Navona Records presents Prisma: Vol 2, a journey into the world of the large ensemble with five of today’s contemporary composers. This collection demonstrates the diversity of the orchestral and concerto composition, both in instrumentation and emotion...

Following on from 2018's Prisma, Navona Records is back with more of the same. James Lentini’s 'Concerto for Guitar and Strings', performed with the string orchestra by virtuoso guitar soloist Iliana Matos, begins with a fresh and buoyant motive that serves as a foundation for the entire movement. Orchestra and guitar converse back and forth as the piece moves through a melancholic, reflective second movement, and then rises back to full energy with the brisk final movement.

This is followed by Rain Worthington’s 'Full Circle', written for cello soloist and small orchestra. It is a striking piece with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra that follows the emergence and recession of emotions through a lifetime, as soloists emerge and recede from the orchestra.

Jan Järvlepp’s 'Camerata Music', is a bright, tonal piece in a style that the composer calls “post-academic.” Inspired by the vallenato styles of folk music that Järvlepp heard while visiting Colombia, Camerata Music uses percussion to capture the joyous, rhythmic energy of that musical tradition.

Peter Castine’s 'Aperture' takes the album in a more somber direction with unsettled dissonance and fragmented feeling, filled with the horror following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. The composer sets the solo flute and concertino string quartet at odds with one another, clashing even as the orchestra sometimes intervenes to help.

Beth Mehocic’s 'Left of Winter' is written as a prelude to Stravinsky’s 'Rite of Spring'. It has the same primal rhythms as Stravinsky’s ballet, but with the addition of cymbals, trumpets, and winds that paint the image of young men going off to war.

This is another wonderfully diverse release of new classical music. There's something here for all tastes and those you may not warm to immediately are sure to grow on you over time.

Track listing:

James Lentini
Concerto for guitar and strings
Zagreb Festival Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić (conductor), Iliana Matos (guitar)
01 - I. Andante (5:25)
02 - II. Adagio (4:26)
03 - III. Allegro (5:39)

Rain Worthington
04 - Full Circle for cello soloist and small orchestra (10:46)
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Petr Vronský (conductor), Petr Nouzovský (cello)

Jan Järvlepp
05 - Camerata Music (7:52)
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Petr Vronský (conductor)

Peter Castine
06 - Aperture for flute and string orchestra (11:25)
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Stanislav Vavřínek (conductor), Barbara Hill (flutes)

Beth Mehocic
07 - Left of Winter for orchestra (6:55)
Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra | Jiří Petrdlík (conductor)

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Darren Rea