VA - Between the Echoes (2016) [Hi-Res]

Navona’s latest compilation release, BETWEEN THE ECHOES, showcases selected recent chamber works, expressing the common theme of recollections and interpretations of past experiences. Moving across the spectrums of moods and dramatics, each piece brings a harmonic resolution to its soulful journey. This album joins multiple personalities in a collection of propulsive musical expression.

For some pieces on the album, musical tradition is a source of inspiration. Burwasser’s colorful woodwind quintet Whirlwind imbues a familiar instrument group and classical forms with imaginative, lyrical melodies, culminating in a distinctly Haydn-esque finale. In his dramatic and spontaneous Florébius for violin and piano, Crossman weaves new interactions between Schumann’s favorite characters, the introverted Eusebius and the extroverted Florestan—“one within the other, one lurking behind the other, each ready to take center-stage.” Elsewhere, tradition is gleefully thrown to the wind—such as with Lee’s stunning Farewell… for string quartet, with its ever-shifting rhythms, timbres, and moods. In an intensely personal musical display, Raillard’s melancholic Sinking Islands for solo guitar uses interconnecting minimalist figures to meditate on mortality. DeVasto’s lush trio His Branches Run Over The Wall for violin, cello, and piano is inspired by the biblical account of the dream interpreter Joseph, conjuring an entangled web of melodies and harmonies to create a “musical dreamscape”—one of several new and familiar sound worlds to be found on the album.