Naxos classical CDs

[Claude]

Can you listen to, say, an entire album with a click of the mouse?

Last time when I used this service - when it was free - one had to click the tracks individually. But all the tracks ran from start to end.

[Peter Johnson]

Thanks Claude. The 25% samples really worked on me--I got four this weekend. Frank Bridge, Holst, Naxos quartets (Maxwell Davies) and Music for Saxophone and Orchestra (Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, etc. etc.). I have the new Bolcom (Songs of Innocence and Experience) on order. $6 bucks each at Tower (on sale!).

[mmilovan]

Thoughts on the Naxos jazz releases? Seems like the clientele here may hold these to a somewhat higher standard.

Esspecially, these standards are so high when speaking of issuing rare unknown materilal from 78 rpm sources. Think they have very carefull engeneers that looks for best sound available and records in good condition. They never steal others people material, and theirs booklets are always full of discographical material.

Nice work, if I may say.

[Epithet]

Just avoid the Ligeti Etudes disc.

I liked the Piston violin concerti one.

[DTMX]

I liked the Piston violin concerti one.

Those two concertos should be in the standard repetoire. They're great.

[vibes]

I decided to take a chance and order Vaughan Williams "A Sea Symphony" on DVD-A and Shostakovich's Symphony no.7 on SACD. I'm really looking forward to hearing both, as I've only heard bits and pieces of each in the past.

Anyone have these? Any comments on the performances or sound?

[Chuck Nessa]

Do not ignore the Naxos Bartok recordings of Gyorgy Pauk. The concerti are slower than I like, but beautiful and the chamber stuff is first rate.

Edited December 21, 2004 by Chuck Nessa

[Rooster_Ties]

Picked up Ned Rorem's three symphonies on Naxos tonight, just recorded last year, all three written back in the 50's. Don't know much Rorem, though I heard the world premier of his cello concerto here in KC a couple years ago - and rather enjoyed it. Seems like Rorem is a guy who I've read about over the years (lots of little bits here and there), more than I've ever heard much of his music.

(Just noticed that this Naxos CD is the first recordings of his Symphs #1 & #2, so that might explain why I haven't heard much Rorem.)

Also picked the Naxos recording of Claude Bolling's suites for flute and jazz piano, performed by an all Italian group. Not familiar with Bolling at all either, so this is a new one for me too.

Looking forward to both...

Edited December 21, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[Epithet]

p/s: Epithet --> have you heard Lucille Chung's two excellent Ligeti discs on Dynamic?

No, only the Aimard. I'll investigate.

Besides those Piston concerti I'm also inclined to recommend Sessions' entry in the genre. But I notice that Naxos doesn't have any of his works. I wonder why.

[Rooster_Ties]

Besides those Piston concerti I'm also inclined to recommend Sessions' entry in the genre. But I notice that Naxos doesn't have any of his works. I wonder why.

I'm a big fan of Sessions, especially his symphonies. Very heavy stuff, but well worth digging into.

But, Sessions a little far out there for Naxos. (Henze is another favorite of mine, and no Henze on Naxos either.)

They seem to want to stay clear of serialism, for the most part.

(Not a big problem in my book -- and I'm thankful for what they do release that's obscure, even if they won't touch the "hard" stuff. )

[Epithet]

I guess the Boulez disc is an exception. Know any others off-hand?

[Rooster_Ties]

There's one disc of solo-piano works, with one work each by the big-three of serialism...

Schoenberg, Barg, and Webern.

[David Ayers]

I notice that Naxos are now releasing Robert Craft's Schoenberg and Stravinsky recordings originally done for Koch. Very worthwhile.

I'll second what others have said about the Naxos British music recordings - it really is the case that you more or less can't go wrong, especially recordings by the Maggini quartet, and a variety of vocal discs plus Britten operas from the old Collins Classics label which are in the process of being reissued by Naxos.

Among the American Classics the Barber symphonies with Marin Alsop are a stand out.

With the major symphony cycles I think it is better to search around and pick out the more recommended versions on whatever label - I wouldn't go to Naxos for my Mahler or Shostakovich. That said, the Tintner Bruckner is worthwhile though in most of the later symphonies there are better recorded and perhaps more interesting verions available.

[Rooster_Ties]

Among the American Classics the Barber symphonies with Marin Alsop are a stand out.

Absolutely. Barber's long lost 2nd Symphony is one of my favorite classical works of the entire 20th Century. I also had the good fortune of hearing Alsop conduct the St. Louis Symphony in a performance of Barber's 2nd about 4 or 5 years ago - and it was a knock-out too.

[mikeweil]

Most of the baroque music releases on period instruments are very good.

If you like lute music, Robert Barto's attempted complete recording of the lute pieces of Sylvius Leopold Weiss (Bach transcribed one of his cello suites for him when he visited Leipzig) is a reference recording.

Maria Kliegel's cello recordings are world class.

There are good and bad, as with any other label. For a low price recording of orchestral works by Beethoven or Strauss I'd rather recommend David Zinman's CDs on Arte Nova, BMG's cheapo label - they followed Naxos closely and have some great people, too.

Edited December 21, 2004 by mikeweil

[Peter Johnson]

Oh, god, I'm addicted, I'm addicted...

Bought four more of these today. I'm starting to think Naxos are deserving of the "bastards!" moniker. The ability to listen to 25% of each track of each CD for _free_ is really selling stuff to me. You guys don't help either! Plus, Tower has these on sale for six bucks each. What a fucking deal!

Anyway, I picked up the Ibert Escales/Divertissement/etc. (I know there are better recordings of these works, but SIX BUCKS), Antheil Ballet Mecanique (not available anywhere else other than my ancient copy on wax from the sixties), Piston Violin Concerti (thanks Epithet and DTMX) and the new Carter Symphony No. 1/Piano Concerto.

Sorry Clem, no Bax 4tets--Tower was out of copies. On order.

I also have Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience on order.

Man oh man is this shit opening my ears up to mid/late 20th century classical. I've always liked compositions from that era, but never known what to grab. I'm pretty well-schooled in the classical repertoire (including lesser-known/recorded artists) up to about 1920, and know my Poulenc, Copland and Stravinsky well, but there's SO much out there and this label (SIX feghing bux!) is doing us addicts a huge service.

Listening to the Piston record now--very nicely recorded, very well played, excellent piece which is REALLY reminiscent of early Copland. If you're into that era and haven't got a recording of these, GET THIS CD NOW!

Edited December 24, 2004 by Peter Johnson

[mikeweil]

Mike, have you picked up the new Naxos set of Avison concerti grossi (after Scarlatti)?

what are some of yr fave Arte Novas? i sometimes try to keep up but other times lost track for months at a time.

Haven't seen the Avison recording so far - who's playing? I have an excellent recording of half of them by a French baroque ensemble on Alpha that's good enough for me.

For me, the greatest on Arte Nova is Christopher Hogwood's series with the Basle Chamber Orchestra recreating original concert programs from the first half of the 2oth century, e.g. as performed by Paul Sacher. The series is called "Klassiszistische Moderne" (being and indication they might not be aimed at an international market - "classicistical modernism), with pieces by Martinu, Honegger, Strawinsky, Tippett, Britten, Malpiero and Casella. Details can be found on Hogwood's website or the Arte Nova pages.

Matthias Kirschnereit's Mendelssohn piano pieces are great, too.

[A Lark Ascending]

I hope Naxos get round to completing the Piston and Harris Symphony cycles.

Nice to see Frank Bridge getting a mention here. An outstanding composer, very little known outside of the world of British music obsesssives.

Richard Hickox is doing a splendid cycle on Chandos at present (up to disc 5 so far). Full price but highly recommended. 'Oration' and 'Enter Spring' should be much better known than they are.

[Epithet]

Anyone know what the Schuman disc is like (performance-wise)? That's another violin concerto that should be mentioned.

[Rooster_Ties]

I e-mailed Naxos about two years ago, asking if they were going to do a Carl Ruggles disc in their American Composers series, and hopefully a "complete works" release (since his entire output will all fit on a 79-minute disc --- the man didn't write much, but oh what he wrote!!!!)

The response was that -- YES -- they were planning to release a Complete Ruggles disc at some point in the series.

Still hoping this comes to pass...

[blake]

not mentioned yet are the wonderful olivier messiaen recordings by hakon austbo (piano).

and i second flurin's recommendation of the 4 volumes of cage's works for prepared piano by boris berman.

[vibes]

Is anyone able to access naxos.com? I've tried a few times over the last month, and I always get the "site could not be found" error. I've tried both Firefox and IE, so I know the problem isn't my browser. I can connect to naxosusa.com, but most of the content on that site is linked to naxos.com, unfortunately.

[A Lark Ascending]

I can get in here:

http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp

[vibes]

That doesn't work for me either. Can you tell me what the IP address is?

[vibes]

OK, this is really weird. I just got on my company's network via VPN, and I can access naxos.com without any difficulty. For whatever reason, I can't access it via any of my computers at home. Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be?