Catalog

Featuring cellist Thomas Mesa and pianist Michelle Cann, OUR STORIES from Navona Records aims to raise the voices of composers and performers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in classical music. Made possible by PARMA Recordings and a Sphinx MPower Grant, this release musically conveys a diverse mixture of themes and topics, from the intricacies and curiosities of human communication to fear-inducing information prevalent in the media, reflections on the acceptance of life's inevitable changes and losses, and more. Dive in and explore the masterful contemporary works of Andrea Casarrubios, Carlos Carrillo, Kevin Day, Sebastian Quesada, and Mario Oyanadel.

On LET’S TANGO, Duo Cello e Basso with French double bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman and cellist Emmanuel Feldman invites listeners to experience some of the celebrated genre’s greatest masterpieces. Joined by pianist Victor Cayres, the centerpiece of the album is the duos’ arrangement of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires that they perform in concerts around the United States including a recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Other Piazzolla works with piano include Kicho, an original work for solo double bass and Le Grand Tango, written originally for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The album also includes a trio arrangement of Por una Cabeza and El Dia que me Quieras by famed 20th century tango composer Carlos Gardel. Full of the longing and passion characteristic of tango music and paired with the rich dynamic range of the bass and cello, LET’S TANGO offers fresh new interpretations of these classic works.

Lyricism and melody are often vainly sought in contemporary composition. American composer Richard Crosby goes against the grain on BY THE WATERS OF MEMORY, a selection of compositions so aesthetically sublime, yet so profound, one wonders if this is still music, or someone mesmerizingly peeling back the layers on existence itself. BY THE WATERS OF MEMORY features two scintillating chamber duos with piano – one a viola, the other a cello sonata – as well as a charming tetralogy of Latin dances for piano and oboe. But perhaps the greatest revelation arrives in the form of trenchantly beautiful solo piano pieces, which bear all the hallmarks of unadulterated classical-romantic genius. If Schubert had been an American, he would have sounded like this.

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.

The acclaimed The Frahm-Lewis Trio entices with LA MORTE DI DUSSEK. Contrasting the works of Mozart with the lesser-known Ferdinand Ries and Philip Antony Corri, it is a veritable declaration of love to the Classical era. One would be forgiven to think that the only star of this album would be Mozart, with his befittingly performed sonatas. Or perhaps its Beethoven’s student, Ferdinand Ries? After all, he graces this collection with an imposing trio highly reminiscent of his teacher’s early chamber works. A veritable trifecta is achieved with the addition of the album's title piece by Philip Antony Corri, whose legacy intertwines with his sister’s marriage to the once famous composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. A historical oversight, for this premiere recording of his trio, translated as "The Death of Dussek," is a clear focal point of this album — lyrical, beautiful, melodically elaborate, and harmonically innovative, almost as much as the works by the composer it commemorates.