Podcast: VOX: Restoring a unique voice. appeared first on The Naxos Blog.