Charles Ives

Another favourite of the Salzburg public was the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who besides her Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro also enjoyed repeated successes in Salzburg with her song recitals. In 1986, accompanied by Martin Katz, she offered a programme that knew no boundaries – ranging from the florid poesy of settings by Fauré and Strauss to Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, the moderate American Modernism of Charles Ives, Copland and Pasatieri, then to Canteloube’s French folk song adaptations. Schoenberg’s early cabaret songs served to round off the evening in ebullient fashion.

An immensely satisfying traversal of modern piano music as performed by arguably the greatest contemporary exponent of the repertoire.

In 1960, CBS recorded two LPs as souvenirs of Leopold Stokowski’s return to the Philadelphia Orchestra after an absence of nearly two decades. This included Falla’s El amor brujo, which he had introduced to America in 1922, and one of his celebrated “Symphonic Syntheses” of music from Wagner’s operas. In the original Gramophone review Edward Greenfield wrote: “Never before on disc have I heard a performance of the vividly atmospheric Falla ballet anything like as involving as this …” In the second of his “Philadelphia return” concerts of 1960, Stokowski played three of his famous Bach Transcriptions. He began orchestrating Bach’s organ works in the 1920s, bringing his keyboard music to a wider concert hall audience. His early Philadelphia Orchestra 78s of these arrangements were best-sellers in their day.

Glenn Gould was a great admirer of Stokowski, citing him as a significant influence in his teenage years. He wrote articles about the Maestro and interviewed him for Canadian radio, so it was not surprising that they should get together for a concerto recording. Biographies of Glenn Gould invariably refer to his “eccentricities” as well as his talent, so his collaboration with Stokowski, whose own musical career also had its controversial aspects, inevitably provided posterity with one of the more idiosyncratic readings of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.

When Stokowski gave the World Premiere of Ives’s Fourth Symphony in 1965, he pronounced it one of the most difficult works he had ever conducted. In the New York Times, Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the music “throws up spiky walls of sound, the simplest of songs, wild poly-rhythms, clumps of tonalities, and suddenly the quiet of a New England church.”.

The remaining recordings in this set were made during Stokowski’s final years in England. His last public concert in the UK took place in 1974 when he was 92 but he then decided to take a respite from the rigours of live concerts and concentrate on recordings instead. These were made with specially selected musicians who came together for Stokowski’s sessions as the National Philharmonic.

The Maestro’s final recording sessions were devoted to two of the most youthful symphonies ever written, Mendelssohn’s Fourth and Bizet’s Symphony in C. On the final day of the recording, 4 June 1977 the Bizet finale was taped in one complete take which needed no editing. It is that complete take which went onto the finished recording and – since it was the very last time Stokowski conducted – it has considerable historic significance.

For her first solo CD, Marlis Petersen and her partner Jendrik Springer have devised this programme of 19 lieder, from nearly two centuries of music, centreing on the concept of the 'Eternal Feminine'.

"For this CD we made a selection of songs sung by several female characters from Goethe’s dramas (Stella, Klärchen, Gretchen, Mignon, Philine, Suleika and Helena). Among them are a number of poems which have been set to music countless times in the past two centuries, but are today often known only in a standard setting: if one speaks of 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' or Klärchen’s 'Freudvoll and leidvoll' (to take just two examples), then each of us thinks immediately of the compositions by Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven respectively. These poems too are on our CD, but set by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt! By choosing composers who are not usually associated with the lied genre (Ernst Krenek, Charles Ives) or in certain cases probably completely unknown to some listeners (Nikolay Medtner, the pianist Wilhelm Kempff), we wanted to encourage a fresh approach to the poems, one not cluttered by listening traditions. However, to make the selection of songs as varied and balanced as possible, we have also included a few well-known settings like Schubert’s 'Was bedeutet die Bewegung' or Robert Schumann’s 'So laßt mich scheinen'. Furthermore, Manfred Trojahn has contributed a new setting of words portraying Helen of Troy, thus bringing our survey right up to date. Between the individual groups and at the end we have placed a setting of Goethe’s second ‘Wanderer’s Night Song’, 'Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh'. This is intended to serve as a restingpoint, an emotional ‘reset’; at the same time, it gave us the possibility of presenting a single poem in the interpretation of six different composers: the naive idyll of Hans Sommer and the threatening, doom-laden atmosphere of Nikolay Medtner’s setting are worlds away from each other. It was a thrill and a delight for us to explore this virtually inexhaustible musical treasure-trove in order to come up with an interesting selection of songs that amply repay discovery. We hope you will be as fascinated by this rich diversity as we were!" Marlis Petersen/Jendrik Springer

Hilary Hahn’s partnership with pianist Valentina Lisitsa models what two singular artists can accomplish in the interests of a common cause. Quirky, peculiar, rich with Charles Ives’s idiosyncratic notion of melody, peppered with prankish dissonance yet also logical − and, in its logic, beautiful − Ives’s works for violin and piano turn familiar musical expressions upside down. They are an alternate universe of aesthetic pleasure.

March 2011: 50th anniversary of the first recording by Neville Marriner and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields for Decca's L'Oiseau-Lyre label [Concerti grossi by Handel, Torelli, Albicastro and Locatelli]

March 1964: first recording by Marriner and The Academy on ARGO [Handel: Concerti grossi, op.3] - the start of a very remarkable recording partnership that extended to other labels [most notably PHILIPS]

Over a period of 40 years Marriner and The Academy made over 300 recordings but it is the association with DECCA / ARGO that was so unique and resulted in a huge catalogue of recordings of Baroque and Classical repertory - many of which remain in the catalogue today.

Between 1967-77 a distinguished series of recordings of late 19th- and 20th-century repertory established themselves as classics of the gramophone. This 50th anniversary edition presents a selection of these albums in repertory that ranges from Wagner to Stravinsky, Bartók and Shostakovich.

Each CD is presented in a sleeve with a replica of the original LP cover.

Wagner, Walton & Hindemith works receive their first international CD release

Leonard Bernstein is widely considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century. His unrivalled combination of the highest musical standards and personal warmth shine through in his conducting and are attractively showcased in this unique Collector’s Edition boxset.

The LEONARD BERNSTEIN SYMPHONY EDITION brings together his complete symphonic recordings from 1953 to 1976. These unparalleled versions of the mainstays of the symphonic canon are collected together for the first time to celebrate the genius and impact of Leonard Bernstein in a 60 disc very limited deluxe edition, in LP-size format, also containing a 32 page LP-sized illustrated book providing unique insight into the life and work of Leonard Bernstein.

Naxos is pleased to present this new 5 CD boxed set, released specially to coincide with the centenary of William Schuman’s birth.

The box is available at a special price of 5 CDs for the price of 4.

The box comprises existing Naxos discs 8559317, 8559254, 8559625, 8559255 and 8559651.

“Even as it currently stands, this now-complete cycle is one of the true jewels of the Naxos catalogue; powerful music presented in exemplary sound and compelling performances.” MusicWeb International on the Naxos Schuman Symphony cycle