Release Date: February 1, 2012
Catalog #: NV5867
Format: Digital & Physical
21st Century
Orchestral
Vocal Music
Choir
Orchestra
String Orchestra

Polyhymnia

Jonathan Little composer

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Petr Vronsky conductor
Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra | Robert Ian Winstin conductor
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra | Robert Ian Winstin conductor
Thomas Tallis Chamber Choir | Philip Simms conductor

With works described as “an inspired creation” (Music & Vision), “original and quite brilliant” (Fanfare), and “immensely poetic” (Tempo), Jonathan Little has planted himself as a luminary contemporary composer. On POLYHYMNIA, his first release on Navona Records, 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 intricate polychoral Kyrie.

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Artist Information

Jonathan D. Little

Composer

The atmospheric and evocative music of Jonathan David Little is notable for its mystical beauty, intensity, and richness of material. After initial studies at the University of Melbourne, where he won the Lady Turner Exhibition, he completed a Doctoral degree researching the development of 'exotic' orchestration in 19th and 20th-century music. Interviewed in the Sept-Oct 2012 issue of American Fanfare, Little's musical style was defined as 'ecstatic minimalism.' Italian and other European critics have preferred the more general terms 'antique futurism' or 'picturesque archaism.'

Petr Vronský

Conductor

After successes in several important international competitions for conductors — including the competition in Besancon France in 1971 and the Karajan Competition in Berlin in 1973 — his career began at the opera company in Pilsen. From 1974 to 1978, he was Chief of Opera of the State Theater in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. In 1978, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 1991. Vronsky was later appointed Chief Conductor of the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava in 2002.