Awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and described by the New Yorker’s Alex Ross as “...the loveliest apocalypse in musical history”, John Luther Adams’ majestic orchestral work Become Ocean is a thrilling exploration of depth, turbulence, eeri…
Though Holst learned of the discovery of Pluto four years before he died, it probably did not occur to him to add another movement, especially since the work's last section, "Neptune, the Mystic," ends in an other-worldly, ethereal fad…
"The KU Wind Ensemble has appeared on several other Naxos CDs. It is undoubtedly one of the top such ensembles in the United States, and the talent on display here is of professional quality. Conductor Paul W. Popiel leads crisp, precise, and i…
“Beside this, other recent violin concertos shrivel: this is a work that sings and soars with a visionary beauty rare in contemporary music. Against a vague, swirling background, the violinist enters on open strings. She’s tuning up for an incredibl…
"Chin's "Piano Concerto" opens with sparkling showers of piano, flute and high strings, developing a gently implacable tread of piano as orchestral colours grow more intense . . . it's the "Su for Sheng and Orchestra"…
Fazil Say is a polyvalent artist (classical and jazz pianist, compositor); he dedicates more and more time and energy to composition: after his disk Istanbul Symphony, he pays a tribute to his culture and middle-East with the symphonies Mesopotamia …
“[The Violin Concerto] is colourful and consistently engaging, filled with ear-catching textures, rhythms and melodies...The orchestra matches Kopatchinskaja's vigour and suppleness with incisive playing.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 **** Fa…
“Ge Gan-ru incorporates elements of traditional music and richly-scored late-Romanticism. Bezaly admirably meets the extraordinary demands of Meng Jiang.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2014 **** “For all of the gently artistry on show in the four-m…
"Banks has a genuine melodic gift... The LPO under Mike Dixon play sympathetically and often ardently, and the woodwind relish Simon HaleÝs many piquant touches of colour." --Gramophone, May 2004 "Fans of Tony Banks will be queuing t…
“a superb coupling of two strongly communicative contemporary works…which demonstrate Aho’s comprehensive mastery of rhythm, timbre and drama. Again, the performance is a definitive one and BIS's engineering breathtaking in its realism.” --Gramo…
"Two splendidly enjoyable modern concertos superbly performed and in the finest sound... Another magnificent recording from BIS and the Lahti orchestra, this time of very recent music." --MusicWeb International, October 2013 “Kuusisto…
“In Christian Tetzlaff, Daniel Harding and the Swedish RSO, Widmann has found suitably uncompromising interpreters, and the recordings are as unvarnished and wide in perspective as the music itself demands.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2013 “Widma…
“Ex-Genesis member Tony Banks in classical mode, each of the six pieces majoring on rhapsodic feeling and bold melodies. Blade, featuring the solo violin of Charlie Siem, is the most impressive.” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 **** “These six symph…