The fourth volume in Naxos’s highly praised series of Debussy’s Orchestral Works presents music drawn from three of his theatrical ventures and from one of his Prix de Rome entries. The prelude, fanfares and four symphonic fragments from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien were taken for concert performance from Debussy’s incidental music for Gabriele D’Annunzio’s scandalous mystery play. While rarely heard today, the ‘danced legend’ Khamma, set in ancient Egypt, and incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, provide suitably atmospheric music, as do the Cortège et air de danse from The Prodigal Son, the cantata which gained Debussy the Prix de Rome in 1884.

The art of Shakespeare was a recurring fascination for Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In addition to two operas and numerous settings of songs and sonnets, he wrote 11 Shakespeare Overtures which here receive their first ever complete recording. Deploying all the resources of the symphony orchestra, these are some of the 20th century's most dramatic and tuneful orchestral works, spectacular evocations of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Volume Two is available on Naxos 8.572501. This lively performance is by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny.

Lucia di Lammermoor’s tragic tale of love, feuds, deception, madness and murder has thrilled audiences since its première in 1835. It boasts a fast-moving plot, a strong cast of characters, a brooding Scottish Gothic horror setting and some of Donizetti’s most effective and demanding music, making it the most celebrated bel canto opera in the repertoire. On this live recording from the Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo, Désirée Rancatore gives a fresh and thrilling interpretation of the demanding rôle of the doomed heroine Lucy Ashton, her famous ‘mad scene’ featuring a glass harmonica, Donizetti’s original choice of instrument, rather than the more usual flute, to underline the state of her shattered mind.

Aged only 17, Schubert conducted his first complete Mass setting, in F major, D105, in September 1814, gaining the approval of his former teacher Antonio Salieri. An amazingly accomplished work for so young a composer, it follows Classical precedents, while already giving glimpses of Schubert’s special lyrical gifts. It also makes effective use, particularly in the forward-looking Sanctus, of the vocal soloists, choir and an orchestra rich in wind and brass including three trombones. The Mass in B flat major, D324, composed the following year and like its predecessor scaled for liturgical performance, similarly combines beauty with splendour. Schubert’s Masses Nos. 2, 4 and 6 are available on 8.570864 and 8.570381.

Astor Piazzolla’s tangos, beloved around the world for their pathos, passion, longing and sensibility, are here given fresh interpretations in arrangements for piano by the Argentinean-born pianist Aquiles Delle-Vigne. A disciple of Claudio Arrau and winner of the Grand Prix ‘Alberto Williams’, the most prestigious competition in South America, he has been hailed by Le Figaro as a ‘fantastic, incomparable pianist and artist’, while The New York Times characterized his playing as ‘aristocratic, sophisticated and charming’. Piazzolla’s earthy yet highly developed music gains a new dimension of intimacy but also of power in the hands of this master of the keyboard.

While Schoenberg’s final two string quartets inhabit atonal sound worlds, the Third draws on Classical forms such as theme-and-variations, minuet and sonata-rondo, its unsettling opening movement recalling a fairytale picture, ‘The Ghostship’, its Adagio a movement of spiritual depth and beauty. Schoenberg was particularly pleased with his Fourth String Quartet, which follows a creative logic of continual development and variation derived from the music of Bach and Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. The Fantasy is a virtuosic peroration for violin with commentary from the piano, a prime example of Schoenberg’s avowed aim to write ‘really new music which, as it rests on tradition, is destined to become a tradition’.

Much lauded in his lifetime, Walter Piston is remembered more for his influential textbooks on music than as a composer in his own right. This disc presents three of the five string quartets that are among his most enduring works, while also affording insight into his stylistic evolution from the lithe neo-Classicism of the First Quartet to the forceful yet accessible Neo-expressionism of the Fifth. This is the Naxos début of the Harlem Quartet, an ensemble comprising First-Place Laureates of the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latino string-players. More of Piston’s chamber music is available on 8.559071.

Jack Gallagher’s Symphony in One Movement: Threnody has been acclaimed by in Tune magazine as ‘enormously inventing’. The warm, lyrical Berceuse was heralded by The Washington Post as ‘a treat’ and ‘a lovely melodic and accessible work’. The spirited Diversions Overture and Sinfonietta for String Orchestra, in five-movement arch form, complete this survey of Gallagher’s music for orchestra recorded by the London Symphony under the direction of JoAnn Falletta.

Among America’s most admired, awarded and frequently performed composers, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, who celebrated her 70th birthday in 2009, remains young at heart. Performed here by virtuoso pianist Jeffrey Biegel for whom it was written, Millennium Fantasy is based on a folksong that Zwilich’s grandmother sang to her as a child. Images drew its inspiration from a number of paintings held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., including the Alice Bailly self-portrait reproduced on the cover of this disc. Zwilich, herself featured in Charles M. Schulz’s famous Peanuts comic strip, returned the favor with a delightful series of musical portraits of Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and Marcie.

Many of Roy Harris’s piano pieces were inspired by his wife, the pianist Johana Harris, and demonstrate his wide-ranging musical influences, from Medieval chant and Baroque counterpoint to 20th-century French composers (he studied with Nadia Boulanger) and American and Irish folk music. His love of polytonal sonorities, spacious virtuosity, rhapsodic improvisational passages and intimate moods – a heady brew of diverse ingredients! – gives his piano music a fascinating quality, as if one were experiencing spontaneously evolving soundscapes teeming with vitality. Harris’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (8.559227), 5 & 6 (8.559609) and 7 & 9 (8.559050) are also available.

The Munich-based American composer Gloria Coates is best known as a symphonist, though she has also composed nine string quartets as well as vocal and chamber music. Her String Quartet No. 9 opens with unworldly sonorities, glissandos, micro-tonalities and other unusual colours which develop by means of a mirror canon. In contrast, the Sonata for Violin Solo sets immense technical demands, particularly in its use of multiple stops beneath the lyrical fragments. Taking its subtitles from phrases within Emily Dickinson poems, her Lyric Suite for Piano Trio is a captivating mix of melodic gestures and spectral harmonies.

This 32nd volume in the Naxos Liszt complete piano music is the first to feature stellar English pianist Ashley Wass. Ashley Wass has long been renowned for his superb interpretations of Liszt, and here tackles the Album d’un voyageur and the Apparitions with his usual spectacular élan. Ashley’s previous discs for Naxos have all been highly acclaimed. 'Make no mistake about it: this boy is special. What I love about his playing is its sincerity and tenderness. He doesn’t just caress the piano, he probes its soft depths with the utmost consideration.' -The Independent

Described by USA Today as ‘one of Penderecki’s most colorful and extroverted [pieces]’, the Credo is a sweeping, lavishly scored and highly Romantic setting of the Catholic profession of faith. Its use of traditional tonality alongside passages of choral speech, ringing brass and exotic percussive effects marks it as a potent Neo-romantic masterpiece. Composed more than 30 years earlier, the short avant garde Cantata recalls the sound world of Ligeti and celebrates the survival, over 600 years, of the Jagellonian University near Kraków.  'Antoni Wit and his Polish forces are incomparable in this repertoire.' (Penderecki’s Utrenja, Naxos 8.572031 / David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com)

This disc offers a fascinating selection of both famous and little-known works by Wilhelm Stenhammar. The Serenade ranks among his finest works, and is considered a classic instance of the ‘white nights’ that characterize summer in Northern Europe. Of the remaining works, the ballads Florez and Blanzeflor and Ithaca are notable examples of his vocal writing, while the Interlude derives from his cantata The Song. Prélude and Bourrée is a hitherto unknown work here receiving its first recording. Stenhammar’s Second Symphony is available on 8.553888 and piano works on 8.553730.

Astor Piazzolla’s name has become synonymous with tango, the signature dance of his native country, Argentina. In the Sinfonía Buenos Aires, Piazzolla’s development of symphonic tango is notable for brilliant, original and often complex orchestration. His Bandoneón Concerto, nicknamed ‘Aconcagua’ after the highest Andean mountain, provides the soloist with ample opportunities for drama, pathos and virtuosity. Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), a series of single tango movements with several references to Vivaldi’s famous work, is a vivid sequence in which the changing moods of the seasons are expressed by means of an almost limitless emotional range and depth.

Darius Milhaud frequently composed music for stage and screen. The Suite derives from his incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s play Le Voyageur. The outer movements of Scaramouche are taken from his stage music for Charles Vildrac’s adaptation of Molière’s Le Médecin volant, with the central movement drawn from the overture for Jules Supervielle’s Bolivar. Le Printemps and the Cinéma-Fantaisie similarly rework previously composed music. In each case, Milhaud created new works whose sophistication, lively rhythms and elegance matter more than their origins. The two remaining works, the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the Sonatina for clarinet and piano, were freshly composed and show Milhaud’s remarkable ingenuity.

The three works presented on this recording, the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in the German stylus phantasticus, the Fourth Partita with its French Ouverture and the Third English Suite with its Italianate Prelude, reflect Bach’s lifelong interest in incorporating different national styles into his compositions. The American harpsichordist and teacher, Lisa Goode Crawford, known for her performances of French baroque music and the music of Bach, is Emerita Professor of Harpsichord at the Oberlin Conservatory. On this disc she plays a 1624 harpsichord built by Ioannes Ruckers.

While Louis Vierne is best known for his organ works, his mélodies form a unique part of his oeuvre, reflecting not only his own tragic life but his reaction to the world around him in all its beauty and pain. His vocal compositions can be both lyrical and anguished, deliberately contrasting moments of startling simplicity and elemental fury. Based on the four seasons of the Napoleonic calendar – Floréal, Thermidor, Brumaire and Nivôse, Le poème de l’amour depicts human futility against the relentless force of nature, yet does so with music of great beauty. In Psyché and Ballade du désespéré the artist searches for the meaning of life; in the former l'amour (love), in the latter la mort (death).

With some notable exceptions, professional recorder players have largely ignored modern repertoire regarded as being too tonal, melodic or romantic. Not so Annabel Knight, a former student at the Royal College of Music in London, where Gordon Jacob had also taught. On this disc she joins respected colleagues in presenting Jacob’s music, its sometimes sparse and desolate musical language frequently tempered with tuneful wit and a sense of nostalgia for England’s landscape and heritage. The result is an album presenting highly enjoyable music of superlative craftsmanship and heartfelt expressivity, including three world première recordings.

Karlheinz Stockhausen recalled that one day in September 1969 ‘I had the idea of one single musical figure or formula that would be expanded over a very long period of time… I wrote down this melody on an envelope.’ Thus was born Mantra, the first mature example of Stockhausen’s ‘formula’ technique which was to dominate his output until his death in 2007. Effectively a trio including a sound projectionist, Mantra retains a good deal of freedom, transcendental mysticism and playful, abandoned inventiveness within its quasi-serialist approach. This recording is the first to use digital technology, with equipment specially designed by Stockhausen’s former assistant Jan Panis, and approved by the composer.

Livre du Saint-Sacrement (The Book of the Blessed Sacrament) is Messiaen’s last and longest organ work, a thematic cycle based on the sacrament of Communion comprising eighteen movements, many based on his recorded improvisations, arranged into three thematic groups. Hailed for his prodigious technique, vivid interpretive imagination and charismatic showmanship, Paul Jacobs is widely acknowledged for reinvigorating the American organ scene with a fresh performance style and ‘an unbridled joy of music-making’ (Baltimore Sun). He has performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in nine-hour marathons in eight American cities.

Described by critics as a ‘bona fide angel playing’ and an ‘electrifying pianist’, the young Ukrainian-born, North Carolina-based Valentina Lisitsa has been receiving rave reviews ever since her début in Avery Fisher Hall for the Mostly Mozart Festival. It would be hard to conceive of a more thoroughly Romantic or demanding programme than she presents here: Beethoven’s radical ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, via Schumann’s musical expression of an adult’s memories of childhood and Thalberg’s fantastic transformation of themes from Rossini’s most popular opera to Liszt’s pianistic danse macabre, inspired by a fresco by the medieval Italian artist Francesco Traini.

Ian Venables is one of Britain’s foremost composers of art-song, and has a significant catalogue of vocal and chamber music to his credit. Writing tonal music in a warm lyric vein, he has a rare gift of being able to ‘locate’ himself, believably, in a different period and absorb from it, both musically and poetically, all its fundamental beauty, while also producing works of astonishing freshness, naturalness and originality. On the Wings of Love are settings by non-English poets, while Love’s Voice sets Venetian poetry by J. A. Symonds. All his songs are sincere expressions of a love of poetry, combined with a profound understanding of musical and poetic tradition.

This 2 CD set presents 34 of John Philip Sousa’s best-loved marches, including 'The Washington Post' which, in the early 1890s, sparked a huge world-wide dance-craze, 'The Liberty Bell', used as the signature tune for the BBC comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', the official national march of the United States. Known affectionately as ‘The March King’, Sousa personified turn-of-thecentury America, the comparative innocence and brash energy of a still new nation. Universally acknowleged as the best of the genre, his marches are notable for their vigorous melodic line and unrelenting driving effect, combined with innovative use of instrumentation and tonal color.

Samuel Barber is widely known for his famous Adagio for Strings, the slow movement of a string quartet he wrote in 1936, but his output includes several concertos (for violin, for cello and for piano), the Capricorn Concerto for solo wind instruments, two symphonies and several other works. This 6-CD set brings together acclaimed American conductor Marin Alsop’s Naxos recordings of Barber’s Neo-romantic orchestral pieces performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and leading soloists.

Hans Christian Lumbye is today the internationally best known and most popular Danish composer of dances of the 19th Century. In 1843 when the now world-famous amusement park Tivoli opened its gates in Copenhagen, Lumbye acquired a permanent setting for his long and prolific composing and conducting career as the leader of the concert hall’s orchestra. In the best of his works his orchestrations have a distinctive, lyrical, almost pristine Copenhagen sound that differs from the Vienna composers’ more hot-blooded orchestral tone. This album celebrates the special freshness and artistic integrity of his delightful music.

The second of Johann Strauss the elder’s sons, Josef, was a remarkably versatile, gifted and prolific composer of whom his brother, Johann Strauss the younger, once said: ‘[Josef] is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular’. Josef left more than 300 original dances and marches, as well as 500 arrangements of music by other composers. This album presents thirteen of his best dances.

Carl Michael Ziehrer was a significant rival to the Strausses and also served as a military bandmaster. Ziehrer’s legacy includes some six hundred dance pieces and marches, and 23 full length operettas. In 1893 he represented Austria at the Chicago World Fair, where he played nightly before continuing to tour the United States and touring across Germany. He subsequently returned to Vienna and formed a new orchestra and again went on tour. This CD offers a selection that will bring lovers of the light classics much listening pleasure.

This anthology brings together a selection of best-loved children’s poems. All of the old favourites are presented including Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat and Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. These classic poems combine catchy, memorable rhymes with vivid word pictures to offer an imaginative feast for children. A variety of readers bring the poetry to life, resulting in a wonderfully energetic and lively collection.

Naxos Audiobooks' ‘In a Nutshell’ guide offers a quick and accessible introduction to the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, whose teachings have had such a resounding influence on the development of Far Eastern society and beyond. The author of the famous precept ‘never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself’ advocated an ethical system based on principles of humanity, integrity, filial piety and self-improvement, with the ultimate goal of social harmony. From China to Vietnam, Far Eastern rulers throughout the ages have adopted the Confucian belief system and fervently promoted its tenets. A knowledge of Confucian thought is essential to fully understand both the history and the present formation of Far Eastern culture.

This ‘In a Nutshell’ guide examines the history, functions and traditions associated with the most dominant architectural structure on city skylines - cathedrals. Located at the heart of cities, cathedrals have traditionally been a spiritual and communal touchstone at the centre of municipal life. This comprehensive overview makes use of examples of cathedrals from around the world to illustrate the evolution of different styles of cathedral, from the Roman basilica to the soaring gothic, and the religious significance of these changes. This characterful narrative is interspersed with descriptions from literature and complementary musical excerpts.

This new audio book guide illustrates the might, glory and ingenuity of Ancient Greek civilisation. The accessible and entertaining presentation of the history makes learning fun for children. This comprehensive survey introduces all of the most fascinating aspects of Greek history from the fierce rivalry between between Athens and Sparta and the ferocious battles with the Persian Empire to the great poets, orators, philosophers and playwrights. The rich history of this supremely advanced and illustrious empire will captivate children’s imaginations.  An accessible guide, packed with fun facts and information.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic of socialist literature, exploring the plight of a group of painters and decorators who are oppressed by their exploitative employers. Since its first publication, Robert Tressell’s passionate and enlightened novel has had a perspective-changing, revelatory impact on generations of readers. The eye-opening spectacle of the workers, refusing to acknowledge that they are being ground down at the hands of their masters is brilliantly conceived. Notable for its humour, humanity and frankness The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a hugely meaningful and important novel. 

The Black Gang is the second novel in Sapper’s popular Bulldog Drummond series, which inspired the likes of Ian Fleming and The Saint and set the benchmark for a new style of English detective fiction. This thrill-a-minute adventure sees Bulldog pitted against his arch enemy, the infamous Carl Peterson. Suave and charismatic as ever, Bulldog seeks to foil Peterson’s subversive plot against England, dodging out of many near-death scrapes along the way!