3 Rhapsodies
Catalog #: NV6219
Release Date: March 22, 2019
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralEast AsianOrchestraPianoIt is tempting to compare Matej Meštrović's compositional style to his great predecessors in the late-Romantic tradition. After all, much of the Croatian composer's style and techniques would be right at home in Rachmaninoff’s concertos, Tchaikovsky's works, or Prokofiev's neoclassicism; and the name of the album's first work, Danube Rhapsody, naturally evokes associations with Smetana's similarly river-themed Vltava. Add to all of this that Meštrović, like most of his great musical ancestors, is a talented virtuoso pianist, and it's easy to see why 3 RHAPSODIES is bound to meet with enthusiasm.
Angels Rising
Catalog #: NV6657
Release Date: August 16, 2024
20th Century21st CenturyConcertosPianoWind EnsembleFollowing their 2023 United Kingdom Remembrance tour, The Syracuse University Wind Ensemble returns to the airwaves with two world premiere recordings on ANGELS RISING: MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE AND LIGHT. The ensemble has commissioned dozens of new works for their genre, the two most recent being Frank Ticheli’s Angels Rising and Energy and Light by Syracuse’s own Natalie Draper, both of which commemorate the 35 Syracuse University students lost in the 1988 Lockerbie bombings. Draper and Ticheli’s tributes to the 270 total lives lost in the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 are bookended by performances of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue in this Navona Records release, and are all available to experience in both stereo and Dolby Atmos immersive audio formats.
Beneath the Tide
Catalog #: NV6216
Release Date: March 8, 2019
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralClarinetGuitarString OrchestraPARMA Recordings, together with the esteemed Croatian Chamber Orchestra, is proud to release BENEATH THE TIDE, a reflection on human emotion and experience through a collection of five concertos. As the title suggests, BENEATH THE TIDE looks under the surface, examining underlying human realities that rise to the surface with the arrival of life’s changes.
Casanova
Catalog #: NV6663
Release Date: October 4, 2024
21st CenturyConcertosCelloWind EnsembleAt this point, it would only be fair to call Dutch composer and conductor Johan de Meij “the Dutch King of program music.” Widely known to audiences for his 1988 Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings, De Meij now presents CASANOVA, the complete recording of his compositions and transcriptions for cello and wind orchestra. Like the majority of De Meij’s oeuvre, the works on CASANOVA are committed to a late Romantic aesthetic: frequently citing Rachmaninoff, Debussy, or Puccini, and intended to conjure specific imagery. The resulting music is soothing, colorful, and pleasing to the ear.
Concerto 2000 and Other Works
Catalog #: NV6291
Release Date: June 26, 2020
21st CenturyConcertosFluteOrchestraJan Järvlepp's first Navona release, CONCERTO 2000, presents a tonal concerto, scored for orchestra – one might think Wagner or Mahler when listening. Except that Wagner and Mahler might not quite have agreed with the directness of his tonal language: for Järvlepp's work unabashedly aspires to appeal on a popular level.
Concerto For Soprano Saxophone & Orchestra
Catalog #: NV6032
Release Date: March 11, 2016
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestraSaxophoneI met the Swedish saxophonist Anders Paulsson in the early 90s through my friend and mentor John Corigliano. Anders, always a very entrepreneurial sort of musician, was to be the focus of a 1996 concert on Swedish Public Television. Fortunately for me, the program included funding for a commission of a new concerto, and Anders kindly asked me to compose something for soprano sax and large orchestra.
Diurnal Thoughts
Catalog #: NV5863
Release Date: September 1, 2011
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralClarinetOrchestraDIURNAL THOUGHTS is a collection of four previously unreleased works for orchestra by composer Francis Fairman. Fairman, who was born into a prolifically musical family and began his studies at a very young age, is able to translate his vivid imagination and vision directly into his music. His compositional style and musical experience allow him to craft pieces that reflect their visual inspirations, as we hear in The Fox, Diurnal Thoughts, and New York Taxi.
Felt, Metal, Wood
Catalog #: NV6639
Release Date: June 28, 2024
21st CenturyConcertosPianoSaxophoneFELT, METAL, WOOD, featuring John Mackey’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone, is a thorough exploration into the many expressive and technical facets of the Saxophone. Mackey, who has garnered widespread critical acclaim as one of today’s leading composers, notes that the saxophone is a hybrid instrument; it is essentially a brass instrument with a woodwind reed. With that in mind, Mackey composed this concerto by focusing several movements on unique characteristics of the instrument. After the prelude comes “Felt,” a movement focused on the keys of the instrument and all the ways a player can use them as an interface. “Metal,” the third movement, demonstrates the saxophone’s soaring range in a lyrical, introspective manner, while “Wood,” a tango highlighting the saxophone’s strengths in an intimate setting, transitions to an exhilarating display of virtuosity in the “Finale.” Performed by saxophonist Stephen Page and pianist Liz Ames, Mackey stirs a greater appreciation for the versatile instrument in this release.
Fight for Light
Catalog #: NV6459
Release Date: October 28, 2022
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestraPercussionPianoOn FIGHT FOR LIGHT, Dutch composer Jesse Passenier explores the peripheries of jazz and classical, marrying the two genres together through symphonic music. The music presents a struggle for strength, goodness, and clarity, in which moments for great energy and urgency give way to quiet purity. Containing three works by Passenier: Piano Concerto No. 1 "Levensdrift” (a Dutch word meaning “the primal urge to live”); Vibraphone & Marimba Concerto No. 1 "Becoming the Colour"; and Duo for Vibraphone & Piano “Unraveling Confusion,” these pieces taken together as a whole reveal Passenier’s breadth as a composer, offering a musical commentary on the realities we face in today’s society.
Fine Music, Vol. 4
Catalog #: NV5916
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOboeOrchestraSaxophoneFINE MUSIC, VOL. 4 is the fourth compilation of the Navona Records Fine Music digital series. This installment features the works of David Nisbet Stewart, Brian Noyes, Jonathan Little, Daniel Perttu, Curt Cacioppo, Santiago Billoni, Alejejandro Rutty, Joanne Carey, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Summer, Roger Bourland, Kjell Magne Andersen, and Jan Van der Roost.
Fresh Dimensions
Catalog #: NV6026
Release Date: February 12, 2016
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraViolinThe modern romanticism of composer Craig Morris is one simultaneously deeply personal and broadly meaningful. His albums DREAMS (2011) and CIRCLE OF LOVE (2015), both on the Ravello Records label, in large part deal directly with musical representations of universal emotional states and concepts.
Guernica
Catalog #: NV5924
Release Date: July 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralCelloOrchestraPianoHailed as "convincing, emotional, passionate and vivid" (The Musical Review) and "destined to enter the ranks of the standard classical repertoire" (New York Times), Fredrick Kaufman resonates with worldwide audiences through impassioned and prolific compositions that go beyond mere interpretation. He thoroughly digests inspiration, internalizing and individualizing his ideas to create moving and impactful works that do more than simply relay a message. Kaufman's music captures feeling and emotion, reaching the listener with convincing sincerity.
Ineffable Tales
Catalog #: NV6157
Release Date: May 11, 2018
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralCelloOrchestraPianoComposer/Performer John Alan Rose presents INEFFABLE TALES, an album of four of his ensemble compositions, recorded at Reduta Hall in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In addition to renowned soloists Jungwon Choi (cello), Moni Simeonov (violin), the recording features the composer’s wife Sing Rose (soprano), and the composer himself (piano). The album also features the Moravian Philharmonic, under the direction of Miran Vaupotić.
Joe’s Tango
Catalog #: NV6572
Release Date: November 10, 2023
21st CenturyConcertosTromboneTrumpetWind EnsembleThere is something very special about the symbiosis of a great composer and a talented performing musician: many of the great moments in musical history were born of such collaborations. This rare joy is now to be felt in our time: JOE’S TANGO features the world premiere recording Concerto for Trombone by none other than jazz legend Chick Corea, tailor-made for virtuoso solo trombonist Joseph Alessi. It's a riveting, marvelous work — classical in scope, but contemporary in rhythm and feeling. Conductor Thomas G. Leslie, his University of Nevada Las Vegas Wind Orchestra, and the Boston Brass Quintet empathetically frame this centerpiece with works by Hugo Montenegro and the young Jorge Machain, who offers the world premiere recording of his Five Cities to the mix. The resulting album — as one might expect — is altogether outstanding.
Máscaras
Catalog #: NV6575
Release Date: February 9, 2024
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralHarpOrchestraProduced with audio captured from two live concerts held at Merrill Auditorium in Portland ME, the Portland Symphony Orchestra presents a world-class recording featuring works by three living Mexican composers on MÁSCARAS. The PSO makes their opening statement with a newly-revised version of Enrico Chapela’s 2017 work Rotor, an intense rhythmic etude, followed by Arturo Márquez’s Máscaras, a concerto for harp and orchestra inspired by ancient pre-Hispanic Mexican tradition. Ángeles de Llama y Hielo by Ana Lara follows suit, a nod to a 16th century German woodcut print and the cosmological philosophy that inspired it. Polished, authentic, and strong, the performances on MÁSCARAS reflect the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s rich musical energy and commitment to ever broadening its horizons.
Mood Indigo
Catalog #: NV5913
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraPianoErik Lotichius, a composer unafraid of melody and accessibility, combines the sounds of traditional classics with those that took the 20th-century audiences by storm - in the composer's own words, his work presents "Bach, the Blues and the Beatles" in a spectacular, enthralling combination of genre and style.
Music of People and Place
Catalog #: NV6586
Release Date: December 1, 2023
21st CenturyFolk MusicConcertosOrchestralOrchestraComposer Vincent Kennedy and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra bring MUSIC OF PEOPLE AND PLACE to Navona Records. Selected from some of his most beloved works and inspired by the people, mysticism, mythology, history, and landscapes of his native Ireland, this album is a rich collection of 19 stories, each appealing to the human spirit with sublime performances by the superb musicians of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Pacific Ridge
Catalog #: NV5898
Release Date: January 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraPercussionPianoSanta Barbara-based composer Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) is a fixture in the Californian classical music community, having received commissions and performances from orchestras and ensembles throughout the state and worked throughout her career to advance the musical community.
Paradigms
Catalog #: NV5880
Release Date: August 1, 2012
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOboeOrchestraPARADIGMS explores the notion that music of varied influences, backgrounds, and techniques can be strung together to represent modern classical as a whole. With orchestral works that dive into the dramatic and expressive, ponder the impressionistic through textured and rhythmic motifs, and compare the bright with the chaotic, this album posits that music of all studies and methods of creation are pieces of a larger puzzle that shape the American contemporary soundscape.
Piano Concerto
Catalog #: NV5986
Release Date: February 10, 2015
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestraPianoMaestro Kirk Trevor praises composer Lee Actor as "one of the refreshing new classical voices ... who can still use a traditional language with a freshness that makes the music alive and interesting." On his latest Navona Records release PIANO CONCERTO, Actor presents three orchestral works, performed by Trevor and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, that are engaging and tonal yet dramatic and modern.