Naxos Music Library at InstantEncore

I've always been a fan of the Naxos Music Library. Two of the top labels for Villa-Lobos are Naxos and Marco Polo, and then there are independents like BIS, Albany Records, Chandos, and Ondine. Many public libraries (including mine) license NML for their customers, but a personal subscription is also definitely worth the money.

I also really like another, newer web service: InstantEncore. Their Villa-Lobos page is turning into an important web source, and they're constantly adding new features.

The newest feature is exciting: many upcoming concert listings at InstantEncore include a "Listen Now" feature in partnership with the Naxos Music Library. Here's an example: the Boston Symphony Chamber Players will be playing the Quinteto em forma de Choros at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival on June 28th (my birthday, as it happens). You can listen online to the NML streaming audio of the Villa-Lobos work, as well as the Poulenc and the Beethoven works in the same concert, without a subscription.

I'm looking forward to using this service in the future.

New Villa-Lobos Re-Issue

I was pleased to see Naxos beginning to look to historic recordings of Villa-Lobos music in their Classical Archives. The disc above, Joseph Battista's 1953 recording of the Cirandas for MGM, showed up today in the great Naxos Music Library. I'm looking forward to listening to this carefully in the near future.

I've seen the LP on eBay in the past, but never expected it to show up on CD. I know that Naxos has been praised for their restoration work, and I look forward to a relatively positive sonic experience when I get the CD. The pieces I've heard so far sound fine with my (library's) "Near CD" bitrate on NML.

Joseph Battista is an American pianist and scholar who was born in Philadelphia in 1918, and who died in 1968. There's a page on the Latin American Music Center's website about Battista and the Cirandas disc, and more about his life at this Joseph Battista Memorial Fund page.

It's nice to have this CD issued in time for the 40th Anniversary of Battista's untimely death.

A postscript: if you're not a Naxos Music Library subscriber, get on down to www.naxosmusiclibrary.com. Or ask your public library if they have a subscription for their library members to use. Every Villa-Lobos lover should have access to this great resource. Just in the past two weeks there have been four or five new VL CDs added.

Another postscript: the disc has shown up on the Naxos download site Classics Online. $3.99 will buy you the entire disc in 320 bits per second MP3 files - a real bargain!

New Choros CD on BIS

I'm enjoying listening to the new BIS Choros CD , with pianist Cristina Ortiz, and John Neschling conducting the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. This is the first disc in a projected BIS series of the complete Choros. Some people think that the series of 13 Choros (or 14 or 15 or 16) is Villa-Lobos's greatest group of works. I'm inclined to think so, myself.

This is my second post on this CD this month; today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the Naxos Music Library. People in Red Deer can access this excellent resource through Red Deer Public Library's subscription; check to see if your local public or academic library subscribes on your behalf. If not, you can always get a personal subscription; they're very affordable.

NML gives you access to more than Naxos and Marco Polo (as large as those two labels loom for Villa-Lobos lovers!) There are many, many independent labels on NML, like BIS (recently named the Label of the Year by Midem). It's great to be able to listen to this music even before the discs are available to buy. The new BIS disc hasn't showed up yet on the main BIS site, and isn't up on Amazon.com yet, though you can buy it at Presto Classical in the UK.

And Choros #11 is certainly worth listening to!

Speaking of pianist Cristina Ortiz, who also shines in this CD in the solo Choros #5 ("Alma Brasileira"), I've been checking out the Concert Diary on her website. She's certainly a busy pianist, and a great advocate of the music of Villa-Lobos.

She takes Bachianas Brasileiras #3 on a long, long road trip this spring, with stops in Ljiepaja Liepaja, Latvia for the 16th International Piano Stars Festival, in Riga, Talinn, Vilnius, Bergen and Palma, Spain.