Playlist: NUGGETS! Summer 2020 Edition

Adventurer-composer Lias has forged a unique union between sound and space with his series of works about the national parks of the U.S. His “Composing in the Wilderness” seminar, held annually in Alaska, has proven to be popular and profound, inspiring others to follow in his path.

An all-star lineup of Mika Stoltzman, Richard Stoltzman, Eddie Gomez, and Steve Gadd perform the legendary drummer’s arrangement of the Paul Simon classic, upon which he originally appeared.

I keep coming back to Chen’s music, which so deftly blends cultures, styles, and atmospheres. The album from which this track is drawn, 2018’s ON & BETWEEN, teems with bubbly, bright hues and burnished Cimmerian shadows.

I first met Andrew in the Czech Republic during our recording of his string orchestra piece “Sanguis Venenatus,” but it was clear from my first look at his scores that he had a real knack for string writing. This piece, performed by my longtime friend and collaborator Ovidiu Marinescu, is a great example of March’s compositional voice.

Whitley’s musical output is so wonderfully varied in its conception and execution that while nothing is surprising, it is always delightful. This pensive, crystalline movement from his work for two guitars is one of my personal favorites from his catalog.

Over the course of his career Schultz has established a reputation as a highly respected, frequently performed composer in Australia and beyond. This work, featuring organist Karel Martinek, is a deep and profound rumination on 9/11 and the image of the falling man that has haunted so many for so long.

This album is undoubtedly one of the most bold and inventive in our catalog, with its amalgam of jazz, gospel, neoromanticism, and archival recordings forming a kaleidoscopic statement both personal and universal about race, culture, and history. An incredibly powerful listen.

Featuring GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble The Crossing, this short piece by James Shrader is a glittering, sparkling adaptation of the “Excelsis Gloria” combining techniques both old and new. Ethereal and celestial from start to finish.

Reiprich’s affectionate, heartfelt work is infused with melodies both fragile and resolute, redolent of mid-century American masters like Harris and Barber. Recorded with the Zagreb Festival Orchestra and violin soloist Goran Končar, this lushly arranged piece is a slight departure from Reiprich’s style – but most certainly a welcome one.

Osterfield’s darkly playful set of Etudes is given a workout in the hands of pianist Caleb Harris, for whom the work was written. This music is simultaneously cerebral and emotional, consistently poking and prodding at convention at every twist and turn.

This track was recorded during PARMA’s first recording trip to Cuba in 2016 and released on ABRAZO: THE HAVANA SESSIONS via our Ansonica imprint. The recording of Miller’s music is a real highlight for me, and the memory of seeing the whole big band cram into the control room between takes to make sure the music sounded good is something I won’t soon forget. Spoiler alert: it sounded good!

Steelpan in contemporary classical music? Damn straight. Biggs’ material is almost always fiendishly complex, and the brashness of his compositions is consistently matched by his inventiveness with instrumental color.

Marty is known the world over for his expertise in Japanese music, but this orchestral work shows him in Western rather than Eastern mode. And it works a charm, with pulsing rhythms and effervescent melodic writing coupled with a concise, clear structure.

The Altius Quartet is one of the brightest young string quartets out there IMHO, and they commit fully to every measure of this wild piece by Beth Mehocic. Beth seems to always have an interesting story to convey in her compositions, and this one is both introspective and extroverted, full of contrast and curiosity.

Say the words “modern music” and some people will unfortunately wince immediately. But Muncaster’s language is a welcoming one for listeners, and the macro-level palindromic structure of this piece reinforces the musical materials in a way that even the uninitiated can grasp.

The ever-prolific Barnett has a catalog of depth and diversity, but it is in her choral writing where I feel she shines the brightest. Composer-in-residence with the Dale Warland Singers from 1992 to 2001, Barnett has been a veritable institution in the Midwest music scene for more than 50 years. I dare you not to smile when you hear this track.

Combining composed music for string quartet with an improvising quartet of two trombones and two percussionists (including the venerable Bernard Purdie, creator of the Purdie Shuffle), this music utterly defies categorization. And that’s why I love it.

Kaye, a composer of multifarious musical means with training as a classical and jazz pianist, has a fearlessness to her writing that I find attractive. Her stuff is without artifice, direct and clear, but possessing a sensitivity, nuance, and filigree that only comes from experience.

The overall sense of drama in Elkana’s music is distilled effectively in this third movement from his second string quartet, where the ensemble congeals into a de facto single instrument throughout, from the spidery sul ponticello opening to the fortissimo culmination in the finale.

The groundbreaking lush-yet-fragile tone of Richard Stoltzman’s clarinet is on full display here in this achingly beautiful recording. I’ve had the privilege of working with Dick many times over the last 15 years, and this piece – the final track on PARMA’s very first release in 2008 – is a particular highlight of our catalog.

Composer-pianist-polymath Prevedini plays with juxtapositions throughout this entire composition, contrasting jagged dissonances and angular rhythms with moments of diatonic lyricism and genteel romanticism. This movement falls predominantly into the former category and reminds me of some of Copland’s 1920-1930 solo piano output.

This dance for woodwind quintet is inspired by the ancient syncopated rhythms of Persia, and each instrument takes its turn in the spotlight. Friskier and more puckish than is usual in the tuneful romanticism of Mohajer’s work, this short-but-sweet cut is both charming and concise.

Powerhouse pianist Marta Brankovich is a force of nature, capable of explosive technical pyrotechnics and genre-bending concepts. But here she shows us a different side, capturing the diaphanous delicacy of Satie with the same laconic viewpoint as the composer.

Insight into the programmatic details of this stirring piece are not necessary to be transported by it, and and the mind’s eye and ear can readily imagine the deep hues, sharp edges, and twisting turns of the canyon for which it is named. Diego makes my kind of music.

Shore’s musical portrayal of one of Florida’s most pristine spring-fed streams is a cool ride for sure, with percolating interplay between the strings against the strident, unyielding flow of the piano rhythms.

What a tremendously exhilarating album this is, filled to the brim with music that traverses a huge amount of emotional terrain and instrumentation (Native American flutes, tabla, and minimoog!). Composer/bass clarinetist Jeff Adler and his collaborators, including guest stars ETHEL, bring an incredibly high level of musicianship to the material, which runs from the gloriously ebullient to the utterly haunting.

The English countryside ‘labour-class’ poet John Clare (1793-1864) was an underappreciated talent in his time but has since been recognized as a major British 19th century literary figure in retrospect. This piece, a distant reflection of the poet’s texts told through symphonic gesture performed by the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Lande, is also a reflection of Brian Noyes, its composer, whose work has been thoroughly influenced by Clare.

Threads of Beethoven, Schubert, and Dvorak permeate Anderson’s work in this, his first piano quartet. His clear devotion to the European Romantic tradition is refreshing and, frankly, bold.

There is an ambrosial, exalted sense saturating this gorgeous homage to composer Elliott Carter. Hoh’s text and music takes its cue from Carter’s but is clearly something of its own as well, with a broad harmonic cast and emotive, crisp performance from The Crossing.

This elegiac trio is tinged with melancholy and optimism alike, with glistening high string harmonics yielding to a deep, almost aching call from the cello prior to the finale. In an age when so much audience engagement is relegated to one-and-done, Dietz’s music requires and deserves repeated listens.

A beguiling rondo partially based on the octatonic scale, this piece by Sherrill searches, questions, and ponders. Originally written for choir, the lyrical elements of Sherrill’s writing are apparent even in this setting for strings.

I am convinced pianist Eliane Rodrigues came to us from the outer edges of the galaxy, an eldritch visitor from beyond who crashed through a portal of space and time into our reality. A truly gifted interpreter, a personality of force and warmth, and a technician of the highest magnitude.

Bailin’s experimentation is relentless, and his catalog is overflowing with music others would not even think to make. This track, the first of three movements in the piece, is for prepared piano with screws of specific sizes placed between specific strings – and is also the most conservative on the album. Not for the faint of heart, in the best way possible.

Crouch’s work frequently collates shimmering luminosity punctuated by spiky rhythms and harmonies in a partially through-composed format, and this work is a good but by no means comprehensive example of his style. Check out his work on our MEMENTOS (2009) release, as well as his work with Seraphic Fire.

The regal luster and impish exuberance of Greve’s music is concentrated in this first movement from his “Partita.” The entire piece is a case study in variances of mood and musical flavor, and Greve seems to revel in their eventual unification – a master comic waiting for just the right moment to spring his punchline.

Violinist Moonkyung Lee is a passionate advocate of new music by living composers, but the core of her musicianship as a soloist was built upon works from the classical repertoire. This recording, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by PARMA’s own Miran Vaupotic, showcases Lee’s incandescent playing.