8.557428 Brahms Symphony No. 1

“The performances, though, have the same uncomplicated virtues as those she conducted on the south coast; sharp-profiled rhythms, clean-cut textures and neat, if just occasionally perfunctory, phrasing, combine to keep the music moving forwards at all times. Exuberant in the Academic Festival Overture, starkly dramatic in the Tragic, the orchestral playing is consistently first class.”   - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 4/02/05

“Alsop brings to the opening of the symphony an unusual intensity, a quality that characterises the whole of this bold and insightful account. The slow movement is beautifully phrased and the celebrated brass chorale in the finale is followed by a silky-smooth statement of the famous string melody.”   - Jeremy Nicholas, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“There’s much to admire here: the brisk drama she brings to the first movement, her fine generation of tension on the way to the recapitulation; the sympathy and intimacy with which she treats the inner movements. As it is, anyone needing a first-rate budget Brahms First may snap it up with confidence.”   - Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine, March 2005

“The sound is full, warm and accommodating. These are humane, affectionate performances from which browsers and bargain-minded first-time buyers should derive a good deal of pleasure.”   - Richard Osborne, The Gramophone, March 2005

“Marin Alsop is one of those conductors whose individual style is sufficient to justify yet another Brahms cycle. Here, with the LPO at its sweet-sounding best, she delivers a warm and shapely reading of the First. Refusing to be hurried, she sculpts the gorgeous solos in the slow movement with loving care. It’s a gigantic, uplifting performance. Her dark-hued account of the Tragic Overture and rousing reading of the Academic Festival Overture have just as much finesse, and the recording is first class.”   - Stephen Pettitt, The Sunday Times, 20/02/05

“Marin Alsop makes a welcome return to the traditional European repertoire with the launch of a complete cycle of Brahms’s symphonies for the ever-enterprising budget-price label Naxos. And it gets off to a very promising start with this sweeping, richly detailed account of the first symphony, its majestic themes expansively realised, the composer’s inner angst never far beneath the surface. With the Academic and Tragic overtures thrown in as a welcome bonus, this is the start of a series that should prove well worth collecting.”   - Anthony Holden, The Observer, 27/02/05

8.557499 Stravinsky Oedipus Rex; Les Noces

“The Oedipus is a powerful account, driving home the fateful tragedy of the plot. Martyn Hill is a lyrical Oedipus, making light of Stravinsky’s cruelly demanding writing, and Jennifer Lane is a thrilling Jocasta. The singing from Simon Joly’s handpicked choruses in both works is superb. Naxos is on to a winner here.”   - Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph, 5/02/05

8.557520 Schoenberg Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra

“At the heart of this second volume in Naxos’s Schoenberg series are two vocal treasures. Though the composer’s chamber reduction of The Song of the Wood-Dove inevitably sacrifices something of the original’s sumptuous late-Romantic grandeur, there’s an equal gain in delicacy and intimacy, as this sensitive, impassioned performance shows.”   - Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine, March 2005

8.559192 Cowell Piano, Chamber and Vocal Works Vols. 1
8.559193 Cowell Piano, Chamber and Vocal Works Vols. 2

“Naxos’s two Cowell releases in its American Classics series make rewarding listening. The repertoire’s cross-section is well-chosen. The performances by Continuum date from 1984 and the early 1990s; their fire and beauty still burn brightly.”   - Geoff Brown, The Times, 4/01/05

8.557530 Webern Symphony

“Craft’s reading of the Symphony is thoughtful: following the metronome marks, he makes the Variations finale go by in an intellectual flash. The Six Pieces for Large Orchestra are brooding and colourful; the soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge is compelling in diverse canons, rhymes and songs. The quartet with tenor saxophone sounds as wonderfully weird as ever.”   - Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, 27/02/05

8.559414 Brubeck The Gates of Justice

“It’s a heartfelt piece, performed with great devotion and energy.”   - Philip Clark, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“In overall performance terms, however, the entire show is stolen by the glorious clarion-like voice of cantor Alberto Mizrahi. The sound is spacious but never unwieldy.”   - Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine, March 2005

8.557491 Canteloube Chants d’Auvergne

“Véronique Gens delivers a fittingly understated performance.”   - Philip Clark, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“Here’s a bargain. Her bright, limpid and very French-sounding soprano has a freshness ideally suited to this lovely, melodious, innocent music. Naxos has recorded a winner with the stylish Lille orchestra.”   - Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times (CD of the Week), 13/02/05

“Véronique Gens is the sensational French soprano most often heard in Baroque repertoire, but here she pours herself into the sensuous syrup of Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne. …with Gens’s gorgeous, light yet earthy singing, it is a good bargain.”   - Andrew Clarke, The Independent, 19/02/05

8.557570 Tippett A Child of Our Time

“Faye Robinson, Sarah Walker and Jon Garrison are splendid.”   - David Cairns, The Sunday Times, 13/02/05

“Reissued to mark the centenary of his birth, this 1991 recording benefits from eloquent soloists as well as Birmingham’s prime choral and orchestral forces.”   - George Hall, The Independent on Sunday, 20/02/05

“The orchestra plays skilfully, sympathetically, and with an appropriate bleakness of colour as it illustrates the grey tones of Tippett’s own libretto. Even if this weren’t such a steal at under a fiver, this CD should be on everyone’s shelves.”   - Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, 21/02/05

8.557480 Rawsthorne Symphonies Nos. 1-3

“The performances under David Lloyd-Jones are first rate.”   - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 18/02/05

“A massive repertoire-led bargain. This is an ideal release for collectors.”   - Music Week, 26/02/05

8.557040 British Guitar Music

“Graham Devine, who plays with great sensitivity, strikes me as an ideal artist to continue Bream’s musical legacy. On the evidence presented here, this young virtuoso has a very bright future indeed. A fine recording – and at the usual Naxos bargain-basement price.”   - John Brunning, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“Graham Anthony Devine is very much his own man, infusing his playing with a freedom and rhythmic vitality born of years of teaching and playing throughout South America. This kind of playing, allied with a beautiful tone and a searching musical intelligence, sets up a nice frisson which perfectly complements the Spanish flavour with which Lennox Berkeley’s surfeit of English restraint is riddled. Wonderful stuff.”   - William Yeoman, The Gramophone, March 2005

8.554842 Scarlatti Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol. 7

“His [Scherbakov’s] are full-blooded readings that take these stunning miniatures by the scruff of the neck and don’t let go for a second. Scherbakov sounds as though he is reeling from the excitement of a fresh discovery and compels us to listen along with him.”   - Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“This latest selection – one of the best so far – calls on the skilful young Russian pianist Konstantin Scherbakov, whose pert, agile playing courts some startling dynamic extremes. Scherbakov offers virtuoso Scarlatti and makes full re-creative use of the piano’s expressive resources.”   - Rob Cowan, The Independent, 21/02/05

8.557268 Bach Goldberg Variations

“Thank goodness, then, for Jenö Jandó whose freshness and unforced musicianship ensure that the music never collapses under the weight of its own expressive force.”   - Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“Here, the pianist Jenö Jandó does full justice.”   - Colin Anderson, What’s on in London, 9/02/05

8.557589 Boccherini Cello Concertos Vol. 3

“Raphael Wallfisch proves to be a most stylish and sympathetic performer. He has the necessary technical armoury to cope with the fearsomely difficult writing in each concerto, but also delivers a wonderfully expressive melodic line in the slow movements.”   - Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine, March 2005

8.660105-06 Kálmán Die Csárdásfürstin

“This new recording boasts a youthful cast and a cracking performance from Yvonne Kenny. Bonynge, in his element here, catches the Viennese spirit without affectation or pomposity.”   - Andrew Stewart, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

“He [Bonynge] brings out to the full Kálmán’s highly charged rhythms, every detail of the exotic orchestration, and the contrasts of mood between the fiery big numbers and the moments of melancholy and sadness in the Acts 1 and 2 finales. This is magnificent operetta conducting! His cast, too, is wholly admirable. Yvonne Kenny provides the vocal strength, fire and beauty required by the title role, and the young soprano Mojca Erdmann proves an attractive Stasi. At the low Naxos price, this is a quite wonderful bargain.”   - Andrew Lamb, The Gramophone (Editor’s Choice), March 2005

8.557432 Sammartini Il pianto degli Angeli della Pace

“Ferrari conducts with a feel for the flow.”   - Rick Jones, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

8.557714 Wagner Opera Choruses

“This disc shows shows that the company is still on fine form, and can make a healthy, rousing sound.”   - Warwick Thompson, Classic FM Magazine, March 2005

6.110075-76 Kalman The Gypsy Princess

“A superb new recording, with Richard Bonynge conducting, features Yvonne Kenny in the leading role, excellently supported by Michael Roider and Mojca Erdmann. Orchestral excerpts from other Kalman operettas male attractive bonus tracks. In superb surround-sound if you have the equipment and also as standard CD.”   - David Denton, Yorkshire Post, 18/02/05

8.110763 Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 9

“The Ninth volume in Naxos’s reissue of Schnabel’s pre-war Beethoven cycle, comprising the great final trilogy of sonatas, shows few of the pianist’s faults and all of his transcendent virtues. All three works receive riveting performances, but the C minor is particularly memorable.”   - David Cairns, The Sunday Times, 20/02/05

8.110300-01 Verdi La Traviata

“Maria Callas’s great recordings live again, modern technology revitalising the 1050s sound when the young singer was in her golden era. The sound is better than we dare hope, and at this price a pure gift.”   - David Denton, Yorkshire Post, 18/02/05