The pieces in this album represent the Miró Quartet’s artistic home in many ways. The four works include two new commissions for the Miró by Kevin Puts and Caroline Shaw, as well as works by George Walker and Samuel Barber. The concept of home and our complex relation to it is woven in a variety of ways into all the music in this album: this music invites you to feel, reflect, and engage in Miró’s world. This is Miró second album.

Polyphonic 14th-century Italian secular music seems to emerge out of nowhere in the history of music. Nevertheless, this tradition – which often goes by the name Ars Nova – fits seamlessly into the history of Italian culture. Our knowledge of it has been pieced together from relatively few sources, which nevertheless reveal three distinct phases. In its first phase, Italian Ars Nova spread out from universities, including those of Padua and Bologna, which had strong links with the dominant and contemporaneous French Ars Nova. In the second phase, the centre of 14th-century Italian polyphony seems to shift markedly to Florence. The final phase, which bridged the late 1300s and early 1400s, shows the influence of intense cultural exchange brought about by an international circulation of musicians and poets caused by the political instability of the papacy’s return from Avignon to Rome and the consequent heightened mobility among the various courts and their entourages.
This phase is reflected in such sources as the renowned Squarcialupi Codex. Compiled in Florence around 1415, it contains over 350 compositions (madrigals, ballate and cacce) and is the source of the majority of the tracks on this album. Francesco Landini (c.1325/35–1397) is represented by five of his 141 ballate and the virelai ‘Adiu, adiu dous dame’. Also from the Codex are one ballata by Andrea da Firenze (c.1350–1415) and two ballate and a caccia by Antonio ‘Zacara’ da Teramo (1355–1416). Three instrumental tracks complete the album, two of them from the ‘London’ Manuscript (British Library) compiled in Florence, probably in Medici circles. In addition to mostly polyphonic music by Landini and other Florentine composers, this tome features several anonymous instrumental works including the lively dances ‘Chominciamento di gioia’ and ‘Tre fontane’. The madrigal ‘Aquila altera’ has a different background entirely: the version presented here is the instrumental arrangement found in the Codex Faenza, a unique volume assembled in the early 15th century containing around 50 Italian and French polyphonic compositions for organ.

Navona Records is proud to present MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET; the world premiere recording of renowned composer Leonard Bernstein’s long-lost work. Composed by an 18-year-old Bernstein during his studies at Harvard; the piece has been steadfastly shepherded from its re-discovery to this historic release by former Boston Symphony Orchestra Librarian John Perkel; and is performed here by Lucia Lin; Natalie Rose Kress; Danny Kim; and Ronald Feldman. “Movement I” and the newly-discovered “Movement II,” which was found within the U.S Library of Congress; are accompanied here by the seldom-recorded duo piece Elegies for Violin and Viola by composer Aaron Copland; a musical mentor; collaborator; and dear friend of Bernstein’s.

Isabella Lundgren - vocals
Carl Bagge - piano, music arrangements
Musica Vitae - string ensemble

On the 20th of January 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of America. In his speech, he said: “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America”. With those words, he echoed the lyrics from the song "Pick Yourself Up," written by Dorothy Fields in 1936.

Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904– March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote over 400 songs, 15 Broadway musicals, and 26 films. Her strong characterizations, precise language, and heartfelt and humorous approach have granted her a special place in the history of American music and popular culture.

This album is a love letter to this remarkable woman who was way ahead of her time.

Stellar violist Anna Serova pays homage to Sir William and Lady Walton, and to ‘La Mortella’ – the beautiful garden they created at their home on the island of Ischia. The album features Walton’s Cello Concerto transcribed by Serova for viola, plus three new works by Italian composer Roberto Molinelli dedicated to La Mortella; World Premiere Recordings.