The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Catalog #: NV6590
Release Date: February 2, 2024
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraVoiceRenowned composer Gustav Hoyer comes to Navona Records with an ambitious and harrowing seven-part orchestral setting of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. Hoyer melds the spoken word and musical text-setting traditions into a hauntingly atmospheric narrative concerto, the Budapest Film Orchestra coming to life as supernatural forces and creatures in the text. Meanwhile, the narrator speaks of the Mariner’s eternal penance, a stark contrast to the roiling orchestral timbres that puts listeners in the shoes of the frightened wedding guest fated to hear the Mariner’s tale. An undoubtedly ghoulish but incredibly sophisticated musical illustration of Coleridge’s famed narrative, Hoyer is no-holds-barred in his talent for the narrative orchestra, producing a musical journey packed with all the intensity and horror of the text from which it hails.
The Real Beeler
Catalog #: NV5976
Release Date: October 14, 2014
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralClarinetOrchestraViolinOn his debut solo Navona Records release, THE REAL BEELER, composer Alan Beeler presents his refined and distinguishable orchestral voice, exploring various harmonic and melodic forms and structures as well as the serial techniques of the Second Viennese School. In Symphony No. 1 and No. 4, the composer creates intricate atmospheres and moving textural soundscapes, generally derived from the composer's preset tone rows.
The Palace of the Dreamking
Catalog #: NV6257
Release Date: November 15, 2019
21st CenturyChamberOrchestralBrass EnsembleOrchestraString QuartetPeter Greve may be seen as a prime example for music as a late vocation – though it's hard to believe when one hears how deeply his creations root in the bon ton of contemporary musical academia. THE PALACE OF THE DREAMKING offers a cross-section through Greve's eclectic and wildly experimental body of compositional work.
The Music of Sparky Davis
Catalog #: NV5897
Release Date: January 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralSolo InstrumentalOrchestraPianoAbout 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.
The Mitten
Catalog #: NV6132
Release Date: December 1, 2017
21st CenturyHolidayOrchestralOrchestraBased on the Ukrainian folktale of the same name, THE MITTEN presents a world built using simple narration as its foundation and a complex composition creating the surrounding universe. Composer Mona Lyn Reese needs only to speak a few short sentences from a children’s tale in each track, and then lets the performers in the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra carry the details of the story deep into the imagination.
The Melodic & Dramatic Howard Richards
Catalog #: NV5804
Release Date: March 1, 2010
20th CenturyOrchestralOrchestraHoward Richards composer Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Vit Micka conductor A Frenchman in New York, Grandparent’s Dance, and Young Daughter’s Song Recorded September 2006 with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Vit Micka Solo trumpetist on Frenchman in New York Petr Nedbal [...]
The Last Musician of Ur
Catalog #: NV5891
Release Date: November 1, 2012
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraIn April 2003, the earliest stringed instrument ever found, the Gold Lyre of Ur, was damaged by looters at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. In 2004, British harpist Andrew Lowings constructed an authentic and playable replica, and enlisted the help of composer Michael Mauldin to promote the project. Moved by the instrument's legacy and the narrative possibilities of the project, Mauldin composed The Last Musician of Ur for orchestra and harp, crafting a flowing narrative following the last musician to play the historic instrument as she is torn between inescapable destruction and the hope of timeless, international peace.
The Conscious Sleepwalker
Catalog #: NV5870
Release Date: March 1, 2012
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraSaxophoneThrough his Argentinean tango-infused classical works, composer Alejandro Rutty has carved an original, unique niche in classical music, blending tango, electronic, and classical elements into a cohesive whole. On the multifarious THE CONSCIOUS SLEEPWALKER, his first album on Navona Records, Rutty presents works for saxophone quartet and orchestra that explore concepts ranging from explorations of tango within pop culture of the future to half-dreams versus fictional reality.
The Conference of the Birds
Catalog #: NV6037
Release Date: April 8, 2016
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraDepicting 12th-century Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar’s dramatic narrative, New York-based composer and GRAMMY-nominated conductor Jonathan Sheffer presents his orchestral work The Conference of the Birds, commissioned for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, on Navona Records. Attar’s poem of the same name is a journey of transformation and conviction, in which the birds of the world seek to find an illustrious leader, ultimately ending with new insight into their spiritual identities. The allegory portrays our own doubts, fears, and faults, how we confront these issues, and how we seek to understand identity and our relationships with other humans, the natural world, and what lies beyond.
The Ambassador’s Wife
Catalog #: NV6365
Release Date: September 10, 2021
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraComposer George Kieffer and Navona Records are proud to present THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE, a collection of stories and dialectical thought conveyed through the sounds of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Featured on this album is Kieffer’s Fanfare for the Olympics, a piece dedicated to the sacrifices made and triumph achieved by athletes, which premiered at the 2015 Special Olympics.
The Adventures of Florian
Catalog #: NV6301
Release Date: October 9, 2020
21st CenturyOrchestralStage WorksOrchestraOn his seventh release on Navona Records, THE ADVENTURES OF FLORIAN, Michael J. Evans presents an epic, modern adaptation of Henry Beston’s fairytale of the same name. Over the course of four orchestral acts, Evans reframes the story as a tale of trans heroship, with Prince Florizel marrying Florian himself presenting as a boy, rather than revealing Florian as Isabella.
Te Deum
Catalog #: NV6021
Release Date: July 8, 2016
21st CenturyLiturgicalOrchestralOrchestraThe lineage of Western concert music is one which brims with tradition and history, through teachers and pupils, listeners and performers, spanning centuries and continents alike. But one of the common threads which runs through this lineage is the urge by composers, performers, and audiences to all be part of a transcendent emotional experience through music itself.
Tchaikovsky
Catalog #: NV6079
Release Date: February 10, 2017
RomanticOrchestralOrchestraViolinWhile speaking on Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Op.21, Pyotr Tchaikovsky posited that his colleague “does not strive after profundity, but carefully avoids routine, seeks out new forms, and thinks about musical beauty more than observing established traditions.” Acclaimed violinist Moonkyung Lee endeavors to emulate this approach on her Navona debut TCHAIKOVSKY – WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, in which she presents several performances of beloved Tchaikovsky alongside the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Miran Vaupotić.
Symphony No. 3
Catalog #: NV6250
Release Date: October 11, 2019
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraQuite surprisingly, Symphony No. 3 had humble beginnings. Back in the late 2000s, composer John A. Carollo connected on MySpace (!) with English soprano Sharon Selman, who was deeply involved in the preservation of trees and forests. She suggested that Carollo use the poetry of William Blake as a starting point to create a piece about nature. Carollo didn't think twice; and a song cycle named Awake Humanity to Nature’s Beauty! was composed, then reworked, resulting in two different instrumentations.
Symphony No. 2: Tales from the Realm of Faerie
Catalog #: NV6458
Release Date: October 14, 2022
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraNavona Records presents Michael Kurek’s SYMPHONY NO. 2: TALES FROM THE REALM OF FAERIE, a rich musical tapestry intertwining the colors and characteristics of many fantastical worlds the composer has entered and loved. Performed by the European Recording Orchestra, a certain spirit of unspoiled beauty, innocence, nobility, hope, and heroic goodness stretches across four movements, each giving the listener creative control of the worlds they conjure. With a well-balanced lineage of traditional compositional techniques running throughout his symphony and other works for choir to follow, Kurek presents a dynamic assortment of work that keeps the spirit and heritage of classical music alive.
Symphony No. 2, Foundations
Catalog #: NV5957
Release Date: May 1, 2014
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraThroughout an individual's life, certain experiences, places, and people remain fundamental to his or her identity. As in a memoir, composer and conductor Paul John Stanbery depicts some of the experiences that have substantially influenced his character in SYMPHONY NO. 2, FOUNDATIONS, his digital-only release on Navona Records.
Symphony No. 1 “Reminiscence”
Catalog #: NV6441
Release Date: August 26, 2022
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraPeter Drew’s SYMPHONY NO. 1 "REMINISCENCE" is a pastiche of sorts; it gathers up the musical moments that have touched the composer throughout his life. These musical reminiscences recall his excitement as a very young boy, listening to the works of the great western composers through the speaker of a portable radio, and musically encapsulate his discovery of jazz and popular music. The symphony eventually carries listeners well beyond the shores of America to Africa, Australia, Brazil, throughout Europe, India, and Mongolia. Those who follow Drew along this symphonic journey are sure to reap the rewards of the composer’s lifelong dedication to music in all its forms.
Symphony No. 1
Catalog #: NV6167
Release Date: July 1, 2018
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraDeeply committed to a beauteous aesthetic, composer John Robertson's second album SYMPHONY NO.1 once more delivers a neoclassical triumph with tremendous potential for repeated listening. This release flaunts an unapologetically exuberant elegance ever-present in the composer's oeuvre. The heart of the album is, of course, Robertson's Symphony No. 1, a three-movement epos which explores the vast realm of classical tonality.
Symphonies No. 4 & 5
Catalog #: NV6325
Release Date: January 8, 2021
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraIn an age accustomed to three-minute pop songs being the norm, does the world need more full-length symphonies? Yes, says New Zealand Canadian John Robertson with his new release, SYMPHONY NO 4 & 5. Like their predecessors, these orchestral works make no sacrifices in terms of scale and style: they aim to be grand, aesthetic compositions, and are intended to be enjoyed as such.
Symphonie Fantastique
Catalog #: NV5977
Release Date: October 14, 2014
RomanticOrchestralOrchestraHector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (1830) is regarded as one of the most significant works from the early Romantic period, memorably portraying the introspective and troubled life of an artist. The French composer's use of materials such as the recurring idée fixe to illustrate the protagonist's obsessive mind-state has influenced composers ever since. Conductor John Page calls Symphonie Fantastique "unquestionably the most vividly programmatic symphony in the entire orchestra repertoire."