Naxos Records

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Naxos Records
Naxos Records logo.jpg
Parent companyHNH International [1]
Founded1987 (1987)
Founder Klaus Heymann
Genre Classical, jazz
Country of originChina
Official website naxos.com

Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock and roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong. [2] Since 2009 Naxos has distributed Blu-ray discs, streaming web radio, and podcasts. Naxos allows members of subscribing public libraries and music schools such as Hong Kong Public Libraries, Auckland Libraries, Wellington City Libraries, and Toronto Public Library free streaming of Naxos classical and jazz collections.

Classical music broad tradition of Western art music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western culture, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. While a more precise term is also used to refer to the period from 1750 to 1820, this article is about the broad span of time from before the 6th century AD to the present day, which includes the Classical period and various other periods. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period.

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".

World music is a Western musical category encompassing many different styles of music from other parts of the globe. It includes many forms of music that Westerners consider ethnic, indigenous music, folk music, neotraditional music, and music where more than one cultural tradition, such as non-Western music and Western popular music, intermingle.

Contents

History

The company was known for its budget pricing of discs, [3] with simpler artwork and design than most other labels. [4] In the 1980s, Naxos primarily recorded central and eastern European symphony orchestras, often with lesser-known conductors, as well as upcoming and unknown musicians, to minimize recording costs and maintain its budget prices.

In more recent years, Naxos has taken advantage of the expiring copyrights of other companies' studio recordings by selling discs remastered from gramophone records. Examples include the complete recordings of opera singers such as Enrico Caruso, Amelita Galli-Curci, and Titta Ruffo and the 1934 world première performance of Howard Hanson's opera Merry Mount . Legal restrictions prevented some of these recordings from being sold in the United States. Naxos has also recorded the music of contemporary composers, including Leonardo Balada, Bechara El-Khoury, Laurent Petitgirard, and Alla Pavlova. The label has branched out into jazz, world music, and books on musical subjects. Naxos Spoken Word Library contains non-music products, such as audiobooks and radio dramas. [5]

Copyright is the exclusive right, given to the creator of a creative work, to reproduce the work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States. Some jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders. These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.

Enrico Caruso Italian opera singer 1873-1921

Enrico Caruso was an Italian operatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. One of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded, Caruso made approximately 260 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, which made him an international popular entertainment star. All of these recordings, which span most of his stage career, remain available today on CDs and as downloads and digital streams.

Amelita Galli-Curci singer

Amelita Galli-Curci was an Italian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most popular operatic singers of the 20th century, with her recordings selling in large numbers.

Since the 1990s, Naxos has recorded with British and American orchestras, such as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra English orchestra with a remit to serve the South and South West of England

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra with a remit to serve the South and South West of England. Founded in 1893, the BSO has developed a reputation as one of the UK's major orchestras and has worked with many of the world's leading composers, conductors and performers. Originally based in Bournemouth, the BSO moved its offices to the adjacent town of Poole in 1979.

Seattle Symphony American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington

The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra non-profit organisation in the USA

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily in the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, in Uihlein Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine Opera productions.

The company produces Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio, and Blu-ray discs. In 2003 it began a paid subscription service for listening on the Internet that offers its complete catalogue and the Naxos Music Library. [6] In 2015 it launched a high-definition download and streaming service, ClassicsOnline HD•LL, with a catalogue drawn from a number of classical record labels. [7]

Super Audio CD Read-only optical disc for high-fidelity audio storage

Super Audio CD (SACD) is a read-only optical disc format for audio storage, introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics, and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format.

DVD-Audio DVD format for storing high-fidelity audio

DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. DVD-Audio has much higher audio quality than most video DVDs containing concert films or music videos.

Internet Global system of connected computer networks

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.

Business model

Naxos generally avoids repertoire duplication. Because of that, its classical repertoire has broadened to include fringe works, such as the symphonies of Nikolai Myaskovsky, contemporary classical music, and the works of lesser-known composers, such as Alexander Glazunov and Louis Spohr. It has produced a series of little-recorded works, such as the American Classics series, Canadian Classics series, Japanese classical music, Jewish-American music, wind band music, film music, and early music, many of which are première recordings.

Nikolai Myaskovsky Russian composer

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky or Miaskovsky or Miaskowsky (Russian: Никола́й Я́ковлевич Мяско́вский; 20 April [O.S. 8 April] 1881 – 8 August 1950, was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the Soviet Symphony". Myaskovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize five times, more than any other composer.

Contemporary classical music is classical music relative to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. Newer forms of music include spectral music, and post-minimalism.

Alexander Glazunov Russian composer, music teacher and conductor

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. The best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich.

Distribution

Naxos Global Logistics, based in Poing near Munich, was founded in 2008 [8] to expand the services offered to its distributed labels, including manufacturing, marketing, and licensing. [9]

Awards

In 2005 Naxos won the Label of the Year Award [10] at Classic FM/Gramophone awards.

See also

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Carlos Damas Portuguese musician

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References

  1. ↑ Who is HNH? Naxos Classical
  2. ↑ Anson, Philip (2 September 2002). "Naxos at 15: An Interview with Klaus Heymann". www.scena.org. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "WQXR interview with Naxos Records founder Klaus Heymann". New York Public Radio. 25 November 2012. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Klaus Heymann interviewed by National Public Radio.
  5. ↑ "Labels". naxos.com. Naxos. 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Heymann interviewed by Gramophone". MA Business and Leisure Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  7. ↑ Everard, Andrew (6 January 2015). "Naxos launches new high-definition music streaming and download service". Gramophone . Archived from the original on 13 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "Naxos Global Logistics on the Classical:Next website". C:N Net. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "Company Profile". NGL Naxos Global Logistics GmbH. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  10. ↑ Jury, Louise (2005-09-29). "Conductor dropped by record label returns in triumph with Bach award". The Independent . Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016. The label of the year award went to the bargain-priced record company Naxos, which was praised for its 'visionary zeal'.
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