Young Prometheus
Catalog #: NV6140
Release Date: February 9, 2018
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalClarinetPianoString QuartetInspired by poetry and prose, composer Mark Volker’s latest release YOUNG PROMETHEUS is about reactions. From the philosophical reaction to the “Three Quotations" to the physical reactions in “Echoes of Yesterday," Volker creates an atmosphere that both conveys the optimistic and ominous.
Works for String Quartet and Other Small Ensemble
Catalog #: NV5885
Release Date: October 1, 2012
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalPiano TrioString QuartetViolinWORKS FOR STRING QUARTET AND OTHER SMALL ENSEMBLES is a digital re-release of three albums from acclaimed composer Samuel Adler. The three albums, a collection of works for string quartet, violin, cello, and piano originally released in the mid-1990s, serves as a sampling of the historic and respected composer's compositional output for small ensemble.
With Passion, Works for Solo Piano
Catalog #: NV5932
Release Date: October 1, 2013
20th CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoWITH PASSION is the latest release from Navona Records featuring the works of French composer Yves Ramette (1921-2012). Exquisitely beautiful, these cascading works for solo piano stand alone within a palate of tine, color, and space that Mr. Ramette crafted and honed throughout his studies and professional career.
Window Panes
Catalog #: NV6304
Release Date: August 14, 2020
21st CenturyOrchestralSolo InstrumentalOrchestraPianoVoiceNavona presents WINDOW PANES, a cross section of works by compositional veteran Elizabeth R. Austin. The collection is the first to comprise a lifetime of the American's works into one album: and as the title insinuates, it is an album full of interwoven associations, subconscious reminiscences and intense melodic reflections, with decades of labor condensed into an hour of listening.
Whispering Fragrance
Catalog #: NV6175
Release Date: August 10, 2018
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalEast AsianPiano TrioViolinOn WHISPERING FRAGRANCE, his first solo album with Navona Records, composer Stephen Yip merges serenity with agitation, earthiness with sophistication and the mundane with the sublime. The result is an original creation that is unapologetically post-modern, yet deeply rooted in Chinese traditionalism.
When You Are Reminded by the Instruments
Catalog #: NV6191
Release Date: October 12, 2018
20th Century21st CenturyOrchestralSolo InstrumentalChoirLarge EnsembleSaxophonePan-Fare, the album's starting point, is a rare modern classical piece for steel pan and a motley, jazz-inflected ensemble. Fun, energetic, and brimming with rhythmic imagination, it is set against an original percussive backdrop provided by, among others, a vibraslap, a marimba, and a Chinese opera gong.
What Are They Doing To That Piano?
Catalog #: NV6100
Release Date: May 12, 2017
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoFrom Navona Records comes an exciting new CD bundle of five previous releases featuring the piano at its most prepared and extended. 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 SONATAS AND INTERLUDES IN A LANDSCAPE, composed by John Cage, the virtual godfather of prepared piano, and performed by the virtuosic Kate Boyd, this CD bundle contains one of the most eclectic collections of solo piano music a listener will ever encounter.
Wanderings
Catalog #: NV6641
Release Date: July 12, 2024
20th CenturyRomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoWANDERINGS, the debut album from pianist Brian Woods, reflects the beauty that can emerge in dark times. Woods performs Chopin's Ballades alongside pioneering compositions from Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger, and Amy Beach. The album was born as an artistic response to the horror of the war in Ukraine; through these emotive and technically-demanding performances, Woods offers comfort and inspiration for people everywhere suffering displacement. Just as Chopin wrestled with what it meant to be Polish while living outside of Poland, Woods seeks identity and transformation through exile. In WANDERINGS, Woods leverages the power of music to bridge the gap between despair and hope.
Waltzes & Character Pieces of Florence Price
Catalog #: NV6591
Release Date: February 9, 2024
20th CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoMichael Clark’s knowledge and reverence for Florence Price shines in WALTZES & CHARACTER PIECES OF FLORENCE PRICE. Opening with the first waltz in Price’s musical catalog, Valsette Mignon, and closing with one of her final waltzes, Waltzing on a Sunbeam, Clark’s respect and intimate understanding of these elegant piano works is evident in his delicate treatment of each passage down to the single note. The sheer musicality Clark presents in the rolling melodic line of character pieces such as Dreamboat and Barcarolle honors Price’s work in a way that both uplifts and exceeds expectations. Clark hopes that the fragment of her vast repertoire showcased in WALTZES & CHARACTER PIECES OF FLORENCE PRICE will implore listeners to further explore her works, continuing to give Price her long overdue flowers.
Vytautas Smetona Plays Brahms, Chopin & Smetona
Catalog #: NV6286
Release Date: May 22, 2020
21st CenturyRomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoExalted and expressive to just the right degree, Ohio-born pianist Vytautas Smetona fuses his American upbringing with his Lithuanian heritage in his recordings of Brahms, Chopin and his own work. His second release on Navona exhibits technical command of the highest order, profound musical understanding and a clarity of interpretation which is seldom heard.
Virtuoso Piano Works
Catalog #: NV6486
Release Date: December 2, 2022
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoComposer Simon Proctor and pianist Tyler Hay join forces to bring a dynamic collection of Proctor’s original compositions to life on VIRTUOSO PIANO WORKS from Navona Records. With works spanning decades of his musical career, Proctor delivers a variety of celebrated classical styles with his own personal twists on this album. From rhapsodies to nocturnes, and everything in between, the composer-pianist duo’s mutual love for virtuosic piano music shines throughout, a perfect pairing that makes for a vicariously exciting listening experience.
Virtuoso
Catalog #: NV6372
Release Date: October 8, 2021
RomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoNavona Records presents VIRTUOSO, a collection of works by Frederic Chopin performed by piano prodigy Dmitry Ishkhanov. Featured on this album are the pieces Ishkhanov cites as Chopin’s most meaningful: the four Mazurkas of Op. 17, the Nocturne in C sharp minor of Op. 27, and the Etudes of Op. 25, considered by many as one of the most challenging repertoires to master.
Virtuosic Fugue
Catalog #: NV6541
Release Date: July 28, 2023
BaroqueClassicalSolo InstrumentalPianoGood pianists are a dime a dozen, great pianists are one in a million. American virtuoso Bryan Wallick proves that he firmly belongs to the latter category on VIRTUOSIC FUGUE, a dazzling curation of music's strictest and most challenging form, executed with a buttery, singing tone and ravishing technical bravura. These fugues by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Shostakovich challenge the pianist with the age-old dilemma of the form by performing them with a mesmerizingly light, precise touch, sparingly adding accent pedaling in highly strategic places. The result isn't just a masterclass in expressive virtuosity; it's also a mentally restorative, profoundly enjoyable listening experience.
Violin Futura
Catalog #: NV6028
Release Date: February 12, 2016
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalViolinIn 2005, violinist and composer Piotr Szewczyk developed the Violin Futura Project, a collection of commissioned miniatures for solo violin that highlights over thirty international contemporary composers and how they are re-imagining the solo violin. “The purpose of the Violin Futura Project,” says Szewczyk, “is to sample the creative environment of our times by showcasing the wide variety of styles present in the 21st century, and to create a body of new solo violin repertoire.” Navona Records presents the album release of Szewczyk’s project, VIOLIN FUTURA.
Vintage Americana
Catalog #: NV6384
Release Date: November 19, 2021
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoHailed by the New York Times as a “promethean talent,” Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico performs compositions from six American composers on VINTAGE AMERICANA. In an exhilarating show of virtuosity, Petrowska Quilico steps unflinchingly from tonality to atonality and back again. While the solo piano is the unquestioned star of the album, moments of electronic manipulation and other unexpected instrumentation offer surprising new textures. In VINTAGE AMERICANA, Christina Petrowska Quilico reimagines what this centuries-old instrument is capable of. The result is a captivating collection of masterfully-performed works from some of America’s most gifted composers.
Variations on a Theme by Stefan Wolpe
Catalog #: NV6496
Release Date: February 10, 2023
20th Century21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoVery few genres are as difficult to interpret pianistically as that of contemporary serious music: it often requires a superhuman degree of both virtuosity and patience, and the potential pitfalls of expression are ever-present. Enter Korean pianist Koeun Grace Lee, who zestily breezes through the most varied contemporary repertoire imaginable, with a level of self-assurance and musical competence that borders on being a revelation. While also featuring folkloristically-inspired works by David Burge and Jean Ahn, the heart of VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY STEFAN WOLPE is the similarly-titled work by Robert Gross, spanning no less than twenty variations on a theme by Stefan Wolpe, the German-American interdisciplinary modernist. Sprawling yet precise, decisive yet eclectic, it's the perfect canvas for Lee, and the resulting symbiosis is mesmerizing.
Uncommon Voices
Catalog #: NV6440
Release Date: July 22, 2022
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoUNCOMMON VOICES from Natasha Stojanovska explores the music of female composers from Eastern Europe. This collections of piano works includes the music of Croatia, North Macedonia, the former Soviet Union, and other Eastern European countries, combined with elements of the western musical tradition. The album includes two of Stojanovska’s compositions, Phantasy No. 1 and Phantasy No. 2. The former borrows metrical patterns found in Macedonian folk music; along with elements of tonality and atonality, the piece examines the uncertain boundary between the Macedonian and American cultures. The album also features the works of contemporary composers like Bojana Petrovic Aleksova, as well as historical composers like Maria Szymanowska. Stojanovska is especially proud to bring the music of Szymanowska to the attention of modern listeners; while Szymanowska’s music is not performed as often today, her compositions—including the enchanting Nocturne in B-flat major—likely inspired Frederic Chopin. UNCOMMON VOICES offers a long overdue celebration of female composers from Eastern Europe, as interpreted by the capable hands of Natasha Stojanovska.
Unbridled
Catalog #: NV5958
Release Date: June 1, 2014
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalLarge EnsembleString QuartetViolinWall Street. Salvador Dali. Gustav Mahler. Some of the sources of inspiration for composer Sergio Cervetti on his fourth solo Navona release, UNBRIDLED. Spanning over forty years of his career, the works represent Cervetti's continued aesthetic of combining traditional and postmodern techniques and instrumentation.
Two by Three
Catalog #: NV6601
Release Date: February 2, 2024
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalFlutePianoIf there were two words to describe Nathan Froebe’s musical output, they would be: exuberant and ruminative. In fact, these two attributes might arrive at a tie on TWO BY THREE, a selection of energetic freetonal, programmatic pieces for a myriad of flutes and piano. The thoughtful nature of these works is apparent even in their respective titles: Meditation, Three Scenes for Wind and Hammer, and Essay for Piccolo, Piano, and Alto Flute, to name but a few. Meticulously composed by Froebe and impeccably performed by flutists Jessica Raposo and Mihoko Watanabe with pianist Michael Seregow, TWO BY THREE sweeps through the mind like a fresh breeze on a crisp April morning.
Turning Point
Catalog #: NV6620
Release Date: May 10, 2024
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalElectroacousticFluteVoiceFerdinando DeSena’s TURNING POINT is an experimental odyssey, an enticing collection of music that reimagines the timbres of familiar instruments like flute, piano, the human voice, and more. The title piece uses the audio synthesis technique called “convolution” in which musical audio samples are digitally joined with the sound of cymbal strikes and crashes to dramatic effect. In Sonorous Earth, DeSena conducts a different sort of experiment, this time by scoring for all the lower relatives of a woodwind quintet. An impressive tour de force, TURNING POINT leaves listeners with an expanded sense of what is possible in the realm of chamber music.