This album with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra features music by Australian composer Liza Lim, with whom the orchestra has an ongoing relationship. Over the past decade the orchestra has been involved in commissioning all three works on this album: The Compass for orchestra with solo flute and digeridoo, A Sutured World for Cello and Orchestra, and Mary / Transcendence after Trauma.

The music of Alan Hovhaness, one of America’s most prolific composers, enchants with his signature synthesis of East and West. Influenced by his Armenian heritage and a fascination with nature and spirituality, Hovhaness sought to create music “for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.” Raymond Bisha introduces the latest Naxos album of his works which features violinist Zina Schiff, a Heifetz protégée whose international career spans five decades on five continents.

There is a span of nearly six decades between the first and last of the compositions on this album of piano music by Czech composer Alois Hába, with works written during various creative periods and with differing intentions. As a whole, they document both the development of the composer’s musical thinking and goals and the diversity of approach to composing for the piano in the 20th century.