Ulysses Arts releases Canterbury-based Caritas Chamber Choir's first Christmas album, directed by Benedict Preece, on 25 November 2022. Christmas with Caritas features traditional carols in new arrangements with première recordings of contemporary works by Phillip Cooke, Sarah Cattley, Graham Patterson, Anthony Esland, Eric Choate, Stewart Duncan and Simon Beattie.

 Click to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

Christmas with Caritas is preceeded by two singles from the album:

Phillip Cooke, I Sing of a Maiden - 28 October
Sarah Cattley,  What Child is this? - 11 November

Album Details

Tradition (arr. Benedict Preece), O Little Town of Bethlehem
Lyricist: Phillips Brooks

Sarah Cattley, What Child is this?
Lyricist: William Chatterton Dix

Graham Patterson, Sweet was the Song
Lyricist: Anonymous/Graham Patterson

Traditional (arr. Benedict Preece), Ding Dong Merrily on High
Lyricist: George Ratcliffe Woodward

Sarah Cattley, The Robin Carol
Lyricist: Sarah Cattley/Traditional

Phillip Cooke, I Sing of a Maiden
Soloists: Christina Bosanko, Christina Astin, Peter Ellis, Graham Titus
Lyricist: Anonymous

Phillip Cooke, Susanni
Soloists: Catherine Futcher, Bob McKay
Lyricist: Traditional

Franz Gruber (arr. Phillip Cooke), Silent Night
Lyricist: Joseph Mohr, John F. Young

Sarah Cattley/Michael Praetorius, A Spotless Rose
Soloist: Peter Ellis
Lyricist: Traditional, Catherine Winkworth

Graham Patterson, Balulalow
Lyricist: Wedderburn brothers

Anthony Esland, The Bee Carol
Lyricist: Carol Ann Duffy

Traditional (arr. Eric Choate), Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella
Lyricist: Anonymous

Stewart Duncan, There is no Rose
Lyricist: Anonymous

Lewis Redner (arr. David Conte), O Little Town of Bethlehem
Soloist: Sally-Anne Hanson
Lyricist: Phillips Brooks

Simon Beattie, Advent Calendar
Lyricist: Rowan Williams

Comments on Bach Revealed

'A detailed insight into the structure and ornamental possibilities of the Six Bach Suites for Cello, and a testament to the greatness and creative potential that these Suites represent. The imaginative way that the authors have revealed the layers and voices of Bach’s musical language makes examination of their material accessible and instructive for cellists at any stage of their development. I applaud the work that went into producing such a volume and endorse the results with admiration and enthusiasm.' Ralph Kirshbaum, Piatigorsky Professor of Cello, University of Southern California

'It has simplified a complex problem for most cellists, where so many editions have surfaced and make the study of the Bach Suites a puzzle rather than a musical adventure.' Bernard Greenhouse, Beaux Arts Trio

'Selma Gokcen and Kenneth Cooper provide us a tremendous service by giving us a guided tour and visceral sampling of the “essence” of these pieces. This grounding experience can naturally lead us to more effortlessly insightful and gratifying interpretations.' From Timothy Eddy, Professor of Cello, The Juilliard School, New York

'I've used Bach Revealed with my students. This edition opens ears and creates deep interest for this incredible opus which keeps us cellists busy for a lifetime.'
Thomas Demenga, Professor of Cello, Musikhochschule, Basel, Switzerland

'Bach Revealed is a most excellent, interesting and imaginative approach to an experiential analysis of Bach’s Cello Suites ... a unique departure from the usual editions. The work represents a real contribution to the study and realization of these works through musical understanding and performance.'
Bonnie Hampton, formerly Professor of Cello at The Juilliard School, now San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Selma Gokcen and Kenneth Cooper’s work provides students and teachers with an important tool that can help explore and understand the deep structures of the music by providing a bass line and by simplifying the melodic line. I have used her Player’s Guide for myself and with my students [who] have been excited by the discoveries that they have made as a result of using it. I recommend it highly as part of any cellist’s journey of exploration into the mysteries and possibilities contained in the Suites.' Bob Jesselson, Carolina Distinguished Professor, University of South Carolina; Ex-President, American String Teachers Association

 What does Bach Revealed do?

Bach Revealed: A Player’s Guide to the Bach Cello Suites is a first of its kind, assisting professional cellists, students and teachers to study the solo Suites through simple clear two-part reductions. Confronted by primarily a single line of music, cellists are told that Bach’s polyphony is woven into the music. Where? How? What is the musical structure? Where do the various voices enter and depart? How are the harmonies sustained and resolved?

This edition offers insight into these pieces from the inside out — revealing the fundamental structure of Bach’s language which inform successful performance.

These enjoyable two-part reductions reveal:

• the implied bass line
• the essential melodic line
• the essential rhythmic character of each movement
• opportunities to ornament and elaborate the melodic line beyond Bach's written text, thereby stimulating the players’ creativity.

 
How will Bach Revealed benefit Your Playing?

• Questions about performance practice - appropriate tempi, character, articulation, and voicing - can be explored when the underlying structure is understood. By clarifying what is structural versus what is ornamental, players can make decisions about their interpretations based upon a knowledge of Bach’s harmonic language.
• Bach Revealed is an indispensable teaching tool, allowing student and teacher – or groups of students – to explore the movements together and to hear their implied counterpoint.

 
How to use Bach Revealed?

• By a cellist alone, either playing the bass line at the keyboard and singing the melody line or playing both parts at the keyboard.
• Two or more cellists can divide up the two lines, offering the possibility of using other instruments.
• Teacher and pupil can alternate bass and melody lines.
• Both lines are playable against Bach’s original text, illustrating how Bach establishes and embellishes his harmony.
• For intermediate and advanced players, the simple structure allows them to explore the art of ornamentation.

The reductions are enjoyable to play and approachable for all ages and players from intermediate students to professionals.

Japanese pianist Tamayo Ikeda releases her album of Schubert Lieder in their virtuosic solo arragements by Franz Liszt, alongside Schubert's Impromptus D. 899, on 14 October 2022.

Album Details

1. Ständchen, S. 560/7: Schwanengesang No. 4
2. Der Lindenbaum, S. 561/7: Winterreise No. 5
3. Wasserflut, S. 561/6: Winterreise No. 6
4. Wohin? Müllerlieder von Franz Schubert, S.565/5: Die schöne Müllerin, No. 2
5. Die Müller und der Bach, Müllerlieder von Franz Schubert, S.565/2: Die schöne Müllerin, No. 19
6. Ave Maria: 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, No. 12, S. 558/12

7. Impromptu No. 1, Op. 90 in C Minor, D. 899: Allegro molto moderato
8. Impromptu No. 2 Op. 90 in E-flat Major, D. 899: Allegro
9. Impromptu No. 3 Op. 90 in G-flat Major, D. 899: Andante
10. Impromptu No. 4 Op. 90 in A-flat Major, D. 899: Allegretto

11. Auf dem Wasser zu Singen: 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S. 558/2
12. Der Erlkönig: 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S. 558/4
13. Meeres Stille: 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S. 558/5
14. Die Forelle: 6 Melodien von Franz Schubert, S. 563/6

All tracks arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt except Nos. 7-10.

Tamayo Ikeda was born in Japan in 1971, and began playing piano aged three. She joined the Toho Gakuen institute 1986 and to completed her studies in France at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, where she studied with Jacques Rouvier and chamber music with Régis Pasquier. She was awarded two first prizes  before joining the class of Pascal Devoyon.

Tamayo Ikeda is the beneficiary of a grant from the APEF and the Société Générale Bank, and has received valuable advice from leading artists such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Léon Fleisher and Maria Joao Pirès. She won Second Prize and the special Claude Debussy Award at the Yvonne Lefébure International competition (no first prize awarded), a special prize at the Porto InternationalCcompetition, and both First Prize and Casadesus Prize at the Francis Poulenc International Competition.

Tamayo Ikeda has appeared at major European festivals, in South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, at New York's Carnegie Hall, and has performed on numerous television and radio programmes. Her discography includes works by Poulenc and Fauré (Arcobaleno), an album of Stockhausen Sonatas with clarinettist Jean-Philippe Vivier (Solstice), a previous Schubert album (Warner-Lontano) and, with violinist Gêrard Poulet, works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

Pre-Release Singles: Schubert, Der Erlkönig, arranged by Franz Liszt

Schubert, Impromptu No. 2, Op. 90

The Caritas Chamber Choir and Benedict Preece's recording of traditional Welsh song The Ash Grove releases on all major digital service providers on 26 August 2022, followed by Eric Choate, Beloved, Let us Love, on 16 September, Mikael Carlsson, Ubi Caritas on 14 October, Phillip Cooke, I Sing of A Maiden on 28 October, and Sarah Cattley, What Child is this? on 11 November. These singles are a prelude to Caritas' Christmas album, released on 25 November 2022.

CRD Records releases violinist Maya Magub's album Canons on 7 October 2022. The album comprises Telemann's Six Canonic Sonatas and Mozart's Canons and Puzzle Canons. Maya is joined on the album by violinists Ben Jacobson, Marianne Thorsen and Jonathan Morton, with Jonathan Moerschel, viola and Richard Harwood, 'cello (CRD 3542).

Electronic press kit available for reviewers.

Maya Magub writes about Canons:

'The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the arts in many diverse ways, not all detrimental. History has always seen the arts flourish in times of hardship, and this was no different, spawning some incredible innovations out of necessity. Soon after news of the virus’ spread came to light, the movie studios here in Los Angeles found a solution to the restraints of lockdowns and social distancing by helping players like me to set up temporary home studios. Miraculously, we were able to record full movie scores remotely, and I found myself learning basic engineering skills. Many late nights wrestling with unfamiliar technology were soon rewarded by the opportunity to listen back immediately to my – and only my – playing; an amazing journey of self-discovery as a player.

With this new skill-set that had become part of everyday life for many musicians, I was excited to realise that it was possible to play ‘together’ with other musicians, despite not sharing a physical space, by recording separately.

It suddenly occurred to me that the perfect fit for this ‘remote chamber music’ was the musical canon. As people all over the world were struggling, and failing, to play together in real time over the Internet, they found themselves plagued by echoes and delays. What could be more perfect than a musical form that itself seems to have evolved out of a long echo?! The musical canon needs an even greater time separation between identical lines, demanding that one voice must literally lead, and the next react to what has already been played. I realised that canons could be a great way to collaborate. And if I was not in the same room as another player, why not collaborate across continents as well as across my own city? This was an opportunity to play with some of my favourite players in the world!

In our new age of Zoom, this process became more like sending a ‘musical letter’ by mail, each of us recording as a leader and then waiting to follow and be inspired by another player in the next canon. The project evolved into a truly creative collaboration, with emails and internet calls across time zones about musical ideas as well as the technical process of recording. I remember discussing tempo preferences from my car, and emails about “alternating trills” at a particular cadence point... I even received a photo of a moose slipping on an icy road in Norway on the wintery day that Marianne returned her microphones to the hire company! Our patience for the much slower pace of recording was rewarded by the delight of ‘opening’ a new performance from another musician, and the luxury of time to fully absorb it and respond.

With the constraints of recording in separate spaces and very different acoustics came the opportunity to position microphones very closely. Without using too much of each performer’s live acoustic and through close microphone positioning, we were able to capture a very ‘real’ and immediate sound which communicates vividly and could later be put into the same virtual acoustic or musical ‘space’. And with that came extra silver linings: such as the ability to virtually ‘walk off stage’ (through fading out and speaker panning) during the unending ‘puzzle’ canons!

The final bonus was being able to mix in Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio. We were suddenly able to make a huge feature out of our necessity to record separately, and it brought the project together in a remarkable way. With different voices seeming to appear from many different directions, there was now a whole extra dimension to the project that we had not envisioned at the start, and one that makes so much sense of the music; it’s hard to imagine a more fitting marriage of musical form and technical innovation. It was the most extraordinary and delightful experience to listen to Neil Stemp’s spatial mix for the first time and to be able to untangle each individual line so beautifully within the broader, more vertical structure. We had a lot of fun experimenting with virtual positioning of the many different voices in the multi-part canons and seeing how this affected the listener’s perception of the music.'

Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine, 2 Nov 2022

Maureen Buja, Interlude, 2 Nov 2022

Pre-Release Singles

29 July: Telemann, Sonata No. 3 in D Major, TWV 40:120: I. Spirituoso

• 12 August: Telemann, Sonata No. 6 in A Minor, TWV 40:123: II. Soave
  
  
• 26 August: Mozart, O du eselhafter Martin (Jakob), K.560b
  (arr. for violins by Maya Magub)
  
  
• 9 Sept: Mozart, Lacrimoso son'io, K.555
  (arr. for violins by Maya Magub)
  
  
• 23 Sept: Mozart, Four Puzzle Canons, K.89:
  Thebana bella cantus (arr. for strings by Maya Magub)

Ulysses Arts releases a new album of piano duet music by Schubert, played by the Spina - Benignetti Duo - Eleonora Spina and Michele Benignetti - on 30 September 2022 (UA220030). The album includes The Trout Quintet in Hugo Ulrich's version, Fantasia in F Minor, D.940, and Eight Variations in A-flat, D.813. The Fantasia is pre-released as an EP on 26 August 2022.

Laureates of numerous international music competition, the Duo performs regularly throughout worldwide. Highlights include recitals for live shows ‘Génération Jeunes Interprètes’ and ‘Génération France Musique - le Live’ at the Auditorium of the Maison de la Radio in Paris, broadcasts for France Musique national radio, recitals for the ‘Jeunes Talents’ concert series in Paris and at the Osaka Izumi Hall in Japan, a South African tour including the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, and their Mexico debut at the CENART Blas Galindo Auditorium in Mexico City and at Teatro de la Ciudad in Celaya. Their last tour in South Africa saw them playing to full venues in Johannesburg, Grahamstown, Hermanus, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, and several other cities. To quote the Potchefstroom Herald, 'their two pianos recital will be long-remembered'.

In 2019, Eleonora and Michele performed in Australia, with recitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Bateman’s Bay. In New Zealand, they performed at the Turner Center Kerikeri, Globe Theater Palmerston North, Wanganui Royal Opera House, and in Wellington, in China at the Guangzhou Opera House, Tianjin Grand Theatre, Shandong Grand Theatre, Nankai University, La Plantation Beijing, and Dalian Grand Theatere.

Eleonora and Michele are both professors at the Cité de la Musique et de la Danse in Soissons, France. The are regular invitees to give masterclasses in Italy, China, at the Colombes Summer International Academy in Paris, at the Summer Music Academy of Flaine (France), at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music in Melbourne and at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The Spina - Benignetti Piano Duo are Official Yamaha Artists and have been sponsored by them since 2017.

Fantasia in F minor on Spotify's
Classical New Releases playlist.

4 November 2022
NI8110                      Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2 Op. 27 for Two Pianos
                                    Simon Callaghanand Hiroaki Takenouchi, pianos

'There is a tradition of composers arranging their own music for two pianos  (Rachmaninoff did a lot), however he seems not to have arranged this particular Symphony Op.27 for two pianos! As it’s such great music, we decided to do it ourselves.' Hiro Takenouchi and Simon Callaghan
 
Nimbus Publishing

Rachmaninoff  Symphony No. 2 Op. 27 for Two Pianos  2 x Scores
                             Third Movement from Symphony No. 2 Op. 27 for Two Pianos  2 x Scores

Read Robert Hugill's review of Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi's live performance of Rachmaninov Symphony No .2 at St John's Smith Square, London

Click here to download Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 for Two Pianos from iTunes,
or stream from Apple Music

Release Date 7 October 2022
NI6432
Adrian Williams, Symphony No. 1
Chamber Concerto: Portraits of Ned Kelly

English Symphony Orchestra; Kenneth Woods, conductor

Symphony No. 1 - The first movement is perhaps the most straightforward, being basically founded on two themes, the first of which appears on violins and violas at the outset and which is used whole or in part throughout the entire symphony. It appears triumphant near the very end of the finale together with that movement’s own unique themes. The shorter scherzo is fairly rumbustious and virtuosic, harmonically dominated by major 2nds and 3rds and combinations of these. At about this time I saw the harrowing images of the wild fires in Australia, so much tragic loss of life, loss of habitat, the koalas rescued, many of which were so badly burned they were unable to survive. These images so affected me that the emotional impact found its way into the third (slow) movement, which I see as an extended lament or memorial. I felt the impulse to include two long, still sections featuring basses; the deathly, lifelessness of the forests after the fires. The Finale needed an injection of energy from its opening bars. I knew I wanted the movement to reach towards a tumultuous conclusion and this would be a slow process of development from a wistful solo violin theme, the forward energy being held back for some 6 minutes, thereafter inching its way to a point of no return. Adrian Williams, composer
 
Portraits of Ned Kelly Chamber Concerto - This remarkable work grew from Adrian Williams’ friendship with, Sidney Nolan, the great Australian painter. They were neighbours in the Welsh Borders region for most of the last forty years. Williams was given the invitation to use the piano at Nolan’s house, The Rodd, now the home of the Sidney Nolan Trust.

The Chamber Concerto is a musical response to Nolan’s most famous series of paintings, which depict scenes from the wild life of Australian bush-ranger, Ned Kelly, an outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer who rampaged across Australia in the years prior to his arrest and execution in 1880. While the work is not strictly programmatic, the musical action does correspond in large part with the story of Kelly’s adventures, including his early criminal endeavours, his fierce encounters with the police, his capture, trial and execution. Kelly was the only member of his gang to survive their final encounter with law enforcement due to his use of a homemade set of body armour, which Nolan depicts to great effect in his images of Kelly. Williams’ music almost always has a virtuosic edge to it, but the demands placed on the musicians in this work are truly extraordinary, yet it is incredibly rewarding to play. In this sense, Williams’ designation of the work as a concerto is both telling and apt is it demands that everyone in the ensemble contributes their utmost in rhythmic precision, agility, accuracy in extremes of register and lyrical storytelling. A useful comparison might be made with Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel. Williams’ work is darker, stranger and funnier than Strauss’s with a pronounced surreal quality, but like its predecessor, it also becomes deeply poignant in its final pages. Kenneth Woods, conductor
 

Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

'The playing is very impressive and delivers a compelling performance.'
George Pearce, Classical Music Daily

'The British symphony is alive and well.'
Records International

'Superb music, scintillatingly performed and recorded.'
Guy Rickards, 'My best classical recordings of 2022', The Christian Review

'Gripping and receive sterling realizations from Woods and the ESO.' Textura

'Impressive pieces in terms of their ambition but also realization. ... Kenneth Woods directs with his customary attention to detail as goes a long way toward clarifying music that is ‘complex and luminous’ in spirit as by design.' Richard Whitehouse, Arcana

Sidney Nolan, The Ned Kelly Collection
 
BBC Culture: Sidney Nolan and the Story of Australian Art
 
Sidney Nolan Trust

Released on 2 September 2022
Nimbus NI6343   100 Years of Japanese Song: Japanese Journey Three
Charlotte de Rothschild, soprano, Adrian Farmer, piano

Japanese Journey Three takes us from North Island to South Island, and from ancient to modern poetry, as Charlotte de Rothschild skilfully takes us through the cultural landscape of Japan. Charlotte is still the only western performer to sing in perfect Japanese. This release is made available to support a three-week, 19-concert tour of Japan when Charlotte and Adrian will perform to more than 14,000 people.
 
“I never imagined, when I learnt my very first Japanese song Karatachi no hana - Quince Flower – by Yamada Kohsaku in 1991, that thirty years later I would be bringing out my fourth album of these beautiful songs. This release, like the others, is a mixture of “kakyoku”, the Japanese equivalent of Lieder or Chanson, and of “douyou”, popular songs that are sung in schools and then throughout life. It has truly been a wonderful journey of discovery and the songs on this CD show that the art of composition of these western-style songs continues on into the present day.”  Charlotte de Rothschild
 
From 29th August to 17th September, Charlotte de Rothschild and Adrian Farmer will be touring Hokkaido, Japan, performing a selection of Japanese songs from this album.

Releasing on 2 September 2022
Emma Johnson, Songs of Celebration
Nimbus Alliance NI6431

Emma Johnson, clarinet, John Lenehan, piano
Gloucester Cathedral Choir, directed by Adrian Partington
 
The Pied Piper, by Jonathan Dove, for Narrator, Clarinet, Recorders, Children’s Voices and Piano:

'There are many theories about the meaning of this story: it might relate to the plague, to a natural
disaster, emigration, or a dancing mania. The piper might be a shaman, a recruiting agent, or Death. Robert Browning’s popular 1842 poem tells the mediaeval tale in lively rhyme and in 2009, Emma Johnson approached me with an enticing idea: she would become the Pied Piper, using her clarinet as the pipe, could I set Browning’s poem to music? I suggested that it could be even more exciting if she were to narrate the poem herself if I could write gaps into the clarinet part, allowing her just enough time to speak.' Jonathan Dove
 
'In recent times girls have been invited to sing in church and cathedral choirs. It was with this in mind that I considered writing a Christmas song for clarinet and higher voices setting one of my favourite medieval poems: the 15th century I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless. The poem tells of the miracle of the divine birth and always brings to mind music I heard once in a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. I have retained their original Middle Eastern flavour, giving us a glimpse of how the earliest church music might have sounded. Towards the end of the song, clarinet and voices climb higher and higher to express the poet’s joy at the birth of Christ.  I became so fascinated with composing for clarinet and upper voices that I found myself writing three more songs, all celebrating the Christmas story, grouped under the title, Songs of Celebration.

It was very gratifying to see the children in Gloucester cathedral choir singing with gusto, relishing its beat boxing and glissandi which felt at once incongruously modern and yet perfectly apposite in the cathedral surroundings. Carol of the Bells takes nuggets of the famous Ukrainian Carol by Mykola Leontovich and transforms them into a peal of bells ringing. It demands virtuoso singing from the choir and I am in awe at the panache with which these young singers perform it. Coventry Carol is from the mystery play traditionally performed in Coventry, England, in the 16th century (author unknown). Herod has ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two years old and the carol is a lullaby sung by their mothers. This has to be the most disturbing story in the Bible. In my setting the clarinet part is intended to evoke Rachel weeping for her children "and refusing to be comforted because they are no more".

Silent Night regularly tops charts of best loved carols and was written in 1818 by the Austrian musician Franz Xaver Gruber with lyrics by Joseph Mohr. To create an atmosphere of calm, I invited the children to sing the carol softly, like a lullaby, accompanied by rocking, running notes from the clarinet which could represent a cradle swinging to and fro. Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring from 1723 completes this album’s celebration of the Christmas story. The English translation is by Robert Bridges but the German lyrics, Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Jesus remains my joy) perhaps give more of the sense of sheer happiness in his faith expressed by Bach in this chorale, with its continuous bouncing triplets lapping around a noble theme.' Emma Johnson

Electronic press kit available for review use.

Pre-release single from The Pied Piper: