Catalog

Described by the Oskar Morawetz Award jurors as a “legend” of Canadian musicians, Christina Petrowska Quilico joins lauded composer and champion of new music David Jaeger on GAMES OF THE NIGHT WIND, a dreamy musical landscape premiering 12 of Jaeger’s original nocturnes in addition to seven 20th century solo piano works. Each nocturne invokes a different spirit of the night: deception, memory, redemption, realization, and many more, each brought to fruition by Petrowska Quilico’s evocative musicality. Sharp staccato and an increasingly startled momentum drives the image of an encounter with the shadows in Nocturne 11, The Alarm Bell, a weighty contrast to the deep rubato and heaving nostalgia in Nocturne 1, In Memory Of — yet both hail from the same thematic darkness that expands across the entirety of the album. These sensations are ever present in Tōru Takemitsu’s starry Les yeux clos, Alexandre Tansman’s complex and lyrical nocturnes, and two works by Górecki, whose Lullaby sings GAMES OF THE NIGHT WIND off to sleep. GAMES OF THE NIGHT WIND plays to the unfettered wildness of the night, a force of nature encapsulated in every aspect of Petrowska Quilico and Jaeger’s musical and poetic collaboration, an elegant exploration for the night owl in us all.

The violin concerto is a challenging setup to write for: it beckons with promises of both might and fragility. Composer Christopher Alan Schmitz is well-versed in both the theoretical and practical aspects of composition: his resulting VIOLIN CONCERTO AND SYMPHONY NO. 1 gets the balance just right. The tonal language is reminiscent of Bruckner and Mahler, as raw emotion mixes with splendor. The ultimate success of this precarious, heady concoction rests on the shoulders of conductor Stefan Sanderling and particularly, violinist Amy Schwarz Moretti, member of the acclaimed Ehnes Quartet. Stirringly written and performed to perfection, a success it is.

The work of award-winning Italian-American pianist Bruce Leto has often been referred to as "refined" and "kaleidoscopic" by review outlets such as Fanfare, Artisan Music Reviews, and Take Effect Reviews. Few words could describe his new PARMA release better: MOOD POEMS is a carefully-curated selection of solo piano works exploring the vivid, colorful spectrum of human emotion. From mysterious and elusive moods (such as those in Apparition), to the blues (Drehleier), spiritual motifs (Old Swedes), emotional (Julian’s Song), pensive (Prelude in A Minor & Consolatio), to waltzes (Valses Nobles et Sentimentales), Leto’s latest release is meant to convey poetry; reminiscent of and inspired by his recent wedding, invigorating Costa Rican Honeymoon, and dedicated to the upcoming birth of his son in June 2024. He masterfully draws upon poetic elements throughout, using vivid imagery, deep emotion, and narrative flow to give listeners an introspective, meditative, and poignant sonic experience. The featured composers consist of kindred spirits: 20th-century French giants Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc, Jean Sibelius (who was well known for his tone poems), and more contemporarily, American Curt Cacioppo, Leto’s academic advisor. Strikingly, Leto holds on to a red thread of expression, almost as if he knew the two late Frenchmen as personally as his professor. As Leto isolates the archetypes of emotion itself, the prime idea proposed on MOOD POEMS turns out to be buoyant and restorative: the human condition is fundamentally unchanging, and thus, there is great consolation to be found in every age — ours included. Leto has won numerous awards via performance and recording of Cacioppo’s music, ranging from 1st Prize at the Seattle International Piano Festival — Virtuoso Artists Festival, to the American Prize (Judges’ Citation for Championing the Music of Curt and Charles Cacioppo), to the Progressive Musicians International Piano Competition, from which Leto made his Carnegie Hall debut in February 2022. “MOOD POEMS is meant to celebrate, commemorate, and embrace,” says Leto. “Reaching back to march forward. My hope is that these works will foster moments of gentle reflection unique to each listeners, and that they continue to discover more aspects of life where art and poetry shine through.”

Navona Records is pleased to present ELEVATE, the second installment of All Classical Radio’s award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative. A response to the industry’s inequities in classical music recordings, the RII highlights music from underrepresented communities to build a more diverse and inclusive soundscape around the world. Bringing to life the sonatas of Yuko Uébayashi and Nobu Kōda and a string quartet by Damien Geter, ELEVATE pairs deserving compositional talent with several of today’s leading classical performers — a synergetic testament to the power of uplifting each other in the arts.

The singing quality of string instruments ties together SONGS FOR A NEW CENTURY, a program featuring both world premiere recordings of new music commissioned for the artists and world premiere recordings of masterpieces by Mendelssohn. The program opens with a set of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, beginning with the Opus 109 written by the composer for cello and piano. It continues with a set of arrangements for cello and piano, some recorded for the first time, by the 19th century cellist Alfredo Piatti, a personal friend of Mendelssohn’s upon whose cello Jonathan Miller plays. Gabriela Lena Frank’s Operetta for violin and cello, the composer writes, expands upon Mendelssohn’s concept of the “song without words,” creating opera without words that evokes scenes and characters through singing music for the duo of violin (Lucia Lin) and cello. Scott Wheeler’s second cello sonata, Songs Without Words, was inspired by Miller’s singing cello tone. Finally, Judith Weir’s Three Chorales for cello and piano meditate on religious poetry, departing from hymn texts –– and in the third Chorale, a melody from Hildegard of Bingen –– in a triptych that evokes the human condition.

Ferdinando 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.

American concert pianist Steven Masi explores the depths of Romantic and Impressionist piano literature on BALLADES & OTHER MUSINGS. Emotive, evocative, and deeply stirring, Masi uncovers previously unheard nuances in both Chopin and Debussy, as well as in their contemporary colleague, Sarah Kirkland Snider, whose musical language seamlessly blends with that of her predecessors. The precision in Masi's performance is breathtaking. It lends an extraordinary clarity to works that are, by their inherent nature, wayward and exalted. Still, generous rubato and creativity in pedaling shine in this program, as does Masi's crystal-clear tone.

THREE SONGS TO POEMS brings to life poems written by clinical psychiatrist Dr. Frank Clark set to music by Gordon (Dick) Goodwin. The themes are as emotionally complex as life itself, and so is the music. The pieces illuminate the reflections of a son whose mother suffers from dementia, the joys of becoming a father, as well as the healing of an emotionally neglected child. Heart-wrenchingly performed by tenor Johnnie Felder and pianist Winifred Goodwin, this brief but complete set of songs is bound to leave a lasting impression.

Voices of Concinnity finds connection through universal experiences on AWAITING GOLDEN LIGHT. Based in Connecticut, the inclusive professional vocal ensemble melded each singer's unique vocal qualities into the richness of choral sound for this project. Seeking connection through the isolation of a global pandemic, their members took inspiration from gazing at the glowing moon, experiencing the renewal of a new golden sunrise, anticipating wonder at the perseverance of a bulb blooming in spring, and finding solace in shining stars after the loss of a beloved. With this Navona Records release, the ensemble invites listeners to draw their eyes up toward the heavens and out beyond the horizon to find meaning.

Pianist Carlos Vargas gives the public a rare glimpse into the depths of a musician's soul with his intimate new solo album SOUVENIRS. It is a truly eclectic selection of pianistic gems, expertly collected across several centuries and countries, yet interconnected by profound virtuosity and sweeping romanticism. SOUVENIRS travels to France, Russia, the United States, and (perhaps most importantly) Latin America; Poulenc makes an appearance, as do Scriabin, Gershwin, and Dominican composer Rafael Bullumba Landestoy, among others. Strikingly, Vargas rotates the kaleidoscope: his interpretation brings Latin flamboyance to Poulenc, Russian drama to Gershwin, and American spontaneity to Scriabin, to name but a few. All the pieces on SOUVENIRS are highly idiosyncratic; and yet, Vargas effortlessly unites them in their individual brilliance.

The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally, returns to Navona Records with MOTION STUDIES, performing works by commissioned artist Justine Chen’s Shallow Breath and Stealth and commissioned artist Nicholas Cline’s watershed. Reflecting on a culture where data mining and government traceability have become normalized to the point of population complacency, Chen encapsulates the dissecting points of poet Jena Osman’s musings on the 21st-century reframing of paranoia, privacy, and the pervasive desire to run away from the data that follows us. Evidence of these reflections is present in the tittering, whispering, and often frantic conveyances of the ensemble in an unnerving collection of sequences that paint an antagonistic image of the modern machine. watershed designates motion as boundary rather than as escape: the movement of water as a crux point of political power and community resource. Joined by Matthew Levy on tenor sax, the ensemble ebbs with lap and flow as the American history of water is sung and dictated, leading the question of the damage nationalistic attitudes towards shared water resources have caused to our environment. A 2024 Best Choral Performance GRAMMY® nominee and multi-GRAMMY® winning ensemble, The Crossing continually proves itself to be at the forefront of new choral literature and performance. MOTION STUDIES is a release not to be missed.

It doesn’t happen often that the talents of art and science unite in one person. Lawrence Ball, creator of experimental electronic music and accomplished tutor of mathematics, reconciles both disciplines on his new release, ARP CITY. The result is a truly timeless blend of synthesizers, layered soundscapes, and whimsical human creativity. While the acoustic topography of ARP CITY is undeniably cerebral, it is also captivating to the ear. The instruments employed evoke the groundbreaking era between the 1960s and 1980s, when even the highbrow figures of popular music didn't take themselves too seriously. Yet, there is an ethereal quality to Ball's work that seems to draw its force not from the past; rather, it seems to be a transcendental exploration of a mysterious future.

Society of Composers, Inc. presents 10 works from boundary-defying composers on TRANSITION AND APOTHEOSIS, the 35th installment of their celebrated Composers’ Series. SCI renews its decades-long mission to promote and disseminate contemporary music in this Navona Records release.

Virtuoso Linda Wiley performs four flute sonatas from 19th and 20th century composers on FOUR SONATAS FOR FLUTE AND PIANO. The album fulfills her aspiration to record pieces that are both challenging and also personally meaningful to her. These include Sonata For Flute And Piano by Francis Poulenc, Sonate Pour Flûte Et Piano by Jindřich Feld, Sonata In A Major by César Franck, and Recuerdos De Mexico, Sonata for Flute and Piano by Arthur Gottschalk. Many of the works share a connection to legendary French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; Wiley’s flute mentor Jan Cole studied under Rampal for five years, and Wiley is proud to carry on her musical lineage in this Navona Records release.

Navona Records is pleased to present FOUR TEN-MINUTE OPERAS from composer Jonathan Sheffer, a collection of works spanning a variety of themes from American history and culture. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and emerging UK artists, this release offers operatic explorations into perspectives from the American Civil War, pitfalls of dating in the digital age, religious commentary in the face of tragedy, and a dramatic retelling of a fatal baseball pitch. Conducted by Sheffer himself, each of these 10-minute operas tells an engaging tale that’s sure to strike a chord.

What is music but a convergence of story, people, and place? It’s a question that Heidi Radtke’s debut album CONVERGENCE for soprano, alto, and tenor sax asks earnestly, an elegant meshing of the heartbeats behind the sounds of eight living composers, strung together by the laughter and conversation woven into each exploration, and the saxophone’s ability to tell its tale. The full breadth of Radtke’s capability is on display as she navigates the variety of narratives, messages, and sonic uniquities in the landscape of CONVERGENCE, sometimes bolstered forward with a bubbly charm — in the “chicken clucks” of Barry Cockcroft’s Ku Ku — and sometimes with a powerful, reminding grace, — Rahsaan Barber’s Breonna Taylor (How Many More?) – but always with a special musicality. CONVERGENCE explores the intersection of instruments, musical tradition, and the saxophone's ability to explore these soundscapes, especially in the format of saxophone with fixed media. From a reimagination of Debussy to field recordings of natural spaces and sounds taken completely from a cell phone, the fixed media selections boast a wide range of musical styles, but all are connected through storytelling. Ending with the title track, Convergence, Radtke invites the listener to take part in the conversation — the best stories are the ones told together.

A love of poetry lies at the core of Monica Houghton’s A BREATH OF AIR from Navona Records. She has set to music not only lyrical giants such as Whitman, Dickinson, and Hughes, but also some contemporary poets with their own magnificent lyrical gifts. These soul-touching works are performed to the highest possible standard by select world-class singers and accompanists. A perfect symbiosis on all fronts.

Sonatas for brass and piano are a tricky thing to pull off; in consequence, they are few and far between. Andrew Lewinter, himself a long-time orchestral horn player and soloist, has decided to add to the repertoire on MUSIC FOR BRASS AND PIANO: crafting four different sonatas for piano and each instrument of the brass family, and concluding with a dazzling piano quartet. The tonal language of these sonatas — for piano and trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba, respectively — draws heavily upon the Romantic tradition, but it never copies; rather, it is a reinvention of what Romanticism might have been, had it unfurled in the 21st century. A vibrant arc of suspense gives life to each individual work and, culminating in a grand finale, to the album itself.

Following her first Navona Records release, IKARUS AMONG THE STARS, New York-based composer Debra Kaye has curated an ever-varying mix of chamber and solo pieces with TIME IS THE SEA WE SWIM IN. Kaye’s inspirations are seemingly endless, from the improvisatory piano solo At Liberty (1988) where Kaye returns to her roots as a performer, to the jazzy Colossus 1067 (2021) written to accompany Gus Foster’s time-distorting panoramic photograph taken on a roller coaster with a rotary camera; from current events to the poetry of Zen monks, European Romanticism to a philosophical, even metaphysical meditation on time and the creative process. Kaye’s eclectic collection showcases and reconciles heterogeneous influences by way of a sonic language that is wholly, uncompromisingly her own. Her confident embrace of diverse sounds and styles invite and challenge listeners to join her on this voyage of discovery and dip a toe into this sea that we all swim in.

SONIX AND OTHER TONIX is a collection of innovative chamber works from composer Jan Järvlepp. The title refers to his piece Sonix for Ónix, composed for the Ónix Ensamble of Mexico. It combines elements from his most popular chamber and orchestral works, Pierrot Solaire and Garbage Concerto, respectively. The album also features Trio No. 3, a three-movement work for violin, cello, and piano which protests the rise of the surveillance state. SONIX AND OTHER TONIX also includes Shinkansen, which takes listeners for a ride on a Japanese bullet train, and In Memoriam, written for the composer’s late brother. Spanning a diverse range of topics and influences, SONIX AND OTHER TONIX exemplifies the iconoclastic creativity for which Järvlepp is known.