Instrumentaion: Strings

VIOLA FANTASIES from virtuoso Misha Galaganov presents the groundbreaking solo works Fantasies for Bass Viol (1735) by Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann. These compositions are the only known solo works from a major Baroque composer to almost ideally complement the modern viola’s range and tonal characteristics. In this album, Galaganov uses natural gut strings and modern tuning to interpret Telemann’s beautiful melodies, inventive polyphony, and dance rhythms. Galaganov uses his scholastic research, knowledge, experience, and musical instincts to inform each performance regarding dynamics, tempi, ornamentation, and other aspects of interpretation. Essential and pleasant listening for all audiences, these works also offer a study in polyphony, ornamentation, bow technique, and more.

Composer Michael K. Slayton continues his quest of lending a musical voice to the paintings of 20th century artists with KLEEMATION, the second single from his upcoming Navona Records album, SAGE BRUSHES. Commissioned by oboist Jared Hauser, this piece features responses to the highly imaginative and evocative work of the Swiss-German Expressionist/Cubist/Surrealist artist Paul Klee (1879–1940). The twinkle-in-the-eye of “Senecio,” the stark, cubed contrasts of “Ancient Harmony,” and the optical expressive energy of “Kettledrummer” served as catalysts.

Navona Records is pleased to present Mirórs, the first single from composer Michael Slayton’s forthcoming album SAGE BRUSHES. Mirórs seeks to honor the visionary work of Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró (1893–1983). Each movement highlights the flute, violin, and clarinet, respectively, attempting to aurally render the thematic heartbeat of Miró’s work.

A resilient voice for new music, Eric Allen conducts the Texas Tech University Contemporary Music Ensemble in SHIFTING DIRECTION, a collection of three works by composers Joan Tower, Jennifer Jolley, and Jennifer Higdon. Elevated by Allen's precise conducting and careful attention to detail, SHIFTING DIRECTION provides three unique listening directions for contemporary music enjoyers to delight in. In Petroushskates, Tower paints an image of a carnival on ice, a whirling winter affair inspired by the thematic material of Stravinsky's Petrushka as it appears in the opening Shrovetide fair sequence. Weaving and flowing, the music creates the graceful effect of seeing a figure skating routine. Jolley's Blue Glacier Decoy pays tribute to the path of modern dancer and choreographer Trisha Brown, who revered the glacier and incorporated its landscape and movement into her work. SHIFTING DIRECTION closes with a bang — or rather, a zap — with Higdon's Zaka, a word which is defined as doing the following at great speed: zap, sock, race, turn, drop, sprint. The ensemble moves at an electric pace to capture the essence of the term.

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.

The cello-piano duo is justly hailed for its tremendous expressiveness. Cellist Juliana Soltis and pianist Ruoting Li remarkably demonstrate this setup's emotive power on AMERICAN WOMAN while championing a noble cause — highlighting underrepresented women composers. Featuring works by Mary Howe, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Florence Price, AMERICAN WOMAN sheds light on a treasure trove of rarely heard gems of cello-piano literature. The general tone is sweeping, romantic, expressive, at times fierce and energetic, then again tender and delicate. Soltis and Li show extraordinary ability not only in bringing out the unique style of each composer, but also in uniting them all in a great artistic effort.

Inspiring curiosity, cultural interaction, and deep listening, INK TRACES reflects violinist Julia Glenn’s 15-year journey exploring Chinese culture and interactions between Chinese language and music, fueled by frequent trips and three years living in China. This Navona Records release reflects a greater interdisciplinary approach seen in Chinese arts - one that blends poetry, dance, painting, calligraphy, and music and shows fascinating interchanges between gesture and sound. The title, inspired in part by Pan Kai's Ink Traces of Sigh for solo violin, is a nod to such interplay. The album explores three threads: probing the musical-linguistic play possible in the music of Chinese speakers, broadening perspectives on Chinese music, and fostering cultural dialogue between China and the United States. It features works by Chinese and Chinese-speaking composers, stretching traditional Western musical boundaries to create rich, imaginative soundscapes and processes.

Eric Schultz’s masterful clarinet playing speaks in new and known tongues on POLYGLOT, a concept album celebrating music as a language of cultural identity and the self. A strong advocate of living composers, Schultz opens with an engrossing performance of Iván Enrique Rodríguez’s Sonata Santera, exploring the development and evolution of three Caribbean Santeria rituals. Schultz captures the enchanting, mystical nature of the rituals between the rhythmic, driving movements, occasionally accompanied by percussive elements.  Schultz follows with Críptico no. 9: DAVЯTHAN, an interpretive piece that centralizes language and text-setting at the core of its composition. Shortly followed is Johnny Navarro’s romantic Danzón, a nostalgic work punctuated by fleeting moments of sensuality. The same intimacy is carried into Chiayu Hsu’s Summer Night in a Deep Valley, showcasing meditative episodes on the natural beauty expressed in Guo Xi’s Chinese landscape paintings. Likewise, Gabriel Bouche Caro’s Escenas explores a meditation on self-identity and its existence as a product of culture, the clarinet never languishing in melancholic passages, but always remaining reflective and curious. POLYGLOT culminates with the Brahms Trio, Op. 114, a composition inspired by the clarinet playing of friend Richard Mühlfeld, an inspiration so strong it served to pull the composer from retirement. To Schultz, a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year, music is a hallmark of metamorphosis that drives cultural change across history, the performer and composer working in tandem to create something inspired and new — speaking each other’s language, you might say.

VOICES FROM THE OTHER SIDE is a collection of evocative chamber works performed by cello octet — several with soprano soloist Gabrielle Haigh. Included are Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli-style Fratres as well as his L’abbé Agathon, inspired by the remains of a 12th-century leper hospital near Beauvais, France; as well as the beloved Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Two works by American composer Margi Griebling-Haigh are featured: the title piece is a setting of three otherworldly poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and a single-movement work called Cantilena allows the cellists to shine individually as well as together. Griebling-Haigh’s music has been praised for memorable melodies and strong rhythms; her colorful scoring and harmonic language have been compared to Barber, Ravel, and Poulenc.

One might be tempted to think that there is no crossover in music that hasn't been done yet; and thankfully, one would be mistaken. DEEP RIVER presents a vibrant selection of 21 African American spirituals, interpreted by countertenor Michael Walker II and early music consort Alchymy Viols. A curious collaboration? Not at all, according to director Philip Spray. The viol consort's historical purpose was to arrange popular tunes of its day; so it appeared only logical to try this setup on America's first folk songs. It worked. Additional harmonies are provided by a distinctly anachronistic grand harp, and accompaniment by a small field pump organ. The effect is stunning: a music so utterly, distinctly American, one wonders why this hasn't been done before.

Edwin Barker’s playing is described as “timeless,” “vibrant,” and “compelling,” three descriptors that could not be better suited for his recording of J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 and Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata Op. 108 for solo double bass. Elegantly capturing Bach’s suite in his arrangement for double bass, Barker navigates the challenging and unwieldy passages of the Prelude’s fugue with the same measured and tolerant musicality innate to the immortal tenderness of the Sarabande. Despite a grand leap in time and place, he inspires equal personality — and often spouts of well-placed capriciousness — in Weinberg’s Sonata, honoring the high technical demands of the work while carving out a unique appreciation for Weinberg’s stylistic traditions. BASSO PROFUNDO is a prime example of a master at work, a recording that will surely inspire another extensive list of descriptors risen in Barker’s praise.

What happens when two world class performers unite in their efforts to carry on the traditions and collaborative spirit of classical music? Cellist Ovidiu Marinescu and pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera share a shining example on RESURGENCE. Featuring the works of several contemporary composers, this Navona Records release offers reflections on emergence and transformation, the throes of long distance love, the great artists of our past and present, the fusion of several musical influences, and more. Leveraging refined elegance in sound and raw virtuosity in approach, RESURGENCE is a thoughtful exploration into the expressive capabilities of the cello and the piano both as individual entities and a cohesive voice.

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.

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 violin concerto is a challenging setup to write for: it beckons with promises of both might and fragility. Composer Christopher Alan Schmitz is well-versed in both the theoretical and practical aspects of composition: his resulting VIOLIN CONCERTO AND SYMPHONY NO. 1 gets the balance just right. The tonal language is reminiscent of Bruckner and Mahler, as raw emotion mixes with splendor. The ultimate success of this precarious, heady concoction rests on the shoulders of conductor Stefan Sanderling and particularly, violinist Amy Schwarz Moretti, member of the acclaimed Ehnes Quartet. Stirringly written and performed to perfection, a success it is.

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.

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.

Praised for her “incisive technique and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone,” violinist Wanchi Huang performs a diverse range of compositions written by living composers on IMAGINING WORLDS from Navona Records. Huang’s virtuosic performance takes listeners on a dynamic voyage through the elegant grandeur of the baroque era to the historic hilltops of Italy, passing through reflections on our darkest moments and soaring towards the brighter days that lie ahead. Featuring new music by composers Adolphus Hailstork, Jeffrey Mumford, John Corigliano, Judith Shatin, and Meira Warshauer, IMAGINING WORLDS is a stunning showcase of Huang’s artistry and the compelling voices in contemporary American music.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, violinist Sunmi Chang and pianist Clara Yang embarked on this meaningful project. MOTHER TALES is an album that pays tribute to four remarkable women composers – Florence Price, Gabriela Lena Frank, Liliya Ugay, and Amy Beach. Notably, the album shares the same title as Liliya Ugay’s commissioned work, an exquisite and heartwarming piece that reflects on motherhood. However, in this project, the concept of a “mother” transcends biological boundaries, encompassing all those who have had a profound influence and nurturing presence in the lives of others.

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.