Saturday 9 August 2008

Naxos is a pretty marvellous record company; along with Harmonia Mundi, the two companies seem to provide most of my purchases of new recordings (as opposed to re-issues of old recordings). With Naxos one can admire the price, the daring repertoire choices, the consideration for purchasers over 30 in having track details etc in large type, the absence of scantily-dressed bimbos on CD sleeves, the "no delete" policy, etc. I have just really enjoyed what is apparently Volume One of a complete two-volume set of the music for violin & piano of Nikolai Medtner. Talented violinist is Laurent Kayaleh (I have never heard of her, but she plays a lovely Guarneri violin of 1742 that used to belong to Carl Flesch). At this price, one can buy without too much hesitation. And the third violin and piano sonata of Medtner is well worth getting to know -- alongside such large and mainly unplayed sonatas as those by Alkan or Lekeu.

Naxos, Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion are all record companies founded and run by music-loving men who were more interested in repertoire and recording than they were in "stars" and profits. Imagine EMI, DGG, Sony, RCA or the old American Columbia bringing out a two-volume Medtner set!

3 comments:

oisfetz said...

Yes, I've Medtner 3 son.plus 6 short
pieces by late Alexander Shirinsky
with Dmitri Galynin on piano. But
you won't like it because he was
russian, and we all know that you don't like russian school much.

Harry Collier said...

No, I don't like Russians. Only Heifetz, Seidel, Elman, Kogan, Sitkovetsky, Mullova, Milstein, Bezrody, Repin, Ibragimova .. and a few others !

oisfetz said...

Well, there's always exceptions to
every rule. But you don't like the
Oistrakhs (the three of them)!