Naxos Direct Classical Music Blog

On June 30, Opus Arte releases Marco Polo, Tan Dun’s first full-length opera, for which the composer won the coveted Grawemeyer Award in 1998. Recorded live at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, in November 2008, the production is directed by Pierre Audi, and features Charles Workman, Sarah Castle, Stephen Richardson, Nancy Allen Lundy, Zhang Jun, Tania Kross, Stephen Bryant, and Mu Na. The composer himself leads the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Cappella Amsterdam. Bonus material includes a documentary entitled The Music of Tomorrow, which includes interviews with the creative team and principal cast members.

Marco Polo premiered at the Munich Biennale in 1996, with subsequent performances at the Holland Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, New York City Opera, and Settembre Musica in Turin. When questioned about his choice of subject, Tan Dun replied: “It’s a ripe subject for the times and global culture … My personal experience as a traveler from East to West is similar to Polo’s from West to East. I thought the best thing was to draw on my own experience, on my feelings about culture and about the idea of journey. Marco Polo is a symbol of journey, of travel from past to the future, from external space to internal space, from one medium to another. All crossover journeys excite me, and Polo is a great excuse to explore them.”

Tan Dun and librettist Paul Griffiths designed their opera in many layers and have divided the figure of the Traveler into two parts, Marco and Polo; Marco represents the external figure of the Venetian explorer, whereas Polo is his inner being, his memory. They are united only at the end of their journey, when they fuse together into one person. The opera comprises three parallel journeys: one physical, one spiritual, one musical.

Naxos announces a new partnership to distribute North/South Recordings, an innovative, nonprofit classical concert and recording organization based in New York City. The partnership launches with two new releases from the label, largely dedicated to supporting and promoting works by living composers: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, featuring North/South founder Max Lifchitz at the piano, and Harold Schiffman: Orchestral Works, featuring The Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mátyás Antal, and guitarist Katalin Koltai.Founded by pianist and conductor Max Lifchitz, North/South Recordings is dedicated to new music, particularly derived from the concert activities of its parent organization, North/South Consonance, Inc., which supports the performance of works by living composers. Founded in 1980, North/South Consonance has sponsored annual concerts both in New York City and abroad, premiering over 850 works by composers from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. The recording division, inaugurated in 1992, brings the music of composers and performers championed by North/South to the attention of listeners worldwide.

The first new release, Moods, features five piano works by four diverse American women composers performed by Max Lifchitz. The recording takes its title from Marilyn J. Ziffrin’s piano suite of the same name, composed in 2005, and also includes her Sonata for Piano (2006). Also featured is Arecibo Sonata by Elizabeth Bell, deemed “one of our country’s leading composers” by American Record Guide. Ms. Bell composed the sonata in 1968 and revised it in 2005; Mr. Lifchitz premiered it in 2006 and performs it here in honor of Ms. Bell on the occasion of her 80^th birthday. Next, Mr. Lifchitz performs Rami Levin’s short work, Passages (2002), on which the composer remarks: “The music describes the joy of bringing a new life into being, and the mixed emotions of a parent watching an offspring gain independence and go off into the world.” The release concludes with four short melodic works by Rain Worthington: Hourglass, Tangents, Dark Dreams, and Always Almost (1991-2001).

Regarding the highly varied repertoire on this disc, Mr. Lifchitz comments, “The featured works approach the keyboard in diverse ways. Ziffrin combines stylish rhythms and harmonies with easy-to-understand formal structures. Bell’s striking harmonic choices and undulating melodic lines create arresting tension and drama. Levin’s work is an impressive tour-de-force for both performer and listener. Worthington’s musical language—simple and direct—rewards the listener with a seemingly endless chain of surprising melodic discoveries.”

The second release from North/South Recordings features a collection of orchestral works by composer Harold Schiffman (b 1928). In addition to performances in the United States, ensembles have presented Mr. Schiffman’s music in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Mr. Schiffman studied composition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of California at Berkeley, and Florida State University. His principal composition teacher was Roger Sessions, and he later found an influential mentor in Ernst von Dohnányi. Appointed to the faculty of Florida State University College of Music in 1959, Mr. Schiffman served in this capacity until 1983 and was designated Professor Emeritus two years later. He also was founding director of Florida State University’s Festival of New Music in 1981.

Composer Nino Rota is best known for his more than 150 film scores. His thirty-year artistic relationship with Federico Fellini led him to be one of the most identified film composers of the twentieth century. Rota also worked with filmmakers such as Luchino Visconti, Eduardo De Filippo, Mario Monicelli and Francis Ford Coppola (which won him an Oscar in 1975 for “Best Original Soundtrack” for The Godfather, Part II).Recently however, a sizeable catalog of Rota’s concert music has been discovered. In June, Chandos and Concerto are releasing recordings that celebrate the discovery of Rota’s vast and newly revealed catalog of works and also to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the gifted composer’s death in 1979.

Nino Rota completed four symphonies in his lifetime. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 are found on a recording to be released by Chandos on June 30. Performed by Marzio Conti and Orchestra Filarmonica ‘900 del Teatro Regio di Torino, Rota composed his first two symphonies simultaneously in the latter part of the 1930s. At this point in his career, Rota’s style had officially evolved into one that was unmistakably melodic. Rota purposely avoided any sort of musical extremism or experimentation in these two symphonies only hinting vaguely toward well-balanced modernism. The composer’s musical language remains neoclassical throughout while also staying true to his own ability to create a landscape in sound.

Also in June, Concerto presents three rarely-recorded Rota masterpieces performed by director Enrico Bronzi and I Musici di Parmi. The recording includes Rota’s Concerto per violoncello with Enrico Bronzi as soloist and conductor and Concerto per Archi (presented here in the revised version from 1977). The Trio con clarinetto of 1973, features Alessandro Carbonare (clarinet) Alberto Miodini (piano) and Enrico Bronzi (who form the Trio di Parma). 

Founded in 2002, the Chamber Orchestra, I Musici di Parmi, brings together musicians who collaborate with the most important orchestral institutions both in Italy and abroad. Created with the intent of exploring a musical world directed at rediscovering unpublished musical scores and popularizing the work of important musicians, I Musici di Parmi has a wide-ranging repertory that runs from Baroque to Classicism, right up to the best of 19th century chamber music. Working with the I Musici di Parmi both as a soloist and as director, Maestro Enrico Bronzi’s collaboration has become stable over the years. Thanks to the originality of their programs and the musical and artistic quality of their performances, the orchestra has established itself in the Italian musical world, receiving the unanimous praise from critics and public alike.