In this week’s podcast, Raymond Bisha introduces the 4-CD collection of the complete piano works of Mieczysław Weinberg — from teenage mazurkas written in his native Poland through to his last works for the instrument composed in Moscow.

Naxos sends its congratulations to Catalan composer Leonardo Balada, who has won this year’s XVIII SGAE Prize for Ibero-American Music ‘Tomás Luis de Victoria’. Organised by the SGAE Foundation, the award recognises Balada’s substantial contribution to the enrichment of the musical heritage of Ibero-American communities through his creative work and “for the universality of his musical language.”

The human voice, Nature’s ‘instrument’, is a flexible piece of equipment. Men singing in the female sex’s natural register or ‘modal voice’ is usually referred to as a counter-tenor, sometimes a male soprano.

Although city centres and shopping complexes have for some weeks been ringing with the sound of musical Christmas jollies, this blog presents the reverse side of the coin, with a small selection of works that reflect a less traditional side of the month of December.

Whatever the instrument, mastery of performance technique is a daunting challenge. But spare a thought for string players who probably suffer at the hands of exploitation more than others.

The nearest I’ve ever got to a gnome is by eyeing its dictionary definition

Recordings from Naxos and its affiliated labels were among the recently announced nominations for the 2022 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

This podcast features Marin Alsop in conversation with Raymond Bisha following the release of her first album for Naxos as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Zemlinsky, the Austrian composer, conductor and teacher.

This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series introduces a selection of classical music items associated with natural disasters, from Biblical times to modern eras.

Violinist Tianwa Yang marks her fifteenth year as one of Naxos’ leading artists with a new album featuring Prokofiev’s two violin concertos.

I recently registered with my local library and duly received a plastic card that gives me borrowing rights.

An introduction to the Symphonies and Dances of composer Malcolm Arnold featuring conductor Andrew Penny who recorded all these works for Naxos.

Amid the busy world news scene last month, the announcement of the passing of the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis on 2 September at the age of 96 escaped my attention.

Raymond Bisha presents an overview of Boris Giltburg’s project to learn and record all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, which are now released in a 9-CD boxed set edition following their inception as critically acclaimed digital releases.

I’ve always found it intriguing how a quality composition is seemingly indestructible when it’s pressed into new clothes by skilled arrangers.

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and gifted composer, with a claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals.

If there’s a man for all seasons, is there a music for all days? The answer seems to be ‘yes’, so off we go.

Raymond Bisha introduces the second volume of string quartets by the Lithuanian composer Jurgis Karnavičius (1884–1941), recorded by the Vilnius String Quartet on the Ondine label.

It might seem improbable that something as solid and stolid as a mountain could be inspirational to composers.

Significantly influenced by his experience of playing in some of the earliest Soviet jazz bands, Nikolai Kapustin trained as a pianist at the Moscow Conservatory but subsequently devoted himself to composition.

Western composers uniformly embraced the system of tonality for some two centuries, until it found itself challenged by a radical alternative system called atonality around the year 1900.

This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series introduces a selection of classical music items associated with male personal grooming experts, either by profession or name.

Raymond Bisha prefaces his latest podcast with this introduction: “Heitor Villa-Lobos, the prolific Brazilian composer of some 2,000 works, conductor, cellist, guitarist and music educationalist, wrote his three violin sonatas between 1912 and 1920.

French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) is remembered as someone who could spin melodies as easily as he breathed.

In July of 2021, I finally met with an all-star cast at the Virginia Arts Festival to work on a pandemic delayed project—the first complete recording of the Walton Facade, including the appendix of four poems that had never been captured on recording.

Long before Madonna’s lucrative three-word ‘Like a Virgin’ spin-offs, Albert Ketèlbey had his own attention-grabbing four-word version: In a Chinese Temple Garden, In a Monastery Garden and my favourite of all, In a Persian Market.

With multiple GRAMMY nominations and wide critical acclaim to her credit, Joan Tower’s latest album in the Naxos American Classics series demonstrates why she is so often performed, and why she is such a respected person among American composers.

We reach the final instalment of our alphabetical collection of composers whose music has been somewhat neglected as the years have rolled by, with this blog casting a spotlight on Galina Ustvolskaya, Francesco Maria Veracini, Peter von Winter, Iannis Xenakis, Isang Yun and Joaquim Zamacóis.

Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy ran one of the finest salons in pre-revolution Paris.

All at Naxos send their warmest congratulations to Julian Lloyd Webber following his inclusion in The Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours List on the 11th of June.

Recordings from the Naxos label are among the recently announced nominations for the 2021 OPUS Klassik Awards, Germany’s most prestigious awards body for classical music.

From composer to transcriber to performer — less instantaneous than modern transmissions, but it’s how many works first came to be known by music lovers before the dawn of the age of technology.

Continuing our alphabetical spotlighting of less well-known composers and their works, this week’s blog visits Italy, Poland and Guatemala and presents music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871) was one of the most famous composers of the 19th century.

Karłowicz, Lipiński, Magnard, Nepomuceno, Ohzawa. These are the composers who give us our next alphabetical tranche of unfamiliar names and neglected outputs that deserve a more frequent airing.

Raymond Bisha introduces Spanish guitarist Mabel Millán in her debut album for Naxos.

This is the second instalment in our alphabetical sifting through composers whose profiles are sadly more obscure than their quality compositions often deserve.

This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series focuses on Mahler’s wife, Alma.

In this podcast, Raymond Bisha takes us on a journey across South America, making musical stops in the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina and Colombia.

This is the start of a 5-part series highlighting the distinctly engaging music of less well-known composers.

Raymond Bisha’s latest podcast finds him in conversation with world-renowned guitarist and lutenist Richard Savino who introduces his debut recording for Naxos that also features his renowned ensemble El Mundo.

Places of Christian worship the world over will be marking the Easter Story at this time, no doubt with many performances of sacred music that vividly portray the central scenes of Jesus’ execution on the cross, his entombment, and his subsequent resurrection.

Naxos is pleased to relate the announcement that Marin Alsop, one of the label’s major recording artists, has been named Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today, the popular American classical music radio programme.

Described as having ‘natural genius’, John Abraham Fisher was a significant figure in London during the second half of the 18th century.

A fanfare is a flourish of trumpets or other similar instruments, used for military or ceremonial purposes, or music that conveys this impression.

Naxos is delighted to be among the recipients of this year’s GRAMMY Awards, announced on 14 March.

Aram Il’yich Khachaturian once described how he “grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music, popular festivals, rites joyous and sad, events in the lives of people always accompanied by music… deeply engraved in my memory, that determined my musical thinking.”

Do you recall hearing a particularly affecting piece of music for the first time, maybe as a younger newcomer to the world of classical music?

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of choral transcriptions by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) that forms part of Naxos’ Music of Brazil series.

The young British composer Alexander Campkin has already received over 90 commissions from organisations such as The Royal Opera House, The London Mozart Players, The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Aldeburgh Music and The BBC Performing Arts Fund.

There are as many interpretations of pieces of classical music as there are pairs of ears – that’s inner ears for conductors, and physical ears for audiences.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of orchestral works by Žibouklé Martinaityté (b. 1973).

Picking up from our last blog that featured musicians who died a century ago, in the year 1921, we consider a selection of singers, instrumentalists and composers who were born in that year.

This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series spotlights a collection of unfortunate musicians who became hostages of war at the outbreak of the First World War and whose story is as inspiring as the music that sustained them.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of 21st-century mallet percussion concertos performed by virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under Jean Thorel.

Following the 2020 global Beethoven birthday bash, I’m going to run the risk of anniversary fatigue by dwelling on what comes in its wake: 2021 and a collection of milestones marking the centenaries of either the births or deaths of a number of composers and artists.

John Georgiadis, the British violinist, conductor and Naxos artist, has died at the age of 81.

Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of orchestral music by the Pulitzer and Erasmus Prize-winning American composer John Adams.

Choral music formed an important part of Anton Bruckner’s output throughout his career, even though the genre was widely underappreciated by a public more inclined to large-scale symphonic and operatic works.