Throughout history, music has overcome culture and borders to bring people together through a universal language. Shuying Li’s WORLD MAP—a collection of five mini-concertos for quintet—takes listeners on a journey around the world, opening their ears to music’s evolution as an international unifier. Each piece of WORLD MAP focuses on specific cultural events that are representative of different regions of the world. Over the course of the album, Li explores history through the lens of music and showcases her ability to interpret genres and idioms from the globe over. Matilda’s Dream brings listeners to Australia with a thematic interpretation of the classic bush ballad, “Waltzing Matilda.” The European leg of the journey is represented by The Dryad, a nostalgic piece inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the same name. American Variations takes things stateside with a set of variations based on quintessential American genres, including jazz, ragtime, klezmer, and pop-rock. Korean culture and traditional music are the focus of The Peace House, which draws its name from the inter-Korean Peace House. Canton Snowstorm gives the album a touch of surrealism with a pianistic depiction of a wintry weather in subtropical Canton. The Four Corners Ensemble performs on WORLD MAP, with each member serving as a featured soloist on pieces Li wrote to represent their cultural backgrounds.

On his Navona Records release Three Pastels, composer Carl Vollrath presents his three piano concerti, written between 2012 and 2015. Representing some of his most recent work, these concerti are connected to each other thematically, and in a way portray a different hue of the same color.

Vollrath prefers to regard these works as “pastels” since he approaches them with a functional intention, evoking imagery or scenery in an abstract way, allowing the listener to create their own interpretation. While written in a neo-impressionistic lexicon, these “pastels” are influenced significantly by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Bartók’s piano concerti, Eastern classical scales and folk music, and jazz piano. Performed by pianist Karolina Rojahn and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Petr Vronsky, the piano and various orchestral sections develop unique characteristics, supporting, contrasting, and complimenting each other. The piano’s lyrical personality weaves itself throughout the works’ movements, from sensual and controlled sections to frantic and spontaneous moments, employing jazz elements, chromaticism, and rhythmic emphasis to develop its narrative. Although these works have passages of dramatic flourish, Vollrath’s sense of lightheartedness remains a building block, placing ironic and witty phrases throughout to deliver a captivating, dynamic, and moving experience.

Composer Richard Thompson’s three-act opera presents the life behind the name of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the most prominent African American poets of the early 20th Century. This dramatic performance, inspired by the hundreds of letters exchanged between Dunbar and his wife, Alice Ruth Moore, removes the masks of fame and social identity to investigate the psychological realities of the people underneath. Driven by pivotal moments in the poet’s life, the chamber opera follows the arc of Paul and Alice’s relationship, from their courtship through letters, secret engagement and marriage, to their final estrangement and Paul’s death from alcoholism and tuberculosis at age 33. Throughout these moments, the audience gets a look behind the known storyline into the psychological challenges occurring beneath the surface for both Paul and Alice. Both characters grappled with the fact that they came from troubled relational backgrounds filled with abuse and apathy — much of which was translated into their own marriage. In addition, both struggled with their racial identity in a culture that generally judged and discriminated before it sought to understand. The dramatic tension of their personal relationship and story, fused with the broader questions surrounding identity, appearance versus reality, and grappling with the person in the mirror, makes this a moving story on the operatic stage. Captivating, challenging, and compelling, The Mask In The Mirror is a necessary look into fame and identity as seen through this hero of African American poetry.

Pondering the Baroque violin repertoire, one would be forgiven to think of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works and little else. Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes courageously sets out to change this preconceived notion with TELEMANN FANTASIAS, a rare and remarkable full performance of all of Georg Philipp Telemann’s solo violin fantasias. Telemann is to violinists what Mozart is to keyboard players: deceptively simple on paper, notoriously difficult to master in actuality. Bowes, never a stranger to a challenging repertoire, expertly articulates the cheer, spirit, and zest of these pieces with a strikingly light-hearted panache, as if it could be no different. Indeed, upon listening to this rendition, it is easy to imagine a future in which public performances of Bach’s pious partitas are habitually rounded off by Telemann’s buoyant secular fantasias. For Bowes, this future is now.

Alicia Terzian is a world-recognized, award-winning composer, conductor, and musicologist. She is on the faculty of the Fine Arts Academy of Chile and Spain and is the conductor of Grupo Encuentros, the official group of the International Encounters for Contemporary Music Foundation and the only permanent group in Latin America. The pieces leading up to Terzian’s masterwork create a nostalgic backdrop to the beginning of the album. The tangos pay homage to the decadence of Old Hollywood and the jazz age, but with a haunting touch added by the ghostly sound effects tucked within Cristal. Terzian’s own composition, Buenos Aires, you're going to kill me, is a four-movement work for piano with electroacoustic sounds and poems. Utilizing soloists, textured layering, and electroacoustic sound manipulation, the movements range from adventurous and lighthearted to eerie and dark, capturing the many different sides of a major city’s personality. The next piece is Jukka Tienssuu’s Tango lunar, an instrumental quintet with an equally rich melody. Malena, too, is remarkable: this 1940’s tango by Lucio Demare is beautifully sung by Marta Blanco. Roque de Pedro’s thick and soulful, yet equally intimate In the bar as a tango was dedicated in 1989 to Grupo Encuentros. Un Argentino de vuelte begins as a delicate fantasy sonata for piano but is interrupted by the entry of the tango ensemble and a scat singer. Their melody becomes something of a ritornello. A solo flute drives the composition into power play against the vibrato of the bandoneon, which eventually wins, breaking down into a solo cadenza. The beautiful piano solo returns followed by an occurence of the ritornello. Next is Los Mareados, a powerful Spanish anthem; followed by Verano Porteño, a trio for violin, cello, and piano. Closing the album is Llamado de Tambores, a work for instrumental sextet and voice, which includes a piano solo, a romantic vocal solo, and a bandoneon solo.

Ten international composers showcase their respective styles on MOTO ETERNO, the latest installment of NAVONA's successful MOTO chamber music series. Like the previous MOTO releases, MOTO ETERNO is the result of a wide-ranging Call For Scores and a scrupulous selection process. Acclaimed piano trio Trio Casals (Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; Alexandr Kislitsyn, violin; Anna Kislitsyna, piano), masterfully perform their favorite picks. With its inherent innovation, zest, vigor and verve, MOTO ETERNO proves to be another triumph for the long running series: a journey full of musical twists and turns, at times soothing, at times furious, and highly immersive throughout.

The lineage of Western concert music is one which brims with tradition and history, through teachers and pupils, listeners and performers, spanning centuries and continents alike. But one of the common threads which runs through this lineage is the urge by composers, performers, and audiences to all be part of a transcendent emotional experience through music itself. “Music saves one note at a time,” says Kaviani. “Not by ending wars but by waging them in the name of beauty, nobility, and humanity against all that lies to, numbs, or crushes the human spirit. It saves not by eliminating hunger but by creating more appetite for enlightenment, transcendence and human civilization.” Kaviani’s Te Deum is a secular work which uses the original Latin text of the Christian hymn of praise and presents it through the lens of modernity. The piece in many ways exemplifies the composer’s humanistic, emotionally-driven approach in an invigorating celebration of art, life, and the forces beyond our own selves. A more recent work, Tous les matins du monde, written almost 10 years after the Te Deum, shows Kaviani as he is now, more mature, austere and more sensitive. Kaviani’s a cappella work is conceived and executed in a clearly contemporary style, with shifting moments of lamentation and contemplation juxtaposed with a profound sense of transcendence.

Harmony of Dissonance brings together, juxtaposes, and intertwines the disparate singing styles of the regions of Dalmatia, which remain stylistically and performatively distant even today. While these musical worlds present seemingly irreconcilable musical and cultural differences, they are all connected by polyphonic singing, which forms the core of this collaboration between the Harmonija Dissonance Ensemble and the Jazz Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Zagreb. The Harmonija Dissonance Ensemble turned to their experiences with renowned traditional singers as well as to ethnomusicological field recordings of the songs that are included on the album. The process of music making in the Ensemble is firmly grounded in the act of concentrated listening, guided by the goal of coming ever closer to the sound ideal of archaic traditional harmony. The Ensemble first performed this representative program of traditional singing in Zagreb in May 2017. The songs are musically intriguing and performatively challenging, reflecting both local specificities and the heterogeneity of expressions, styles, and genres. An initial recording of this performance then became the inspiration for composer Zoran cekic, who has translated ten of the songs into a series of instrumental miniatures which are woven throughout the album, performed by the Jazz Orchestra of the Academy of Music. On Harmony of Dissonance, the polyphonic singing of traditional songs from disparate areas of Dalmatia is given a second life in new and different interpretations which, while significantly distant from their original performance contexts, remain stylistically and melodically close to their source. These experiments with tradition, colored by the artistic expression of the latest generation of academic musicians, can present one possible answer to the question of what might happen on a contemporary journey in search of the traces of traditional singing.

4 RHAPSODIES from critically-acclaimed pianist Kristina Marinova and Navona Records is a collection of vibrant, dynamic, and technically demanding works for solo piano. The album’s titular piece, Four Rhapsodies op. 11 by early 20th-Century composer Ernst von Dohnanyi is rarely performed in concert given the level of musicianship it requires of pianists. Now, its combination of stark drama and dazzling virtuosic passages may be enjoyed by listeners everywhere. This impressive piece, along with works by the likes of Astor Piazzolla, Franz Liszt, and George Gershwin, makes for a varied collection of masterworks performed by the gifted hands of Kristina Marinova.

Longtime Navona Records artist Michael G. Cunningham showcases his penchant for storytelling on THREE THEATER PIECES AND CHOPIN, an album rife with theatrical wonders that delight both the ears and the imagination. THREE THEATRE PIECES AND CHOPIN opens with The Real Alice, a spoken narrative that tells the tale of the titular character from Lewis Carroll’s surrealistic masterpiece Alice in Wonderland. Rather than simply rehashing the well-known story, Cunningham draws us into the imagination of a real-life Alice, whose observations of her own day-to-day life inform whimsical daydreams represented by musical interludes. On My Name is Pinocchio, Cunningham presents another tale with narrative and interludes, this time musically illustrating the classic tale of the puppet who became a real boy. At the center of the album is Post Meridian, a jazzy, seven-movement ballet that whisks listeners away to a sweltering night in a 1930s Manhattan tenement district. Throughout each movement, a smooth saxophone captures the romantic struggles of late-night blazing heat, from residents seeking cooler air on fire escapes to the murmurings of sidewalk night owls to a full-blown skirmish with the police. On the final track, The Triumph of Chopin, Cunningham introduces his own take on Chopin’s Fantasie in F minor, Op. 49 by expanding the master’s piece for solo piano into a fanciful work for wind harmonia. This arrangement further highlights Fantasie’s free-flowing form and Romantic expression, and retains the structure of a self-contained movement that creates an imaginative, dramatic progression.

The Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra stuns with a new recording of Richard Wagner's three-act opera TRISTAN AND ISOLDE. Skillfully conducted by German conductor Robert Reimer, this new, vibrant performance is likely to claim its place as one of the reference recordings of Wagner's innovative work. As novel as the opera was in its time, it didn't go down well with all of the composer's contemporaries. Rossini quipped that while Tristan had great moments, it also had terrible quarter-hours. Worse yet, the author of Wagner's main inspiration was even less impressed: Arthur Schopenhauer, the ingenious German philosopher whose stoic advice to rebuff the animalic Will to Live for happiness's sake underpins large parts of the opera, sided with Rossini (incidentally the thinker's favorite composer). Unluckily for Wagner, it was impossible to discredit Schopenhauer's opinion as that of an amateur: the philosopher played the flute with virtuosic skill, understood music like few others, placed it at the top of all art forms in his philosophy, and justly became a favorite among musicians for his perspicacious assertion that music was one of the few things in which the essence of Being could very briefly be perceived, even if doing so wasn't possible otherwise. Modern-day Wagnerians will be happy to hear that conductor Robert Reimer and the Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra have a more favorable opinion of Wagner, performing the volatile composer's opera with great verve and conviction. It's a splendid pairing to be sure: a much sought-after conductor familiar with orchestras all across Europe, and a wonderful ensemble to do his bidding. This arrangement works to the favor of everyone involved. Some might wish this recording had existed 160 years ago.

Greg d'Alessio's Veil offers a cross-section through all the facets encompassing modern classical composition as well as an impressive portrait of the composer's unique voice and development over two decades. Veil’s chronological track order allows the listener to follow the progression of both the music and the man behind it. Veil and Thread are D'Alessio's early chamber works, very much reflective of the conviction and clarity characteristic of the young composer, built on a thoughtful yet passionate blend of traditional structure and instrumentation with experimental effects. Enter Sono Solo and the turmoil begins. Befitting the meaning of their Italian title, Sono Solo paints an accurate, solemn portrait of solitude, a soulful, introspective lament that is not without instances of enlightenment and self-assurance. Now's the Time picks up with a higher energy level, intertwining jazz rhythms and harmonies with D'Alessio's ever-present pursuit of a carefully constructed, airy musical architecture. Elements of it are still experimental – but now with the greater determination of a matured composer. After Ending forms the transcendent climax of the album. The two-part work contrasts a profoundly lyrical first movement with a strongly rhythmic finale reminiscent of Shostakovich's late symphonies. They, too, harken back to the stark contrast of the D'Alessio's early work, but now with the aplomb of someone who's confident that he has achieved mastery in his field. What stands out about Veil is the astonishing ease with which two opposing concepts are reconciled: The diversity of modern composition in its widespread applications, and the profoundly personal, individual journey of a singular composer.

Carl Vollrath's OLD AND NEW POETRY from Navona Records is a lovingly-prepared setting of the works of seminal poets William Blake and Sara Teasdale, as well as the contemporary writer John Gracen Brown. The verses chosen by Vollrath-including such varied selections as Blake's "The Fly," Teasdale's "Dusk In War Time," and Brown's "The Coming of a Summer Rainstorm"-all reflect the composer's belief in the interdependency of all life on earth. Employing piano, saxophone, and mezzo-soprano, Vollrath thoughtfully pushes tonal boundaries in response to the poetic language. The evocative performances captured on OLD AND NEW POETRY reveal the composer's intimate relationship with the text and offer listeners a compelling musical-literary experience.

The third installment of this trailblazing series again showcases contemporary choral music, and once more, it is mesmerizing – mesmerizingly tonal and aesthetic. Cantonese-born Kong-Yu Wong introduces the album with Three Lyrics of Lu Fang Weng. The work consists of a prelude and three choral works based on poems by the 12th-century Chinese poet, which are so timeless in nature that they might well have been written yesterday. The poetic theme is continued with Gitanjali 1, Scott Anthony Shell's interpretation of spiritual poetry by mystic Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. William Copper carries on the spiritual subject with his Ave Regina Caelorum, a beautiful example of compositional craftsmanship. Quite a unique take on what could be called a bel canto choral work, it dazzles with impeccable structure and intonation. Deborah Anderson is featured with two sublime compositions. Windows is a work for women's choir, based on a poem by a French priest. Colorado Prayer is scored for mixed choir and based on a text by a traveling minister. Mother of Exiles, written by Theresa Koon, aims not only to address the complex issue of immigration, but to offer a voice to immigrants who lack one. Hans Bakker strikes a philosophical note with Rat (English: "counsel"), based on a life advice-giving poem by little-known German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken. Even more metaphysical is his second featured work, Ich habe den Menschen gesehen (I have seen Man [in his deepest form]). Santiago Kodela's The Gulag Within may well be the most modernist piece on this album. Music at the Heart of Creation by Christopher J. Hoh aims to portray the centrality of music to both spiritual worship and to Life itself. Garth Baxter rounds off the album with Still Falls the Rain, a lyrical, powerful piece based on one of Edith Sitwell's best- known poems.

The piano trio Pangaea Chamber Players explores the fickle nexus between music and visual art in their Navona release THREE PERSPECTIVES. While the ensemble's flute-cello-piano setup might evoke ideas of Baroque music, there are no such reminiscences to be found. Instead, the young trio presents three new compositions by contemporary composers. Although recent works, all pieces on THREE PERSPECTIVES are tonal – perhaps owing to their descriptive, illustrative purpose. The album's title, after all, hints at the connections between musical and visual artistic expressions: music inspired by art, music inspired by artists, and art inspired by music. There's the beautiful cycle Reynolda Reflections by Dan Locklair, motivated by five artworks housed in the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Jennifer Higdon's American Canvas, inspired by three American visual artists like Jackson Pollock, and Ned Rorem's Trio which reverses the process: several visual representations of this piece were drawn by artists during performances and rehearsals – one of them can be admired on the album's cover. It is a challenging project, to be sure; but the Pangaea Chamber Players are more than up to the task. With great clarity, care and precision, these new compositions are brought to life not only as black-and-white sketches, but as colorful, refined masterpieces, truly representative of the visual artworks to which they are so intimately wedded.