On Great Southern Land, Phillip Chase Hawkins’ debut album, a unique symbiosis exists between the trumpeter and renowned composer Brendan Collins. The result of their cross-continental collaboration showcases Hawkins’ virtuosity in both duo and trio settings. Originally from Spartanburg County, SC, Phillip Chase Hawkins is the Principal Trumpet of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2013. He is also a member of the Fountain City Brass Band based in Kansas City, MO and Saxton’s Cornet Band from Frankfort, KY. His previously held positions include Visiting Professor of Trumpet at Centre College in Danville, KY from 2012-15, Interim Professor of Trumpet at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY from 2012-13, Extra Musician with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester, NY from 2008-10, Extra Musician with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011-14, Principal Trumpet of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria in 2012, University of Kentucky Faculty Brass Quintet from 2010-2014, and the Lexington Brass Band from 2010-15.

International folk dances and Western film scores meet in Gentle Winds, a richly tonal collection that is as pleasing to hear as it is to perform. With the melodic, songlike phrases that highlight each instrument equally, one can hear the joy emanating from every performer. Each piece moves through syncopated rhythms that add lift and airiness without feeling contrived. Inspired by international folk dances, where uneven rhythms are a natural element, Livingston’s compositions create a sense of energy as each measure leaps from its final beat to the first beat of the next. Gentle Winds, the title track featuring flute, oboe, clarinet, and horn, opens the album with a pleasant, smooth sound through which one can almost picture meadow-grass gently swaying in a summer breeze. In The Old Man is Dancing, the flute, clarinet, and oboe effortlessly hand the main theme back and forth, as if taking turns on the dance floor. Call to the Mountains reflects the influence of classic Western film scores, with the flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon responding to the rich call of the horn. Quiet Summer Night for string quartet and clarinet follows a similar structure to The Old Man is Dancing, passing the melody through the quartet to the second violin and viola -- instruments often delegated to less interesting sections. This equal inclusion of each instrument creates a full, rich sound that delightfully carries listeners from the opening moments of a piece all the way to the lingering final notes. Lyrical, joyful, and lighthearted, Gentle Winds is the epitome of feel-good chamber music. Every instrument shares an equal voice, coming together in a performance that is as timeless as it is breathtaking.

Navona Records welcomes Cappella Clausura, directed by Amelia LeClair, to the family with their new release of the choral works of Hilary Tann, entitled EXULTET TERRA.

For the first half of the album, LeClair and Tann juxtapose Tann’s works for women’s voices, a cappella, with pieces by Hildegard von Bingen, in soaring arrangements by LeClair. The second half is the Exultet Terra suite of five movements for double choir and double reed quintet of English horn, oboes, and bassoons. Tann uses a double choir to provide occasional antiphonal effects, and chooses the double reeds for their “earth-like combination, since reeds are like grasses.” Tann is known for taking inspiration from nature in her works.

Tann cites Hildegard von Bingen, recognized as one of the first female composers, as a special influence on these compositions: the responsory O Deus is from von Bingen’s medieval opera Ordo Virtutum; the chant begins with two consecutive fifths, rising immediately to the 9th of the mode. Such leaps were unheard of in that era, and in chant repertoire in general. Tann quotes that first phrase of O Deus in some form in all works here but The Moor. In addition to paying homage to one of the first female composers, Tann sets texts by Anne Bradstreet, widely considered North America’s first published female poet, for both Contemplations (8, 9) and Contemplations (21, 22).

Tann follows a theme of setting texts by poets of her native Wales. The second track, The Moor, is a setting of a poem by Welsh poet R. S. Thomas, along with phrases from the Bible. The Welsh hymn Rheidol by Ieuan Gwyllt is echoed as a coda to the piece. Exultet Terra, translated as “Let the Earth Be Glad,” allowed Tann to set her favorite biblical verses and combine them with three favorite poems by the Welsh metaphysical poet and Anglican priest, George Herbert (1593-1633).

This combination of Tann’s drawing inspiration from old texts to create these ethereal choral works and LeClair’s unique arrangements and passionate interpretations, makes Amelia LeClair & Hilary Tann’s collaboration supremely beautiful and unique.

With two critically-lauded releases on Navona Records, pianist Eliane Rodrigues returns with Reflets, showcasing the pianist’s nuanced and thoughtful performances of fifteen works by Claude Debussy. While it might seem that child prodigies are commonplace in the world of classical music, only a few truly make a lasting impact, one that lives on long after those prodigies have passed well into their adulthoods. Mozart began to play piano at the age of three, Beethoven did so at seven and a half, and Georges Bizet did so before his tenth birthday. Pianist Eliane Rodrigues, who began composing at three, played her first recital at five and first performed with an orchestra when she was just six years of age, can certainly be counted among those prodigious musicians, as evidenced on her latest recording, Reflets. The album opens with “Suite Bergamasque,” one of Debussy’s most well-known piano suites. The dynamic contrasts in the moods of the suite’s four pieces are well suited to Rodrigues’ sensitive and vivid style. Debussy is credited as one of the ‘founders’ of Impressionist music, distinguished by its focus on suggestions and atmosphere, a world that Rodrigues also inhabits here, as evidenced by her cascading and powerfully textured performance of Debussy’s “Ballade.” “Pour le Piano,” certainly one of the composer’s most moving works for solo piano, features rapid, brilliant passages that fully emphasize the pianist’s virtuosity. That impressionistic ability to invoke a mood or a feeling carries on with “First Arabesque in E Major,” one of a pair composed early in Debussy’s career. “Images,” comprised of two ‘books’ of three pieces each, ranging from the subdued “Homage à Rameau” to the energy of “Mouvement,” marked by the torrent of notes in its finale. Eliane Rodrigues was born in Rio de Janiero, where the performances that she gave in her childhood bore fruit when she was awarded the Gina Bachauer prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in the United States at only 18 years of age. She has gone on to perform internationally, as well as to hold the position of professor at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp.

Chicago-based composer Ross Crean’s opera The Great God Pan soars in this new release, the first collaboration between the composer and PARMA recordings. The Great God Pan takes its story from an eponymous 1890 novella by Welsh author Arthur Machen, which explores themes of scientific hubris, transcendental medicine, and unexplainable supernatural behavior. Impressively, Crean adapted Machen’s narrative into the work’s libretto himself, an ambitious and rare undertaking for a composer. Crean’s familiarity with the story shows through in the emotional resonance of his music, which matches and communicates the character’s concerns and feelings with unflinching precision. The key to Crean’s musical portrayal of the story is twofold. First, beginning with the overture, much of the opera’s accompanimental music is defined by pulsing ostinato ideas. This characteristic is inviting to the listener and draws us into the musical world of Crean’s opera. More importantly, the relentless quality of these rhythms wordlessly establishes the ominous mixture of tension and mystery at the heart of The Great God Pan’s narrative. Second, Crean’s text setting is extremely clear, so the story is conveyed with crystal clarity in this recording. Without giving too much away, the tale at the heart of The Great God Pan begins with a surgery gone wrong. The first character we meet, Dr. Raymond, has invited the opera’s protagonist, Clarke, to witness an important experiment based in elements of non-traditional, ancient rituals. Dr. Raymond sacrifices his wife Mary as the subject of his attempt to access a higher spiritual plane – referred to as, “seeing the Great God Pan” – and unwittingly initiates a serious of mysterious supernatural occurrences that Clarke encounters over the next few decades. This recording represents a chamber version of Crean’s opera that includes a full cast of ten superb vocalists and a pair accompanying pianos. The piano parts yearn to be orchestrated, and, in many moments, the listener can easily imagine the lush mixture of brass, strings, woodwinds, and percussion Crean will employ once he has the opportunity to fully orchestrate the piece. With this said, the performance on this album never neither feels incomplete, nor does it ever lack any intensity it might enjoy in a full production. This owes to the excellent quality of the album’s vocal performances, and to Crean’s ingenuity in composing the accompanying piano parts with the sounds of strumming and plucking, which combine to make the music that much more vibrant. Ross Crean is a multifaceted artist, composing and active in many genres of music. As a vocalist, he has studied rock, opera, and many disparate vocal styles. He received his degree from Illinois State University in Music Theory/Composition and has worked with or received commissions from Oberlin College, Opera on Tap Chicago, and Loyola University Museum of Art. Crean’s song cycle, A Passive-Aggressive’s Guide to Mother Goose, was a 2016 winner of One Ounce Opera’s inaugural Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song competition.

Observing the landscape of contemporary classical, one might assume that the art music community has shifted its focus away from the melodic, harmonious, and accessible. CONVERGENCE, an album of works by David Nisbet Stewart and George Gershwin, presents just the opposite: imaginative, expressive works that appeal to performers and audiences alike. Alongside Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Stewart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and Suite for Piano-Brass Quartet prove that contemporary composers can maintain stylistic integrity with a broadappeal. Enhanced content includes study scores.

The Phoenix Ensemble’s latest album Johannes Brahms / Elliott Carter: Clarinet Quintets is, of course, masterful. The Phoenix Ensemble now looks back on almost three decades of being a fixture in the national chamber music scene, focusing on performances and recordings of 20th- and 21st-century music. Indeed, it may be this particular specialization in complex musical structures that allows the musicians to explore Brahms' late quintet with the previously unheard thoroughness and careful reconnaissance displayed on this album. Strikingly, both faster movements in the work – the opening “I. Allegro” and the closing “IV. Con moto” – are examined more slowly, with deep profundity. Contrary to what one may expect, the work is enriched by reining in the tempo, enlarging the underlying thought process of Brahms' compositional technique as if viewed through a magnifying glass. But there's yet another artistic merit to this measure – unifying all four movements of Brahms’ quintet in terms of speed also makes them fit perfectly with the otherwise vastly different Clarinet Quintet (2007) by Elliott Carter, a work that consists of movements which blend into one another. The ensemble's previously restrained rhythmic energy is fully unleashed in this structurally dense contemporary composition, culminating in an enigmatic finale. In between, the listener finds the most delightful intermezzo in Carter's standalone piece Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux (1985), in itself, as the title suggests, a work of contrasts, thus bridging the gap between the centuries. But the work, and indeed this album, accomplishes more than that. In fact, with Phoenix Ensemble's two-fold skill of navigating of dissimilar musical languages, yet finding the common denominator between them, this record might just open up the eyes of Brahms lovers to the music by Carter – and vice versa.

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REVIEW:

The playing in the Carter quintet is assured and confident, as one would expect from contemporary music specialists. This is also a slightly different team from that in the Brahms. I have no complaints about the recording. The disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve rather than a jewel case and the booklet notes, in English only, are printed reversed out (white lettering on a dark ground), which does not make for easy reading. If the programme suits, don’t hesitate.

– MusicWeb International

A stroll along the Seine – Notre Dame reflected in the waters below – the Eiffel Tower illuminated in evening skies – bistro conversations echoing in the streets of the Left Bank. + Parisian scenes such as these come to mind when listening to the nuances of pianist Kathryn Goodson’s debut Navona Records release, Belle Nuit, a collection of works from La Belle Époque and beyond, with arrangements for piano and wind instruments. + Ms. Goodson & friends express the imagery of love, loss, and passion through works by Debussy, Duparc, Fauré, Franck, Messiaen and more.

Trio Celeste presents this delightful new album of pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonin Dvorak, and more. The most intriguing aspect of this album is the work Constellations: Variations on a Theme by Beethoven, which features ten variations by various twentieth century composers. Trio Celeste is violinist Iryna Krechkovsky, cellist Ross Gasworth, and pianist Kevin Kwan Loucks. The group is based in Southern California and has been hailed as “A first-class ensemble... These players mesh well and easily as a group, thinking, breathing, and moving as one. The performance was patient, perfectly paced, and seamless.” - Timothy Mangan

American Dreams features 20th-21st c. chamber works by four veteran American composers of considerable note: Peter Schickele, Kenneth Benshoof, Bern Herbolsheimer, and Janice Giteck. Called the “Saint Helens adventurous four” by the Seattle Weekly, the St. Helens String Quartet makes a practice of commissioning and performing works by 20th c. composers and has appeared at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival as well as other festivals and venues in the Northwest. Guest pianist Lisa Bergman is also a national award-winning radio announcer on Classic KING-FM in Seattle.

On his debut Navona Records release, ALL THE WAY BACK, pianist and composer Vytautas Smetona presents a collection of keyboard repertoire that highlights his enthralling and committed interpretations of some of the great composers' masterworks as well as an example of his faculty as a cultivated and dynamic composer.

The pieces on this album offer Smetona technical feats and expressive themes, all of which the pianist handles with ease, determination, and eloquence. From Bach's lyrical and joyous Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Major, BWV 848 to the somber and dramatic range of Liszt's Funerailles (October 1849), Smetona evokes passion and refinement in his performances. The technical mastery of works such as Brahms's Intermezzo in B-flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2, Schumann's Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17, and Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 is handled by Smetona with sophistication, lucidity, and powerful passage work. Smetona shows us a balance between accurately playing the notes on the score and interpreting the feeling between them.

Poetry and music have often been described as "beautiful sisters" in the European tradition, and American composer Benjamin C. S. Boyle sets out to prove just how harmonious this kinship can be. Owing to pianist and art song expert Laura Ward as well as to a selection of top-class singers, these elaborate yet easily accessible vocal compositions are resplendently brought to life on SPIRITS OF BONDAGE. The lyrics underpinning this double album are often fantastical, but Boyle prudently renounces any notion of musical pomp and instead sets them in an agreeably-reduced, crystal-clear tonal language. Ward and her high-carat assortment of vocalists empathetically, wisely oblige and perform them likewise – and the result is magnificent.

Contemporary music needn’t sacrifice order and aesthetic appeal, even when it deals with complex issues. A glowing example of this is BORN: THE MUSIC OF EDIE HILL AND MICHAEL GILBERTSON, with conductor Donald Nally leading GRAMMY-winning professional chamber choir The Crossing on a breathtakingly beautiful expedition into themes of extinctions, relationships and their complexities, loss, and love. Throughout this splendid amalgamation of Hill’s and Gilbertson’s ethereal, energetic, raw, and impactful compositions, the nuance of Nally’s conducting, and The Crossing’s superb expressiveness are ever-present. Singing that is transcendent and authentic.

On Fantasy for Violin and Piano, composer Benjamin Shorstein examines the age-old rules and conventions of musical form and structure and transforms them into inspirational foundations on which to build narratives. The improvisational Fantasy for Violin and Piano begins Shorstein’s story with an exploration of emotion and character, as each instrument formlessly weaves and wanders between themes—a sentiment that continues with Sonata for Piano, which extends the album’s musical worldbuilding, expanding upon an original theme that remains warm and sensitive as it gains intensity. The dance-based partita is also interpreted anew by Shorstein, as he uses the violin to explore the coexistence of melody and dissonance within self-expression.

Soprano Maria Clark and pianist Maria Thompson Corley navigate the intense emotion, scars of suffering, and religious passion in the hymns and gospels on SOUL SANCTUARY from Navona Records. Featuring empowering spirituals from the past two centuries, the duo brings to life religious songs that have stood the test of time and find deep relevance today. Arranged by Thompson Corley and recorded in Atlanta GA’s Peachtree Presbyterian Church, these spirituals, including "His Eye is on the Sparrow," "Wade in the Water," and "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," offer uplifting outlooks in the face of adversity.