Showing results by author "Naxos" in All Categories

When Beethoven was a young man, he was known as a brilliant pianist and a brilliant composer. But he didn't really have a happy life. He was born in the German city of Bonn and he gave his first public concert at the age of seven. But his father was very strict and made him practise for hours every day. When he was in his 20s and already famous, he began to go deaf. Imagine how awful that was for such a great musician: to him, music was getting softer and softer, until he could hardly hear a thing.

The 150 Psalms contain some of the most inspiring lines in the Old Testament: Psalm 23 "The Lord is My Shepherd" and Psalm 121 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills". Yet few know them as a set, and this recording, in Alex Jennings' clear performance, allows us to consider them as a whole. They are not all uplifting and comfortable. Many involve darker sentiments of revenge or punishment; many appear to be by David or about David; others are To the chief Musician upon Gittith.

A mysterious knight all in green arrives at King Arthur's court and issues a bizarre challenge. Gawain answers the knight - but at what cost? This new translation keeps all the poetic power of the original's extraordinary alliteration. One of the greatest stories of English literature from any period, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a magical, medieval combination of the epic and the uncanny.

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky was just five when he started learning the piano – in his small home-town in Russia. Most families like his had a piano but very few small boys could play it so well. Then he started writing music, too. Ideas for new music poured out of him, especially wonderful tunes. He wrote a lot of music for ballets as well as for big orchestras and small groups of instruments, such as string quartets (two violins, one viola, one cello).

A selection of some of the most famous fairy stories which every child needs to foster their imagination. The following stories can be found on this title: "The Story of the Three Little Pigs", "The History of Dick Whittington", "Beauty and the Beast", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Puss in Boots", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Ali Baba", "The Brave Little Tailor", and "The Princess on the Glass Hill".

Watch an expert violinist pick up the violin, place it under the chin and draw the bow across the strings, making music sing in the air: it seems so easy and natural. Actually, it can feel rather awkward at first! Where do I put my fingers for different notes? And how can I do it as well as pull the bow smoothly so it makes a nice sound? It seems so difficult!

There are different kinds of piano. Some are big and some are small. But they all have one thing in common: a keyboard with white keys and black keys. On this recording you can hear some of the best piano music written by famous composers. It is played by very good pianists. These pianists started to learn the piano when they were young children. They all like playing the piano better than anything else!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most famous composers. When he was only three years old, he played the harpsichord and the violin. At the age of four he was making up his own music. He was so young that his father had to help him write it down. When he was six years old, Mozart and his older sister Nannerl were giving concerts to kings and queens and emperors. And Mozart wrote new music all the time, even when he was sitting in bumpy coaches travelling through Europe.

There is a BIG hall filled with hundreds of people. They are just getting comfortable in their seats when the musicians walk onto the stage, carrying instruments. There are the string instruments: the violins, violas, cellos and large double basses, which are heavy to carry. Everyone is silent. All the musicians are looking at that stick, with their instruments ready.

This traditional scene has inspired many composers and musicians all over the world. Every country has lullabies, and classical composers have had direct experience of the lulling effect, remembered from childhood or felt as parents. They have written music to sing, to play, to hum. Sometimes it is music specifically for the bedside; sometimes it is to evoke the atmosphere in the concert hall; and sometimes it is to tell a story on the stage – in a ballet or an opera.

This is ballet, the classical dance that, once seen, is never forgotten. Even though today we have film and video games, ballet is still a powerful vision of beauty and excitement. The dancers use the strength of an athlete, the balance of a gymnast and the sensitivity of a violinist to tell stories through their dancing. Here is some of the best music which has propelled dancers for hundreds of years.

Naxos Classical Spotlight explores the world of classical music. Along the way host Raymond Bisha shares the stories about the music, and the musicians who make it.

Naxos: Esto es música clásica es un podcast con comentarios en español, sobre novedades, grabaciones y entrevistas a músicos y artistas dentro del ámbito de la música clásica.

A witty, bawdy, erotic but classic collection of poetry designed to celebrate the most sensual of human pleasures. Over the ages, many poets have put pen to paper in celebration of that most raw and yet most beautiful of human instincts - erotic love. This anthology includes verse by Herrick, Marlowe, Jonson, Byron, Verlaine, Whitman, Yeats, Cummings and, from our own time, John Betjeman. All aspects of erotic love are to be found in these poems - from the bawdy to the sensuous and tender.

From the very start of the recording era, the radio, the 78 and LPs have produced an unforgettable list of Classic Children’s Favourites. Here, on this unique audio compilation, are many of the finest, performed by great stars of the past. Danny Kaye presents "Tubby the Tuba" and others; Spike Jones sings "Old Macdonald Had a Farm", Harold Fraser-Simpson is "At Buckingham Palace" (with Christopher Robin). There is "The Runaway Train", "The Owl and the Pussycat", and many more.

The theme of revelation is apocalypse: the end of the world and the coming of Christ in judgment. The date of the composition was probably some time in the 90s A.D. One of the most controversial and quoted texts of the New Testament, The Revelation of St. John The Divine has inspired and troubled artists, poets, and seers through the ages.

Here are the greatest and best-loved stories from the Old Testament of the Bible, stories which can be read as much for their human, literary, and historical appeal as for their religious meaning. The selection ranges from childhood favorites like David and Goliath, to key moments in Jewish history (such as Exodus), and also includes some of the finest poetry in the Old Testament (the Song of Solomon, for example).

The New Testament tells the extraordinary and moving story of the life of Christ and the founding of His Church. This generous selection from the texts which lie at the root of 2,000 years of European civilization ranges between the powerful sincerity of the Evangelists and the ecstatic vision of John's New Jerusalem.

베토벤이 젊은이였을 때, 대단한 피아니스트이자 작곡가로 이름을 떨쳤죠. 하지만 행복하게 살지는 못했어요. 독일 도시 본에서 태어나 일곱 살 때 첫 공개 콘서트를 열었는데요. 아버지가 아주 엄격해서 매일 몇 시간동안이나 연습하도록 시켰다고 해요. 20대가 되어 이미 유명해져 있을 때는 청력을 잃기 시작했고요. 그런 위대한 음악가에게 그게 얼마나 끔찍한 일일지 상상해 보세요: 그에게 음악 소리가 점점 약해지더니, 마침내 거의 하나도 들리지 않게 된 거예요. 이제 자기가 연주하는 소리를 들으려고 불쌍한 피아노를 점점 더 세게 내리치게 됐답니다. 성격도 나빠지고요!

아주 커다란 공연장에 사람들이 수백 명 앉아 있어요. 저마다 자기 자리에서 편한 자세를 취하며 이리저리 둘러보고 있는데, 악기를 든 음악가들이 무대로 걸어 들어오네요. 현악기들이 있어요: 바이올린, 비올라, 첼로, 그리고 아주 무겁고 커다란 더블베이스도요. 금관악기들도 있어요: 호른, 트럼펫, 트럼본과 튜바요. 목관악기들도 있답니다: 플루트, 오보에, 클라리넷, 바순이죠. 퍼커셔니스트들도 무대로 올라오고 있네요. 근데 악기를 들고 있지는 않아요.