Journey For One
Catalog #: NV6370
Release Date: October 22, 2021
RomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoIn the nearly 200 years since its composition for voice and piano, many have tackled Schubert’s Winterreise. Steinway artist Hilary Demske, however, transforms the cycle into a series of works for solo piano on JOURNEY FOR ONE on Navona Records, focusing on the instrument’s poignant ability to represent the original composition’s lyricism and complexity. By freely experimenting with melodic fragments and manipulating the placement and length of gestures—along with translating the meaning of Müller’s poetry to music—Demske adds a fresh, unique perspective to classic repertoire.
Pinnacle Vol. 2
Catalog #: NV6368
Release Date: September 24, 2021
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalClarinetPianoString QuartetNavona Records presents PINNACLE VOL. 2, a collection of contemporary chamber works by composers John A. Carollo, Edmund Cionek, Sarah Wallin Huff, Santiago Kodela, Adnan Marafi, Amintas Silva, Joseph T. Spaniola, and Kong-Yu Wong, that highlight the melodic, emotive, and dramatic styles offered by today’s chamber music. Throughout the album, the composers explore the cyclicity of life and nature.
A Grand Journey
Catalog #: NV6367
Release Date: September 10, 2021
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalPianoPiano TrioInspired by traditional melodies and cultural flavors, A GRAND JOURNEY gives us contemporary chamber works by Richard E Brown, Ovidiu Marinescu, and Mark G. Simon. Performed by internationally acclaimed Trio Casals, these distinct works immerse listeners in varying motifs drawn from diverse cultures, simulating a journey of melodic Korean folk patterns, Greek mythological icons, Irish fiddling, tango, and sensations garnered from the Black Sea and English countryside.
Solo & Chamber Music
Catalog #: NV6363
Release Date: August 13, 2021
20th CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalAccordionOrganPianoInternationally-renowned composer Wieslaw Rentowski presents CHAMBER WORKS on Navona Records, an album whose works span three decades of Rentowski’s chamber music oeuvre. Many of the works featured on the album are inspired by Louisiana and the Southern United States. The 1986 piece Baton Rouge for Prepared Piano celebrates the multitude of cultural traditions found in southern Louisiana and employs a variety of articulation techniques to create unique prepared piano sonorities.
Retro Americana
Catalog #: NV6361
Release Date: September 24, 2021
20th CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoHighly-acclaimed, highly-prolific pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico embarks on a magnificent journey through time by exploring an entire century's worth of North American piano music. RETRO AMERICANA splendidly showcases the whole gamut of a long-neglected genre seldom heard in such magnificence.
Sound Visionaries
Catalog #: NV6358
Release Date: July 9, 2021
20th CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoClaude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, and Pierre Boulez are stunningly reconciled in Christina Petrowska Quilico's Navona Records release SOUND VISIONARIES. Boasting a track record of over 50 recorded albums and having recently been named to the Order of Canada, the veteran pianist proves that despite all difficulties, finding common ground between these three composers can be done spectacularly.
Reimagine
Catalog #: NV6352
Release Date: June 11, 2021
21st CenturyClassicalSolo InstrumentalPianoAcclaimed pianist Inna Faliks breaks new ground with REIMAGINE on Navona Records, an homage to Beethoven and Ravel which manages to do the impossible: be breathtakingly innovative while remaining respectful to the source material.
Sustain Vol. 2
Catalog #: NV6345
Release Date: April 23, 2021
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalPianoPiano TrioSaxophoneTwo years after the release of SUSTAIN comes the long-anticipated follow-up, SUSTAIN VOL. 2. This fresh collection of works centered around the piano includes a range of contemporary compositional styles: tonal, atonal, and everything in between. This volume features a new cast of composers and performers, with contributions by Sarah Wallin-Huff, Karen Tarlow, Chen-Hsin Su, Bill Sherrill, Jim Puckett, Ron Nagorcka, Gordon Monahan, Kenneth A. Kuhn, Santiago Kodela, John Craven, and John A. Carollo. The album’s varied soundscapes and arrangements—including solo piano, piano and saxophone, and piano and strings—constantly surprise and delight the ear. A fitting sequel to the first installment, SUSTAIN VOL. 2 is steeped in the dynamic complexity piano music offers.
Beethoven Bookends
Catalog #: NV6331
Release Date: February 5, 2021
ClassicalSolo InstrumentalPianoNavona Live and pianist Antoinette Perry are proud to present BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS. The album takes listeners from Opus 7—Beethoven’s personal favorite of his early sonatas—through the Bagatelles of Opus 119, and culminates with the composer’s final sonata, Opus 111. BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS is rich with the passion and dynamic range for which Beethoven is renowned; Perry applies what Le Dauphine Libéré has called her “irreproachable technique” to these legendary compositions.
American Ivory
Catalog #: NV6328
Release Date: January 8, 2021
20th Century21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoFor Richard Fountain, piano music is as American as apple pie and baseball. On AMERICAN IVORY, his debut album on Navona Records, the well-versed pianist celebrates the variety and vitality of American art music by performing a decades-spanning collection of works by time-honored and contemporary composers alike.
Forever
Catalog #: NV6316
Release Date: October 23, 2020
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoComposer and pianist Antonija Pacek impresses with FOREVER, an album of soulful, aesthetic piano music – in a minimalist style somewhere between classical and popular music. Pacek, who holds a degree in psychology, is no stranger to the conditio humana, and while the temperament of her pieces is distinctly melancholy, their gentle expressiveness spans the whole gamut of human emotions.
Gomitolo!
Catalog #: NV6308
Release Date: August 14, 2020
20th Century21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoNavona Records artist Bruce Leto’s newest album of solo piano works synthesizes the tribulations and perseverance of the human spirit in the age of COVID-19 while also taking a look at some of the more bewildering aspects of the global response. GOMITOLO! — named after the Italian expression that loosely translates to “the incomprehensibility of human life" — is a fitting tribute to the European countries heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, featuring solo piano performances of works by Poulenc, Ravel, and fellow PARMA artist Curt Cacioppo.
Musical Images for Piano: Reflections & Recollections Vol. 3
Catalog #: NV6307
Release Date: September 25, 2020
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoMUSICAL IMAGES FOR PIANO: REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS VOL. 3 is the latest continuation of composer Mark John McEncroe’s REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS series with Navona Records. Many of the pieces featured on this album are reductions of McEncroe’s orchestral works, granting the listener fascinating insight into the mind of the composer.
Window Panes
Catalog #: NV6304
Release Date: August 14, 2020
21st CenturyOrchestralSolo InstrumentalOrchestraPianoVoiceNavona 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.
Alexander Scriabin: Early Works
Catalog #: NV6302
Release Date: August 14, 2020
RomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoRussian composer Alexander Scriabin is known to enthusiasts for his theory of musical colors, innovative piano works that pushed the boundaries of tonal writing, and for his untimely demise brought on by an unsanitary razor blade. American pianist and music professor Russell Hirshfield has now recorded an ambitiously-broad selection of the composer's early works which may well provide a novel talking point.
E Pluribus Unum
Catalog #: NV6300
Release Date: August 28, 2020
21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoNavona Records presents E PLURIBUS UNUM, an album of solo piano works performed by internationally acclaimed pianist Liza Stepanova, praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache.” It features recordings of eight renowned composers including Lera Auerbach, Anna Clyne, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kamran Ince, Pablo Ortiz, and world premiere recordings by Chaya Czernowin, Badie Khaleghan, and Eun Young Lee.
Small is Beautiful
Catalog #: NV6294
Release Date: November 20, 2020
20th CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoJapanese-Canadian pianist Yoko Hirota stuns with impeccable pianism on SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: MINIATURE PIANO PIECES. Originally recorded in 2009, this remastered edition brings out the intricacies of 20th- and 21st-century piano composition with a clarity that was previously unheard of.
Through Glass
Catalog #: NV6289
Release Date: June 12, 2020
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalPianoPiano TrioNavona Records presents some of the finest American voices of modern serious music on THROUGH GLASS, a brand-new compilation of recently-created works for piano – both solo and in chamber setups.
Vytautas Smetona Plays Brahms, Chopin & Smetona
Catalog #: NV6286
Release Date: May 22, 2020
21st CenturyRomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoExalted and expressive to just the right degree, Ohio-born pianist Vytautas Smetona fuses his American upbringing with his Lithuanian heritage in his recordings of Brahms, Chopin and his own work. His second release on Navona exhibits technical command of the highest order, profound musical understanding and a clarity of interpretation which is seldom heard.
ÆTERNUM
Catalog #: NV6285
Release Date: May 8, 2020
BaroqueClassicalSolo InstrumentalPianoÆTERNUM is a tribute to music's infallible steadfastness against the mundane adversity of human existence. Brazilian-born pianist Eliane Rodrigues convinces with her forceful, furious interpretations of keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven – among them the latter's Fifth Symphony, grippingly arranged by Rodrigues herself.