Wagner: Symphonic Syntheses by Stokowski

��truly beautiful performance that, as far as I know, is now only available from the orchestra itself as part of a larger set in honor of its centennial�Stokowski performance wise and is blessed with superior sound. Serebrier�s is relaxed and sensuou If you should come upon this CD, do not judge it by its�cover art�if this sort of thing is your dish, it�s quite delicious.� --Fanfare, February 2008

�Fine performances, revivifying these pioneering pieces.� --BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ****

�It would be hard to imagine a more sumptuous disc. Stokowski, in these 'symphonic syntheses', enhances Wagner's already opulent orchestration with shrewdly added instrumental lines and with the vocal parts usually given to the strings.

Then at times he thins the orchestration down for more transparent textures. Jos� Serebrier conducts the Bournemouth SO in thrilling performances, passionate in a genuinely Stokowskian manner and treated to orchestral sound of demonstration quality.

Stokowski's aim was to provide more satisfying orchestral items in concerts than the popular 'bleeding chunks'. So in the most ambitious item, on Tristan, we have between the Prelude and Liebestod a rich orchestral version of the Love Duet. Where the end of the duet builds up to that chilling interruption from King Marke, Stokowski has it lead seamlessly into the equivalent passage in the Liebestod. It works superbly.

The selection starts excitingly with the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla and it is good to find Serebrier splendidly adding an anvil when Donner brings his hammer down. The Parsifal synthesis is limited to music from Act 3, thus ignoring the Good Friday Music. From DieWalk�re comes the Magic Fire Music and, most excitingly, the Ride of the Valkyries. This is the finest of Naxos's Stokowski discs to date.� --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Banks: Seven

"Banks has a genuine melodic gift... The LPO under Mike Dixon play sympathetically and often ardently, and the woodwind relish Simon Hale��s many piquant touches of colour." --Gramophone, May 2004

"Fans of Tony Banks will be queuing to buy the album and it has 'chill out' possibilities for the post-party coterie." --MusicWeb International

 

"There's absolutely no reason why pop music writers should not attempt to compose large-scale orchestral works, and I applaud Tony Banks for making the effort...The performance as such sounds perfectly fine and is very well recorded; the London Philharmonic does a thoroughly creditable job under Mike Dixon. I don't think Naxos was wrong to go for this project; Banks has a following and his fans may enjoy it."--ClassicsToday.com

Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, BWV 1001-1006 (Guitar Version)

Born in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki, in 1961, Kazuhito Yamashita is widely recognized as one of the world's most premier virtuoso guitarists. His dazzling technique and powerful expression has received accolades throughout the musical world. With an impressive list of almost 80 recordings and numerous original arrangements of such works as Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherezade and Dvorak's Symphony of the New World, Yamashita is a legend within guitar circles.

Handel: Harpsichord Works, Volume 2

�Sophie Yates confirms her credentials as one of Britain�s most talented harpsichordists �Yates has a neat, agile technique, phrases thoughtfully, with a restrained but telling use of rubato and ornamentation, and brings plenty of zest to the gigues and courantes. A disc to whet the appetite for further volumes in the series.� --The Daily Telegraph on CHAN 0644 (Handel Harpsichord Works Vol. 1)

�Yates plays her well-chosen selection with great subtlety and sparkle.� --Gramophone on CHAN 0659 (Rameau)

Biber: Harmonia Artificiosa-ariosa

The music of Biber is widely assumed to have gone out of vogue with violinists before the middle of the eighteenth century. Biber's reputation, however, lived. In 1789 Charles Burney wrote in his "General History of Music", "of all the violin players of the last century, Biber seems to have been the best, and his solos are the most difficult and most fanciful of any music I have seen of the same period." Biber's Harmonia artificioso-ariosa (1696) is a collection in seven parts (partias), each employing a different tuning.

The Very Best of Adagio

". . . el sonido pur�simo y �nico de la Deutsche y la multidimensionalidad de la Filarm�nica de Berlin comparten espacio con grabaciones de cortar la respiraci�n, pertenecientes a los dominios que mejor conoc�a el director." --Record Review, Mel�mano (Madrid), 1 February 2006

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.

The Art of the Baroque Trumpet � Vol. 5

"[Eklund's] virtuoso skills, consistently sweet tone, purity of intonation, and sense of ease rank him as the world's best." --American Record Guide, August 2002

Reviewing the first volume in Naxos's "The Art of the Baroque Trumpet", Gramophone magazine said of Eklund, "let me rejoice at playing of rare technical ability and musical panache."