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?