Klaus Heymann, Mr.  Naxos and patron saint of cheap-but-good CDs, touched
down in SF today long enough to mention a few highlights of summer and fall
releases:

* A `sensational' (he says) `Fidelio,' with Inge Nielsen and Goesta
Winbergh, Michael Halasz conducting the Eszterhaz Orchestra (which, I
guess, is a pickup orchestra of Budapest Opera and Philharmonic players?)

* `Alceste' and `Orfeo' from the Drottingham Festival.

* `Werther' from Lille.

Otherwise, Heymann's focus is on the American Classics series:  with
25 CDs out already, to generally good reception, he is planning for an
open-ended recording project of American music (where else but from a
German music-lover who lives in Hong Kong and New Zealand?!), `perhaps
up to 200-200 CDs.'

Virgil Thomson's three symphonies are coming out on one CD, James Sedaras
conducting the NZ Symphony.  Barber and Gould have several more CDs coming.

I didn't have a chance to ask, but I presume plans for the complete
Liszt (75 CDs) and Scarlatti (25) are ongoing, along with emphasis on
Lutoslawski, Stravinsky, Bartok, the complete piano music of Schumann and
Schubert, all Monteverdi madrigals, all Haydn trios (now that the quartets
have been out for some time), lots of Scriabin, Dohnanyi, Schnittke and
Gubaidulina.  That's one busy label.

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