The UA Blog - Press Centre

NIMBUS RELEASES RACHMANINOFF SYMPHONY NO. 2 FOR TWO PIANOS WITH SIMON CALLAGHAN AND HIROAKI TAKENOUCHI ON 4 NOVEMBER 2022

8/7/2022

4 November 2022
NI(tbc)                      Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2 Op. 27 for Two Pianos
                                    Simon Callaghan and 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

Pre-order, download and streaming links will be posted here.

NIMBUS RELEASES ADRIAN WILLIAMS SYMPHONY NO. 1 AND PORTRAITS OF NED KELLY CHAMBER CONCERTO WITH THE ENGLISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY KENNETH WOODS ON 7 OCTOBER 2022

8/7/2022

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

Streaming and download links will be posted here.

Sidney Nolan, The Ned Kelly Collection

BBC Culture: Sidney Nolan and the Story of Australian Art

Sidney Nolan Trust

Adrian Williams (c. Dominic Horne)

Kenneth Woods (c. Benjamin Ealovega)

English Symphony Orchestra (c. Evan Dawson)

Sidney Nolan, The Burning Tree (c. The Estate of Sidney Nolan)

NIMBUS ALLIANCE RELEASES EMMA JOHNSON SONGS OF CELEBRATION - 2 SEPTEMBER 2022

8/7/2022

Pre-order on iTunes: click above

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

Digital download and streaming links will be posted here on release day.
Electronic press kit available for review use.

Pre-release single from The Pied Piper:

Emma Johnson (© Frances Marshall)

Gloucester Cathedral Choir

John Lenehan (© Robert Piwko)

Jonathan Dove (© Marshall Light Studio)

Pied Piper Recorders

NIMBUS RELEASES MAX KOWALSKI ENGLISH AND GERMAN SONG ALBUM - 2023

31/5/2022

Nimbus Records releases 'Max Kowalski: A Song Recital in German and English', in 2023 (date t.b.c), with baritone Simon Wallfisch, soprano Camille Butcher and Edward Rushton, piano

Max Kowalski (1882-1956) was a German composer, singer- and copyright lawyer - resident in the United Kingdom from 1939. He is the composer of the 'other' setting of Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire, written in 1912-13, alongside Arnold Schoenberg's more famous version from the same time. Kowalski became a prolific composer of Lieder of diverse influences, including from Japanese, Chinese, Danish, Arabic and French literature in addition to German.

Kowalski's music was published and performed widely in Germany until 1934 when, in common with other Jewish musicians, anti-Semitic Nazi-era laws destroyed his artistic life. Performances of Kowalski's work were then possible only in the private gatherings of the Jewish Kulturbund, in whose Frankfürt concerts he participated. In 1938, he was imprisoned in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Released in 1939, and following the suicide of his wife, Anna, who had been imprisoned three times, he managed to emigrate with his daughter to London before World War Two began. In London, he first worked as a piano tuner and synagogal cantor, then established himself as a singing teacher. He continued to compose, but until now, none of his later songs in English have been published.

Full album details, download and streaming details will be published here.

EPK and pre-release listening links are available for press use.

NIMBUS RELEASES BRAHMS PIANO VARIATIONS DOUBLE ALBUM BY VLADIMIR FELTSMAN - 2023

31/5/2022

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.

VLADIMIR FELTSMAN ON APPLE MUSIC

FOLLOW VLADIMIR FELTSMAN ON SPOTIFY

THOMAS DE HARTMANN NEW ALBUM FROM NIMBUS RECORDS ON 3 JUNE 2022 - LVIV NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, ELAN SICROFF AND TIAN HUI NG

18/4/2022

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.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

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

Download now:
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LYRITA RELEASES BRITISH PIANO CONCERTOS - FIRST RECORDINGS OF ADDISON, ARTHUR BENJAMIN, MACONCHY, SEARLE, RUBBRA, GEOFFREY BUSH - ON 1 APRIL 2022, with Simon Callaghan, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Martyn Brabbins

24/3/2022

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).

Download with booklet on iTunes: click above

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

AUGUSTA READ THOMAS, BELL ILLUMINATIONS RELEASED BY NIMBUS RECORDS ON 1 APRIL 2022

2/3/2022

Augusta Read Thomas. Photo by Anthony Barlich.

Nimbus Records releases American composer Augusta Read Thomas' latest album, Bell Illumnations, on 1 April 2022. Described by The New Yorker as 'a true virtuoso composer' and the creator of 'music that conjures' in The Huffington Post, according to ASCAP, Augusta Read Thomas is the one of USA's most performed composers.

Bell Illuminations presents three major works for the first time, prefaced by a short miniature. While previous works by Augusta Read Thomas have been inspired by bells - Carillon Sky, Resounding Earth, Bells Ring Summer, Ripple Effects - Bell Illuminations is her first album to be centred around this longstanding preoccupation.

'Thomas’ music, mixing tonality and atonality, is hopeful and inspiring. ... For those interested in exploring contemporary music, Bell Illuminations by Augusta Read Thomas is an excellent way to start.' Louis Harris, Third Coast Review

'Thomas has created a spirited work that immediately charmed me.'
M.L. Rantala, The Hyde Park Herald

BELL ILLUMINATIONS: ALBUM DETAILS

Crescat Scientia; Vita Excolatur: for carillon of 72 bells, four players - eight hands and two feet
Joey Brink, with Joseph Min, Emily Kim and João Francisco Shida, carillonists

Upon Wings of Words (Emily Dickinson): soprano and string quartet
NEXUS Chamber Music: Co-Artistic Directors Brian Hong, violinist and Alexander Hersh, ‘cello, with Kristina Bachrach, soprano; Jordan Bak, viola; Benjamin Baker, violin

Bebop Riddle: for solo marimba
John Corkill, percussionist

Ring Out ,Wild Bells, To The Wild Sky (from Tennyson, In Memoriam): solo soprano, chorus, and orchestra
The Choral Arts Society of Washington; Carmen Pelton, soprano; Norman Scribner, conductor

Enchanted Invocation: solo vibraphone and five crotales
John Corkill, percussionist

Sonorous Earth: for bells from around the world (four players) and orchestra
Third Coast Percussion; Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra; Scott Speck, conductor

Augusta Read Thomas comments on Sonorous Earth, and the inspiration bells have given her in devising this album:

'Sonorous Earth is conceived as a cultural statement celebrating interdependence and commonality across all cultures, and as a musical statement celebrating the extraordinary beauty and diversity of expression inherent in bell sounds.

Scored for four percussionists playing bells from a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, Sonorous Earth can be heard and imagined as a United-Nations-of-Resonances.

Everything that we are made of, everything that we know and love, is made from the stars.

We - like all metals - are stardust. Metals are exceptionally resonant sound sources, rich with vibrational possibilities. As such, artisans across time and earth have been inspired to sculpt metals into musical instruments. More than three hundred pieces of metal are incorporated into the instrumentation of Sonorous Earth.

Probing into bells' rich meanings and characteristics as carriers of history, ethnicity, societal and cultural connotations is a joy and wonder. Bells can be used to celebrate grand occasions, hold sacrificial rites, keep a record of events, give the correct time, celebrate births and weddings, mark funerals, caution a community, enhance any number of religious ceremonies, and are even hung around the necks of animals. As carriers of history and culture, bells, of numerous shapes, sizes, types, decorative patterns, weights, functions, and cultural connotations, enrapture and inspire.'

Bells are central to Augusta Read Thomas' music; bells permeate her music. For over 25 years, in every work for orchestra, and in many for smaller ensembles, she has been composing music frequently using percussion consisting of bell sounds (pitched metal percussion and all the mallet percussion instruments) many of which have their origins in other than Western musical cultures. This makes Sonorous Earth an extreme extension of work she has been doing for decades.

'I like music that is alive and jumps off the page and
out of the instrument as if something big is at stake.'
Augusta Read Thomas

Excerpt from Augusta Read Thomas, Sonorous Earth

Scores and parts for Bebop Riddle,Enchanted Invocation and Sonorous Earth are available from Nimbus Music Publishing.

Download Bell Illuminations:

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