The UA Blog - Press Centre

Lyrita Releases Malcolm Lipkin Piano Music Album, performed by Nathan Williamson, on 7 April 2023

7/2/2023

SRCD414: Malcolm Lipkin Piano Music

Lyrita is releasing a collection of Malcolm Lipkin’s piano music, recorded by renowned soloist Nathan Williamson. Included in this recording are Lipkin’s Nocturnes and Sonatas.

“Malcolm Lipkin's experience and skill as an executant who can perform his own music is evident in each of his piano scores. Often hypnotic and brooding, it beckons the listener in to an ethereal, uncanny soundscape. At other times, the material is brilliant and challenging, demanding from the player a formidable technique. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Lipkin’s writing for piano is its basic integrity. If, at a certain point as the music unfolds, the composer decides that an unvarying series of repeated notes or chords or arpeggiated figures is required for several bars then that is, unashamedly and irrefutably, what he sets down on the stave. This preoccupation with the fundamentals of piano writing is part of the very fabric of the material – shrewd, incisive and intuitive.” Paul Conway, 2023

Nathan Williamson performs at many leading venues as soloist and chamber musician, composes new work for a wide variety of artists at home and abroad, and directs performance and education and outreach projects on a local and national level. Recent performance highlights include the complete Beethoven Concertos with the Prometheus Orchestra, the premiere of Christopher Brown’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, international tours with the renowned new music ensemble Piano Circus, and a detailed exploration of piano works by Malcolm Lipkin culminating in the present album. During the pandemic Nathan gave online recitals for City Music Live and regularly streamed live music into schools and care homes.

On Malcolm Lipkin - The Symphonies: 'These performances are of great importance as examples of British Symphonies in the second half of the twentieth century': MusicWeb International

Electronic press kit available for press use.

Jonathan Dove, Cello Concerto 'In Exile': World Première Recording released by Lyrita on 3 March 2023: Simon Keenlyside and Raphael Wallfisch with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gergely Madaras

14/12/2022

Click above to download on iTunes with digital booklet or stream on Apple Music

Jonathan Dove: In Exile
Lyrita SRCD.413

Sir Simon Keenlyside, baritone
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Gergely Madaras, conductor
Jonathan Dove, piano *
World Première Recordings

In Exile
1. - Cello alone I
2. Daybreak again
3. The first arrow the bow of exile will shoot
4. See, cold Island, we stand
5. I left that land wretched
Listen to me
6. - Cello alone II
7. If I were an ear of corn
8. - Cello alone III
9. Unclean
10. Where have the horses gone?
11. My grief on the sea

12. Night Song, for cello and piano *

The idea of writing a cello concerto for Raphael Wallfisch was first mooted more than ten years ago at the Banff Arts Centre, Canada, where Jonathan Dove was composer-in-residence. The two men spoke of Dove’s interest in writing a piece for cello and orchestra, and after further meetings in London, the work began to take shape. Given the composer’s extensive experience of writing for the voice, it was decided that the score would be written for baritone singer and solo cello with orchestra with texts taken from poems by various writers.

The subject matter was suggested by the Wallfisch family history. Raphael’s father fled, together with his mother and brother, to Palestine from Breslau in 1937, and his mother, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, is a concentration camp survivor. She has written of the persecution of her Jewish family during the Second World War and her own incarceration in Auschwitz and Belsen, where her skill as a cellist saved her life. Knowing of these events, Jonathan Dove was inspired to base the work’s theme on the universal experience of refugees being exiled from their homeland.

In Exile was premièred at the George Enescu Festival on 3 September 2022, followed by a performance in Bucharest on 5 September. Scored for baritone, 'cello and orchestra, Jonathan Dove writes of the piece: ‘In Exile moves through a day in the life of an involuntary exile: waking alone in a foreign land; remembering the moment of banishment, the moment of departure, the voyage; remembering the homeland. The Exile feels the pain of being so far away in his country’s time of need, unable to help his own people. He remembers all the names he has been called in this strange land. He thinks of all he has lost, and longs for home.

The spine of Alasdair Middleton’s libretto is from a 10th Century manuscript, The Wayfarer, by an anonymous old English author. Voices from across the ages flesh out a composite portrait: a single line of Shakespeare recurs among lyrical verses by Dante, Emily Lawless, Kahlil Gibran, Kaveh Bassiri and Douglas Hyde. The theme of exile was suggested by the history of the Wallfisch family, and is dedicated to Raphael’s mother, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who has told her story in her book Inherit the Truth 1939-1945: The Documented Experiences of a Survivor of Auschwitz and Belsen.

In Exile fuses elements of operatic scena and concerto, the two soloists expressing complementary aspects of the same character. In Raphael Wallfisch’s words: ‘the cello represents the soul and spirit of the Exile, the baritone is that person and sings the dramatic and often challenging texts. Jonathan’s lyrical style lends itself so naturally to the cello. He exploits every register from the lowest to the highest notes. The cello comments on the sung texts'. (Paul Conway)

Night Song, a short piece for cello and piano is derived from the final section of In Exile. In the calm closing moments of the work the baritone sings of his loss in the words of the poet Douglas Hyde : My grief on the sea, / How the waves of it roll - / For they heave between me / And the love of my soul. Night Song was written partly at the request of the Rachel Baker Memorial Charity – who commissioned the orchestral work – and partly in response to the strong reaction of the first audiences who connected with this uncomplicated musical expression.

'An intoxicating blend of emotion.'
Janet Horvath, Interlude, 3 March 2023

'This remarkable work for solo baritone, solo cello and orchestra ... dark, complex and profound'.
Planet Hugill, 21 March 2023

'An arresting, important work. ... Both music and performance can be recommended without reservation.' John Quinn, MusicWeb International, 29 March 2023

British Cello Works Volume 2: Smyth, Delius, Gibbs and Britten - Lionel Handy and Jennifer Walsh, released by Lyrita on 3 February 2023

2/12/2022

Stream on Apple Music or download on iTunes with booklet

SRCD412 British Cello Works Volume 2
Smyth, Delius, Gibbs, Britten
Lionel Handy, cello, Jennifer Walsh, piano

Also Available: British Cello Works, Volume 1
Lionel Handy, cello and Jennifer Walsh (née Hughes), piano
Lyrita Records SRCD.383; UPC: 5020926038326

'A key figure in the British musical renaissance, Dame ETHEL SMYTH (1858-1944) was critically acclaimed for her music and for her writing during her lifetime. Smyth’s Sonata in A minor for cello and piano, Op.5 was written in 1887 and published the following year by C. F. Peters in Leipzig. The score is dedicated to the German cellist Julius Klengel, whom she met through her friendship with the Röntgen family.

In her A minor Sonata, Op. 5, as in her earlier Sonata in C minor for cello and piano (1880), Ethel Smyth favours expressivity over virtuosity, emphasising the cello’s warm and lyrical tone. The piano enjoys a key role in all three movements and is often invited to present the chief subject matter rather than merely playing a supporting role accompanying the cello line. Thus, the piece constitutes a true ‘sonata for cello and piano’. Fluent and tightly constructed,the score reveals a gift for melody, pacing and characterisation which the composer would use to good advantage in her stage works.

One of Delius’s most satisfying chamber works, the Cello Sonata is distinguished by the expressive power of its material. Both instruments enter at the same time, the cello unfolding a songlike, long-limbed line, while the piano presents the main idea. A second key theme, introduced by the cello over the piano’s rippling, arpeggiated chords, is more forthright and sharply defined.

In the late 1940s and the 1950s, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs wrote a series of instrumental works, two of them written for, and dedicated to, the cellist Eileen Croxford. They consist of Three Pieces, Op. 121 and the Cello Sonata in E, Op. 132. The Sonata is dated 12 January 1951 and was published by Oxford University Press the following year. The opening Allegro moderato is a substantial movement in sonata form. Over a syncopated, chordal piano accompaniment, the cello unfurls a sweeping, unsettled melody which contains some unexpected tonal shifts and covers a wide dynamic range.

Britten’s Cello Sonata is a challenging, bravura piece that benefits immeasurably from the natural affinity between composer and player which would inspire Britten to produce four more major works for Rostropovich over the next decade. Rostropovich wrote of the work, ‘This is a sonata full of surprises, innovations for any cellist, gifts for the musician flowing freely from the horn of plenty. We meet not merely a novelty in finger-work but, what is most important, a new kind of expressive and profound dramatic composition.'

© Paul Conway, 2022

'Handy and Walsh play with conviction and flair.'
Janet Horvath, Interlude: 22 February 2023

Electronic press kit available for reviewers

Lyrita releases first recordings of Rebecca Clarke's and William Busch's Complete Piano Music - 7 October 2022

20/5/2022

Lyrita releases first recordings of the complete piano music of Rebecca Clarke and William Busch in autumn 2022, performed by Simon Callaghan , on 7 October 2022.

Rebecca Clarke
Theme and Variations for Piano
'He Hath Filled the Hungry'
Cortège (for William Busch)

William Busch
Allegretto quasi Pastorale
Gigue
Theme, Variations and Fugue
Intermezzo
'Nicholas' Variations

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) and William Busch (1901-1945) were unlikely friends with Busch often visiting Clarke’s house. Busch first mentions Rebecca Clarke in his diaries on 26 October 1927: “Went to a Gordon Byron concert – Brosa, Rebecca Clarke and John Slater, violin, viola and flute respectively – and heard new and old works – nothing particular. Then to CMC at the Court House. The Brosa Quartet played the String Quartets by Bax, Honegger and Hindemith.” There are 22 more references to Clarke until 1937. Busch performed Clarke’s music in August 1932, when he wrote “Broadcast from London Regional – I read Rebecca Clarke’s piece from the Manuscript.” They certainly talked a lot about music, and Busch played through her piano pieces as she composed them. On 30 August 1932 – William gave the first performance of Clarke’s Cortege, then his own ‘Gigue’.

Alongside the album, Nimbus Music Publishing is releasing print editions of all three Rebecca Clarke piano works, and her Rhapsody for 'Cello and Piano (NMP1079), described by John York as 'possibly the greatest work for cello written in the 20th century'.

Rebecca Franks, BBC Music Magazine

Rebecca Clarke

William Busch

Pre-order and streaming links will be posted here. EPK and Soundcloud links available for press use.

Simon Callaghan (c. Kaupo Kikkas)

Lyrita releases The Songs of William Busch - Roderick Williams, Diana Moore, Robin Tritschler, John Reid - 5 August 2022

20/5/2022

William Busch

On 5 August 2022 Lyrita releases The Songs of William Busch, featuring Roderick Williams, baritone, Diana Moore, mezzo-soprano, Robin Tritschler, tenor, and John Reid, piano. The album comprises previously unperformed and unrecorded songs by British composer William Busch, alongside works by Gerald Finzi, Elizabeth Poston and Michael Head.

Lyrita's recording is a tribute from daughter to father, made possible through painstaking research and reconstruction by Julia Busch and Diana Moore. Busch, born in 1901, studied music in London, Berlin and the United States. His composition teachers included John Ireland and Bernard van Dieren. His pacifism during World War II resulted in decreased reception for his works. William died tragically on 30th January 1945 in Woolacombe, North Devon, England while he walked back across the headland from Ilfracombe Hospital after visiting his newly born daughter, Julia.

EPK and Soundcloud playlist available for press use.

'Small Wonder: The Songs of William Busch'
Maureen Buja, INTERLUDE, Hong Kong

'The gentle but distinctive voice of composer William Busch comes over strongly in this lovely recital. ... The performances are uniformly excellent.' (Robert Hugill)
Planet Hugill, 24 August 2022

John Quinn, MusicWeb International, Oct 2022

Lyrita releases Daniel Jones Rediscovered Piano Works album on 1 July 2022

20/5/2022

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.

Click image to enlarge

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.

Stuart Millson, 'Overlooked Orpheans', The Brazen Head, 23 Dec 2022

Martin Jones

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LYRITA RELEASES ALVARS, DUSSEK AND BOCHSA FOUR-HAND PIANO ALBUM WITH SIMON CALLAGHAN AND CLÍODNA SHANAHAN - 3 JUNE 2022

25/4/2022

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).

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

Simon Callaghan

Clíodna Shanahan

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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).

LYRITA RELEASES RICHARD BLACKFORD, MIRROR OF PERFECTION AND VISION OF A GARDEN ON 6 MAY 2022 - Elizabeth Watts, Roderick Williams, Ikon Singers, Britten Sinfonia / Stephen Gadd, The Bach Choir, Philharmonic Orchestra, David Hill

24/3/2022

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.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

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.'

Mirror Of Perfection received a gala performance in Palma Cathedral, Mallorca by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Baleares conducted by Joan Company on 11 April 2022 in the presence of Queen Sophia of Spain.

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LYRITA RECORDS RELEASES THE COMPLETE SONGS OF CECIL ARMSTRONG GIBBS

21/3/2022

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).

Download on iTunes: click above

Download on iTunes: click above

Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) was a pupil of Vaughan Williams, and stands alongside Howells, Bax and Bliss as one of an outstanding generation of early and mid-twentieth century British composers. Alongside three symphonies, his famous slow waltz Dusk and a fine body of theatre, sacred and chamber music, Gibbs was a prolific writer of songs. This four album set from Lyrita Records includes all 107 of Gibbs' songs, many recorded for the first time.

Full album list: click above to expand

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)