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Naxos CDs with Great Sound

Naxos Classical CDs with Great Sound

The Naxos label was started by Klaus Heymann 16 years ago " with no great ambitions other than making classical recordings available on CD at a price comparable to that of LPs." Sixteen years later Naxos has become "the world's leading classical label in terms of genuine new releases and of available, unduplicated repertoire." Many good judges, including Mr. Heymann himself, have been astonished at the phenomenal growth of this amazing budget-priced record label. There is no question that today Naxos is the leading classical label in the world in terms of the ambitiousness and adventurousness of its catalog and its ongoing recording program.

Earlier Naxos recordings, as you might expect of budget-priced cheapies, were not particularly distinguished for their engineering (and occasionally not for their performances either). But the Naxos recordings of recent years have sometimes leapt to the forefront of the competition, not just in terms of repertoire and quality of performance, but even in terms of quality of sound. I've been astonished at how good the sound is on some of them; the excellence of their engineering has proved to be an unexpected bonus and delight. I'd like to invite anyone to name Naxos recordings that you have found outstanding for the quality of their sound. And to get the ball rollling, here are my three candidates, all three of which have demonstration-quality sound and first-class performances of enjoyable music (and all three have received multiple rave reviews in the music press). (Perhaps it's not a coincidence that all three recordings are of orchestras in Great Britain?)

1. William Schuman, Violin Concerto, New England Triptych, Variations on "America." Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Jose Serebrier, conductor, Philip Quint, violin. The sound is absolutely breathtaking, in the top demonstration class; in my experience recordings of symphony orchestras don't get any better than this.

2. Sir Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 6, Into the Twilight, Summer Music. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones, conductor. Marvelous transparency and openness, full frequency range and wide dynamic range; every detail of the colorful orchestration is clearly heard, with never a hint of hardness, harshness, or congestion.

3. Sir Arthur Bliss, A Colour Symphony, Adam Zero Ballet. English Northern Philharmonia, David Lloyd-Jones, conductor. Again, superb sound.

Now, what are your Naxos candidates?

texasdave
texasdave OP
144 posts
 
I'd like to thank everyone who has posted. Here is one more suggestion, a recent Naxos release of a small baroque ensemble, delightful music, great clarity and transparency of sound.

Wassenaer, Concerti Armonici. Aradia Ensemble led by Kevin Mallon.
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Great Chopin and Brahms piano music by Idel Biret, 1st rank performances by a very talented, but relatively unknown artist. She also plays transcriptions of Berlioz Sym F. and Stravinsky's Firebird and some Rachmaninoff. Excellent at any price. Another lesser known, but equally talented artist is Maria Kliegel, who plays the cello in the Dvorak Concerto and Popper romantic cello showpieces. Highly recommended (by me anyway!). Try some of the Barber discs in the American composer series - excellent performances and sonics.
calanctus
151 posts
 
Tireguy, thanks to you for your recos--I'm getting the Bach sonatas for violin and harpsichord.
Also Texasdave's reco of Wassenaer, Concerti Armonici.

The prices on these sure are right!
texasdave OP
144 posts
 
I'd like to second Newbee's recommendation of the Barber CDs on Naxos. I have the four Barber orchestral CDs with Marin Alsop conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. All are excellent and have first-class sound. They same is true of the Bax cycle of symphonies and tone poems with David Lloyd-Jones conducting the Royal Scottish NO: all excellent and all with fine sound. (The Bax cycle is being completed this month with the release of Symphony No. 7 and Tintagel.)
I find the Naxos catalog particularly strong in 20th-century British composers: Bax, Britten, Walton, Vaughan Williams, Bliss, Rawsthorne. All of these that I've tried have been good. If you have the 2003 Naxos catalog, it identifies recordings that have received favorable reviews, tells you where the review appeared, etc. I've tried just buying the ones that have several good reviews, and as far as I'm concerned this has worked well, because I've been pleased with every one of these I've bought.
texasdave OP
144 posts
 
I'm returning to this thread to recommend the recent Naxos CD of Ned Rorem, Three Symphonies. This is an outstanding recording on all counts: music, performance, and sound. Recorded in 2003, to commemorate the composer's 80th birthday, it was nominated for Grammy awards for Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album, and has received glowing reviews. These three symphonies are succinct and pithy; their musical language is tonal, eclectic, conservative; they are accessible and immensely attractive; their moods range from power and vigor to playfulness and lyricism, and they have passages of considerable eloquence and beauty. The performances leave nothing to be desired, and the sound is state of the art: open and transparent, with wide dynamic range and full frequency range. Thanks and congratulations to Rorem, Serebrier (who wrote the excellent liner notes), the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, producer/engineer Phil Rowlands, and wonderfully enterprising Naxos for a magnificent CD. At the Naxos price, this one's a no-brainer.
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