PASSAGE

Sergio Cervetti

craig madden morris

Betty R. Wishart

Daniel Crozier

 

 

OVERVIEW

 

Though “passage” is a word of numerous meanings, they all point back to a singular idea – the transition between two disparate entities. Whether it’s a passage of prose which moves along a narrative, a physical passageway connecting two points, or the continuous passing of time, all these snapshots help define our crucial moments within life’s movements. This theme threads the works on PASSAGE, the latest orchestral compilation from Navona featuring compositions from Sergio Cervetti, Daniel Crozier, Craig Morris, and Betty Wishart.

 

For his contribution to the album, Cervetti recalls a passage from the Book of Revelation, read to him in French by his grandfather while sitting in his lap, immobilized by terrified fascination. The resulting Concerto for Trumpet, Strings, and Timpani, Septem Tubae from Revelation 11:15 (“The seventh angel sounded the trumpet…”) is an awing and triumphant work of fittingly Biblical proportions. After a foreboding trumpet solo opens the composition, a tumultuous duet breaks out between timpani and trumpet. Once there’s calm on the battlefield, a final meditative section recalls the Voices of Heaven, with violas and cellos accompanying timpani and trumpet in an apocalyptic crescendo.

 

Morris’ piece A Child’s Day comes from a similarly personal place, with the music’s light, sweet themes reminding the composer of his grandchildren, who experience the fullness of each passing day as a “fresh new world.” The suite for string orchestra with percussion captures the moments within this daily experience, beginning with “Morning Smiles” and it’s airy string arrangement, which conjures the scene of a child slowly waking to the warm, loving faces of their parents in the morning. After a passage defined by energetic mallet percussion and a whimsical instrumental timbre on “Playtime,” the tired child drifts off to sleep on “Sweet Dreams” after an eventful day full of warm memories, captured by a slow-soaring micro suite with lighter percussive accents.

 

With her own mysterious passage on Concertante No. 1, “Journey into the Unknown,” Wishart composes based on the musing that “we may rest from the journey, but the effects of our encounters are still with us.” Written for strings, woodwinds, and French horn, the composer creates a journey for both the mind and heart, as logos-driven motives weave the different instruments in imitative, overlapping counterpoint, and the prominent use of minor seconds, tritones, and sevenths throughout capture the emotional apprehension and excitement of exploring the unknown. From the low opening double bass and cellos all the way through playful groups of sixteenth-notes and a climactic dialogue between the winds and the string, the composer explores highly contrapuntal and expressive motives.

 

Crozier contributes to PASSAGE with Ballade: A Tale After the Brothers Grimm, a similarly fantastical musical yarn. The composition throughout conjures storybook reveries of every persuasion, ranging from bouncing spring footsteps via a collective fluttering orchestra to an evil romp through the forest as thundering percussion propels a frantic string section. By the end, listeners will crave the visual representation of the tale Ballade creates with its musical narration.

 

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HIGHLIGHTS

 

PASSAGE is the latest orchestral compilation from Navona, bringing together pieces which focus on the passing of time and themes straight from visual literary passages

 

Prolific Navona composer Sergio Cervetti has been praised for his “originality and lively pointedness” by Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review. Here he presents a composition of Biblical proportions, as his Concerto for Trumpet, Strings, and Timpani, Septem Tubae pits these instruments together in a triumphant duel

 

Daniel Crozier’s style has been hailed as “harmonically lush and lyrically soaring” by the New York Times, and as having “abstract elegance, structural coherence, and tender feeling” by the Wall Street Journal. His contribution, Ballade: A Tale After the Brothers Grimm, is a fantastical journey filled with musical narration

 

Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review has praised Craig Morris’ compositions for their “lyricism, formal heft, beautifully played parts and idiomatic craftsmanship/inspiration that makes them all a joy to hear.” On PASSAGE, the composer presents a warm, loving ode to his grandchildren with the wonder and merriment of A Child’s Day

 

Betty Wishart has been lauded for her compositional voice, having been described by Fanfare as a composer “possessed of a distinctive and worthwhile compositional voice.” She voyages into the unknown with her Concertante No. 1, a dynamic piece that she describes as a “journey for both the mind and heart”

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ALSO ON NAVONA RECORDS

 

Winters Warmth  (NV6091)

Andrew Schultz

John A. Carollo

R. Barry Ulrich

J.A. Kawarsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Release Date: May 12, 2017

Catalog #: NV6094

 

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TRACK INFO

 

Sergio Cervetti

1  Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Timpani 

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský conductor

Ondřej Jurčeka trumpet

 

craig madden morris

A Child’s Day

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Petr Vronský conductor

2  I. Morning Smiles

3  II. Playtime

4  III. Sweet Dreams

 

Betty R. Wishart

5  Concertante No.1 “Journey into the Unknown”

Slovak National Symphony Orchestra  |  Kirk Trevor conductor

 

Daniel Crozier

6  Ballade: A Tale After the Brothers Grimm

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra  |  Stanislav Vavřínek conductor

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CREDITS

 

Sergio Cervetti

Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Timpani 

Recorded June 22, 2016 at Reduta Hall

in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Session Producer Vít Mužík

Session Engineer Aleš Dvořák, Jan Košulič

 

craig madden morris

A Child’s Day

Recorded March 2, 2016 at Reduta Hall

in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Session Producer Vit Muzik

Session Engineer Pavel Kuncar

 

Betty R. Wishart

Concertante No.1 “Journey into the Unknown”

Recorded 2002 in Bratislava, Slovakia

Session Producer Emil Niznansky

Session Engineer Hubert Geschwandtner

 

Daniel Crozier

Ballade: A Tale After the Brothers Grimm

Recorded November 23, 2016 at Reduta Hall

in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Session Producer Vit Muzik

Session Engineer Aleš Dvořák