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"MAID WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR" HOLIDAY GIFT
December 24, 2009
Navona is pleased to present a special gift this holiday season: the premiere of Navona's new Digital Single featuring Claude Debussy’s "Maid with the Flaxen Hair," as featured in Microsoft Windows 7, arranged and performed by Grammy-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.
Here is the link:
www.navonarecords.com/holidaygift.html
Included in this single is downloadable audio in WAV and MP3 formats, a streaming video interview with Mr. Stoltzman about the piece and its unique hold on listeners, and handwritten score and parts for clarinet and string orchestra.
Please explore this new format and unique musical experience with family, friends, and colleagues, and feel free to share this holiday gift with anyone who might enjoy it!
Access to the Navona Digital Single is available until December 31, 2009.
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NEW REVIEWS FOR NAVONA RELEASES
December 23, 2009
BECKMAN, PATRICK - BIG MUDDY SUITE FOR CLARINET & PIANO
NV5815
896931002745
Patrick Hanudel
American Record Guide, November 2009
In one of the inside panels, the Illinois composer and pianist Patrick Beckman writes the following: “The Big Muddy Suite is a celebration of the music of the Mississippi basin. While through-written, it evolved in the studio to a great degree because of Richard Stoltzman, whose proficiency in a myriad [sic] of musical languages brought the work to life.” The 40-minute work unfolds in five movements whose titles evoke both classical form and local color: ‘Memphis Nightrain’, ‘Bayou Lament’, ‘St Louie Thunder’, ‘Natchez Hymn/Gigue’, and ‘Catfish Rondeau’.
The piece and the performance cannot be measured against normal standards and expectations. Most of the work sounds like a late night jam session, but this is musical genealogy of the lower Mississippi. Stoltzman’s individual approach to the clarinet ruffles a lot of feathers in the classical world, but it fits perfectly here. Beckman puts a little bit of everything on the listener’s plate—blues, bebop, gospel, cool, Dixieland, and in the last movement, a dash of minimalism. His end result is not a full dinner, as in a multi-movement sonata, nor a sampler platter, as in a short one movement work; rather, it is a lighthearted yet thoughtful tribute to some of America’s most original creations.
Stoltzman is as at home in the mournful ballad as in the virtuosic showpiece; and as one expects, he pours his soul into the former and lets his hair down in the latter. Beckman stays mostly in the background, skillfully yet unassumingly shaping the panorama against which Stoltzman struts his stuff. Those looking for well-played jazz clarinet or simply repertoire off the beaten path will enjoy this release, and those who pop the CD into a computer will be delighted with the numerous extras—study scores of the music and photographs and videos of the recording session.
Link: www.americanrecordguide.com/issues/ARG1109.pdf
EVANS, M.J.: Flute Trio / Piano Sonatas / Variations / Flying Away / Sunshower / Merci Sophie (Hennessy, Feldman, Rojahn)
NV5813
896931002738
David W. Moore
American Record Guide, November 2009
Michael J Evans is from Ohio and now lives in Washington, DC. His music is light, melodic, and easy on the ear. The 20-minute Trio is no more emotionally intense than the shorter works, but is quite lovely. The composer tells us he was describing sounds of Nature around the Potomac River trails. The sonatas are for piano and are meant to recall the one-movement works of Domenico Scarlatti. The four minute variations on Johnny are for cello and piano, and Sunshower is for flute and piano. All the rest are piano pieces.... these are expressive and beautifully recorded performances of lovely music.
Link:
www.americanrecordguide.com/issues/ARG1109.pdf
SANDRED, O.: Cracks and Corrosion Nos. 1 and 2 / Amanzule voices / The third perspective / Whirl of Leaves (Dautry, Hoitenga, Sandred)
NV5814
896931002035
Kraig Lamper
American Record Guide, November 2009
I enjoy Navona releases, and each one has been an enhanced CD. It is fantastic to be able to look at the composer’s scores and analysis of the works. Orjan Sandred’s Amanzule Voices is a blistering piece for cello and electronics. The cello saws and plucks as the pointed, electronic exclamations buzz and hum around it. The main theme is repeated several times, and a soft frog chorus from Lake Amanzule in Ghana can be heard faintly. The Third Perspective is a tape piece about music in motion. Phrases are likened to Newtonian physics, in a way, where a net force acting on an object can cause motion. This, to Sandred, translates to a musical soundscape where the phrases rise and fall in pitch, as if they were speeding up and slowing down. It is not a catchy piece, but it does sound unique. Cracks and Corrosion II uses concert electronics tied to a guitar part. The computer records the guitarist’s performance to build responses and accompaniment. It even remembers sections to transform, distort, or extend them. Interactive pieces like this are always exciting to watch, and the outcome depends on the exactness of the performance. The guitar lines are varied, ranging from chordal pulls to dexterous finger exercises, and the computer often fooled me into thinking the guitarist was playing a repeated line before it became distorted and shifted.
Link: http://www.americanrecordguide.com/issues/ARG1109.pdf
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NEW SITE LAUNCHES IN JANUARY
December 21, 2009
Navona's new site launches in January 2010, check back here for updates.
www.navonarecords.com
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