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I'm looking at some of their CDs because of their bargain price. How are their pianists (Jando, Biret, Glemser etc)?

Jando has been solid in everything I've heard from him. I don't know about Glemser. Biret's good if you ever need a recording of Brahms' 51 Exercises.

Jando and Biret play the complete EVERYTHING, nothing terribly well IMHO.-not familiar with the other. However there are many excellent pianists on Naxos. I listen on Real Rhapsody which has many Naxos issues. If you don't mind listening on the computer and have a decent sound system you can preview them. I never download (too expensive) but can listen any time . There is a free trial and is $10 a month- a bargain if only in not having to waste money on disappointing performances. HR

I have Jando's Mozart concerti, Glemser's Schumann and Scriabin, and Beret's Boulez, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff.

I like Jando and Glemser.

I don't like Biret.

I feel the same way. I don't know why, but I'm not a fan of Biret's playing.

Jando is excellent, especially in the Brahms/Schumann Piano Quintets or the Bartok Concertos.

Me neither.

Her Brahms does nothing for me.

i don't like jando at all...... his beethoven is pityful

Seriously.

He does almost the entire second movement of Beethoven op. 53 without pedal. Some decisions I can understand, but pedaling in that piece is controversial enough to begin with.

For me, Rubsam's Bach discs on Naxos have been an absolute treasure. I could try to describe his playing, but let me instead share the recollections of Bradley Lehman, someone on a Bach mailing list to which I subscribe who has seen Rubsam in concert:


"I was living in northern Indiana through the 1980's and between 1985 and 1989 I heard him play several Bach concerts. (Local artist: he lives just east of Chicago.) I had got to know some of his earlier recordings around 1983-4 through my organ teacher, who had studied with him. Hearing those got me hooked on collecting any of his recordings I could find, and it was a great treat to hear him play live.

In the organ concerts he played everything from memory, which is somewhat rare for an organist; the only notes he had were a single sheet of the registrations he'd worked out for that particular organ. His playing grabs the attention from the first few notes, and holds it all the way through...but he does it with rhythm, articulation, and phrasing, not through being loud. He expects the listener to pay attention, and he rewards it...the listener's mind comes in quietly and respectfully to join Rübsam for the improvisatory experience through the music. There are unexpected things happening all the time, even if one already knows the notes. Let's discover this wonderful piece together, bring yourself to it....

During that time he also did some lectures at the annual Goshen College summer workshop for piano teachers, offering his views on how to interpret Bach on the piano. Piano teachers already have views about how to do that, so Rübsam was there to challenge them to think in new directions. At his evening concerts he put his words into practice (tough audience: a group of piano teachers!). Unless I'm remembering the year incorrectly (might be 1985 or 1987), the first of those was in summer 1986, just after he'd got back from recording the French suites/Italian concerto/Chromatic F&F in Germany in April (the set Don reviewed). That's what he played in the evening concert I heard. I'd never heard Bach played that way before, and it startled me, but it quickly captivated me. The concert hall seated several hundred, but instead of "projecting" the music to every seat he played very quietly. We had to listen closely to hear him, and that focused the experience. The music was never fast or flashy, even in the chromatic fantasy. He made every moment count, and we all waited with him through every silence. It was mesmerizing. And what flexibility! He had total control of the space. He projected an introverted side of Bach, fresh and attractive. Certainly not the only way to play Bach, but a very nice one.

It's like the old saying: to really get someone's attention, whisper.

A further startling thing was: I'd played that organ and that piano hundreds of times, and had heard many other people play them too, so I thought I knew what they could do...but Rübsam made them both sound like completely different instruments. His focus was that strong, his touch that different."

I have several friends who have recorded for Naxos. They pay about $1000 for the recording with no royalties. Talk about slave wages. Almost without exception, they are excited by the oppurtunity, then later wonder why they wasted their time.

holy wow. that's sad.


I have the Shostakovich preludes and fugues on Naxos (recorded by Constantin Scherbakov)and as far as I can tell it's a good recording. Really enjoy listening to it, but I'm probably not the best judge because I don't get to hear too many recordings. However, I can tell you that the Vaughan Williams disk in their English Song Series (it's the third one in the series) is REALLY good! Vaughan Williams wrote some of the best vocal music. It's definitely worth checking out if you like that sort of thing.

Some of the big competitions (Cleveland , Kapell, Hamamatsu,London, etc) include
in their prize package a debut CD recording on Naxos.- I guess it's a good oppurtunity

I have actually never heard Biert or Jando - But I like Kun Woo Paik's Prokoffief concertos on Naxos.

I guess I'm the only one who likes Biret. *shrug*
but I REALLY like her playing and, like Jando, I have to give her credit for versatility. I don't like everything she plays but there are many times that I've enjoyed her playing. Jando's Liszt is worth a listen he's a fine pianist also. I spent the $20 on naxos.com to listen to all their cds online. the quality isn't perfect but anytime I want to hear something I haven't heard or something I don't own I can just go there and give a listen.

That is awful.

That's IT!?!?!?! Good lord!

koji (STSD)

You'd do it and you know it.

Seriously though, it's garbage pay, but Naxos is widely distributed and I'd bet most of the musicians do it for the exposure more than the pay.

I love Naxos. Cheapest CDs around .

Scherbakov and Jando are both fine pianists with immense repertoire, and play some things very well. In some pieces, though, I get the impression that they are just sight reading (very well) in the recording studio. I get this vibe with Ashkenazy as well.

I like Jando in Schubert. Also, Scherbakov is impressive as is Glemser's concerto recordings. The complete Liszt series has pretty good players, too.

My brother is an organist and has recorded 5 CDs for Naxos. Three in the complete Marcel Dupre series, one of Saint-Saens (to be released in '05) and one just recently of Guillmant works. From the outset he accepted the fact of their policy of a flat fee per disc. But, for him the low fee and lack of royalties have not been an issue -he has a good faculty position that pays the bills. Practically no organists can make a living touring and recording alone unlike topnotch international pianists. Making recordings has been an opportunity to get his name and performances out to the general organ-appreciating public. I've never heard him say that making the Naxos recordings was a waste of time.

if they pay each pianist more than that, wouldn't the Naxos CD pricing go up tremendously?

I like Jando's Liszt. The Biret is OK. Rubsam playing the Inventions/Sinfonias is awful (IMO)--I like the Janos Sebasteyn (sp.?) better on those. Jando's playing, for the most part, seems good and solid--not out of this world, but certainly, definitely, not bad. It amazes me that anyone could play as many things as he does and be able to play them with any passable skill.

I subscribed to the Naxos radio program; only $9.99 per year. It is not really a radio program. They just play their cd's over-and-over. I like it for the most part. You get about 20 stations to choose from and you can always find something you like. I enjoy the "historical recordings" section the most.

Reminds me of stories of the old blues greats like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell who recorded whole albums for $25.00 and a stetson hat.

I love Biret, but i've only bought her recordings of Chopin and Rachmaninoff. For Chopin, Biret is ideal IMO. She has superb interpretations of his works, i haven't heard her Brahms and the others mentioned.

Glemser has an execellent Recording of all 4 of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos.

I saw her play live at Mannes, the Op.25 etudes. She has a lot of works in her repertoire, and her Boulez sonatas are not too bad, although I prefer Pollini for the 2nd.

I agree. I was thrilled with Kun Woo Paik's Prokofiev concerti- they are very well done. I don't know if he has recorded anything else with Naxos.

lmao

Biret is spread WAY too thin...

Apparently she pretty much has the entire repertoire ready to go on short notice.

Yes, Biret's repertoire is huge. She has always been a lightening fast learner. In her younger days when she was assigned two Bach Preludes and Fugues by her new teacher. She got all 4 pieces memorized and voiced in one single day. She did astounded her teacher the next morning by playing on the teacher's grand piano like a pro, all from memory. In the middle of this she still had time to enjoy a young girl's usual play time and stuff... At least that's what I read years ago.

I enjoy her playing quite a bit even though her pianism carries this Gypsien waywardness that I normally don't link to classical repertoire...

She was a prodigy and a prize student of the famous Nadia Boulanger.

I like Biret's Chopin set, but I haven't heard her doing anything else.

$1000?

The artist should participate in the profit. IF the set doesn't sell, the artist does not get anymore income, if it sells, then they get more.