February 5, 2021 New Releases from Navona and Ravello Records

This month, we’re proud to introduce the newest albums from Navona and Ravello Records.

Dive in and discover a new single from multi-GRAMMY winners The Crossing, a cutting edge electroacoustic album from Chris Chafe, Jonathan Impett, Juan Parra Cancino, and The Orpheus Institute, introspective poetry settings from Bun-Ching Lam, works that meant the most to Beethoven himself performed live by Antoinette Perry on piano, live works for large ensemble from Jane O’Leary,  Peter Dickson Lopez, and Corrina Bonshek, as well as the long awaited historic Mexican choral release from The Newberry Consort.

RELIVE, from Navona Live features live performances of the music of three composers from around the world. This latest edition of the Navona Live series is inspired by an eclectic blend of world topics, literature,  landscapes, and seascapes. Corrina Bonshek’s Dreams of the Earth is a reworking of a large scale piece for string and percussion inspired by the sight of a swirling flock of birds amidst the backdrop of climate change. The Ship of Death by Peter Dickson Lopez is a dramatic work for male voice and chamber orchestra based on the eponymous poem by D.H. Lawrence. From Sea-Grey Shores by Jane O’Leary is a musical response to the rugged landscape of coastal Ireland. Navona Live offers concertgoers the chance to enjoy the works of these world-class composers from anywhere. ‌

Navona 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. Her performances reveal a profound appreciation for Beethoven’s genius, as well as his iconoclasm. With careful attention to nuance, Perry exhibits both Beethoven’s mastery of classical forms and his desire to rebel against them. BEETHOVEN BOOKENDS, recorded at the Aspen Music Festival, puts listeners in the concert hall with one of the great living performers of Beethoven’s music.

Newly released from Navona is CONVERSATIONS WITH MY SOUL, a collection of new chamber works from acclaimed composer-pianist Bun-Ching Lam. The music sets in different languages the poetry of Shelley, Heine, Rimbaud, and Lasker-Shüller, as well as the poems of 9th Century Chinese mystic Han Shan and contemporary writer Etel Adnan. In a compositional voice The New York Times has called “alluringly exotic,” Lam incorporates baritone voice, piano, viola, flute, French horn, and harp to elucidate timeless works concerning life’s fundamental questions. With a thoroughly contemporary sensibility informed by tradition, Lam’s CONVERSATIONS WITH MY SOUL offers listeners a fitting soundtrack for their own existential ponderings.

Chicago’s best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.

The Chaffe Impett Parra Trio, in partnership with Ravello Records, has released their newest album, TIME CRYSTAL. TIME CRYSTAL is a musical project like nothing you’ve ever heard before—born at the nexus of art and science, this collection of improvisational “experiments” tests the interactions between musical inputs and computer-generated responses. What listeners hear on the recording is actually a methodological documentation of a laboratory session in Ghent, during which three musicians engaged in a fluid and captivating freeform dance. TIME CRYSTAL is electroacoustic music at the very vanguard of the genre; it features violoncello, double bass, trumpet, and electric guitar, and offers listeners the chance to take part in the musical discovery.