Category: Lyrita Records

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 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)

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

20/5/2022

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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

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

20/5/2022

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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.

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.

Martin Jones

Electronic press kit and private Soundcloud listening link avaialble for press use.

Click below to download

iTUNES

QOBUZ

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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

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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).

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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

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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.

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

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LYRITA RECORDS RELEASES THE COMPLETE SONGS OF CECIL ARMSTRONG GIBBS

21/3/2022

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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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

LYRITA RECORDS RELEASES THE COMPLETE SONGS OF CECIL ARMSTRONG GIBBS

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