This New Music Friday, Navona and Big Round Records present explorations and expansions of the classical tradition, navigating new approaches to revered masterworks, meditations on identity and mortality, earnest looks at contemporary social issues, and more.
Dive in and discover new music by The Crossing, Donald Nally, Berverly Johnston, David Jaeger, Garth Baxter, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Kühn Choir of Prague, Martina Janková, Katherine Saxon, Eric Chapelle, Ferdinando DeSena, Ilya Levinson, Armando Torres, Jay Anthony Gach, Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc, Bryan Wallick, and Sean R. Ferguson.
RIGWRECK
The Crossing, Gabriel Jackson
RIGWRECK finds The Crossing immersed in the urgent, word-driven choral writing of celebrated British composer Gabriel Jackson. The five works are guided by texts that wrestle with what the Earth tries to tell us, gun violence, longing, and the fragile bonds between self and world — contemporary choral music as witness and journalist, transcendent, and direct.
FINDING HER VOICE
Beverley Johnston
FINDING HER VOICE is a journey through sound, history, and identity, curated and performed by Beverley Johnston. The recording brings together works by Julie Spencer, Christos Hatzis, Samuel Kerr, Frederic Rzewski, David Jaeger, and Johnston herself, whose two structured improvisations frame the album with personal reflection.
AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION
Garth Baxter
Composer Garth Baxter unites two renowned Czech ensembles to give voice to a powerful meditation on mortality and transcendence on AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION from Navona Records. Featuring the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava and Kühn Choir of Prague, the piece draws its inspiration from a Dylan Thomas poem by the same name that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the face of death.
DVOŘÁK EARLY SONGS
Martina Janková
Dvořák is widely known and beloved for his energetic, richly-textured symphonies. How does his mastery of the great musical form translate into the small, intimate scale of the lied, or art song? Magnificently, it turns out — as demonstrated by Czech soprano Martina Janková on DVOŘÁK: EARLY SONGS. Janková showcases a number of undiscovered treasures that have not yet been presented in such breadth. The opening song Vzpomínání, set to a text by Eliška Krásnohorská, is recorded here in its world premiere; its complete autograph manuscript was discovered in 2004.
MUSIC LIKE WATER
Katherine Saxon
MUSIC LIKE WATER from American composer Katherine Saxon presents a setting of Jane Hirshfield’s poem of the same name for double chorus. Inspired by water’s persistence and strength, the work features delicate individual lines and duets that transform into lush harmonies, mirroring the way streams combine into powerful torrents.
FIRE AND FATE
Bryan Wallick
Liszt has been recorded so often and so profusely, yet his oeuvre still reveals new angles for modern performers to explore and revive, as does American pianist Bryan Wallick with FIRE AND FATE. His strategy? Impeccable pianism and an eclectic selection of works that frames Liszt not just as a virtuoso composer, but also an ardent admirer of Schubert and Mozart.
TÉNÈBRES
Sean R. Ferguson
On TÉNÈBRES, Brooklyn-based composer Sean R. Ferguson reimagines the French Baroque Leçons de Ténèbres tradition in a blazing 12‑movement trio for organ, cello, and electric guitar. TÉNÈBRES explores boundaries and connections, weaving sacred resonance, modern timbre, and classical lyricism into a contemporary chamber ritual.
