Catalog

POLARITIES, an album of new presentations in classical music, expresses the emotions, feelings, and scenes associated with opposites. The works on the album, by four composers, range from a piece for wind ensemble and the Chinese gaohu, to a piano sonata, a chamber work, and works for orchestra.

Composer and pianist Jeffrey Jacob returns to Navona Records with REAWAKENING, a collection of varied works for orchestra and chamber ensembles. Jacob’s lush, mystical style pervades the album, often blending his piano’s sound with orchestral arrangements to create rich musical imagery, as in The Loch Before Sunrise and A Mirror Upon the Waters.

Pianist Fanya Lin's RHAPSODIC is a masterful exploration of two of the most iconic pieces in piano repertoire. With her deft touch and nuanced interpretation, Lin lends an entirely new dimension to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations. From the opening notes of Gershwin's masterpiece, Lin's playing proves both powerful and sensitive, capturing the complex emotions of the iconic American composer with great vividness. Some musicians might be hard-pressed to switch seamlessly into the mind and heart of the great Russian, but Lin's virtuosity is on full display as she navigates the intricate variations with vigor and precision, effortlessly enticing the listener into their bittersweet, heady romance.

Celebrating their 25th-anniversary concert season in 2016, the San José Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestra Barbara Day Turner, presents a commemorative collection of contemporary works on Navona Records, showcasing the ensemble’s commitment to new music as well as their stylistic versatility.

Australian composer, music educator, and pianist Margaret Brandman presents her debut Navona release SENSATIONS, featuring several of her celebrated compositions, each one presenting a unique musical experience and sensation. The Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra skilfully performs the orchestral portion, opening with the joyful Love Brings Change (Adagio for Strings). Pianist Lucie Kaucká joins the orchestra for Lyric Fantasy, an emotional and accessible two-movement work with contrasting moods for piano and strings.

SEQUOIAS from composer Jeffrey Jacob and Navona Records is an ode to the entrancing qualities of the natural world, echoing through music an appreciation for its transcendental beauty and concern for the devastating impact of climate change. Inspired by what he calls “cathedral-like sentinels of nature,” Symphony No. 6 meditates on the magnificence and grandeur of the tall trees towering in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. With other pieces inspired by the limitless reverberations conjured from the forest and the natural light that illuminates it, SEQUOIAS showcases the composer’s creative ambition and commitment to the environment.

SOUND SPECTRUM features works for piano, soprano, and orchestra by composer Allen Bonde. Bonde draws from his personal experiences and feelings to craft beautiful pieces with a wide range of styles: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, a cohesive work cast in traditional harmony; Three Elizabethan Songs and Three Elizabethan Songs Revisited, a set of works blending simplicity and sophistication; Symphony No. 1, a kaleidoscopic orchestral piece with astounding instrumental color; Rose Window, a musical representation of the breathtaking Rose Window at Mount Holyoke Chapel; Sonus I, a 12-tonebased and freely composed piece in variation form; Four Shakespeare Songs, a fresh take on the Bard's work stylistically reflective of the 1920s; You Were The One, based on the sensitive poetry of Mary Jo Salter; and Encore Blues, a one-take improvised celebration of the recording sessions. Often performing the works himself as pianist, and in collaboration with the "Bonde Family," his oeuvres provide warmth, intimacy and compositional diversity with each piece.

On SOURCE GROUND, Hans Bakker’s second full-length release on Navona Records, the composer once again probes music’s ability to, as Leonard Bernstein said, “name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” Rhythmically rigorous pieces for solo piano, organ works that fill every nook and cranny of the aural spectrum, powerful orchestral works, and pieces for the rare and haunting lame-sonore draw listeners towards a sense of infinite oneness connected by music.

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.

About 100 years ago, classical music made a jagged turn away from the harmonic structures that had comprised its underpinnings for several centuries. This departure was early-on dubbed atonalism, and opposed the functional harmony that prevailed during the great musical flourishing of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Composer Sparky Davis, who takes a "modern, not modernistic" approach to writing his music, continues this forward movement, expanding the vocabulary of music to include non-traditional elements and adding to the functional uses of long-established note combinations.

Navona 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.

Internationally-acclaimed pianist Yaroslav Senyshyn demonstrates a breathtaking capability for tenderness and artistic flair on YAROSLAV SENYSHYN PLAYS CHOPIN. These behemoths of Romantic piano literature, widely considered to pose near-impossible technical and emotional challenges to the performer, are fully brought to life and vigorously commanded by Senyshyn's impeccable Ukrainian-school pianism. Many pianists struggle to decide between a pearly, singing tone and powerful dynamics; Senyshyn unites both and makes this formidable feat seem effortless. There is always delicacy, even in chord-heavy fortissimo passages; there is always punch, even in the whisper of a cantabile. Dizzying, exhilarating, and a profoundly enjoyable testament to pianistic excellence.