PARMA Recordings is a extremely adventurous and progressive music firm headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. PARMA, which points recordings on the Navona, Ravello, Ansonica, and Huge Spherical Information labels, has very huge plans for you and your listening ears. Thanks are on account of CEO Bob Lord and his vibrant staff.

Just lately, Born: The Music of Edie Hill and Michael Gilbertson, a Navona launch, received a Grammy® Award for “Greatest Choral Efficiency” following its November 2022 nomination. Conductor Donald Nally and composers Edie Hill and Michael Gilbertson have been all concerned on this venture and contributed to its successful a Grammy® – a monumental achievement!

We hope to quickly add this outstanding recording to our library right here at Classical Archives. However till we do, you can begin listening to some fabulous Navona releases proper now, proper right here on Classical Archives. In case you are a member of Classical Archives, simply click on on one of many albums which can be listed to your proper.

Huge Plans for the Future

And listed here are some methods you may be listening to Navona and Parma recordings within the coming months.

Parma to Launch the World Premiere Recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Music for String Quartet”

Leonard Bernstein’s Music for String Quartet is ready to obtain its premiere studio recording and launch, with a newly found second motion, as but unheard publicly, to be included on this system.

The piece, composed by Bernstein in 1936 at age 18 whereas a scholar at Harvard College in Cambridge, is carried out by Lucia Lin, Natalie Rose Kress, Danny Kim, and Ronald Feldman, produced by PARMA Recordings, and launched on the GRAMMY-winning Navona Information label.

“It’s a uncommon occasion certainly to current a premiere of any kind by a fantastic grasp of Bernstein’s stature, a lot much less to have one thing utterly unheard as a part of it,” says Bob Lord, CEO of PARMA. “We’re honored to be the stewards of this historic venture.”

Music for String Quartet acquired its debut public efficiency at Tanglewood’s Linde Middle on November 6, 2021, by the identical group of performers who will document the piece, however it was by no means actually misplaced. The manuscript, given by Bernstein to Stanley Benson of the New England String Quartet following a rehearsal studying, was neatly tucked away within the household music cupboard by Benson’s widow Clara.

Clara, who had carried out the piece at residence along with her personal quartet now and again through the years, talked about it in passing to her daughter Lisa Benson Pickett.

They advised their pal, former Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Librarian John Perkel, concerning the manuscript. The librarian was shocked to study {that a} string quartet, a compositional style lengthy believed to have been unexplored by Bernstein, existed in any respect within the influential musician’s catalog.

“I had a tough time believing what I used to be listening to,” says Perkel, who has steadfastly shepherded the piece from its re-discovery to the upcoming manufacturing. “On the earth of music and artwork, there’s a lot which is forgotten, a lot which is unknown, that to have the ability to shed even only a small beam of latest gentle on a genius of Bernstein’s caliber is extremely particular.”

To Perkel’s delight, shortly after the piece’s public premiere a second motion of the string quartet was found on the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

“There was a ‘1’ on the high of the unique manuscript,” says Perkel, “so I assumed that there is likely to be ‘2’ on the market someplace, and certain sufficient there was.”

“We’re so happy to document this piece which we’ve grown to like dearly,” says violinist Lin. “It has been thrilling to peek into Bernstein’s artistic course of by the lens of this piece written throughout his childhood.”

The recording, set to happen in 2023, can even include the seldom-recorded duo piece Elegies for Violin and Viola by composer Aaron Copland, a musical mentor, collaborator, and pricey pal of Bernstein’s.

Particulars relating to the recording and launch will likely be introduced within the coming months. However keep tuned. We hope to make it obtainable to members of Classical Archives simply as quickly as we probably can.

And Hearken to Marti Epstein’s Opera Rumpelstiltskin As we speak on Classical Archives

That is one other Navona recording that we predict will likely be nothing lower than a revelation for you in your listening day. It’s the rating that composer Marti Epstein wrote for the animated opera Rumpelstiltskin.

We not too long ago wrote about Rumpelstiltskin on the Classical Archives Vlog. You should definitely test it out and meet Aliana de la Guardia, the mesmerizing singer who created the title function within the Navona recording.

Hold Your Eyes and Ears on Parma and Navona Information

Classical Archives is doing all it might probably to make these recordings a part of our streaming library.

No problem is just too huge for this small label. Go to their web site and keep tuned.