WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

This recording showcases three new evocative works by GRAMMY Award-winning American composer Michael Daugherty, exploring the triumphs and tragedies of flight. Blue Electra is a dramatic violin concerto inspired by the sensational life and mysterious disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in 1937. Last Dance at the Surf is a one-movement dance symphony for orchestra that reflects upon rock ’n roll legend Buddy Holly’s final performance in 1959 at the Surf Ballroom in Iowa and his tragic death in a plane crash just hours after his show. To the New World for orchestra celebrates the triumphant Apollo 11 moon mission in 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk. Under the baton of GRAMMY Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller, the Albany Symphony is joined by GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who performs Blue Electra with electrifying musicality and emotion.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Fazıl Say’s gifts as a ground-breaking pianist are allied to the breadth of his compositions. The Violin Concerto No. 2 was composed in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown during which Say was enchanted by the colours and textures of sunrises while walking on the beach, inspiring this atmospheric work. Leopards is a vivid piece for string sextet that utilises Say’s unique melodies and rhythms. The Sonata for Solo Violin is an expressive tribute to the noted Turkish violist, Ruşen Günes, while String Quartet ‘Divorce’ relates the experience of separation and the failure of a relationship with the language of music.

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

Alexey Shor was born in Ukraine but now lives in New York pursuing a distinguished career filled with prestigious performances and recordings in collaboration with leading international musicians. Childhood Memories traces a path from early childhood to adolescence in a nostalgic reflection on youth, while Verdiana is a musical tribute to Giuseppe Verdi that reworks his famous melodies into Latin dance styles including samba, bossa nova and tango. Both of these works feature Shor’s trademark of melodic clarity and emotional depth.

Goffredo Petrassi’s reputation was established in 1932 when his Partita (available on Naxos 8.572411) won critical acclaim. Petrassi then composed his Concerto for Orchestra, the first of eight, which, upon its 1935 premiere, secured his reputation outside of Italy. The Second Concerto from 1951 reveals more avantegarde tendencies, while the Third Concerto from 1952–53 is animated and playful.

Handel composed his oratorio La Resurrezione in 1707 with a libretto that provided a dramatic canvas for his new work: lamentation on Christ’s death contrasted with violent exchanges between the Angel and Lucifer. It inspired the young Handel to compose music of lavish richness and expressive drama. In this historically informed performance, conductor Attilio Cremonesi has done extensive research into the work’s 1708 premiere in Rome.

Huang Ruo is a multi-talented and award-winning Chinese-American composer, conductor, and conceptual artist. He is renowned for his inventive and seamless combination of Chinese and Western influences, creating a compositional technique he calls ‘dimensionalism’. In the opera Book of Mountains and Seas, Huang Ruo has taken the awe-inspiring imagery of four traditional Chinese creation myths and transformed their truly remarkable landscapes and creatures into vibrant music and drama. The work ultimately expresses the creation of the universe and the power of nature over destruction, including a warning of mankind’s responsibility to care for the environment.

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* WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING

The music of GRAMMY-nominated and Latin GRAMMY-winning composer, Roberto Sierra, is performed worldwide and has long been admired for its confluence of Caribbean elements and inventive modernist language. The works on this album cover a decade’s worth of composition and examine crucial – the idea of time in music; creative new applications of sonata form with regard to mood, tempo and character; and evocations of images seen through Latin American eyes. Continuum, directed by Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs, has enjoyed a 40-year friendship with Sierra, receiving dedications and premiering numerous of his compositions.

Luis Humberto Salgado was one of Ecuador’s most influential composers. His output encompasses nearly every genre of western European concert music, and seamlessly blends both nationalist and modernist styles. Most of these miniature pieces were inspired by the musical folklore of Salgado’s home country, while works such as the Sanjuanito futurista and the Violin Sonata are more modernist. From the lullaby Aldita to the folk-dance infused Piano Quintet No. 2, these world premiere recordings reveal a vibrant and creative voice.

Yasunori Imamura presents the second instalment of Bach’s Cello Suites arranged for theorbo (Volume 1 is available on 8.574617). The theorbo is the most important plucked instrument in the lute family, with a range very similar to the cello. Certain technical elements, such as the playing of arpeggios are, in fact, easier on the theorbo whose unique timbres bring a new sonic quality to the performances heard here. These elements are most evident in Suite No. 6, composed for a cello with five strings, but which sounds totally idiomatic when played on the theorbo.

Domenico Scarlatti redefined the possibilities of keyboard music, blending the grandeur of the Baroque with the emerging vitality of the Classical era. He found his artistic sanctuary at the royal court of Portugal in the employ of Queen Maria Bárbara, a pivotal role that generated a remarkable synthesis of Italian and Spanish musical traditions. The works included in this collection thoroughly explore the capabilities of both instrument and player, with thrilling inventiveness, dazzling virtuosity and beautiful lyricism, which encapsulate Scarlatti’s legacy as a trailblazer in this genre.

The grandeur of Mozart’s Missa solemnis in C minor ‘Waisenhausmesse’ caused Viennese scholars to doubt how it could have been composed by a twelve-year old boy. The Mass was written for the consecration of a new Orphanage Church in Vienna with an expanded orchestra, and its premiere was conducted by Mozart himself ‘to the general approbation and admiration of everyone’. Mozart often made use of the purity of C major in his Masses – the Missa brevis is a remarkable model of compactness, while the Missa solemnis is Mozart’s last complete Mass.

INCLUDES WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS OF ARRANGEMENTS

The euphonium played a key part in the brass band movement of the mid-19th century due to its playability, affordability and ease of mass production. The historical lack of original compositions for euphonium was made up for with a wide variety of transcriptions. Virtuoso embraces this heritage in a celebration of the instrument’s unique depth and versatility. The renowned virtuoso, David Childs, is united with the legendary Black Dyke Band in a collection of classical and contemporary repertoire that ranges from much-loved traditional songs to dazzling showpieces.

Jørn Lier Horst is one of Scandinavia’s most popular and widely read novelists. His Wisting novels, which focus on Chief Inspector William Wisting, have been turned into a compelling TV series over five seasons (2019–25), receiving worldwide acclaim. Danish film composer, Jacob Groth, has written the music for this popular Nordic Noir series with a soundtrack that reflects the dark drama as Wisting makes horrific discoveries while struggling to track down Norway’s most deadly and enigmatic killers.

* Only available for download and streaming

The New & Now playlist features all that is new and exciting in the world of classical music, whether it’s new music, new presentations or new performers. With more than 200 new releases each year, and artists from around the world, there is always something new to discover with Naxos.