Fine Music, Vol. 4
Catalog #: NV5916
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOboeOrchestraSaxophoneFINE MUSIC, VOL. 4 is the fourth compilation of the Navona Records Fine Music digital series. This installment features the works of David Nisbet Stewart, Brian Noyes, Jonathan Little, Daniel Perttu, Curt Cacioppo, Santiago Billoni, Alejejandro Rutty, Joanne Carey, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Summer, Roger Bourland, Kjell Magne Andersen, and Jan Van der Roost.
Torrid Nature Scenes
Catalog #: NV5915
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralStage WorksOrchestraTORRID NATURE SCENES, an album of chamber works from Australian composer Nicholas Vines, presents a series of musical landscapes that instill both anxiety and ebullience in the listener. Through his innovative use of woodwinds, voice, and chamber ensemble, Vines - a composer lauded for his "crackling style" (NewMusicBox) and called "compellingly original" (Boston Phoenix) and "both humorous and unsettling" (WGBH) - asks us to consider representations of nature fueled not by a passing glance of a wondrous vista, but by a series of creative engines wracked with self-burning energy, profound fury, and breath-filled life.
Mood Indigo
Catalog #: NV5913
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraPianoErik Lotichius, a composer unafraid of melody and accessibility, combines the sounds of traditional classics with those that took the 20th-century audiences by storm - in the composer's own words, his work presents "Bach, the Blues and the Beatles" in a spectacular, enthralling combination of genre and style.
Spellbound
Catalog #: NV5911
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralLarge EnsembleOrchestraFrom mythic origin stories, to the Elizabethan stage, to the modern cinema, the human experience is bound in storytelling that has the power to captivate minds and inspire creativity. Like a good story, the composers featured on SPELLBOUND transport the listener across landscapes only limited by the imagination. These new works for orchestra behave as narrative arches, allowing tension and emotion to build and release to a euphoric conclusion or a haunting realization.
Cascading into Reverie
Catalog #: NV5910
Release Date: May 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralSolo InstrumentalPianoString OrchestraFrench composer Yves Ramette's (1921-2012) music is marked by its ability to broadcast "messages of the heart," offering unflinching and distinguished representations of emotion and experience using traditional forms. A student of Honegger and contemporary of Boulez, among others, Ramette's works draw from the rhythmic and harmonic elements of mid-20th-century France.
Dances Of Eternity
Catalog #: NV5907
Release Date: April 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralLarge EnsembleOrchestraDANCES OF ETERNITY presents a group of orchestral works by composers who explore music's potential to capture the more overlooked aspects of human experience. Ranging from representations of optimism and energy to the surging power of nostalgia, to lighthearted frolics and the eternality of life, DANCES OF ETERNITY asks the listener to ponder life, death, and everything in between.
Imaginary Symphony
Catalog #: NV5904
Release Date: March 1, 2013
21st CenturyChamberOrchestralChoirFluteOrchestraNew York-based Anthony Piccolo leads a vibrant and varied career as composer, choral director, pianist and conductor. Drawing on decades of performing and composing experience, he crafts clear and colorful scores in a variety of genres.
Cross Connection
Catalog #: NV5903
Release Date: March 1, 2013
21st CenturyChamberOrchestralOrchestraString QuartetCROSS CONNECTION features the works of Henry Wolking and James Scott Balentine, two composers whose works perfectly complement each other through musical studies of crossed paths and human togetherness. Both composers works consider the meaning of life, love, and music, and the relationship between each: Gone Playin', a spirited musical riff on epitaphs and their connection of life and death; The Old Gypsy, a Hungarian-influenced piece for string quartet that reflects on the perpetuity of musical themes and influences; and Dun Eideann Blogh, a recollection of times past with friends and family.
Pacific Ridge
Catalog #: NV5898
Release Date: January 1, 2013
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOrchestraPercussionPianoSanta Barbara-based composer Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) is a fixture in the Californian classical music community, having received commissions and performances from orchestras and ensembles throughout the state and worked throughout her career to advance the musical community.
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.
Messenger
Catalog #: NV5896
Release Date: January 1, 2013
21st CenturyOrchestralElectroacousticOrchestraPianoComposer Jeffrey Stadelman's unusual, arresting, exacting musical voice has evolved over 25 years, amounting to a complex musical practice that suggests no obvious counterpart. MESSENGER, an all-Stadelman release on Navona, includes a variety of his orchestral, instrumental, and electroacoustic works.
Dimensions
Catalog #: NV5895
Release Date: November 1, 2012
21st CenturyOrchestralString OrchestraThroughout time, humankind has sought to provide explanation and justification for the pains, joys, and passions of life. With DIMENSIONS, Navona presents a collection of string orchestra works from seven composers (Gregory Hutter, Louis Babin, Reynard Burns, Andrew March, Claude Debussy, Rudy Kronfuss, Daniel Burwasser), whose music captures the fluidity of time and emotion and illustrates the impact of past experiences on the present and future.
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.
Of Birds and Lemons
Catalog #: NV5887
Release Date: October 1, 2012
21st CenturyOrchestralOrchestraWith OF BIRDS AND LEMONS, Navona Records presents the diverse orchestral works of two composers united by their affinity for energetic, stylistic, and rhythmic composition. José Elizondo and David Tanner, whose respective works simultaneously complement and challenge those of the other, share their varied backgrounds and experiences to create a glorious whole with international appeal.
Causal Dualism
Catalog #: NV5886
Release Date: October 1, 2012
21st CenturyChamberOrchestralSaxophoneString OrchestraTromboneCAUSAL DUALISM, Keith Kramer's second full-length release on Navona, is a celebration of dichotomy and relationships between all things. Duality, for soprano, saxophone, bass trombone, and string quartet, explores the interaction and relationships of the ensemble; Causality represents the string orchestra's journey of expression and highlights the action and reaction that permeates through all events; Flame of Attention, for soprano saxophone, the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the composer and Gottfried Stoger.
Paradigms
Catalog #: NV5880
Release Date: August 1, 2012
21st CenturyConcertosOrchestralOboeOrchestraPARADIGMS explores the notion that music of varied influences, backgrounds, and techniques can be strung together to represent modern classical as a whole. With orchestral works that dive into the dramatic and expressive, ponder the impressionistic through textured and rhythmic motifs, and compare the bright with the chaotic, this album posits that music of all studies and methods of creation are pieces of a larger puzzle that shape the American contemporary soundscape.
Night of Light
Catalog #: NV5866
Release Date: April 1, 2012
21st CenturyOrchestralVocal MusicString OrchestraVoiceNIGHT OF LIGHT is the latest CD from Cypriot composer Sophia Serghi featuring five of her works for orchestra and voice: Night of Light, a musical reaction to Easter in Manhattan and a document of the composer's spiritual growth; Serghi's earliest work for orchestra and voice, Cantus Integritatis, comprised of four introspective and meditative movements based on the composer's own Latin poetry; Full Moon Haiku, a collaboration with poet Nancy Schoenberger setting the mensal characteristics of the full moon to music; Ikon, inspired by an unusual Ikon in Paris; and Night of Light: Reprise.
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.
Polyhymnia
Catalog #: NV5867
Release Date: February 1, 2012
21st CenturyOrchestralVocal MusicChoirOrchestraString OrchestraWith works described as "an inspired creation" (Music & Vision), "original and quite brilliant" (Fanfare), and "immensely poetic" (Tempo), Jonathan Little has planted himself as a luminary contemporary composer. On POLYHYMNIA, his first release on Navona Records, Little is able to transform traditional influences into rich, intense, and finely structured music that lives up to his reputation.
Fine Music, Vol. 3
Catalog #: NV5868
Release Date: January 1, 2012
21st CenturyChamberOrchestralElectronicOrchestraPiano TrioFINE MUSIC, VOL. III is the third compilation of the Navona Records Fine Music digital series. This installment features the works of Lawrence Siegel, Sergio Cervetti, Tony Piccolo, Adrienne Albert, Daniel Perttu, Gerhard Stabler, Jane O'Leary, Jim Scully, Meira Warshauer, Piffaro, John Carollo, William Vollinger, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Lawrence Ball, and Benjamin Yusupov. This collection both highlights some of Navona's choicest tracks and offers a preview of things to come.