[Henry Flower]

I recently subscribed to the Naxos Music Library, and am having a wonderful time exploring it. One nice surprise was finding out that it includes material from BIS, Chandos and various other labels as well as Naxos itself.

Since there's so much available, I'd like some suggestions on particular lesser-known gems which people would recommend from any of the labels on the site. To start us off, I was quite excited today to discover Nicolas Bacri, a contemporary French composer more or less in the Hindemith/Hartmann tradition; I particularly like the 4th symphony, which manages to blend movements paying homage in turn to Strauss, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Weill into a brief but satisfying whole.

 

[majid]

The Barber recordings by Marin Alsop are excellent, as is the Bruckner symphonies set by Tintner.

Try the Kalinnikov symphonies by Kuchar, Alfvén's 4th Symphony by Willén, Bax' 3rd by Lloyd-Jones, the Marais & Sainte-Colombe album by Spectre de la Rose, Shostakovich's The Execution of Stepan Razin by Schwarz. The American Classics collection (Carpenter, McKay and others) is also well worth exploring.

 

[Henry Flower]

The Alfven was one of the first things I listened to - remembering DavidMahler's recommendation.

But thanks for putting me on to the Kalinnikov. Great stuff!

I'll throw another one in: Jan Levoslav Bella - one of the great Slovak composers

. There are three discs of his music available on Marco Polo, and the quartet in c minor and quintet in d minor are excellent.

 

[Henry Flower]

I've been listening to some of the Barber over the last few days - just my cup of tea.

I also very much like the disc of viola music by Quincy Porter on the Dorian label, which is in the same vein; following up on that, I found a few recordings of his works in the American Classics series you mentioned.

 

[Lex2]

Not sure if you can find this but Jascha Heifetz's early mono recordings in the 30s and 40s of some of the major concertos and sonatas are great listening material.

 

[Henry Flower]

Yes, the Heifetz recordings are on there. Not available in the US, but for once it's to my advantage to live elsewhere.

I listened to the Sibelius recording this afternoon, and liked it a lot despite the crackling.

 

[calaf]

when I was a member they had the Bach Cantatas series from Gardiner available. If it is still there make sure you listen to Vol 1, 8, and especially 13, and 22

 

[LarryK2]

I've been known to check Classicstoday.com for their 10/10 selections - see if Naxos has it. The Bruckner 7 with Haitink and Chicago (CSR) is excellent.

 

[Henry Flower]

calaf - wow! That'll keep me busy for a while. Even more so since while I was looking at those, I saw that the Suzuki cantatas from BIS are also available. I'm a big fan of his.

 

[calaf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Flower /img/forum/go_quote.gif calaf - wow! That'll keep me busy for a while. Even more so since while I was looking at those, I saw that the Suzuki cantatas from BIS are also available. I'm a big fan of his.

they have Suzuki as well? It's my turn to say wow!
A head-to-head comparison of the two should be a great way to spend a rainy afternoon or two...