Two ensembles make their debuts: Ember, a mixed chamber group, dedicates its first album to women composers, while the New York City-based Sonnambula traverses music by Renaissance composers who were forced to conceal their identities. Navona Records continues its living composer series with a colorful collection of orchestral works; Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony lead the world premiere of three works by Kevin Puts, navigating heavy loss with moments of beauty. Finally, conductor/composer Alexandre Desplat presents a double-album of music from 15 of his best-known film scores.
New Releases Sept. 30: Bursts of Beauty
Kevin Puts (Photo: David White)
Navona Records continues its series of world premiere recordings of orchestral works by celebrated living composers from a wide variety of backgrounds and influences. Volume five includes Kim Diehnelt’s With Courage, Dear Heart. Diehnelt, currently a resident of Burlington, Vermont, was previously active in the Chicago scene leading such groups as Sounds of the South Loop, the South Loop Symphony, Lakeside Pride Orchestra, and Chicago Reading Orchestra. Other featured composers include Tom Myron, Deon Nielsen Price, Charles Corey, Michael Roush, and Matthew Hetz whose compositions are performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the direction of Miran Vaupotić, Brno Contemporary Orchestra led by Pavel Šnajdr, and Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava conducted by Jiří Petrdlík.
Ember – a trio comprising harpist Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi, and cellist Christine Lamprea – releases its debut album celebrating both historical and contemporary women composers while addressing the cultural significance of the contributions of women in classical music. The program showcases three compelling works: French harpist and composer Henriette Renié’s groundbreaking Trio in B-flat Major (1901), the first major composition written for harp, violin, and cello; the world premiere recording of Angélica Negrón’s Ave del paraíso (2023); and the first recording of Reena Esmail’s Saans (2017) in a new arrangement created for Ember. The album directly confronts the historical stereotyping of the harp as a “feminine” domestic instrument. As Emily Levin explains, while the harp was once “considered suitable for the domestic sphere,” its transition to the concert hall was largely championed by male performers playing works by male composers, often overlooking the revolutionary contributions of women performers and composers.
New York City-based period instrument ensemble Sonnambula’s debut album on Avie Records traverses music by several Renaissance composers who were forced to conceal their identities for social, religious, or ethnic reasons. Yet their music transcended the disorder surrounding them, flourishing in the intersection of beliefs and styles. The program features works by William Byrd and Richard Dering, two Catholics composing in Protestant England; Leonora Duarte, a Portuguese-Jewish woman forced to live as a converso (“New Christian”) in Antwerp; Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, whose lost works have re-emerged in our own time; Alfonso Ferrabosco, who emigrated to England; and Salomone Rossi, who unusually set Hebrew texts to Western-style polyphony from his relatively tolerant position in the court of Mantua. Sonnambula, in essence, is a viol consort with upper parts played on violin and an occasional vocal contribution from harpsichordist James Kennerley who also sings tenor.
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s first album with Music Director Stéphane Denève comprises three world premiere recordings by native St. Louisan and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Kevin Puts. Dedicated to this orchestra and conductor, Concerto for Orchestra was written in response to the school shooting that occurred in Uvalde in 2022. “Silent Night Elegy” is drawn from Put’s acclaimed opera, an adaptation of the film Joyeux Noël, which tells the story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front on the first Christmas Eve of World War I. Inspired by Guillaume de Machaut, Virelai was commissioned for the opening concert of Denève’s tenure as Music Director.
Alexandre Desplat, the Academy Award-winning modern master of the film score, presents a double-album souvenir of concert performed at the Philharmonie de Paris in January 2025. The concert program featured new arrangements from 15 of his best-known film scores including a suite from three Wes Anderson films (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The French Dispatch); a “Royal Suite” with music from Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and two Stephen Frears films, The Queen and The Lost King; and music from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Godzilla, Argo, Syriana, and Little Women. The concert hall recording of Desplat conducting the Paris Orchestra from the two-day event stands as a brilliant summary of the French composer’s Hollywood career to date.
