1. Purcell: The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation

2. J. S. Bach: Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209

3. Handel: Guardian Angels, from The Triumph of Time & Truth, HWV 71

4. Mozart: Ah’ lo Previdi - ah t’invola agl’occhi miei, K 272

5. Finzi: Dies Natalis [1]

Margaret Marshall comments: ‘I’m thrilled that Songbird has been released digitally. I retired from professional singing fifteen years ago and never imagined I would be releasing ‘new’ music. But thanks to wonderfully supportive friends, here it is! Alongside music by Purcell, J.S. Bach, Handel and Mozart – composers and works I loved to sing – is Finzi’s beautiful Dies Natalis, best known for tenors but also a wonderful sing for sopranos.’
 
Miss Marshall shares her experience of singing these works on her new website www.margaretmarshallsongbird.com

Margaret Marshall is one of the finest discoveries of recent years. A perfect technique carries this radiant voice, more varied in colour than some of her world-famous colleagues, full of life and energy, of exquisite expression where the vocalisation pours forth inner enchantment and surpasses technical virtuosity.[2]

[1] 1 and 4: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mosche Atzmon and Hanns-Martin Schneidt; 2: Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Hans Zender; 3. NDR Elbphilharmonie Orkester; Günther Weissenborn: 5. Mainz Chamber Orchestra, Günter Kehr

[2] J.S. Bach, Easter Oratorio, Kurt Redel (conductor), Le Monde, 20 April 1976

Press and radio inquiries to Ulysses Arts via our 'Contact Us' details below.

Ulysses Arts launches Franco-Belgian pianist Antoine Préat's first solo album, Polyphony, on 15 January 2021, with music by J.S. Bach, Chopin and Scriabin. Polyphony follows Antoine's debut recording of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.31, Op.110, released by Ulysses Arts in June 2020.

J.S. Bach, Toccata in C Minor, BWV 911
Chopin, Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61
Scriabin, Sonate-Fantaisie, Op. 19

Antoine comments: 'Born into a Baroque-fanatic family in Paris, I grew up immersed in the sound of the 'cello and harpsichord. I have always been intrigued by polyphonic music, with deep emotion contained within a perfectly assembled puzzle. I started this theme with Beethoven’s Op.110; my debut album of Bach, Chopin and Scriabin continues this exploration of intricate polyphony in the solo piano repertoire.’

Antoine Préat

Described by Radio France as ‘one of the most gifted pianists of the younger generation’ and as ‘a young artist with a distinctive voice’, Franco-Belgian pianist Antoine Préat is establishing himself as a soloist and chamber musician. 

Since his orchestral debut at 17, playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Orchestra of Alicante, Antoine has performed with The Tonerl Chamber Orchestra, Sainsbury Soloists, Academy Festival Orchestra, London Student Orchestra and Resonate Chamber Ensemble.  

Winner of Making Music's Philip and Dorothy Green Award 2020, and recently appointed City Music Foundation Artist 2020, Antoine performs regularly in Europe and the United States in halls such as the Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau, Wigmore Hall, Thayer Hall, Paris Beaux Arts Museum and Frederyk Chopin Institute. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, Scala Radio and France Musique.

Performance highlights include festivals such as the Nohant Chopin Festival, Lisztomanias, Chopin à Bagatelle, Les Concerts d’Esther, Marathon Chopin, Les Nuits du Piano in Paris, IMS Prussia Cove, Encuentro de Santander. An avid chamber musician, Antoine was the youngest artist invited to join the Centre de Musique de Chambre de Paris, directed by Jérôme Pernoo, with whom he gave a concert series at the Salle Cortot sponsored by Deutsche Gramophone. He has been a finalist or prizewinner in numerous competitions such as the Ettlingen Competition for Young Pianists, Concours International de la Ville de Gagny, Concours international d’Ile de France and received an honour prize at the New York Début Piano Competition.

Having completed his postgraduate course with honours at the Ecole Normale de Paris with Ludmilla Berlinskaia and Guigla Katsrava, Antoine continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Tatiana Sarkissova and Christopher Elton, receiving a Master of Arts and the DipRam, its highest qualification.

To enrich his understanding of the instrument and its repertoire, Antoine began to study fortepiano and period instruments with Carole Cerasi at the Royal Academy and has also been guided from artists such as Andreas Staier, Tobias Koch, Philippe Cassard, Alberta Alexandrescu, Robert Levin, Jerome Lowenthal, Richard Goode, Imogen Cooper and Stephen Hough.

Antoine is supported by The City Music Foundation, Talent Unlimited, Hattori Foundation and Making Music.

... et maintenant en français:

- Beethoven Sonate op°110 en La Majeur
Single de promotion sorti le 19 Juin 2020, playlisté par Apple Music, recueillant plus de 50,000 écoutes
- Bach Toccata en Do mineur BWV911, Chopin Polonaise Fantaisie op°65, Scriabin Sonate n°2 op°19 sorti le 15 Janvier 2021, playlisté par Spotify dans “Classical New Releases”

Vidéo de promotion: https://youtu.be/VWMMPV8-JR8

L’album

'Mon premier album, enregistré à Londres au courant de cette tumultueuse année 2020, se focalise sur l’évolution de l’écriture polyphonique au fil des différentes époques. Vouant une affection particulière à J.S Bach, je souhaitais souligner son influence sur le processus de composition de ses successeurs. Si Bach lui-même fut influencé par ses prédécesseurs, tels que Buxtehude ou Kerll.

il demeure la figure ‘phare’ de la période baroque et de l’écriture polyphonique (que ce soit sous forme de fugue, de choral, d’aria ou de sonate). Toutes les pièces de cet album jouent aussi sur la liberté de la forme musicale: une Toccata comprenant un choral et deux fugues, une Sonate de Beethoven avec ses multiples fugues et arias, la Polonaise-Fantaisie, alternant marche patriotique,
choral et mélodie accompagnées, et la Sonate de Scriabin en deux mouvements.)

Dans ses dernières années, Beethoven se tourne à nouveau vers la musique de Bach et de Haendel, qu’il avait toujours beaucoup admirés. Cette influence est très présente dans ses œuvres dites “de la troisième période” (qui fut d’ailleurs sa dernière), au cours de laquelle il composa certaines de ses œuvres les plus acclamées : la Hammerklavier, les trois dernières sonates pour piano, le quatuor op°131, la Grosse Fugue op°133, Die Weihe des Hauses op°124.

Beethoven, éclatant la forme classique et ouvrant grand la porte à ses successeurs romantiques, insuffle un souffle nouveau à la forme fuguée et à la polyphonie complexe du XVIIIème siècle. Frédéric Chopin est souvent considéré (à tort selon moi) comme le “romantique” par excellence, le
symbole du rubato à outrance interprété avec une mièvrerie mal placée. Il était très important pour moi d’établir un parallèle entre l’oeuvre de Chopin celle de Bach car non seulement Chopin portait une véritable adoration à son vénérable prédécesseur, mais leurs oeoeuvres ne sont pas si éloignées les unes des autres bien qu’appartenant à un style et une époque différents. Si l’on étudie avec attention les compositions de Chopin, on constate que ce qui peut à première vue être qualifié de “mélodie accompagnée” se révèle souvent bien plus complexe et polyphonique qu’il n’y parait (les accompagnements notamment comprennent bien souvent un contrepoint développé en plusieurs lignes mélodiques). Enfin, le rubato dont on parle tant chez Chopin me rappelle la notion d’ ‘élan’ et de respiration en musique Baroque, et ne devrait pas conduire à ce qualificatif de “sentimentalisme” (simplement parce qu’il s’agit la de musique dite ‘romantique’, si la respiration n’est pas naturelle, l’interpretation ne l’est pas plus).

Alexandre Scriabin est le seul compositeur présent qui ne se soit pas réclamé de Bach de son vivant. C’est ce qui me semblait si intéressant: Scriabin, si inspiré au début de sa vie par Chopin, reflète souvent l’influence que Bach a eu sur la musique ‘classique’ à travers sa manière de composer, son sens de l’architecture, de la structure et de la complexité des voix intérieures de certaines de ses partitions.

Quelques mots

Ayant étudié le clavecin et la musique baroque dès mon enfance, ce thème me tient vraiment à coœur, et je suis ravi d’avoir pu l’explorer à travers ce premier disque. Je tiens à preciser que ce disque devait également sortir en magasin, mais la deuxième journée d’enregistrement (Bach, Chopin, Scriabin) ayant été décalée de plusieurs mois à cause du COVID-19, et le piano premièrement utilisé ayant été endommagé, j’ai dû séparer la sonate de Beethoven et le reste de l’album.'

Antoine Préat, janvier 2021

Ulysses Arts is delighted to release a new recording of J.S.Bach's music re-imagined for corno da tirarsi and organ performed by Anneke Scott (corno da tirarsi) and Benedict Preece (organ).

The 2020 Pandemic saw Anneke Scott work her way through all of Bach’s chorales on her corno da tirarsi as part of a project she entitled “Corno Not Corona”. Out of this was sparked the idea of a collaboration with organist Benedict Preece in which the pair would re-configure a number of Bach Chorale Preludes incorporating the corno da tirarsi on the chorale melodies.

The recording is a testament to the many ways in which musicians have had to be resourceful and resilient in this most testing of years for the arts. The two musicians recorded their contributions in isolation, with Benedict performing the organ part using Hauptwerk, a state-of-the-art virtual instrument. Hauptwerk contains high quality samples of some of the finest organs in the world and each stop is relayed through the software to enable organists to play the chosen organ from any location. For this recording Benedict selected the Muller organ of St. Bavo Church, Haarlem.

Matching a “virtual” instrument is Anneke’s “hypothetical” corno da tirarsi (made by Egger in Switzerland). The corno da tirarsi has been a conundrum for many years. Bach wrote for the instrument but no instrument appears to survive. Normally Bach writes for the corno da tirarsi doubling soprano chorale melodies in his cantata, hence it feeling like an appropriate instrument to incorporate in his chorale preludes.

Featured on Spotify Classical New Releases and Apple Music Bach and the Baroque playlists

BUY CD

https://www.annekescott.com/bach-chorale-preludes

Total playing time 27 minutes; UPC 5054526239067

CLICK HERE TO STREAM ON SPOTIFY

1. Tomaso Albinoni (1671–1751): Sonata in D Minor, Op. 4 No. 1: I. Adagio

2. Antonio Bertali (1605–1669): Ciaccona in C Major

3. Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729): Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major: II. Adagio

4. Andrea Falconieri (ca. 1585–1656): Il Primo Libro di Canzone: Brando dicho el Melo;
Corriente dicha la Mota, echa para Don Pedro dela Mota

5. Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589–1630): Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major

Tracks 1–4: Maximiliane Norwood (Baroque Violin), Jacopo Sabina (Theorbo)
Track 5: Maximiliane Norwood (Baroque Violin), Cornelia Demmer (Theorbo), Chloé de Guillebon (Virginal)

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_loIkTOZMHg0EVt4MoOZHc1aL2DUlMGBkM

UPC: 5054526304741

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Claudio Astronio is a harpsichordist, organist and conductor, music director of ensemble Harmonices Mundi, and the Theresia Baroque Youth Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Antiqua Early Music Festival in Bolzano, and a Feruccio Busoni International Piano Competition artistic board member. He performs a the most prestigious festivals in Europe, North America and Japan, working with such musicians as Emma Kirkby, Max van Egmond, Dan Laurin, Gemma Bertagnolli, Susanne Ryden, Yuri Bashmet and Gustav Leonhardt.

Considered by critics to set the highest standard of vocal and dramatic interpretation in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Music, equally skilled as a singer and actress, Laura Catrani graduated in singing and vocal music from Milan's Guiseppe Verdi Conservatory, and in acting from the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Arts. She has sung numerous performances of modern and contemporary composers including Azio Corghi, Alessandro Solbiati, Silvia Colassanti, Nicola Moro, Matteo Franceschini. Alongside modern music, she has also sung traditional opera roles, especially in Mozart, Eighteenth Century and Baroque works. She has recorded for the Naxos and Stradevarius labels.

#HighlandsandSea

STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD LINKS

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