Naxos Classical Spotlight

"As soon as I started playing jazz, I understood it was something for me. I understood that I had to combine the two musics." These were the words of composer Nikolai Kapustin, born in Ukraine in 1937 and a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, the "two musics" being classical and jazz. From Kapustin's pen came an impeccable fusion of the two genres, with no trace of shallow crossover. Raymond Bisha introduces the programme on a recent recording that includes Kapustin's Second and Sixth Piano Concertos, with soloist Frank Dupree accompanied variously by the SWR Big Band and the SWR Symphony Orchestra.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album featuring Beethoven's final three cello sonatas that are full of unexpected shifts of harmony and mood, virtuoso flourishes and experimental surprises, all of which defy convention. The cellist is Gabriel Schwabe, one of the leading cellists of his generation and a laureate of several national and international competitions; the exceptionally sympathetic pianist is Nicholas Rimmer. The first of their two volumes of Beethoven's complete cello sonatas (8.574529) was released in September: "I was totally engrossed by the duo's warm, keenly articulated playing." (Gramophone)

Vahan Mardirossian grew up in Armenia surrounded by music, an upbringing that has given him a broad musical perspective and a desire to explore all kinds of music. In this podcast he talks about everything from his musical roots to his new position with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice with whom he now has an ongoing recording program that guarantees we can look forward to many more recordings.

Renowned both as a distinguished soloist with some 1,800 concerts worldwide to her credit and as a member of the Amadeus Guitar Duo, Dale Kavanagh is one of the most prominent classical guitarists of her generation. Raymond Bisha discusses her latest Naxos album that features a programme of her own compositions, both solos and duos in which she is joined by an octet of acclaimed, award-winning colleagues and friends.

Raymond Bisha's latest podcast introduces the twenty-four strings and forty fingers of the Guitalian Quartet in a programme from a new album featuring music from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and beyond. Effortless guitar technique combines with folksy wit and lyrical introspection in performances that will have your feet tapping and your ears purring.

Knighted in 1950, Sir Arthur Bliss was Master of the Queen's Music in Great Britain from 1953 until his death in 1975. Raymond Bisha introduces a new album comprising both original works for brass band and arrangements of others for the ensemble that represent the breadth of the composer's output, from pieces of royal association (Welcome the Queen) to music for the concert hall (Kenilworth), the ballet stage (Adam Zero and Checkmate) and the cinema (Things to Come). John Wilson conducts the famous Black Dyke Mills Band, a highly distinguished contributor to the rich heritage of British brass bands. Bliss himself readily acknowledged the astonishing virtuosity of such highly disciplined amateur players, noting that "their rules are nearly as rigid as those of football teams!"

Raymond Bisha introduces the world premiere recordings of remarkable orchestral works by Maria Herz. Born in Germany, a resident of England and, her final resting place, the United States, her life was beset not only by two World Wars and ravages of the Spanish Flu, but also the attendant anchors of being a female, Jewish composer. Only two of her works were published in her lifetime. Now that her estate of manuscripts has been replanted in the Zurich Central Library, the renaissance of her engaging music has begun.

Join Rebeca Omordia as she continues her exploration of African piano music with her new album African Pianism, volume 2. It is a collection of music that combines European music with the traditional music of many different countries in Africa. The results are by turns joyous, beautiful and challenging as this music shows how classical music can be enriched by embracing other cultures. This multicultural heritage is also part of Rebeca's own background, raised in Romania by a Romanian mother and a Nigerian father.

Raymond Bisha's podcast spotlights two classic recordings in the Vox Audiophile Edition that were first released in the mid-1970s and feature two former music directors of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in their prime – Walter Susskind, who directs orchestral extracts from Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride, and Jerzy Semkow, who leads a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon.

Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, this is the final podcast in Raymond Bisha's four-part survey of Naxos' project to record all 18 versions of the composer's 11 symphonies. With movements performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz under conductor Markus Poschner, together with observations from Bruckner scholar Paul Hawkshaw, this instalment features movements from Symphonies 8 and 9.

For all who have heard it, the sound of the choral ensemble The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers is unforgettable and beautiful. This podcast features an interview with Harry Christophers, and music by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and Arvo Pärt, from their album The Deer's Cry. On the eve of their US tour, this podcast celebrates their 45th anniversary.

Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, this is the third podcast in Raymond Bisha's four-part survey of Naxos' project to record all 18 versions of the composer's 11 symphonies. With movements performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Radio Vienna Symphony Orchestra, plus annotations from music scholar Robert Simpson, this instalment features movements from Symphonies 6 and 7.

Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, this is the second podcast in Raymond Bisha's four-part survey of Naxos' project to record all 18 versions of the composer's 11 symphonies. Featuring movements performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Radio Vienna Symphony Orchestra, plus annotations from conductor Markus Poschner and Bruckner scholar Professor Paul Hawkshaw, this installment features movements from Symphonies 3, 4 and 5.

Marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, Raymond Bisha dips into the fruits of Naxos' project to record all 18 versions of the composer's 11 symphonies. Featuring movements performed by the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Radio Vienna Symphony Orchestra, plus annotations from conductor Markus Poschner and Bruckner scholar Professor Paul Hawkshaw, Raymond Bisha opens his 4-part survey with an introduction to Symphonies 0, 1 and 2. The Complete Symphonies Box Set is now available, Naxos catalogue number 8.501804

A recent new album of American organ concertos featuring multi-award-winning artists brought together the artistry of organist Paul Jacobs and the contemporary music pedigree of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero. The high expectations generated by such a rare programme were met with distinction and this podcast conversation between Raymond Bisha and Paul Jacobs reveals both the practical challenges and the musical rewards behind the making of the recording.

In the first half of the 20th century, Catalan instrumental music was dominated by works for the piano and the cello. As a result, the importance of Catalan violin repertoire is often overlooked. Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of such works for violin and piano that's full of captivating contrasts, featuring twelve works by five composers that were written over the course of more than a century.

Conductor Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra have already persuaded audiences to absorb the symphonies of Brahms and Beethoven through their distinctive lens. Now they're midway through a series of recordings of Haydn's great late symphonies. Raymond Bisha's conversation with Fischer draws the curtain on just how he fathoms Haydn's essence: "He's hiding his ideas in the scores, and we have to discover them."

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, perhaps best known for his numerous film scores and works for guitar, also composed in a variety of other genres, from transcriptions for cello to violin concertos, piano works and orchestral music. Raymond Bisha turns our attention in this podcast to his three string quartets, written respectively in 1929, 1948 and 1964, and heard in authoritative performances on a new album by Italy's noted Quartetto Adorno.

Grammy winning Panamanian jazz musician Danilo Pérez is many things - pianist, composer, educator, humanitarian, organizer of the Panama Jazz Festival, UNESCO Artist for Peace and Panama's Cultural Ambassador. In this podcast he talks about his new album Lumen that he recorded with Sweden's Bohuslän Big Band.

In this podcast, Raymond Bisha talks with American composer Margaret Brouwer about the inspiration and compositional approach behind the orchestral pieces on the programme of her new album. Spanning a period of twenty-four years, the works are brilliantly performed by Marin Alsop and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, vividly capturing the music's wide range of expression, from sparkling sonorities to virtuosic challenges and beautiful evocations of nature.

Five years into the celebrated Naxos Music of Brazil series, we reach Vol. 21 and the music of Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897-1948), who was a key figure in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro. Lorenzo Fernández's two symphonies suffered neglect after the composer's untimely death at the age of fifty. Raymond Bisha introduces the world premiere recording of the powerful First Symphony, and the first modern studio recording of the programmatic Second Symphony.

Rachel Podger talks about the joys of consort music, the Brecon Baroque Festival, and "The Muses Restor'd", her new album with Brecon Baroque with music from George Frideric Handel, William Lawes, John Blow, Matthew Locke, Henry Purcell, John Jenkins and many others.

Smetana's Má vlast is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke Czech legends and celebrate the beauty of the country's landscapes. Received with "unending storms of applause" at its 1882 premiere, Má vlast reflects the unique characteristics that form the heart and soul of the Czech nation. Raymond Bisha introduces an acclaimed 1975 recording of the work by the St Louis Symphony under Walter Susskind, which has been given a new lease of life by returning to the original Elite Recordings master tapes and effecting a high-definition transfer of the original sound.

Pianist Quynh Nguyen discusses her recording of the complete piano works of Paul Chihara, the distinguished American composer whose output includes the scores for over 100 motion pictures and television series. Past exchanges between performer and composer about the items on the programme reflect an intensely deep and detailed collaboration, with AllMusic.com warmly welcoming the album as "ingenious and richly evocative and beautifully and quietly played … this is a wonderful release." Raymond Bisha presents.

During his lifetime, Charles Martin Loeffler was one of the most performed American composers. His octet was completed in 1896, played twice the following year and then forgotten. Clarnetist Graeme Steele Johnson rediscovered the manuscript in the Library of Congress, took a year to create a performing edition from the score, and recorded the work for Delos, DE3603. In this podcast, he talks about that journey.

JoAnn Falletta, conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, discusses a programme of orchestral works by composer/conductor Lukas Foss, who was both a predecessor of hers in Buffalo and a mentor to her. Highlighting his eclecticism as a composer, who went wherever his mind took him, Raymond Bisha discusses the performers' latest album, which features four works that colourfully reflect Foss' wide embrace and expert craftsmanship.

Irish cellist Gerald Peregrine introduces his latest album of early 20th-century British works for cello and piano, interweaving the classical and folk-based music with a personal narrative of community engagement, in which his live music-making initiatives have achieved truly significant and touching results.

This podcast spotlights Israeli mandolinist Alon Sariel, who provides an entree into the engaging world of the mandolin, an instrument that perhaps enjoys a relatively low profile but commands a fascinating global reach. Alon Sariel's second album of transcriptions of works by J. S. Bach for mandolin blends technical precision with nuanced artistry and masterly adaptations. The presenter is Raymond Bisha.

Marin Alsop discusses her latest release – an album of orchestral works by John Adams – with Raymond Bisha, exploring just what it is about Adams' music that makes him the leading nominee for the title of America's greatest living composer, not least for scores that inhabit 'the groove' with conspicuous relish.

Louis Wayne Ballard (1931-2007) – also known as 'Honganozhe', which means 'Stands with Eagles' in the Quapaw language – was the first indigenous North American composer of art music, and his extensive knowledge of the music, dance and mythology of this culture informed his compositions. This podcast reviews a new album of his works that are eclectic in style, uniquely varied and thoroughly engaging. The presenter is Raymond Bisha. The guests are conductor John Jeter and Jerod Impich-chāachaaha Tate, who was a student, friend and colleague of the composer.

In January 2024, Finnish accordionist/conductor Janne Valkeajoki released a captivating album of music by French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, which Valkeajoki himself arranged for his instrument. Raymond Bisha's conversation with the performer delves into the various musical transformations and performance mechanics that were involved in the masterly transfer from harpsichord strings to accordion reeds.

Orfeo Vecchi was held in high regard by his contemporaries for the sacred music he produced towards the end of the 16th century. Raymond Bisha introduces a new recording of the twenty pieces that comprise his third book of Motets for Six Voices. The works form a rich, eclectic programme, and the performances by Cappella Musicale Eusebiana directed by Don Denis Silano elegantly express the pictorial aspects of the texts that Vecchi achieved through subtle dialogue, antiphony and counterpoint.

Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of works for string quartet by Florence Price and Leo Sowerby, who were both prominent members of the Chicago music community in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of Florence Price's compositions remained unpublished at her death, and her String Quartet in A minor was not performed in her lifetime. Her Five Folksongs in Counterpoint entwine and enrich the famous melodies with African American vernacular idioms and colourful harmony, while Sowerby's String Quartet in G minor reveals music undeserving of its decades of obscurity in the Avalon Quartet's world premiere recording of the work.

Raymond Bisha's latest podcast introduces the world premiere recording of Joseph Rheinberger's arrangement for two pianos of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Composed by Bach in 1741, the work fell into oblivion before re-emerging as part of a movement of discovery generations later. In order to breathe new life into them, such masterpieces might undergo arrangements, transcriptions and other manipulations. In this case, Rheinberger's 1883 version adds new parts to Bach's original score.

George Gershwin's ever popular Rhapsody in Blue was first performed in February 1924. To mark the centenary of that celebrated event, pianist Jeffrey Biegel commissioned composer Peter Boyer to write a work for piano and orchestra that would be a 21st-century partner to Gershwin's original. Raymond Bisha talks to both composer and soloist about the gestation of this celebratory new work that captures a similar propulsive energy, while interweaving allusions to blues influences and lyrical evocations of American vistas.

Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of works for piano and orchestra by Chopin, performed by legendary pianist Abbey Simon. Once hailed by renowned critic Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times as a "supervirtuoso", Simon was a great American pianist in the great Romantic tradition, who imbued his effortless virtuoso technique with a uniformly clear sound. Having passed away in 2019 at the age of ninety-nine, most of his recorded output was for the VOX label. This album includes Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Fantasy on Polish Airs and the Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brillante.

Raised in Medellín, Colombia, Billy Arcila has lived in the United States for over 40 years, where he teaches and performs as one of California's foremost guitarists. In this podcast, Raymond Bisha presents the first album to be made of his music. Performed by the composer himself, it contains works written across Ancila's entire compositional life, from his first published work to his most recent. Interspersed with the music of other admired composers, Arcila's autobiographical guitar music embraces the nostalgic, the verdant and the vibrant. This album also includes music by Fabio Salazar Orozco, Jorge Becerra, Gustavo Gómez Ardila, Sam Bigney and others.

A podcast featuring the Valencia Baryton Project and their new recording of music by Franz Joseph Haydn. Haydn was music director of the Esterházy Court at Eisenstadt for twenty-five years. It was where Prince Nikolaus commissioned him to write trios for the baryton, a bowed, stringed instrument similar to the viol but with extra plucked strings that enabled performers to accompany themselves. Haydn wrote string trios (baryton, viola, cello) of elegance, refinement and poise that encapsulate a rich variety of moods, a selection of which is introduced on this podcast by Raymond Bisha. Seldom performed or recorded, the baryton trios attest to Haydn's limitless powers of invention in every medium.

Raymond Bisha introduces the fifteenth and final volume in Konstantin Scherbakov's recordings of the complete piano works of Leopold Godowsky, on the Marco Polo label, in which the programme comprises a number of the arrangements Godowsky made of Chopin's Études. Reflecting on his mammoth undertaking, the virtuoso pianist notes that "this project to record Leopold Godowsky's complete piano works began in 1997 and has taken me 26 years to complete. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this is one of the largest and most important recording projects of the piano repertoire, through which many works have received their premiere recordings."

Conductor 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.

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 episode of Naxos Classical Spotlight, 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.

As the record label Delos Productions turns 50, we celebrate with an interview with pianist Carol Rosenberger who, with her friend Amelia Haygood, helped create the Delos label for which Carol also did many recordings. As a concert pianist, record executive and also as polio survivor, Carol's story is one of courage, determination and grace.

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), De Organizer with a libretto by Langston Hughes, and The Dreamy Kid, with words by Eugene O'Neill. JP Johnson was renowned as an influential jazz pianist but was largely unknown 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 they were finally performed in 2006, and released on disc in 2023.

Another podcast featuring historic recordings on the VOX label, this one explores the recordings 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 are many reasons why these from the 1970s are still so popular.

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…). This recording features solo percussionists Matthew Strauss and Svet Stoyanov, with the Houston Symphony conducted by Robert Spano

In this episode of Naxos Classical Spotlight, Raymond Bisha presents the first in a series of podcasts that explore newly remastered recordings on the VOX label dating from the 1970s. This episode 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.

Brazilian composer Claudio Santoro (1919–1989) proved a dynamic force for his country's classical music scene. His life was both intertwined with, and deeply influenced by, the political and social events playing out around him, from the building of the Berlin Wall in Europe to political upheavals in his homeland. Through it all, his compositions reflected a life of distinctive musical exploration. This album is part of Naxos's ongoing Music of Brazil series.

Raymond Bisha introduces Naxos' fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. The themes of this mixed programme of his recent works are remembrance, memorialisation and hopefulness. The works on this album are Elegy, Second Violin Concerto, and Of Thee We Sing. As the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing was approaching, conductor Alexander Mickelthwate reached out to Leshnoff to propose a memorial commission, a piece for chorus and orchestra "that transcends the atrocity and focuses on all the good that came out of it in the last 25 years. A city growing together." Leshnoff called composing Of Thee We Sing "the most serious commission I have ever received". The soloist in the Second Violin Concerto is Noah Bendix-Balgley. The Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Canterbury Voices are conducted by Alexander Mickelthwate.

Naxos Classical Spotlight looks at the life of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799) – a brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and gifted composer – might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. Raymond Bisha gives an overview of this remarkable life, binding the disparate elements of his career with the constant beauty of his violin concertos.

Conductor and Naxos artist Marin Alsop discusses Robert Schumann's four symphonies in the wake of her recordings of the works as reorchestrated by Mahler (8.574429 and 8.574430). Following observations about instrumental developments of the time, Mahler's myriad tweaks to the score, and the somewhat bipolar flavour of the music (with counterpoint always at hand as a periodic stabiliser), she moves on to a detailed appreciation of each symphony, demonstrating Schumann's distinctive contribution to the development of the genre "with one foot in the past, and one in the future."