Catalog

Few things are as shrouded in mystery as the process behind the conception of an idea — partially because verbal explorations of cognition are seldom fruitful. But where words fail, music steps in to enlighten: and this is the aim of Kevin Bobo's ORIGINS & EXPANSIONS, a philosophical reflection scored for wind ensemble and steelpan. Bobo musically examines the turbulent process of creation, from uncertain beginnings to victorious transformations. ORIGINS & EXPANSIONS evokes the tentative emergence of an idea, winding through obstacles and moments of introspection, and eventually captures the fragile resilience of inspiration forming. It's a cerebral, immersive exploration of existence itself; metaphysical, yes, but also richly narrative.

THAT’S A DIFFERENT GROOVE from Marcus Eley presents clarinet works from jazz legends Alvin Batiste, David N. Baker, Yusef Lateef, and Oliver Nelson. Eley deftly reimagines these compositions in a chamber music setting. The album’s unifying theme is “groove,” the term musicians use to describe that elusive feeling of finding the rhythmic sweet-spot. Alvin Batiste’s Swing in the Abstract gives listeners a taste of New Orleans, while Yusef Lateef’s reinterpretation of Brahms invites us to consider new ways of hearing a centuries-old work. Transcending genre boundaries, THAT’S A DIFFERENT GROOVE is a bold, yet nuanced, series of performances spotlighting the jazz clarinet.

Composer Kevin Wilt’s TAVERN MUSIC is an evocative collection of chamber works performed by pianist Irena Kofman and the Amernet String Quartet. Wilt’s compositions employ vivid musical color and texture across a variety of styles. The title piece draws on Celtic and Gaelic traditions, blending classical technique with folk-inspired melodies; it emulates the sounds of a jam session in a local pub, with friends and their fiddles gathered around a table sharing a pint. Out in the Storm captures the drama of a South Florida thunderstorm, while Silver Nitrate Reverie is a nostalgic reflection on classic cinema. TAVERN MUSIC is an uniquely inviting collection of chamber works.

The Sirius Quartet speaks past the veil in INCANTATIONS, a collection of nine works honoring memory, grief, and the aspect of loss as it appears in our interpersonal and social relationships. The music of INCANTATIONS is a speaking vessel to concentrate the profound loss experienced at the individual and communal level in recent decades into a great beyond, a release of grief for its composers, performers, and listeners alike. Exploring grief as it exists in political, cultural, and familial spaces, the Sirius Quartet commentates on the loss of loved ones as eloquently as it commentates on the loss of shared humanity in the great American political divide, or the devastating loss afflicted by unnecessary war. Pulling from various cultural diasporas, INCANTATIONS teaches a lesson in the universal language of loss, and the unique and beautiful ways we respond and adapt to it.

Blending vocal and orchestral elements across several movements, cantatas are notoriously difficult to compose. Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg has accepted the challenge with ANY OF THOSE DECEMBERS, setting poems by Jeanne Minahan to music. The result is intimate, aesthetic, and wistful — a tender embrace of lyrics and sound.  Scored for four solo singers with varying accompaniments, ANY OF THOSE DECEMBERS impresses on multiple fronts. But it isn't due to the excellent source material alone: the master performers in Lyric Fest bring both the lyrics and the composition to life. A wonderful collaboration, in which the whole is even greater than the sum of its parts, Wenzelberg’s work is “a cantata to make memories sing.”

MYTHOLOGY SUITE from the acclaimed Nevada Wind Ensemble is a chronological cross-section through the ensemble's highly diverse repertoire: vibrant, unapologetically modern, a determined confluence of 20th century serious music and contemporary 21st-century composition. It's rare to hear a wind ensemble soaring to such lofty heights as under the baton of Reed Chamberlin, who commands the ensemble exceptionally well in this Navona Records release.

It's admittedly rare to hear contemporary classical music that delivers a shot of energy and drive like a cup of coffee: strong enough to wake you up, but in a way that is still pleasing to the senses. ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK boasts exactly this rare and invigorating combination — and the energetic performance by The Harlem Chamber Players adds an extra boost on top. Hailstork’s music blends African, American, and European traditions; there are parts that positively sound like something Shostakovich or Prokofiev might have written, perhaps echoes of Hailstork's studies with Nadia Boulanger in the 1960s. There are moments of contemplation, but if this album is anything, it's invigorating and profound.

Composer Thomas Cabaniss and the Charleston Symphony String Quartet bring a new and exquisite recording of Cabaniss's third, fourth, and sixth string quartets to Navona Records. A complementary record to the previously released FOUR ELEMENTS, DENMARK VESEY completes Cabaniss's six-quartet series. Bearing endless musical complexities masked in an air of exquisite melodic simplicity, the Charleston Symphony String Quartet effectively captures the evolving story between each movement and each quartet. Just as easily as they lean into the melancholy lines of the sixth, whose narrative tells the viscerally emotional story of Denmark Vesey, a slave revolt leader, they capture the harsh futuristic elements of the fourth and the flowing dance movements of the third. No doubt, DENMARK VESEY again proves Cabaniss to be a composer of wide variety, a collaboration that cements his legacy in the string ensemble genre.

Lauded cellist Emily Mantone is accompanied by Umi Garrett on BEETHOVEN: THE COMPLETE CELLO SONATAS, working in tandem to bring a new and distinctive tone to the five sonatas weaving through the lifetime of the great composer.

As a musical ensemble and non-profit organization, Calliope Brass flourishes in its joint mission of cultivating both entertainment and education. And with the freshly-commissioned contemporary works on SECOND NATURE, this vibrant ensemble proves that innovation lies at the very core of its existence.  Leaning heavily into tailor-made commissions can be an artistic gamble for any musical group, but in this case it pays off. The compositions’ motives are diverse in their representations of nature — meditations on mushrooms, Greek mythology, and modern dating, to name a few — but the performance given by Calliope Brass is one thing only: comprehensively flawless.

ESFAHÂN features eight cross-cultural compositions by Reza Vali. Blending Persian and Western classical traditions, the album is the first commercial recording of these works. Highlights include Hajiani, for Karnâ and electronics, as well as Sornâ (Folk Songs, Set No. 17) for Persian wind instruments and ensemble, featuring traditional Persian wind instruments. Highlights also include Four Persian Mystic Poems for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, and Esfahân for string quartet. Vali’s music is both highly innovative and deeply rooted in tradition; the unique modal system he uses borrows from the ancient Persian Dastgâh-Maqâm system, which was rediscovered through his extensive study of Iranian folk music. Despite eschewing Western approaches to counterpoint and musical form, Vali’s music is polyphonic and highly structured. The result is a compelling marriage of East and West, old and new.

At this point, it would only be fair to call Dutch composer and conductor Johan de Meij “the Dutch King of program music.” Widely known to audiences for his 1988 Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings, De Meij now presents CASANOVA, the complete recording of his compositions and transcriptions for cello and wind orchestra. Like the majority of De Meij’s oeuvre, the works on CASANOVA are committed to a late Romantic aesthetic: frequently citing Rachmaninoff, Debussy, or Puccini, and intended to conjure specific imagery. The resulting music is soothing, colorful, and pleasing to the ear.

Fairy tales have deeply and consistently fascinated humanity throughout the centuries. Enter NEW ENCHANTMENTS, bassoonist Cornelia Sommer's exploration of magical archetypes that features music by living composers along with new arrangements by Sommer herself across six world premiere recordings. Sommer has also written a prize-winning dissertation on the subject of fairy tales in music, adding further depth to this performance that showcases her musical virtuosity, great feeling for nuance, lyrical storytelling, and profound expertise to illuminate every last detail. Enriching and engrossing, this album could not be more aptly titled.

Anthony Brandt’s LIVEWIRE and MEETING OF MINDS features two innovative dance scores created for collaborations with NobleMotion Dance and the University of Houston IUCRC BRAIN Center that were part performance and part scientific experiment. In order to better understand how brains interact, several dancers wore mobile brain-body imaging devices, with live visualizations of the neural synchrony between their brains displayed in real time. Brandt’s music offers “sonic brain scans” that explore our mental lives and how we engage with others, from our most automated behavior to our most flexible and dynamic. These string quartets celebrate the human mind and the way it shapes our reality.

Following their 2023 United Kingdom Remembrance tour, The Syracuse University Wind Ensemble returns to the airwaves with two world premiere recordings on ANGELS RISING: MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE AND LIGHT. The ensemble has commissioned dozens of new works for their genre, the two most recent being Frank Ticheli’s Angels Rising and Energy and Light by Syracuse’s own Natalie Draper, both of which commemorate the 35 Syracuse University students lost in the 1988 Lockerbie bombings. Draper and Ticheli’s tributes to the 270 total lives lost in the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 are bookended by performances of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue in this Navona Records release, and are all available to experience in both stereo and Dolby Atmos immersive audio formats.

Lyrebird Brass presents the world premieres of five new contemporary brass quintets in BOOK OF BRASS, an album shaking up the scene with an assortment of boundary-pushing works by highly lauded and awarded composers. Opening with three time GRAMMY® award winner Jennifer Higdon’s Book of Brass, this titular composition can be played and listened to in any order one pleases. From the intense energy of “Ramp Up” to the puzzling, slowly unfolding maze of “Acrostic,” Higdon certainly knows how to sell a story. Alice Humphries is no stranger to puzzlings in Uncertain Meditations, which considers ideas in isolation, reflecting on their vast possibilities. Reflection is at the core of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s poetic As Bronze, too, and found even in Kate Neal’s Fanfare, which, composed during the 2020 lockdown period, challenges what a fanfare represents. Alan Holley rounds out the recording with The Goodchild Canzonas, a four movement work exploring atriums, cathedrals, and the heavens above, but perhaps most appropriately: the Lyrebird. BOOK OF BRASS is a winning installment in Lyrebird Brass's already impressive oeuvre, pulling out all the stops with spirited fanfares and contemplative odes.

Navona Records is pleased to present ELEVATE, the second installment of All Classical Radio’s award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative. A response to the industry’s inequities in classical music recordings, the RII highlights music from underrepresented communities to build a more diverse and inclusive soundscape around the world. Bringing to life the sonatas of Yuko Uébayashi and Nobu Kōda and a string quartet by Damien Geter, ELEVATE pairs deserving compositional talent with several of today’s leading classical performers — a synergetic testament to the power of uplifting each other in the arts.

Award-winning Michigan composer, Dinah Bianchi, shares an impactful creative vision on her self-titled album, DINAH BIANCHI: FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Performed by 10 world-class musicians, many of whom frequently showcase their talents with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera House, this collection embodies the composer’s belief that music should be sublimely beautiful and communicative. Spanning chamber and larger symphonic works, this Navona Records release is a captivating array of compositions that illustrate the fusion of intricate melodic content with a progressive, harmonically-charged palette, delivering a refreshingly unique yet easily approachable encounter.

SONIX AND OTHER TONIX is a collection of innovative chamber works from composer Jan Järvlepp. The title refers to his piece Sonix for Ónix, composed for the Ónix Ensamble of Mexico. It combines elements from his most popular chamber and orchestral works, Pierrot Solaire and Garbage Concerto, respectively. The album also features Trio No. 3, a three-movement work for violin, cello, and piano which protests the rise of the surveillance state. SONIX AND OTHER TONIX also includes Shinkansen, which takes listeners for a ride on a Japanese bullet train, and In Memoriam, written for the composer’s late brother. Spanning a diverse range of topics and influences, SONIX AND OTHER TONIX exemplifies the iconoclastic creativity for which Järvlepp is known.

The award-winning Benda Quartet assembles on QUADRANTS VOL. 5 to deliver a stunning, razor-sharp collection of contemporary string works. Composers Christopher J. Hoh, Ferdinando DeSena, Christopher Brakel, Michael Murray, and Paul Halley offer a wide range of sounds and emotions in this body of work, ranging from warm, elegant expressions to high-octane passages and more. This Navona Records release is also available as a visual album, filmed at the historic Dul Michal mine in Ostrava, CZ. Eloquent, precise, and hypnotic, QUADRANTS VOL. 5 is a crystal-clear reflection of the musical and technical heights of the string quartet genre.