Japanese-Canadian pianist Yoko Hirota stuns with impeccable pianism on SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: MINIATURE PIANO PIECES. Originally recorded in 2009, this remastered edition brings out the intricacies of 20th- and 21st-century piano composition with a clarity that was previously unheard of. The first half of the album's track list reads like an exhaustive compendium of 1900's compositional celebrities: Schoenberg, Krenek, Ligeti, Berio. It's a brainy choice: the tracks on SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL aren't ordered by length, as one might intuit, but instead in geographical and roughly chronological order. Vienna's modernists may have laid the foundation, but North America's modernists took serial and atonal composition to the next level. And so, to do the matter justice, there is a splendidly representative selection of Elliott Carter’s oeuvre, along with pieces by Canadian composers - John Beckwith. Despite the immense differences in cultural background and era – the selection spans almost a century, after all – they are all united by one distinguishing feature: They are short pieces, with lengths between 31 seconds and six-and-a-half minutes. Yoko Hirota, who holds a doctoral degree in piano performance and currently teaches the piano at the Music Department of Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, plays all of these pieces with academic precision, regardless of their respective geographical or temporal provenance. A recording veteran with six previous contemporary albums under her belt, her grasp of the modernist zeitgeist is not only palpable, but extraordinary. And it shows: there is a subtle lyricism even where traditional harmonies clash, a sensitivity not just for the musical language of the era, but for the greater principles that underpin them. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL doesn't just serve as an index of contemporary piano composition and its roots, it's a worthwhile addition to a modernist record collection on merit of Hirota's powerful interpretation alone.
SMALL STONES showcases Dr. Nancy Zipay Desalvo’s exploration into both minute and immense concepts. Recorded on solo piano, DeSalvo performs the compositions translating the compressed beauty of Jason Tad Howard and the expansive universe of Daniel Perttu. In the first half of the recording, Howard’s set of nine “short shorts” feature songs all under the two-minute mark (with the exception of his final track, “Reconciliation: A Not Quite So Short Short Short,” which runs just over four minutes long). Despite their short run times, each composition is satisfying. DeSalvo makes the melodies twinkle and shine in multidimensions like small diamonds. Based around the pitch of “C,” each short short establishes its own character and technical approach while sharing the common thread of its pitch. The compositions ring with recurring themes in melody and rhythmic texture, coming together at the final “Short Short No. 9” which unveils a grand finale. Born out of a visit to Stonehenge, Perttu’s compositions expand on the pebble of a simple vision into a larger, more complex structure. In her ambitious, emotional performance, DeSalvo is translating Perttu’s pursuit to achieve full comprehension of the mystical nature surrounding one of the Natural Wonders of the World.
The Crossing has partnered with composer Kile Smith on several uniquely idiomatic works, spanning nearly a decade. But Navona Records’ THE ARC IN THE SKY, Smith’s 2018 setting of journal entries and poems of Robert Lax, is epic - an hour-long tour de force of thought and feeling that traverses topics ranging from Louis Armstrong to Jack Kerouac, and from Jerusalem to the shores of the island of Patmos. The enigmatic Robert Lax presents a fascinating aggregate of paradoxes: friend to Thomas Merton and the Beat poets; urbane yet reclusive; at times whimsical, at others blissful. Smith’s music for unaccompanied choir meets these words fearlessly, building great waves of majestic sound next to fragile threads of contemplation, with a broad spectrum of musical and poetic influences based on Lax’s varied interests and life experiences. The work begins with the ecstasy of Jazz – to Lax, a metaphor for life – born of his early days in New York City; the extraordinary close to the third movement is like a revival meeting. The middle section, Praise, subtly calibrates between the panoramic temple and the little things. The final section, Arc, reflects the culminations of Lax’s personal and poetic voyage: a mixture of calm observation and awe, captured by Smith in simple, overlapping canons and broad, double-choir brush strokes of sound with rich harmonies building to an unparalleled climax. THE ARC IN THE SKY is a formidable example of the heights which artistic expression can reach when its individual elements – that is, creative spirits from multiple spheres – work together in harmony. It is a pleasure to behold, and, as sung by two-time Grammy-winning choir The Crossing, an even greater pleasure to listen to.
SO SMOOTH, SO SWEET is a collection of vocal works from Harvard University composer Allen Sapp spanning from his early compositions in 1952 to later pieces written in the 1980s. The album features song cycles including The Lady and the Lute, Nursery Rhymes, Affliction, and Two Songs, each showcasing Sapp's thoughtful approach to text setting and harmonic color. Influenced by English Renaissance and Romantic-era poetry as well as Sapp's personal experiences, these works range from delicate and lyrical to harmonically rich and expressive. SO SMOOTH, SO SWEET exhibits the finely structured lyricism of Sapp's early works along with the stylistic contrasts of his later compositions.
The ethereal quality of the Celtic harp fosters a sense of contemplation and healing, with a timbre that almost bridges the gap between earthly and heavenly worlds. On SONG OF THE STARS, harpist Rita Constanzi performs a program of Celtic folks pieces and melodies, showcasing the enduring, timeless quality of the instrument. This poignant music holds a special place in Contanzi's heart, as each night she performed for a dear friend in palliative care, lulling her to sleep with the calming, dreamlike sound she masterfully evokes.
Spells, a new retrospective collection highlighting the music of poet and composer Juli Nunlist, marks a touching journey through the earnest, romantic, and dramatic sounds of the late artist's compositional language. The album's works demonstrate Nunlist's appreciation for tradition and grandeur, and are driven by her remarkable gift for melody and clear fascination with instrumental texture. Nunlist's literary background seems to inform the potency of the album's vocal works, including the intimate a cappella choral arrangement on the title track, a choral setting of six poems by the English poet Kathleen Raine; and the epic Six Chansons from Prières dans l'arches, for vocal soloists and orchestra. Though these pieces feature contrasting instrumentations, they both display the composer's effortless text setting and brilliantly sensitive orchestration. In each, her compelling writing brings the given text to life, and activates the nuance of its narrative and symbolism with intricate vocal an dinstrumental arrangements. To this end, Spells uses subtle melodic, harmonic, and textural recurrences to convey an enveloping and somewhat cyclical form. The Six Chansons, on the other hand, build vast sonic wonderlands, imaged through Nunlist's incredible command of orchestral space and density. Each of the Chansons pairs vocalists and a large instrumental ensemble, with some of the work's most compelling moments arising from these unique and highly exposed pairings, such as solo mezzo-soprano and celeste. The album's romantic centerpiece arrives with Nunlist's String Quartet, a piece which hearkens back to the genre's seminal nineteenth century masterpiece with its captivating melodies and gripping subversions of functional harmony. Moreover, in a structural sense. Nunlist's String Quartet is one of the most impressive works on Spells, especially in its dramatic closing movement. In the final moments of this piece, the music refuses to repose, and, on the strength of a new theme, the quartet gains energy and determination. This surprising turn in the work's formal trajectory is unquestionably meaningful, and seems to demonstrate a fearless quality in Nunlist's compositional perspective.
Stranger Things - Piano Works From a Young Refugee’s Backpac
Navona
CD
$16.99Oct 02, 2026
On STRANGER THINGS, pianist and composer Inna Faliks reflects on the musical forces that have shaped her artistic voice. Childhood compositions written just before emigrating from Odesa appear alongside works by Arnold Schoenberg and Johannes Brahms, tracing a path from Romantic tradition to the expressive freedoms of early modernism. Two of Faliks' own compositions set the stage for a program where memory, discovery, and creative identity converge - revealing how the unexpected often guides an artist's journey.
The essence of Tonci Huljic’s music is eclecticism, his Western melodic style fused with the rich instrumentalism of the Mediterranean and the world resulting in a completely new spirit. This MEDITERRANEAN POP MASS, recorded in Split, Croatia, thoughtfully blends traditional orchestral and modern sounds in exciting ways, infusing iconic classical works with groove, reignited passion, and an appreciation of the conventions of today’s musical idioms. Featuring an orchestra, choir, modern rhythm section, and soloists Hana Huljic, Lorena Bucan, Karlo Vudric, Huljic conjures an atmosphere like no other in his compositions, a satisfying listening experience for anyone who appreciates where music has been, and where it is going.
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.
Transcribing an established piece of repertoire for a new instrument unlocks new colors and expressions the original composer may have never dreamed of. On ART OF TRANSCRIPTION, flutist Alexander Lipay explores Brahms' Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Schubert's Sonatina No. 2 in A minor, and Franck's Sonata in A major with a fresh perspective, swapping the string instruments out for the liquid, ethereal sound of the flute. Accompanied by pianist Fanya Lin, Lipay unearths exciting qualities within each piece and breathes new life into well-known notes.
Kristina Marinova, a classically trained European pianist, captures the sonic tapestry of the Grateful Dead's music spanning from their inception in 1966 to their award winning and critically acclaimed three album Live European Tour in 1972 with THE BUS CAME BY AND I GOT ON from Navona Records. The Grateful Dead, known for their eclectic style which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, and psychedelia presents a unique challenge for an artist raised on Bach, Rachmaninoff, Mozart, and Scriabin. The intricate interweaving of Jerry Garcia's expressive lead guitar work along with Phil Lesh's unique and innovative bass lines melded with Bob Weir's unconventional rhythms (not to mention the Band's vocal harmonies) made for an attempt at capturing the "true sound" of the Grateful Dead on a sole piano, demanding and impossibly complicated. Nevertheless, the bus came by and, undaunted, Marinova got on.
In collaboration with educator and physicist Dr. Robert Davies, the Fry Street Quartet two composers, Libby Larsen and Laura Kaminsky, to create musical landscapes which speak to the crisis of an imminently unsustainable human world and move the listener toward a meaningful response. Kaminsky’s CROSSROADS | Rising Tide unfolds in a series of four vignettes, titled H20, Bios, Forage, and Societas, together forming a meditative space for audiences to explore connections between the human world we’ve created and the natural world we inhabit. Weaving together a chorus of artistic and scientific voices responding to one of society’s greatest challenges, the work of the quartet, Dr. Davies, Kaminsky, and Larsen presents a deep, profound contemplation of the choices before us, the paths they forge, and the dramatically different landscapes to which they lead.
Navona Records is proud to announce the re-release of David Tanner's 1988 album The Eloquent Saxophone. Tanner is no Stranger to Navona; his compositions and arrangements can be heard on two other Navona releases: Of Birds and Lemons (2012) and Dashing (2016). This was his first album, featuring him as a performer. It includes two unaccompanied pieces and two sax quartets recorded by multi-tracking, as well as a rich variety of works with accompaniment admirably rendered by pianist Marc Widner. The music ranges from Schumann to a stylized blues by Gene DiNovi. Tanner's musical language is enriched by classical training and a career encompassing rock'n'roll and jazz as well as symphony. Reviewer Denis Armstrong wrote in Music Magazine, "Not long into this recording, one begins to marvel at the sheer joy David Tanner's playing conveys... a dense and rich recording... at times elegant and elegiac, other times ribald and visceral. But the one constant is the joy and clarity of expression." The first track sets the tone: "Serenade comique" is a brief, frantic sax quartet composition that evokes Parisian traffic or perhaps a flock of birds. "La Blues," the other quartet selection, evokes the melancholy of New York in the depth of night. "It is a treat for the listener to hear this feat of multi-tracking done so well," said reviewer Joseph Viola in Saxophone Journal. Each track is in contrast to the one before it; each represents something different and interesting. To quote Music Magazine again, "The Eloquent Saxophone [is] a thoroughly eccentric, invigorating and generous treat."
The Music Of Marty Regan, Vol. 1: Splash Of Indigo
Navona
CD
$16.99Nov 11, 2016
American composer Marty Regan specializes in composing music for traditional Japanese instruments, a fascination he has developed since 2000. Regan describes his Japanese-style compositions as "hybrid musical soundscapes that reflect the age in which we live, an era based not necessarily on globalization, but of partnership based on global cultural interaction." In contrast, Splash of Indigo features a complementary side of Regan's output, containing only works for Western orchestral instruments and voice. Despite the album's instrumentation, Regan's connection to Japan remains strong in Splash of Indigo. Splash of Indigo proves Regan is more than capable of inventing and developing charming and complex networks of musical ideas. In it's varied collection of chamber and large ensemble works, Splash of Indigo shows Marty Regan is a composer of considerable breadth and skill beyond his dedicated efforts to build a bridge between American and Japanese musical culture.
Sound and space are two elements that emerge at the heart of Jane O’Leary’s THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER. The collection showcases O’Leary’s compositional gifts through a variety of her chamber compositions. O’Leary’s string writing soars in THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER, and demonstrates her remarkable sensitivity to the instruments’ sonic palette and expressive potential. Every color, from ethereal natural harmonics to frenetic bowing, is at O’Leary’s disposal, and is exploited beautifully to produce evocative and compelling soundscapes.O’Leary is imaginative and creative in her string writing, resonating the instruments’ strings in a wide variety of ways. Harmonics and arpeggiations create vast open spaces. In the case of A Winter Sketchbook, violin sounds are integrated with those of the alto flute, matching colors and creating new blends of sound. A Winter Sketchbook resonates profoundly as it casts the indelible image of deep winter.THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER’s title track is composed for string quartet, which makes it a shining and exemplary representation of O’Leary’s expressive string writing. The Passing Sound of Forever, originating from a motif found in a Beethoven quartet, plays with fragmentary gestures which emerge and disappear, echo and reflect. The work is filled with a deep yearning, which is communicated by the accumulated gestures and sounds of the quartet’s four string instruments. The Passing Sound of Forever epitomizes O’Leary’s unique ability to evoke vivid emotions from the simplest aspects of string instruments’ sound.Not every work on THE PASSING SOUND OF FOREVER features strings, but all seem to engage with the same themes of space and sound. O’Leary’s clarinet and piano duo Murmurs and Echoes, for example, creates the sense that its two instruments are communicating across great time and distance, most notably so in its last movement. When their respective gestures mirror one another’s, they do so with the distortion of an echo crossing a vast space. In this way, Murmurs and Echoes reminds of A Winter Sketchbook, as both works use modest forces to generate a surprisingly resonant musical space.
The Suite / Orlando Cela, Lowell Chamber Orchestra
Navona
CD
$16.99Jan 22, 2021
Though there are thousands of languages and countless political differences across the world, people tend to come together through equally endless forms of music and dance. On THE SUITE, the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Orlando Cela, focuses the lens on the Baroque dance suite as a method of expression that’s ripe for international flavor, artistic individualism, and human storytelling. Suites by Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach examine the gallant style’s history and set the groundwork for modern interpretations. The Baroque vanguards pass the torch on to two contemporary composers, Anthony R. Green and Jose Elizondo, who shape and mold the style to match their own compositional artistry as they paint musical pictures of civil rights activism, heart-warming moments in the sun, and the passing of time. What results is an alchemical combination of the old and the new that not only celebrates the original Baroque form, but expands upon it with contemporary, cross-cultural flair.
Christopher O'Riley's THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER BOOK II continues the pianist's exploration of Bach's masterpiece. A true expedition into the second set's finest of details, O'Riley delves beyond the notes themselves and into the spaces between them, sifting through the silence for every last possibility of rhythmic flexibility and potential for expression. With preludes and fugues more intricate and complex than those of the first, the second book provides an even richer opportunity for the discovery of texture, articulation, and hidden meaning within the music.
Thompson: Mask in the Mirror / Tucker, The Sanaa Opera Project
Navona
CD
$21.99Feb 08, 2019
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.
John A. Carollo’s newest release, The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino, is a fascinating mixture of music written for different orchestral instrumentations and with wildly varying intended emotional responses. The composer himself may best define the intangible aspect of his music’s emotive intentions, writing, “I have always preferred to let music speak for itself. We each derive our own unique personal meanings from our listening experiences and most of it is felt viscerally.” The visceral is, in the case of much of the music presented on this release, never far away. Carollo’s writing for strings in the five movements of The Rhetoric and Mythos of Belief emphasizes the tremulous and melodic, yielding a varied but consistently inspired musical color palette. Throughout this lengthy work the hues of the string ensemble sound tend toward the amber, allowing the luster and huskiness of the lower voices to often become a focal point. In these lush textures, slowly unfolding melodic materials easily maintain primacy of placement, and the many harmonic voices of the ensemble combine in a refined coherency. Likewise, the works presented on The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino featuring full orchestra each, in turn, define their own aural landscapes. The title track is defined by scampering, freewheeling melodic materials that make their way throughout the instruments of the orchestra. Skirting the edges of tonality, the piece takes full advantage of the many timbres and orchestral coloring that can be achieved by a large ensemble. This, like Carollo’s other works, has a structural resiliency that both embraces and simultaneously defies the melodic and harmonic materials that constitute it. It can be hard to paint the six works making up The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino with a single brush. Do You Have an E.R. for Music?, another orchestral work, couldn’t be farther in emotional intention or impact from The Rhetoric and Mythos of Belief, yet somehow the two pieces exist admirably as separate sides of a single coin in this collection of Carollo’s works. The composer’s dexterous control of the orchestra shines on this release, and the impassioned playing of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Petr Vronský, only accentuates the sheer strength of Carollo’s compositions. Ampersand, Carollo’s first CD was awarded ‘Best Classical CD’ at the 10th Annual Hawaii Music Awards Ceremony in 2006. The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino marks two Parma Recordings milestones. It is the 500th Parma album released and is also Parma’s first album to be simultaneously released on vinyl. Carollo was a participant in Parma Recordings’ groundbreaking November 2015 recording session in Havana, Cuba. His Burlesque was featured on the June 2016 album Abrazo: The Havana Sessions. The composer’s musical training included studies with Dr. Robert Wehrman. Before retiring to compose fulltime, Carollo had a long career as a mental health professional for the state of Hawaii, having received a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from San Diego State University. Of past Carollo album Starry Night for String Orchestra a reviewer wrote, “This is a starry night with meteors and perhaps an exploding star in the midst of it!”
Society of Composers, Inc. presents 10 works from boundary-defying composers on TRANSITION AND APOTHEOSIS, the 35th installment of their celebrated Composers’ Series.
"Carnyx" by Chris Arrell employs the carnyx, the ceremonial and battle trumpet used by Iron Age Celts, to conjure the terror of an army encroaching through the morning mist.
Jiyoun Chung’s "Scissors" is a fantasia-toccata for solo piano inspired by the traditional Korean Scissors dance.
"24/7" by Yunfei Li honors the healthcare professionals who served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Transition and Apotheosis" from Mike McFerron is a multichannel fixed media piece that maps Danish composer Per Nørgård’s “infinity sequence” to sound elements.
Paul Lombardi’s "Unwoven" incorporates the fractal-like technique used in his past pieces to startling new effects.
Robert McClure’s "struggling in excess" decries the vast amounts of waste humans produce on a daily basis.
"glass, evaporate[d]" from to?-dr?-'ki is a hauntingly beautiful reimagining of 2019’s "lips evaporate".
William Price’s "Sans Titre VII (B)" is a modified variation-rondo that explores the wide range, technical agility, and unique extended techniques offered by the saxophone.
"Der Saus und Braus" by Joseph Klein is the sixteenth in a series of short works for solo instruments based on characters in Elias Canetti’s "Der Ohrenzeuge: Fünfzig Charaktere" (Earwitness: Fifty Characters).
Finally, Ania Vu’s "Tik-Tak" sets the composer’s Polish poem to remind us of the relentless flow of time.
SCI renews its decades-long mission to promote and disseminate contemporary music in this Navona Records release.
For centuries, writers have documented the awe brought about by the pristine wilderness and untamed expanses of the American Midwest and West. Three authors in particularRalph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinsonbeautifully documented the boundless optimism and sense of opportunity that the countrys vast natural resources inspired and heralded a new era of American thought. On TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES, the three visionaries words are set to music to give their poetic works musical life. Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine and bass-baritone Seth Keeton deftly lead the charge on a series of artsongs, accompanied by pianists Lara Bolton and Scott Gendel and cellist Karl Knapp. Guarrines vocal elegance and innate lyricism naturally lend themselves to the vivid simplicity and inward reflection of Dickinson, and Keetons lower register captures the direct ruggedness of Whitman. To express the duality of Emerson, the pair come together for a duo to capture the authors ability to view all things at once in a single picture of beauty. By adding to the repertoire of contemporary artsong, TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES honors the legacy of historic writings and brings their sentiment back to the foreground of American thought, ushering in a newfound sense of hope and optimism for the 21st century.
The four works on this recording, Unexplored, offer a wide spectrum of musical styles and introduce listeners to new additions to the recorded cello oeuvre. Works by Tchaikovsky, Cassado, Rudnytsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov are presented by the dynamic and versatile cellist Nada Radulovich with Cullum Bryant, one of the most active chamber and collaborative pianists in New York City. Tchaikovsky composed Six French Songs, opus 65', to the original French text by three French poets. Although this is a fully instrumental program, Radulovich provides the first English translation of these songs sonata. The four movements of Cassadó, written by composer and cellist Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966), represent various moods and dances. At times poignant, dramatic, playful, or uplifting, this compelling work, recorded here for the first time, is an effective synthesis of tradition cast in striking, harmonic terms. Romantic Fantasie for Cello and Piano, Op 43, by Ukrainian composer Antin Rudnytsky (1902-1975), displays a conservative 20th-century harmonic language, while exploring the folk idioms of the composer's native land. The intricate dialogue between the instruments illustrates the composer's skill at evoking a variety of moods within a single composition. One of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's best-known works, Flight of the Bumblebee, evokes the erratic path of the tiny insect. The unique transcription of this work was created by pianist Bryant and inspired by his collaboration with Radulovich.
VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR 2 presents the best that modern choral compositions have to offer. Settings of traditional prayers are mingled with ethereal stories and otherworldly visions, and each of the eight compositions both stand unique and work together harmoniously to create a collection that nods to the future of choral music. Scott Solak's Ave Maria starts off the collection. Richly tonal and resonant, the piece is written in memory of the composer's mother, a second generation Polish Catholic. Ave Maria is followed by Jonathan Little's Crucifixus, another rich, vibrant work that presents modern interpretations of historic performance techniques and fills space with an all-encompassing listening experience. Helen MacKinnon's Gloria in Excelsis Deo demonstrates various moods throughout the piece, from tender to fiery and triumphant, all culminating in a glorious "Amen" to close the piece. The album then shifts to L Peter Deutsch's A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. With jagged intervals and interesting harmonies, and text by famed fantasy author Ursula K. LeGuin, the choir and a single narrator retell the melancholy story of a young fisherman's loss resulting from a tryst in a magical underwater kingdom. Following this story is Juli Nunlist's posthumously released Spells, an eerie, dissonant choral work that uses subtle recurrences to create an enveloping form. Daniel Morse's Nachtlied is an otherworldly soundscape that uses the writings of Austrian Expressionist poet Georg Trakl. Creating a sense of ritual, the otherworldliness is amplified by the use of electronic sounds created through manipulating pre-existing audio. Peter Greve's invocation for organ and mixed choir, Give Us Peace, is made up of four expressions of peace from four religious traditions. It follows a narrative arc of joy within communities, followed by violence and destruction, and finally a reconciliation and expression of peace between four different ideas. The album concludes with Whitman Brown's Psalm 23, a final return to sacred texts that creates a powerful bookend to the collection. Reverent and soothing, it gives a sense of conclusion to the journey of VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR 2.
CORO ALLEGRO: WE ARE HERE is a stirring choral album that amplifies voices of resistance, resilience, and remembrance. Featuring Kareem Roustom's Rage Against the tyrant(s) and Eric Banks' Aluta Continua: The Passion of David Kato Kisule, this collection weaves together protest chants, poetry, and sacred texts to confront oppression and honor those who fight for justice. With performances by Coro Allegro under the direction of David Hodgkins and a constellation of guest artists, CORO ALLEGRO: WE ARE HERE is a call to action, an evocative tribute to the power of music to bear witness and inspire change.
This is an exciting new album bundle of five previously released albums from Navona Records. What Are They Doing To That Piano? features composers and artists dedicated to finding the most adventurous and compelling sounds that the piano has to offer. Opening with works composed by John Cage, the virtual godfather of prepared piano, and performed by the virtuosic Kate Boyd, this bundle contains one of the most eclectic collections of solo piano music a listener will ever encounter. Ice & Fire, first released in 2013 by Navona Records, features six compositions by Stephen Scott for the Bowed Piano Ensemble, including Afternoon of a Fire, written for bowed piano and improvised native american flute in memory of a wildfire that occurred in his native Colorado. The album also includes experimental works that interpret the concept of drones, a piece with five miniatures for bowed piano, and Scott's first written piece for voice and bowed piano. Originally released on Ravello Records in 2016, 16-2-60-N-5: Works for Electronics & Piano, by composer and pianist Sidney Bailin, shows how musical technique can exist solely to help him tell his secrets. A combination of piano and electroacoustic works, 16-2-60-N-5 transforms patterns and structures into a viscerally and emotionally gripping sound experience. Felt, a compilation for solo piano first offered by Navona Records in 2015, presents the works of a number of composers including Matthew Durrant and Byron Petty. With each composer comes a subtly different perception of what the piano is capable, a degree of variation that presents itself repeatedly in the kaleidoscopic collection of pieces included on this release. On An Evolving Cycle, Gheorghe Costinescu's second Ravello Records album, first released in 2013, the composer explores the manner in which keyboard idioms evolved from Baroque to 21st-century contemporary, charting the evolution of form and technique with a deft control of style. Throughout this collection, the composers and performers run the gamut of stylistic and physical variations possible for the piano and its repertoire. It seems only fitting that these albums would ultimately be combined into a single compendium of the piano at its finest, and we are pleased to finally offer, in collected form, What Are They Doing To That Piano?
This compilation features 11 English choral works by 5 contemporary composers, performed by 6 unique ensembles showcasing the diversity and depth of the choral subgenre. On-disc enhanced content includes extended full-color liner notes, study scores for analysis and performance consideration, and more.
On Navona Records' WITHIN EARTH, Houston string quartet Apollo Chamber Players, described as "... infectious... intimate... provocative... fun... " (Gramophone Magazine) presents an album that demonstrates the contemporary possibilities in string music, continuing Apollo's innovative 20x2020 project. The album contains three new multicultural commissions, as well as a contemporary work by Alexandra Du Bois. Leo Brouwer's Nostalgia de las Montañas is an homage to his affection for Brazil's lush mountains and landscapes, and reflective of his love of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian dances and rhythms. The three-movement work plays to the Apollo Chamber Players' passion for contemporary music as well as to the individual talents of the performers. The irregular metric patterns, distantly reminiscent of Brazil's varied dance music, require an extraordinary steadiness and sense of rhythm, which is demonstrated impeccably. Matthew Dudzik's cello part impressively keeps the rest of the music in line. But also the viola, played by Whitney Bullock, gets it's share of glory: in Christopher Walczak's Four Dreams, it is the middle voice that ties the three-movement quartet together, this time thematically. Remarkably, during the entire album, it is almost impossible to differentiate between the first and second violin: both Anabel Ramirez Detrick and Matthew J. Detrick, respectively, play with great empathy to both the music and their fellow quartet members. Mây [Cloud] by Vu Nhât Tân and Vanessa Võ (the latter a Emmy and Grammy Award winner and Academy Award Contributor) is scored for string quartet and the Ðàn b?u, a Vietnamese monochord zither. The result is ethereal, otherworldly, and like a cloud, changes constantly over the course of nearly 20 minutes, eventually fading away without a trace. The final track, the album's namesake Within Earth, Wood Grows by Alexandra du Bois is the musical interpretation of a line in the I-Ching. Again, the Ðàn b?u features prominently, and yet, this time, it is the overall team spirit that shines through, between Apollo and the guest ensembles WindSync, Kinetic and Loop 38. Indubitably, it is the same spirit of unity which lends the Apollo Chamber Players their emotionally charged, homogenous sound, and the same spirit which led them to commission the contemporary works presented here.
Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes seems to have a penchant for thoroughness and completion. Known and praised for his complete recording of all J. S. Bach's sonatas and partitas, the European virtuoso has now taken it upon himself to embark on another quest for totality. This time, it is the six sonatas by Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), presented on Bowes' new album, EUGÈNE YSAŸE: SIX SONATAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN. As one would expect from Bowes, they are played to passionate perfection. Ysaÿe, hailed in his time as no less than the "King of the Violin", is a formidable figure to take on for any modern musician. He was famed not only for precision but more especially for a deeply affecting, quasi-supernatural power of communication. A man of immense generosity and largeness of spirit It is difficult to imagine any violinist adequately reproducing Ysaÿe's compositions and this special aura. Doubly so if one considers the background of the Six Sonatas for Violin. They were written at a crucial point late in life. Plagued by illness and doubt and finding himself increasingly cut off from playing his beloved instrument as he would wish, this deep frustration found expression in this encapsulation of his art. In short, these works - all sketched out at white heat in a 24-hour period and hair-raisingly complex and difficult for the player - are an embodiment of the man. Thankfully, Bowes not only possesses the technical mastery to command every playing requirement; he also approaches these works with a great sense of empathy towards their creator. It is this attribute which affords him the rarest of insights into Ysaÿe's violinistic mastermind. In fact, Bowes plays with such zest and clarity that the listener occasionally needs to be reminded that these are indeed sonatas for solo violin, not for an ensemble of two or three musicians.
