Vladimir Feltsman, born in 1952, is a Russian-American pianist of Lithuanian Jewish descent, noted for his devotion to the music of J.S. Bach. His father, composer Oscar Feltsman, was known in the Soviet Union for popular songs and musical comedies. Feltsman first performed with the Moscow Philharmonic aged eleven and studied at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky and the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories. In 1971, he won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris, followed by tours in the former Soviet Union, Europe and Japan.
 
In 1979, out of growing discontent with Soviet dictatorship and rigid governmental control of the arts, Feltsman applied for an exit visa from the USSR. He was banned from performing in public immediately. It was only after eight years of struggle and artistic exile that he was granted permission to leave. Arriving in the United States in August 1987, Feltsman was greeted warmly at the White House: one month later, he performed his first concert in North America for President Ronald Reagan. On 11 November 1987, Feltsman's Carnegie Hall début established him as a major pianist in America. During his early years in the West, he was promoted as a Russian Romantic firebrand, yet his début recital consisted of works by Schubert, Schumann and Messiaen. By the mid-1990s, he devoted himself to Bach, offering expressively shaped and thoughtfully ornamented performances on modern piano. Then he returned to the standard repertory, including Haydn, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, in the big-toned, blockbuster-style that many had anticipated when he first arrived in the USA. He is a master of reinventing himself.       

'Quite simply an amazing pianist!' The New York Times

'One of the supreme Bach keyboard exponents of our time!' Chicago Tribune

More recording details, download and streaming links will be posted here prior to release.
EPK and private pre-release listening links will be available for press use.

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Ulysses Arts releases Neo, by Charlotte Harding, on 24 June 2022, performed by Neoteric Ensemble.

Inspired by Neoteric Ensemble's fresh approach to classical and jazz fusion, Neo takes a shouty melodic line and weaves it through punchy rhythmic statements and raspy textures. Improvised brass and saxophone solos contrast with rich tutti passages, exploring the expressive energy, dynamism and creativity of this exciting new ensemble comprising some of the UK's leading brass and saxophone players.

This is Ulysses Arts' second single release from Neoteric Ensemble, following Rob Buckland's Mojito, both featuring in an upcoming album in autumn 2022.

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Throughout his life, Welsh composer Daniel Jones (1912-93) claimed never to have written any solo piano music. Following extensive research at the National Archive, pianist Martin Jones and Nimbus / Lyrita's Music Director Adrian Farmer discovered hundreds of piano compositions spanning Daniel Jones’ entire life.
 
During the Second World War, Daniel Jones served as a captain in the Intelligence Corps (1940–46): his linguistic skills were required at Bletchley Park as a cryptographer and a decoder of Russian, Romanian and Japanese texts. After the War, Jones won increasing recognition as an innovative composer and enjoyed long friendships with artists including Vernon Watkins, Ceri Richards, Grace Williams and most closely, his lifelong school-friend Dylan Thomas. As well as composing song-settings for Thomas's Under Milk Wood and dedicating his Fourth Symphony to Thomas's memory in 1954, Jones edited collections of Thomas's poetry and prose, and in 1977 published the memoir, My Friend Dylan Thomas. Between 1945 and 1985 he composed his cycle of twelve symphonies, each centred on a different semi-tone of the chromatic scale.

The four-album SRCD.2396 is accompanied by SRCD.410, a one-album compilation available as a mid-price CD, which introduces the scale and breadth this previously unknown music.

Alongside the album release, Nimbus Music Publishing is issuing three Piano Music of Daniel Jones volumes, all from signed, previously unpublished manuscripts.

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Saydisc releases its seventh and final series of Matchbox Bluesmaster recordings on 6 May 2022 as a six-album set (MSESET7). The Matchbox Bluemaster series of Country Blues and Ragtime Blues Guitar albums comes from Saydisc''s archive of recordings, many available only on '78s until now.

Alongside the six-album set MSESET7 is a half-hour Blues Nuggets sample complication (MSES707).

Set 7 differs from Nos. 1-6 because it features Paul Oliver’s selection of sacred and secular tracks to illustrate his book Songsters and Saints - a ground-breaking book at the time. Paul’s wonderfully illuminating notes accompany all six albums.
 
The Set’s first two albums feature renowned guitarist and singer,Lonnie Johnson and the wild hokum music of The Famous Hokum Boys (Big Bill Broonzy, Georgia Tom and Frank Brasswell). The Songsters and Saints volumes 1 and 2 make up the final four albums in the Set under the headings:
 
Songsters: Dances and Travelling Shows, Comment, Parodies & Ballad Heroes
 
Saints: Baptist and Sanctified Preachers, Gospel Soloists and Evangelists,
 
Songsters: Medicine Show Songsters, Songsters East And West
 
Saints: The Straining Preachers, Saints of Church and Street
 
These final albums contain wonderful, iconic and memorable tracks which bring the original Bluesmaster series of 42 albums on seven sets to a rewarding and amazing climax.
 
These early Blues recordings on what was termed ‘race’ records by the white-owned record companies were intended for an exclusively black audience. These same companies issued ‘hillbilly’ music for the white audience. The importance of these early Blues and Gospel recordings cannot be underestimated: they form the backbone of rock ‘n’ roll, R & B, Motown and other popular forms.
 
Now for the first time on CD and digital sites, here is the opportunity for collectors new and old to acquire this ground-breaking series at an affordable price.

'A perfect conclusion to the series and offers the listener a variety of songs and spoken word that they will thoroughly enjoy. I highly recommend this and the entire series.'
Steve Jones, Bluesblast Magazine

'A strong overview of pre-blues black music.'  LA Jazz Scene

London Jazz News

 
'A rare insight into the world of black musicians of the day…  an absolute goldmine of early blues. An absolute must… the blues here is timeless.' Blues In Britain
 
'This collection is a look as far back into blues history as blues history goes, it’s some of the very earliest recordings ever made… Wonderful blues'. Blues Matters

Saydisc's Matchbox Bluesmaster series is distributed by Nimbus Records.

On 3 June 2022 Lyrita Records will release a new album of four-hand piano music of Elias Parish Alvars (1808-49), hailed by Berlioz as 'the Liszt of the Harp', alongside works by Jan Dussek and Nicholas-Charles Bochsa. Alvars made his reputation as a harpist, but he was also a virtuoso pianist - the legacy celebrated in this recording by Simon Callaghan and Clíodna Shanahan (SRCD.411).

Accompanying the album, Nimbus Publishing is issuing Elias Parish Alvars Overture to the Opera The Legend of Teignmouth, Op. 47 For Piano Duet (NMP1142) and Grand Duo Concertante, Op.65 on motifs from Donizetti’s ‘Linda di Chamounix’ for Two Pianos or Piano & Harp (NMP1143).

On 3 June 2022, Nimbus Records releases a new album of Thomas de Hartmann's orchestral music: Symphonie-Poème No. 3, Piano Concerto and Scherzo fantastique, performed by the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine and pianist Elan Sicroff, conducted by Tian Hui Ng (NI.6429).

Elan Sicroff has been the world's leading performer-advocate of Hartmann's music for almost fourty years. A pupil of Hartmann's widow, Olga, in the late 1970s, Sicroff has recorded many of his works, including the seven-volume Thomas de Hartmann Project, which he initiated in 2006. This now includes a large amout of Hartmann's orchestral, chamber and piano works, and songs.

The Thomas de Hartmann project - Nimbus Records and Elan Sicroff
Gramophone Magazine, April 2021

        Remy Franck, Pizzicato Magazine, 31 May 2022                                          Maureen Buja, Interlude HK, 26 June 2022

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CRD Records releases Consolations, reflective music for violin and piano by Handel, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Massenet, Rachmaninov and others, featuring a new transcription of Liszt's Consolations, performed by Maya Magub and Hsin-I Huang, on 3 June 2022. This is Maya Magub's third album with CRD.

The album completes Liszt's six Consolations with new transcriptions by Maya Magub to complement the famous 'Lento Placido' arranged by Nathan Milstein. With extraordinary key and mood contrasts, each piece now sits within the whole, as Liszt intended. Milstein’s transcription, in the middle of the set, is now framed as in Liszt's original, to greater emotional impact. These works move from profound simplicity to virtuosic turbulence and wistful charm.
 
Complementing the set of 'Consolations', Magub and Huang bring together other well-known reflective musical gems to offer consolation of some form. Many of their choices were inspired by audience favourites from performances for UK-based charity Everyone Matters, which funds life-enriching concerts in care homes and hospices. When combined, the emotional weight of these pieces is  even greater. The performers, too, drew great consolation from their programme and the ability to communicate with an audience despite the creative restrictions of pandemic lockdowns.
 
Magub and Huang recorded the album separately in lockdown, with much creative dialogue and experimentation between them. New possibilities afforded by the necessity of recording separately encouraged musical freedom and risk-taking, as well as the opportunity to create the immediacy of a small, intimate concert through close microphone placement. Out of this process emerges a true collaboration and an album which Magub and Huang hope will bring consolation to many people.

ALBUM DETAILS

Schumann, Abendlied, Op. 85 No. 12
Massenet, Méditation: Thaïs
Rachmaninov, Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
Liszt Consolations No.1-6, S.172/R.12
J.S. Bach (arr. Gounod), Ave Maria
Kreisler Liebesleid
Rimsky-Korsakov (arr. Kreisler), Chant Hindou: Sadko
Paradis (arr. Duskhin), Sicilienne
Handel, Largo: Xerxes
Mendelssohn, On Wings of Song, Op. 34 No. 2
Mendelssohn, Song without Words, Op. 19 No. 1
Schumann, Träumerei, Op. 15 No. 7
Chopin, Raindrop Prelude, Op. 28 No. 15

CRD.3540

Press Inquiries

UK and rest of the world except North America: Ulysses Arts, London
North America: Classical Music Communications, New York City

EPK and private Soundcloud link are available for press use.

Consolations review:

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel

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Previous Press for Maya Magub's Recordings with CRD Records

Telemann, Fantasies for Solo Violin

'Impressive feats of technical bravado. ... A disc of hugely communicative violin playing', International Record Review

'It makes listening to this performance a really joyous experience', Caroline Gill, Gramophone

'With Magub's endless inventiveness driving each movement, they shine here for what they really are: free-standing, varied concentrations of beautiful melody and sonority', BBC Music Magazine

'Demonstrates technical assurance, elegance and well-considered use of vibrato, extempore ornamentation, rubato and other expressive devices.' Early Music Today

'These polished, stylish performances bring Telemann’s music to life in an unforced, natural way.' The Strad

Michael Haydn and Mozart, Six Duos for Violin and Viola (with Judith Busbridge)

'Their accounts of Mozart’s works combine energy, insight, warmth and affection; they are characterised by a lively reciprocity ... CRD’s recorded sound, presentation and production are exemplary.' The Strad

'Spirited and compelling music-making to savor', Michael Jameson, International Record Review

Liszt, Consolations No. 5 - pre-released single on 22 April 2022

Consolations on Apple Music Playlists

Lyrita Records releases Richard Blackford's Mirror of Perfection, with soprano Elizabeth Watts, baritone Roderick Williams, the IKON Singers and Britten Sinfonia, and Vision of A Garden, with baritone Stephen Gadd, The Bach Choir and the strings of the Philharmonia Orchestra, both conducted by David Hill, on 6 May 2022 (SRCD.406 Dolby Atmos recording). This is the first recording of Vision of a Garden, and the second of Mirror of Perfection.

Vision of a Garden was first performed by The Bach Choir, baritone Gareth Brnmor John and Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by David Hill, on 24 October 2021 at London's Royal Festival Hall, and recorded for Lyrita at St Augustine's Church, Kilburn. The work is based on Bach Choir member Professor Peter Johnstone's experience of serious illness with COVID-19.

Professor Johnson was the first COVID patient admitted to Cambridge's Addenbrokes Hospital's Neurosciences and Trauma Critical Care Unit. He remained in hospital, often unconscious, for 75 days, yet recovered and was able to sing in work's first performance. During his time in hospital, the nurses caring for Professor Johnson left messages of support in a series of 'ICU diaries': he describes these as 'the most heart-warming documents I’ve ever read.'

WATCH THE ICU DIARIES TRAILER

'I have a duty to tell the world what I went through':
how COVID-fuelled visions inspired a new choral work.
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph

Richard Blackford profiled: Gramophone Magazine, April 2022

Robert Hugill interviews Richard Blackford about Vision of A Garden:Planet Hugill

'Cambridge Professor recovers to sing Choral Music': BBC News

'Eine ausdrucksstarke Interpretation, die ihren Eindruck auf den Hörer nicht verfehlt.'
Uwe Krusch, Pizzicato

Richard Blackford comments about re-recording Mirror of Perfection:

Richard Blackford comments on Lyrita's new version of Mirror of Perfection:

'I was delighted when Lyrita agreed to make a new recording of Mirror Of Perfection. Since conducting it myself for Sony Classical in 1997 with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Bournemouth Sinfonietta I have heard it performed dozens of times around the world. Hearing different conductors’ interpretations, with both symphonic and chamber, amateur and professional choirs, I was intrigued by the prospect of Lyrita making a recording that was completely unlike the earlier one.

Encouraged by David Hill, who had already conducted and recorded many of my choral works, I decided that the new recording would be different by choosing a 24-voice professional chorus, the superb Ikon singers.  I heard the contrapuntal writing with a new transparency, luminosity and beauty. Whereas in the earlier recording the soloists had to be overdubbed because of scheduling issues, Roderick Williams and Elizabeth Watts were recorded live with the chorus and orchestra, as always intended. The resulting ensemble has a new vibrancy and immediacy - one really can imagine that Williams is St Francis of Assisi, especially in his charming rendition of Canticle of The Birds. Elizabeth Watts brought a heightened sense of drama with her thrilling high notes in Movements IV and VI, when she soars effortlessly over the chorus and orchestra. The stormy third movement In foco l’amore mi mise is unlike anything I had heard previously: tenors and basses articulate their rapid quaver passages with exemplary diction and clarity. In many respects, however, the Lyrita recording is more intimate: the final movement's hushed “Beati quelli che sosterrano in pace” has a stillness and sense of peace that I had never experienced before. In the new recording I had a chance to slightly re-balance the orchestral score, especially the postlude.

Under David Hill, the Britten Sinfonia’s playing is breathtakingly beautiful, especially the interludes in the fifth and seventh movements. The exposed, closing three-horn coda was perfectly tuned and balanced. Hill’s choices of tempo are often a little brisker than those I chose in 1997, and the piece is better for it. The new Lyrita recording's success is the sum of many parts of its brilliant team of musicians and technicians. Hearing the final Dolby Atmos mix in Andrew Walton’s studio was one of the most thrilling aural experiences of my life.'

 Electronic press kit is available: for inquiries, click CONTACT US below.

Lyrita Records releases British Piano Concertos - music by John Addison, Arthur Benjamin, Elizabeth Maconchy, Humphrey Searle, Edmund Rubbra and Geoffrey Bush composed between 1927 and 1959, performed by soloist Simon Callaghan and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Martyn Brabbins, on 1 April 2022 (SRCD.407).

ALBUM DETAILS

John Addison, Wellington Suite: for two horns, piano, timpani, percussion and strings
Tim Thorpe and Meilyr Hughes, horns
Arthur Benjamin, Concertino for Piano and Orchestra
Elizabeth Maconchy, Concertino No. 2 for Piano and Strings
Humphrey Searle, Concertante for Piano, Percussion and Strings, Op. 24
Edmund Rubbra, Nature's Song: Tone Poem for Orchestra, Organ and Piano
Geoffrey Bush, A Little Concerto on Themes of Thomas Arne

Small concertos for piano and chamber orchestra were a feature of British composition in the first half of the 20th century. Often written for a special occasion, many such works dissapeared into oblivion thereafter: Lyrita's new British Piano Concertos album, whose music was researched by piano soloist Simon Callaghan, seeks to re-establish these exciting and vibrant works into the repertoire.

In searching for enticing music to record with reduced orchestral forces during COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions, SimonCallaghan was thrilled to uncover this treasury of music: short concertos written for entertainment, but of a quality deserving their revival, and which will bring joy and intrigue to listeners.

The music includes the innocent pastiche of Geoffrey Bush’s tribute to Thomas Arne, Rubbra’s student essay, the ‘Blues’ of Arthur Benjamin, the serial language of Humphrey Searle, intense drama from Elizabeth Maconchy, and the bold humour of film composer John Addison.

Except for Benjamin's Concertino, recorded once only, in 1959, this is the first recording for all the works on this album.

Download in HD sound on QOBUZ

Review of British Piano Concertos - Nick Boston, Classical Notes - Gscene Magazine, March 2022

EPK and private Soundcloud links are available for press use.

'Simon Callaghan has done us proud in his promotion of this music. Martyn Brabbins and the Welsh orchestra, no strangers to British music of this period, play with style and sensitivity. For any lover of twentieth-century British music, this disc is a must-buy.'
Gary Higginson, MusicWeb International

'An amazing disc, six works which have managed to fall under the radar,
here revived in stylish and brilliant fashion.'
Planet Hugill

Lyrita Records releases the first recording ofCecil Armstrong Gibbs' complete songs on 4 March 2022 (SRCD.2400). This four-album set is performed by tenor Nathan Vale, soprano Charlotte de Rothschild and pianist Adrian Farmer. A one-volume compilation from the full set offers an introduction to Gibbs' wonderful collection of songs (SRCD.404).

Antony Smith of the Nimbus Group, which manages Lyrita, comments: 'In recording this project, the consistent quality of Gibbs' songs surpassed all our expectations. Alongside his most famous songs, for example settings of poems by his friend Walter de La Mare, are wonderful discoveries – for example To Anise, The Cherry Tree, On Duncton Hill, The Tiger-Lily, Midnight, Slow Horses Slow, The Exile and Take Heed Young Heart. These will be concert winners when programmed by singers, with a direct clarity of expression and supreme sensitivity to text.'

Adrian Farmer, Nathan Vale and Charlotte de Rothschild discuss Gibbs' songs

NIMBUS MUSIC PUBLISHING: GIBBS SONGS

Complementing the release of SRCD.2400 and SRCD.404, Nimbus Music Publishing has released three volumes of Armstrong Gibbs' songs, featured in the albums, in high quality saddle-stitched editions:

NMP1144: Four Songs for Tenor Voice: Willows Leaves: Three Songs After the Chinese Manner (John Irvine) and The Doctor’s Song from ‘Henry Brocken’ (Walter de la Mare)

NMP1145: Four Songs for Soprano Voice: Two Pastorals (H.T. Wade-Gery), Jane Eyre’s Song and Lorelei’s Songs drom ‘Henry Brocken’ (Walter de la Mare)

NMP1146: Two Songs: The Old House (Grey Hayward Kirkus) and The Rainy Day (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)