Symphonic Chronicles Vol I

Deborah Kavasch composer
Steve Law composer
John Wineglass composer
Barbara Jazwinski composer
Nan Avant composer
Simon Andrews composer

London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra | David Watkin conductor

Release Date: April 28, 2023
Catalog #: NV6519
Format: Digital
21st Century
Orchestral
Orchestra
Piano
Violin

SYMPHONIC CHRONICLES VOL I from Navona Records features the works of celebrated living composers from a wide variety of backgrounds and influences. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the music touches on topics ranging from jazz to the COVID pandemic, racial injustice, and more. Steve Law’s melodic and rhythmic Piano Concerto draws inspiration from Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev while assimilating the influences of jazz, pop, and minimalism. In Barbara Jazwinski’s Fantasy on Jazz, the composer meditates on the complex and ever-evolving music of New Orleans. Simon Andrews’ Interlude No. 3 from “The Scars On His Back” recounts the story of legendary Native American freedom fighter Po’pay, and the revolt against the Spanish colonists he helped inspire. These examples are just a taste of the evocative works found on SYMPHONIC CHRONICLES VOL I.

Listen

Hear the full album on YouTube

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Desert Storm Deborah Kavasch London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 3:44
02 Piano Concerto: I. Allegro non troppo Steve Law Royal Scottish National Orchestra | David Watkin, conductor; Joseph Havlat, piano 10:11
03 Piano Concerto: II. Theme and Variations Steve Law Royal Scottish National Orchestra | David Watkin, conductor; Joseph Havlat, piano 12:00
04 Piano Concerto: III. Lento Allegro Steve Law Royal Scottish National Orchestra | David Watkin, conductor; Joseph Havlat, piano 11:10
05 #elijah for Solo Violin and Orchestra: I. Tragic Innocence John Wineglass London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor; Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin 5:17
06 #elijah for Solo Violin and Orchestra: II. Transcendence John Wineglass London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor; Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin 5:22
07 Fantasy on Jazz Barbara Jazwinski Royal Scottish National Orchestra | David Watkin, conductor; Samuel Brandão Marques, clarinet 14:59
08 Sirens of the Salish Sea: I. Soundness of the Sea for Violin and Orchestra Nan Avant London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 3:32
09 Interlude No. 3 from “The Scars On His Back” Simon Andrews London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 4:40

Desert Storm, #elijah, Soundness of the Sea, Interlude No. 3
Recorded July 6-7, 2022 at LSO St Lukes in London, United Kingdom
Producer Jan Košulič
Engineers Jonathan Stokes, Neil Hutchinson
Editing & Mixing Jan Košulič
(Track 9) Additional Editing Melanie Montgomery

Piano Concerto, Fantasy on Jazz
Recorded July 27-28, 2022 at New Auditorium at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, United Kingdom
Producer Brad Michel
Engineer Hedd Morfett-Jones
Editing & Mixing Brad Michel

Mastering Brad Michel

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Danielle Sullivan, Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Production Director Levi Brown
Production Manager Jean Noël Attard
Production Assistant Martina Watzková
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming, Morgan Hauber
Publicity Patrick Niland, Brett Iannucci, Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Deborah Kavasch

Deborah Kavasch

Composer

Deborah Kavasch, composer, soprano, specialist in extended vocal techniques, and music educator, has had works commissioned and performed in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and China. She has received grants and residencies in composition and performance, was a 1987 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Stockholm, and has appeared in major international music centers and festivals in concerts, solo recitals, workshops, lecture/demonstrations, and television and radio broadcasts since 1981.

Steve Law

Composer

Steve Law is a British composer, arranger, and pianist. He studied composition at Bristol University under Raymond Warren and received a masters degree for his jazzy opera Heaven on Earth, which has been described as “a significant contribution to the genre.” Law has a gift for melody that is rare in contemporary music and a popular original style that assimilates jazz and pop influences. He has recorded and performed his music. Musicweb International described Law’s first solo piano album as “kaleidoscopically varied... impressionistic atmosphere... slowly burning passion.” His Violin Concerto was performed in Scotland and 3 Poems by Lorna Law were performed by Ferrier Award-winning baritone Gareth Brynmor John. Law is a published arranger of Dudley Moore’s music with Faber, and is working on a volume for the Gershwin Critical Edition.

John Wineglass

Composer

John Christopher Wineglass is a multiple ®EMMY Award-Winning Composer who has performed on five continents, before U.S. presidents since Ronald Reagan, and with several ®OSCAR and ®GRAMMY Award-winning artists including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Jamie Foxx to name a few. He has written several scores and incidental music for shows on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC as well as documentaries on Headliners & Legends for The Brady Bunch, Kathy Lee Gifford, and Farah Fawcett. Having scored mainly independent films, several of his nationally syndicated commercials include music for the United States Army, American Red Cross, and Texaco as well.

Barbara Jazwinski

Composer

Barbara Jazwinski’s music has been heard throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. Her portfolio, influenced by her Polish heritage and by the culture of New Orleans, her home for many years, includes over 100 original compositions in various genres and for many different vocal and instrumental ensembles. She has been commissioned by many artists and ensembles around the world and her works have been presented to critical acclaim at well-known concert series and international festivals. Among her numerous awards are the Prince Pierre of Monaco Composition Award and the First Prize in the Nicola De Lorenzo Composition Contest. Barbara Jazwinski’s compositions are available on several recording labels and on websites and radio stations around the world.

Nan Avant

Nan Avant

Composer

Nan Avant’s music embraces thematic and rhythmic intentions often reflecting her Latin heritage, encompassing her passion for classical, jazz, world, and ethnic music. Avant has won numerous awards including two Global Music Awards Silver Medals in 2022, was named a Finalist for The American Prize in orchestral composition and is a four-time nominee in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Avant’s Tributum for Celtic Bagpipes and Orchestra, recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, is on the ballot for first-round voting in the 65th Grammy Awards. Tributum enjoys airplay around the world, from Ireland’s Public Radio in the United Kingdom to Hawaii’s Maui Celtic Radio in the United States, and already boasts a Best Instrumental Song Award at the 13th Annual Independent Music Vox Populi Awards.

Simon Andrews

Composer

Simon Andrews is an English composer who is earning a reputation as a creator of eloquent concert music that blends harmonic complexity and lyricism, introversion and broad gestures, delicate timbres and bold statements. His output ranges from large-scale orchestral works and opera to intimate chamber music, with a special delight in chamber music with solo voices. He studied at Oxford University, and the Royal Academy of Music, and gained a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Winner of the 1985 Benjamin Britten Prize, his music has been commissioned and performed to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

Orchestra

Widely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, The London Symphony Orchestra was named by Gramophone as one of the top five orchestras in the world. A world-leader in recording music for film, television, and events, it was the official orchestra of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games ceremonies, memorably performing Chariots of Fire on stage in the opening ceremony, conducted by Simon Rattle and with Rowan Atkinson.

Miran Vaupotić

Conductor

Acclaimed as “dynamic and knowledgeable” by the Buenos Aires Herald, Croatian conductor Miran Vaupotić has worked with eminent orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Russian National Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Argentina, and others, performing in major halls around the globe such as Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Berliner Philharmonie, Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall, Victoria Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Dubai Opera, Tchaikovsky Hall, International House of Music, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, and more.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Orchestra

Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1977. Throughout its history, the Orchestra has played an integral part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, including George Szell, Sir John Barbirolli, Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Neeme Järvi, Walter Weller, Alexander Lazarev and Stéphane Denève.

David Watkin

Conductor

David Watkin has made a wide range of acclaimed recordings including Sonatas by Vivaldi (Hyperion), Beethoven (Chandos), and Francis Pott (Guild), Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante with OAE (Virgin), and Schubert Quintet with the Tokyo Quartet (Harmonia Mundi). He has been a soloist at Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, and performed the Schumann Concerto with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique at Lincoln Center, New York. As a guest artist he has collaborated with Robert Levin and Fredericka von Stade. As a founder member of the Eroica Quartet he has performed all over Europe and the United States and their recordings of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Debussy, and Ravel have astonished critics.

Joseph Havlat

piano

Joseph Havlat was born in Hobart, Australia, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London under Professor Joanna MacGregor from 2012 to 2018, where he received his BMus and MMus with distinction, including awards for exceptional merit in studentship and the highest recital mark for a postgraduate pianist.

Havlat has performed in major concert venues around the United Kingdom and in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia as a soloist and as part of chamber groups. Winner of the keyboard section of the 2019 ROSL music competition, he is also currently a Young Artist at St. John’s Smith Square, as well as a Young Artist of the Oxford Lieder Festival alongside fellow Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. Havlat is not only a keen sock enthusiast but also chamber musician, performing frequently with multiple groups — Tritium (clarinet) trio, Trio Derazey, and Duo Ex Libris, as well as collaborating in many other duos. He is also a member of the LSO percussion ensemble with whom he has released two albums on the LSO Live label, including the premiere recording of John Adams’ two-piano work Roll Over Beethoven.

Passionate about modern and contemporary music, he is a founding member and artistic director of contemporary music collective Ensemble x.y. During his time studying he gave performances of concertos by Ligeti, Messiaen, Stravinsky, and others, which has led him to collaborate with such composers as Michael Finnissy, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Gerald Barry, and Thomas Larcher.

Notes

Desert Storm was commissioned by the Stanislaus Symphony Orchestra of California State University, Stanislaus, and premiered on a 1991 Labor Day Celebration Concert in celebration of the American victory of Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War.

The piece begins with a trumpet fanfare, a signal calling the troops to battle. Then horns and trombones introduce the 5-bar motive in a 5/4 meter upon which the rest of the piece is based, representing the playing out of changing events in the war followed by an underlying triumphant chorale of freedom in the concluding section.

In response to requests for a band version of the piece, it has been arranged for wind ensemble under the title, “Fanfare For Those Who Served,” and is dedicated to my mother, Eveyln Meyer Kavasch, who served in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve during World War II.

I had wanted to write a popular tonal piano concerto since hearing Gershwin’s Concerto in F as a teenager. The great 20th century concertos by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Bartok were untouchable in my mind, especially Prokofiev’s third which I consider to be the greatest. I came to accept that I had to write a concerto on my own terms, assimilating influences from the music of my time — jazz and pop — into a “classical” form. Hopefully I have continued with the same ideals as George Gershwin in some small way.

I worked hard to make this a special work, using my strongest ideas (quoting two earlier compositions); making it memorable in melody, rhythmically exciting, life-affirming, and thematically tight. Thematic connections between the movements create a feeling of homogeneity.

It was completed in early 2021, having taken two years to write. Material for the first movement and second movement theme date back 20 years.

The concerto begins unassumingly in a mood of youth and romantic optimism. The first group of lyrical melodies gives way to a more dynamic rhythm. There is a descending diminished scale in octaves on the piano and a fanfare-like motif on the brass before the second group of ideas, which starts with a melody using repeated notes. This builds to a climax based on the fanfare motif before a tranquil dream-like interlude.

After a recap, the two main groups of ideas are developed with increasing intensity. The coda brings the movement to a more fearful close.

The second movement feels more serious and melancholy. The theme is introduced by the orchestra before the piano joins in the tender first variation. A brief second variation begins with simple imitation between the clarinet and bassoon (and basses). The third is darker and pensive, using flowing scales, often a sixth apart. The fourth begins lighter in mood before a spacious fifth variation in triple time. The sixth has a tumultuous snowstorm of semiquavers accompanying the theme. This builds to a climax before calming into a short coda led by the piano.

The third movement is predominantly rhythmic, jazzy and upbeat, but it begins with a sequence of slow string chords. The piano enters with a fast, rhythmic theme derived from chords at the end of the second movement’s theme. There is a slower central section with a broad romantic theme, first introduced by solo piano then built to an expansive and sweeping climax.

The final section returns to the opening Allegro theme, this time played by the orchestra. A minimalist section follows before a varied recap of earlier ideas; the opening string chord sequence returns in a faster rhythmic counterpoint.

In the brilliant coda, themes from the first movement are subtly recalled. The music returns to C for a triumphant conclusion.

I dedicate the concerto to my wife Lorna for her love and support, and this recording to the memory of my parents June and Keith Law.

— Steve Law

Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, Dominic Grier and Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra.

This piece is dedicated to the life of Elijah Jovan McClain, a 23-year old African-American massage therapist and amateur violinist from Aurora CO, who died six days after a violent encounter with police and paramedics on August 30, 2019, and to the lost lives of many people of color at the hands of those who are entrusted ‘to serve and protect.

— John Wineglass

My work, Fantasy on Jazz, is in many ways an homage to the music of New Orleans, and what I see as an extraordinarily complex and continually transforming live musical tradition. It is informed by countless musical traditions with roots in different parts of the world and itself exerting a powerful influence on many other music cultures.

As someone who arrived in New Orleans via Warsaw, Stanford, California, and New York, I was immediately struck by the power of New Orleans music to inspire. I remember a summer evening several years ago, with the sun almost completely set, with fragrant sweet olive scent in the air, and an extraordinarily beautiful clarinet solo being played somewhere close to Jackson Square in the French Quarter. The experience was almost surreal. I heard the music quite clearly as the evening was very quiet but was unable to see the artist who was clearly playing the music for himself or herself. It was a soliloquy, deeply felt, elegant and highly introspective that was very powerful in its ability to convey emotions to anyone who cared to listen.

I will also never forget a trip to one of the New Orleans music clubs with Claude Bolling, a French jazz pianist and composer with remarkable crossover appeal whose 1975 album, Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano, remained more than 10 years on the Billboard classical album chart. Claude came to New Orleans with his ensemble to present a concert at Dixon Hall at Tulane University. Afterwards, we took him to Snug Harbor to hear Ellis Marsalis. Claude was listening intently, impressed, and clearly captivated by the music. Then, he looked at me and asked: This is jazz? This encounter made me realize that jazz is a living tradition, constantly changing, constantly transforming itself, with the power to influence other musical traditions and to absorb influences of human experience from different parts of the world. And, with the ability to inspire anyone who makes themselves open to that experience.

— Barbara Jazwinski

An American Prize Finalist 2022, “Soundness of the Sea for Violin and Orchestra” is the first movement from the Quintet Suite Sirens of the Salish Sea. The Quintet Suite, composed during the Spring and Summer of 2020 amidst the events taking place throughout our nation and globally, is a metaphor, a reflection of that time, expressed through music and the essence of the Sea.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was a carefully organized uprising under the general leadership of Po’pay, a “medicine man” from San Juan Pueblo (now known by its Tewa name Ohkay Owingeh), which overthrew Spanish rule in New Mexico for twelve years. In some versions of what has become the legend of Po’pay, he believed himself commanded by the tribal ancestor spirits (kachinas) to restore the old customs, much as in later cultural revival movements. In other versions he was embittered by his imprisonment and whipping in 1675, and spent five years at Taos Pueblo plotting his revenge. Some Pueblos hold that he was a purely religious figure and therefore forbidden to be involved in violence or death; others celebrate him as a warrior leader.

The generally agreed facts of the Rebellion are as follows: a few days before the date chosen for the uprising, runners were sent out to each participating Pueblo carrying knotted ropes. Every night a knot was to be untied, the uprising to start at dawn after the last knot was undone. In this way there was a full scale revolt on August 10th, in which most of the Pueblos participated (some were presumed to be pro Spanish and were not included). On August 21st the Spaniards were forced to flee, leaving 400 dead, including 21 priests. In addition to returning to the old ways, if the Spanish record is to be believed, the victory was celebrated by all or some of the following: washing off the ‘stains’ of Christian baptism, annulling Christian marriages, forbidding the speaking of Spanish and use of Spanish names, and destroying churches. While these accounts are doubtless exaggerated, it is incontestably true that the Pueblos succeeded in remaining free from Spanish rule until 1692, when New Mexico was finally re-colonised.

Little is known of Po’pay’s life before 1675, the year he was imprisoned by Spanish authorities on suspicion of witchcraft, a standard and somewhat convenient accusation, not unlike the cynical manipulation of the legal system that African Americans experienced in the Jim Crow South. What happened after the Revolt is equally murky. The written record is, of course, from the perspective of the defeated Spanish, and casts Po’pay in as dark a light as possible. Most of these accounts have him establishing a despotic reign with the result that the Spanish were welcomed back in 1692. The Pueblo stories are much less specific, and, like the English tales of King Arthur after Badon, exist in many versions. All that can be said for sure is that, after the Revolt, for any number of reasons, the Pueblos didn’t maintain the level of unity that had led to its success, and the return to the old ways didn’t bring about the hoped for relief and prosperity.

The history behind The Scars On His Back means that the opera necessarily deals with such contemporary cultural hot buttons as colonialism, religious intolerance and racism, but it is neither a polemic nor a mea culpa. The characters in it—both historical and fictional—are shaped by the events surrounding them, and most importantly by the way they are wired as human beings. While a little is taught in schools about 19th century Native American leaders, though even then only through the lens of the conflict resulting from white expansion, the history of America from the 15th to the 17th centuries is too often represented as Europeans ‘discovering’ a virtually empty continent; the atrocities perpetrated on its native inhabitants have been quietly expunged from public discourse. The story of Po’pay is an inspiring counter-narrative of cultural and political resistance, but sadly virtually unknown outside New Mexico. It is as American a story as George Washington or Martin Luther King, and it is high time Po’pay was given his rightful place in American history.

Interlude No.3 is excerpted from my opera The Scars On His Back about the legendary Native American freedom fighter Po’pay, and the revolt he inspired at Santa Fe in 1680, which (temporarily) forced the Spanish out of New Mexico. Po’pay devised a means of co-ordinating the distant pueblos: runners were sent out with knotted ropes, the number of knots corresponding to the number of days required to reach their destination. One knot was to be untied every night, and the uprising would begin at dawn after the last knot was undone and the rope was, in Po’pay’s words, “as straight as the sun’s first rays.”

Interlude No.3 comes between scenes three and four of the final act, when the runners have been dispatched on their mission. The opening, in the form of a chaconne, depicts the rising excitement and tension of the Pueblos as each knot is untied and the (off-stage) battle approaches: about half way through the music changes as the warriors gather and march on Santa Fe. This concert version ends more noisily than its more transitional counterpart in the opera, condensing the elation of victory into final ecstatic outbursts for the large percussion section and full orchestra.

— Simon Andrews

Videos

In-Studio Performance: Nan Avant – Soundness of the Sea Featuring the London Symphony Orchestra

In-Studio Performance: Simon Andrews – Interlude No. 3 from “The Scars On His Back” featuring The London Symphony Orchestra

An Inside Look: John Wineglass – #elijah featuring the London Symphony Orchestra

An Inside Look: Deborah Kavasch – Desert Storm featuring London Symphony Orchestra