Direct Contact
Catalog #: NV6229
Release Date: May 24, 2019
20th Century21st CenturySolo InstrumentalPianoPianist Roberta Rust brings her own unique dynamism to the works of eight composers with whom she has had direct contact over the years. Dedicated to her late mother and step-daughter, this collection is as personal and touching as it is memorable for the broader audience.
Resonating Colours 5
Catalog #: NV6242
Release Date: July 26, 2019
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalBrass EnsemblePianoViolinWong Hok-yeung opens the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild’s RESONATING COLOURS 5 with Night Poem, a composition for cello and piano. Rhapsodic and ambling, the piece conjures nightly thoughts, welling up and vanishing with lifelike authenticity. Chan Chin-ting features with two pieces for solo violin: Cross-Currents, an exploration of the violin's full tonal range, and Postcards, an assortment of, in the composer's words, "six miniatures/musical gifts," which, quite like the name suggests, can be played as standalone pieces, but also feature a common theme that unites them.
Second Wind
Catalog #: NV6253
Release Date: December 13, 2019
21st CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalFlutePianoSaxophoneSaxophonist Dave Camwell's interpretations on SECOND WIND impressively demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument in music spanning three centuries. SECOND WIND presents a wide selection of saxophone music: a J. S. Bach partita with piano accompaniment added by Robert Schumann, a Vivaldi concerto, a Händel sonata, but also several contemporary, tonal saxophone compositions.
Hommage to Women Composers
Catalog #: NV6254
Release Date: October 25, 2019
20th CenturyRomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoRuth Lomon (1930-2017), Composer and Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and Composer-in-Residence with Boston Secession, and her friend Iris Graffman Wenglin, Florida-based pianist and lecturer, came to a stunning realization after Ruth traveled to London, where she looked for music written by women. There were very few scores to be found, and even fewer that were properly printed. With that, the duo set out on a mission to uncover the buried works of female composers over the years and bring them deserved recognition. The results of this endeavor come to life in HOMMAGE TO WOMEN COMPOSERS.
Brahmsiana
Catalog #: NV6260
Release Date: November 15, 2019
21st CenturyRomanticSolo InstrumentalPianoFollowing his 2017 10-disc recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, pianist Steven Masi turns his talents to two works by Brahms, each one followed by its own companion piece by composers Robert Chumbley and Jonathan Cziner, respectively. Masi’s masterful touch and dynamic style capitalize on the unrivaled emotive power of solo piano, causing it to sing in a voice that is profoundly human. Join this Juilliard School alumnus as he delights listeners with virtuosic artistry and a knowing attention-to-detail.
Indiana Collectanea
Catalog #: NV6270
Release Date: February 14, 2020
20th CenturyChamberSolo InstrumentalPercussionPianoTromboneNavona Live is proud to announce the release of INDIANA COLLECTANEA, which celebrates and preserves composer Michael G. Cunningham’s residency at Indiana University School of Music from 1969-1973. This live recording of Cunningham’s work comes on the heels of his acclaimed album ECUMENICAL SPIRIT from Navona Live earlier this year. This latest release captures a significant moment in time, when Cunningham’s work helped channel the talents of 30 burgeoning musicians.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.