Composer Rutty has carved an original niche into classical music by blending Argentinean tango, electronic, and classical elements into a cohesive whole. The title track, Conscious Sleepwalker, has received widespread critical acclaim, being called “a terrific curtain-raiser” (Boston Globe) and “amusing…an immediate test of the ensemble’s mettle” (New York Times). Rutty is a Copland Fund grant recipient and worthy contender of experimental music of the 21st Century.

Kravchak, Heinen, Marinescu, and Rachmanov bring their varied experiences to the table to create a dynamic and versatile group whose collaboration led to the creation of a new subgenre of chamber music. On this album, the ensemble performs special commissioned works.

On Paper Clips, trombonist Malloy proves the instrument's capabilities of being a driving force and, along with pianist Rojahn, it's collaborative appeal. An unabashed champion for the trombone, Malloy commissioned each work on this album specifically to expand the often overlooked instrument's repertoire. These works cast the trombone in a new light, presenting it as a tool fit for expressing emotional, lyrical, and melodic passages.

Paradigms features six composers of varied backgrounds and styles and a broad sampling of contemporary works for orchestra.

Lock and Key opens the door to discover harmonious, melodic chamber works tied together by a shared understanding for the most treasured aspects of humanity. Offering a variety of styles illustrating the growth of classical forms, Lock and Key serves as a concise collection of contemporary works for small ensemble.

With works described as “an inspired creation” (Music & Vision), “original and quite brilliant” (Fanfare), and “immensely poetic” (Tempo), Jonathan Little has established himself as a luminary contemporary composer. On POLYHYMNIA Little is able to transform traditional influences into rich, intense, and finely structured music that lives up to his reputation. POLYHYMNIA features Polyhymnia and Terpsichore, two orchestral pieces from Little’s Nine Muses series, along with the powerful Fanfare, the atmospheric string quintet Sacred Prelude, and the 60-voice Kyrie.

CAUSAL DUALISM, Kramer's 2nd full-length release on Navona, is a celebration of dichotomy and relationships between all things, drawing inspiration from Tibetan Buddhism and the Indonesian, Bambuti, and Armayan musical cultures.

Paul Paccione and Navona Records are pleased to present Paccione's latest album, MUSIC FOR PIANO. This collection of solo piano pieces was composed especially for noted pianist Jenny Perron. Paccione's compositions are carefully crafted to highlight and build upon Perron's unique gifts as a musician. The music featured on the album moves freely among various shades of coloristic harmonies, with a through line of lyricism running throughout. This is particularly true of Book of Hours, a series of musical meditations inspired by the centuries-old prayer ritual. MUSIC FOR PIANO invites listeners to contemplate the unique collaboration between composer and performer found in this collection of solo piano performances.

Navona Records presents VIRTUOSO, a collection of works by Frederic Chopin performed by piano prodigy Dmitry Ishkhanov. Featured on this album are the pieces Ishkhanov cites as Chopin's most meaningful: the four Mazurkas of Op. 17, the Nocturne in C sharp minor of Op. 27, and the Etudes of Op. 25, considered by many as one of the most challenging repertoires to master. Ishkhanov approaches these works with Chopin's intentions in mind, conjuring a smooth singing voice from the piano in contrast to the instrument's percussive nature. Ishkhanov performs a fresh iteration of Chopin's work with integrity and finesse in this recording.

Alen Bonde: Sound Spectrum

The Society of Composers, Inc. continues its decades-long mission to promote and disseminate contemporary music on DRIFT, the 34th installment of the SCI Composers’ Series. DRIFT marks the 10th album in the series to release on Navona Records, and SCI continues to curate new works by luminaries that span generations. This year’s album features pieces by 10 composers, whose compositions and instrumentations interweave and contrast to highlight the absolute breadth of styles that make up the fiber of contemporary music. Chin Ting Chan ponders ancient star interpreters through a wind ensemble, and Bradford Blackburn transforms poetry into music to document life in reverse. Philip Schuessler calls upon the performers to explore the contours of their instruments as they follow a uniquely notated single-line stave, and Daniel Adams pits clarinet against bass clarinet to explore the instruments’ contrapuntal relationship. Timbral variety is the focus for Tianyi Wang’s depiction of a dark rite, which leads to Paul Paccione delving into minimalism with uninterrupted droning and resonance. Mary Claire Miller’s electroacoustic work conjures the simple pleasure of playing cards on summertime evenings, then Andrea Reinkemeyer uses baritone sax, percussion, and piano to represent the beautiful-yet-violent life cycle of the luna moth. Allen McCullough’s piece for solo piano breathes musical life into a classic children’s tale, and Joo Won Park closes out the album with a guitar-voice duo representing the effects of hunger. As their track record shows, SCI is no stranger to innovatively blending genres, and DRIFT is no exception.

With SUMMER'S DISTILLATION, Joseph Summer, as composer, offers a new look at the timeless texts credited to William Shakespeare. As artistic director, Summer presents settings by Brahms, R. Schumann, and Benjamin Pesetsky, curating an overall impressive collection of works for voice, harp, and horns. Sonnets V and VI for voice, horns, and harp is raw and unfiltered-in a complex tonal language which illuminates stark text is the foreground. Sonnet CIV is an art song for mezzo soprano wherein the harp accompaniment plays the role of a lute or acoustic guitar. It is simultaneously heavy and graceful. Sonnet XCI for voice and horns, on the other hand, is regal and declamatory. Sonnet LXXIII for vocal ensemble, harp, and horns paints a dark forest scene-a cacophony of textures as soloists take turns, yet no voice or instrument is background. Finally, Sonnet CXXXIII, a duet for tenor and soprano against the scene painting of harp and horns, is a complaint about the interminably long delay between Summer's proclamation of adoration for his (eventual) wife, Lisa Summer, and her prorogued agreement to accept his offer of love. If by Your Art from The Tempest is a through-composed soprano aria with atmospheric harp accompaniment. The harp's echoed scale fragments guide the thoughts of the actress-starting in pain and finishing in sweet respite. O God, That I Were a Man from All's Well That Ends Well is a monologue running the gamut of emotions, from "I would eat his heart in the marketplace" to "she is undone." This is balanced by music of centuries later, with Robert Schumann's Drei Ges�nge (Three Songs), Op.95, for soloist and harp, presenting settings of texts by Karl Julius K�rner and three of the Hebrew Melodies by Lord Byron. Some of the highest inspiration for this album is Brahms' Vier Ges�nge, Op.17.

Their fourth release with Navona Records, OPENINGS by the Jitro Czech Girls Choir and conductor Jirí Skopal presents the rich beauty of the Czech Republic’s national dances, folk texts, and songs for audiences around the world. Composer Bohuslav Martinu believed that music holds the power to open our minds to a new, transcendent understanding of time, nature, and tradition. The first piece on OPENINGS, Primrose does so with buoyant joy. The bright, airy timbre of the children’s choir is radiant, with lyrics that conjure up pastoral images of the beautiful Czech countryside. From the Czech word “petrklíc,” Primrose symbolizes Saint Peter’s key which opens the earth each spring as the ice and snow of winter recede. Next comes Songs for a Children’s Choir, composed by Martinu in Switzerland during 1959—the last year of his life. The piece borrows texts from collections of Czech folk songs and poetry, employing the tight, sculpted harmonies of Jitro. The album’s final track, Opening of Spring, relates the story of a springtime queen, laden with flowers, followed through the country hills by a procession of townspeople. OPENINGS is an apt title for this newest album by the Jitro Czech Girls Choir, not only because of its focus on spring and renewal, but also because it offers a portal through which listeners of all backgrounds may appreciate and enjoy the beauty of Czech culture. With technical precision and infectious exuberance, the girls of Jitro lovingly offer the songs and stories of their people to all who listen.

ÆTERNUM is a tribute to music's infallible steadfastness against the mundane adversity of human existence. Brazilian-born pianist Eliane Rodrigues convinces with her forceful, furious interpretations of keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven – among them the latter's Fifth Symphony, grippingly arranged by Rodrigues herself. Rodrigues, who currently teaches piano at the Antwerp Conservatoire, is well-known for her prolific output of recordings. ÆTERNUM stands out not only for its celebration of Beethoven and his respected predecessor J. S. Bach, but also for the pianist's ability to uncover the hidden layers of well-known repertoire pieces. The listener encounters a Beethoven of unparalleled vehemence, but also, hauntingly, sees the veil lifted from Bach's sublimity, usually hidden in plain sight. When it comes to the struggle of the limits of individual existence with its desire for the eternal, this is the clearest example one could imagine. The secret star of the album, however, is Rodrigues' Brahmsian arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The pianistic interpretation of her own arrangement is strikingly Romantic, not Classical: there is no trace of the straight, light-fingered piano technique of the era, but instead a truly Late-Romantic force which is quite appropriate for the subject. Beethoven, who himself was known for his powerful playing style, might very well have approved. But Rodrigues goes even further and infuses her rendition with an abundance of late 19th-century rubato, driving the music to an awe-inspiring frenzy. It's a truly futuristic approach, and possibly how the composer might have imagined his works to be played, had he lived half a century later. ÆTERNUM, Latin for "everlasting," pays appropriate tribute to this years' jubilarian Beethoven and his great proto-colleague J. S. Bach: the works on this album have stood the test of time, and it's not unlikely that Rodrigues' interpretation thereof will as well.

Although Arnold Schoenberg is often seen as a composer strictly concerned with pitch, his interests in timbre and sonority are ever-present in all five of his completed piano works. On Schoenberg Piano Music And His 17 Fragments, pianist Yoko Hirota performs three of Schoenberg’s completed works along with the 17 fragments that he never brought to completion. Hirota, praised as being “precise and keenly projective” and demonstrating the “highest level of proficiency,” is one of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano repertory, and she brings Schoenberg’s compositions to life with conviction. The three pieces that make up Drei Klavierstückes op.11 demonstrate Schoenberg’s burgeoning awareness that, as a corollary to the atonal structures he was beginning to use, more emotionally stringent use of the piano made for fertile musical ground. A close examination of the 17 fragments illustrates the composer’s preoccupation with and research into expressivity and color in his piano music — elements that are communicated clearly in Hirota’s performances. The evolution of Schoenberg’s musical thought can be clearly traced in the fragments, which were written throughout the first quarter of the 20th Century. The influence of Brahmsian piano writing is evident in the first four fragments; by the time he had composed the ninth, his demand for articulation had become predominant. The twelfth fragment contains a character dissimilar to both his previous works and fragments, in that the harmonic language is rather tonal and in the vein of Prokofiev’s works. Schoenberg’s priority was the expression of music in the creative process. Through this album, Hirota does not only demonstrates Schoenberg’s care for expressivity in music. She highlights the fact that other pianists should strive to present this color and expression in the performance of Schoenberg’s works, in order to deliver a performance that is both rich and true to the composer’s intent.