Catalog

Work metamorphosis through various media — INTROSPECTION’s subtitle says it best. The Zagreb Academy of Music returns to Ravello Records with their characteristic forward thinking. Music professors from the Academy come together to not only release piano pieces from the Academy, but to use these pieces as the source material for new electronic compositions. The result is INTROSPECTION.

Ed Martin's Ravello Records debut JOURNEYS could not be more aptly titled. This album of highly original piano compositions invites the listener on a voyage through mysterious realms where the limits of the sensual and the intuitive dissolve – a journey that is at times epic, and at other times epically quiet. The album commences with Three Pieces for Piano (2006), a modernist melange whose gamut ranges from dissonant serenity to rhythmic agitation. They're perfectly, intimately rendered by pianist Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi, who performs the entirety of JOURNEYS with great clarity, structural insight and precision, never losing touch with the primal, emotional appeal of the compositions.

On his debt release on Ravello Records, JUST MUSIC: MUSIC FOR PIANO IN FIVE LIMIT JUST INTONATION, Croatian composer Zoran Šćekić presents an open series of compositions aiming to explore the harmony of a non-tempered microtonal system based on integer harmonics, or just intonation. Performed by Croatian pianist Ana Žgur, the pieces on this album explore the use of intervals in five limit just intonation, a method in which intervals are built on the prime numbers 2, 3, and 5. Šćekić’s economical use of notes emphasizes the contrast between consonant and dissonant intervals in harmony and melody, chord inversions, and use of the syntonic comma.

KEEP GOING: THE MUSIC OF ELIAS TANENBAUM features the chamber and solo works of the late Elias Tanenbaum performed by Ensemble Pi. The pieces demonstrate Tanenbaum's ability to turn his emotional reactions to world events into music that illustrates both the life-changing grief and need for change that those events cause. As Tanenbaum himself said, "What is there left in any of us but to keep going?" Ensemble Pi is a new music ensemble dedicated to performing the music of both living composers and undiscovered composers of the past. Keep Going is the ensemble's tribute to Tanenbaum, whose beautiful and thought-provoking music has never received the widespread recognition it deserves.

Betty Wishart and Ravello Records present her latest album: MOODS, featuring her compositions for solo piano as performed by Jeri-Mae Astolfi. These impressionistic pieces, sparked by a swath of concrete and abstract inspirations, explore the full range of timbral textures and colors the piano offers.

Phillip Schroeder's MUSIC FOR PIANO was originally released in 2004, and was lauded as "resonant music played with exceptional grace" (New Classics) and "viscerally relaxing" (NewMusicBox).

MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO AND VIOLIN AND PIANO was originally released in 2006 and was lauded as “an attractive release” (American Record Guide) and as having “distinctive harmonic and melodic language” (JIAWM). Featuring the complimentary performances of pianists Robert Conway, Lenore Hall, and Tomoko Deguchi and violinist William Bouton, MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO AND VIOLIN AND PIANO highlights Laurel Firant as an expert of small ensemble and instrumental composition.

MUSIC FOR THE END OF WINTER: NEW AMERICAN WORKS FOR SOLO PIANO features Kate Boyd performing contemporary works from Halle, Frazin, Felice, Schelle, and Koontz. The pieces range from improvisations to classical challenge studies to experimentations in aural resonance. Their variety showcases Boyd's versatility and adaptability at the piano.

NO SUGGESTION OF SILENCE was originally released in 2001 and was lauded as "truly refreshing " (21st Century Music) and "sophisticated" (New Music Connoisseur). Featuring performances by pianist John Root, flutist Hugh Williams, The Next Stage Speaking Chorus, The Barbad Chamber Orchestra with violinist Sebu Sirinian and conductor Ramin Heydarbeygi, The Choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and the Goliard Chorale with the P.S. 122 Children's Chorale, clarinetist Thomas Piercy, cellist Jane Lawson, and pianist Judith Olson.

OBSTRUCTED VIEW was originally released in 2005 and was lauded as "deft, challenging and eclectic" (Washington Post), and features composer Jessica Krash performing the pieces for solo piano.

Long time PARMA composer Doug Anderson is showcasing his legacy with ONE AT A TIME. As the name implies, Anderson’s solo compositions act as milestones to the artist’s musical development through the intimacy of solo instruments. As an instrumentalist early in his expansive career, Anderson found particular affection for live performance. In this album, you will hear the diversity of the composer’s inspiration amid its intense, physical element.

Pianist Anne Goldberg and Ravello Records are proud to present PERMUTATIONS, an album highlighting Goldbergs qualities as an interdisciplinary artist. An educator, composer, and cross-disciplinary researcher, Goldberg’s artistry crosses boundaries and permeates her work as a musician with a deep-seated passion for promoting, premiering, and interpreting new music by living composers. Each piece on PERMUTATIONS was written by dear friends of the composer who explore different facets of the human experience. From deeply meditative music to tonally and rhythmically complex miniatures, each piece offers a new realm in which to get lost.

On her debut release on Ravello Records, PIANO SONORITIES, composer Betty R. Wishart presents a collection of her solo piano works, performed by award-winning pianist Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi, which highlights the composer’s use of distinctive harmonic structures, tension, and space. In many of Wishart’s works including Toccata II, Toccata III, Sonata, and Night Visions, the composer employs the intervals of seconds, fourths, and sevenths to create melodic and harmonic material which unifies the style of her writing while creating a variety of colors and textures throughout the album.

On their debut Ravello Records release, PLAYFUL EDGE OF THE WAVE, composers Robert J. Martin and Neely Bruce join a love of beauty with the willingness to engage in spirited, magical, even outrageously unexpected sounds and gestures. These composers, with pianist Shirley Blankenship, present a collection of image-based works whose titles and descriptions open a direction to understanding the music.

PRELUDES & BAGATELLES is the latest release from renowned composer Michael Matthews, featuring his dramatic 14 Preludes, selections from his collection of Bagatelles, and the epilogistic Postlude. Expertly performed by acclaimed Belgian pianist Daan Vandewalle, the pieces on this disc encapsulate Matthews’ brilliance with solo piano composition and highlight his versatile craftsmanship, which he is able to alter to accommodate a wide variety of moods, emotions, and aspects of musicality.

RESONANT EDGES was originally released in 2007 and features performances by pianists Dianne Frazer Cross, Peter Henderson, Mark E. Hussung, and Denise Fillion, clarinetist Karen Dannessa, flutists Deanna R. Little and Lisa A. Jelle, soprano Dorothy Maddison, and the Seattle New Music Ensemble.

RUNES, the new album by composer Robert Dusek and pianist Bryan Pezzone, is a compilation of specially selected solo piano works, and provides the listener with an immersive and cohesive listening experience. Often sparse, sometimes impetuous – "The music is at once very stark, and then seems to propel itself to the next scene or chapter with some unseen, and unheard, energy", says PARMA Recordings Lead Producer, Andy Happel.

Saxophonist Jeffrey Siegfried explores new possibilities for his instrument's dynamic and versatile voice on SHADES from Ravello Records. The title work, Shades, composed by Sean Friar, is a dark and capricious piece, pairing bursts of musical complexity with unsettling stillness. The album also includes Candlewood by Gala Flagello and water-witching by Nicholas Cline, and and Homage to C.P. by Joan Arnau Pàmies, all of which were composed specifically for Siegfried.. The works are inspired by the natural and supernatural worlds; Siegfried aims to express the ineffable through saxophone techniques like multiphonics, which require careful control of the embouchure, fingering, and air-pressure. The resulting music is hauntingly beautiful and deeply compelling.

Orlando Cela demonstrates his ingenious ability to navigate complexities of postmodernism in chamber music and the avant garde with this rich recording of flute and piccolo treasures for the curious ear. Operating with a creative vision inspired by Frederic Chopin that “simplicity is the final achievement,” Cela invites the listener on a journey of experimental music beginning with Besingrand’s “Le soupir du roseau dans les bras du vent” in which the flutist explores the unexpected possibilities for creating sound with his instrument. Cela furthers the investigation with “Winter Variations,” by Lou Bunk (“featuring John Cage”), investigating, too, the possible extremes in lower dynamics.

Ravello Records presents SOPRANO SUMMIT from revered saxophonist Paul Cohen. Alongside his work as a performer, Cohen is known for his passionate scholarship, rediscovering long-forgotten saxophone works as well as arranging related music for the instrument. In this, his latest contribution, Cohen presents an album of music for the soprano saxophone in chamber and solo settings.