Category: Orchestral

DANCE FOLDINGS FOR ORCHESTRA, BY AUGUSTA READ THOMAS, RELEASED BY NIMBUS RECORDS ON 7 JULY 2023

2/5/2023

In celebration of the diversity and published objectives of the Royal Albert Hall on the occasion of the venue’s 150th anniversary, BBC Radio 3 commissioned DANCE FOLDINGS for orchestra: the prompt was to reflect the arts and sciences as they are now. The natural world, explored by scientists, engineers, and physicians in laboratories and clinics, offers a wealth of opportunities to explore resonance and balance through sound. Few orchestral works attempt to capture the kinetic and emotional content of scientific topics and convey these concepts through abstract, rather than descriptive, music. The musical materials of DANCE FOLDINGS for orchestra take as their starting point the metaphors, pairings, counterpoints, foldings, forms, and images inspired by the biological "ballet" of proteins being assembled and folded in our bodies.

Dance Foldings was recorded in the presence of the composer, and produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Augusta Read Thomas is one of the most active composers in the world, with commissions, performances, recordings, awards, and honours, but she is also a long-standing, exemplary citizen of the profession at large with an extensive and deeply committed history as a generous colleague in the profession. She is without question one of the best and most important composers of our time. Her music has substance, depth, and a sense of purpose. She has much to say and knows how to say it, and in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated.

Digital pre-order and streaming links will be published here.

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Orchestral Masters Vol. 10, released by Ablaze Records on 17 March 2023 - Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Mikel Toms

16/1/2023

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Download on iTunes with digital booklet or stream on Apple Music

Pioneering US contemporary music label Ablaze Records releases the tenth album of its innovative Orchestral Masters series worldwide on 17 March 2023. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Mikel Toms, it features music by composers from the USA (Edward Smaldone, Jeffrey Holmes, Jason Phillips),Cem Güven (Turkey/UK), Fang Ke and Zou Hao (China/USA) and Hojin Lee (South Korea/USA).

More pre-order and streaming links will be added here.

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Nimbus Alliance releases Philip Sawyers Concertos Album: Daniel Rowland and Maja Bogdanović with English Symphony Orchestra/English String Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Woods, 3 March 2023

14/12/2022

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Philip Sawyers (b. 1951)
Kenneth Woods, conductor
NI 6436

Double Concerto for Violin and Cello
1. I. Allegro moderato
2. II. Andante
3. III. Allegro vivo
Daniel Rowland, violin • Maja Bogdanović, cello
English Symphony Orchestra • Zoë Beyers, leader

4. Remembrance for Strings
English String Orchestra • Emily Davis, guest leader

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
5. I. Allegro
6. II. Andante
7. III. Allegro moderato
Daniel Rowland, viola
English Symphony Orchestra • Zoë Beyers, leader

8. Octet
English Symphony Orchestra soloists

'In 2009 I was commissioned to write a cello concerto by the Sydenham International Music Festival for one of their rising stars, Maja Bogdanović. Since her musical and personal connection with the amazing violinist Daniel Rowland, it had been in my mind to write them a double concerto. Overshadowed by the famous Brahms Double Concerto, this was a somewhat daunting task. It is a piece which reflects ideas of journeys which develop initial ideas as the music unfolds and unlike previous concertos, there is no first movement cadenza. In 2020-21, a friend and colleague asked me if I would write a piece to mark the loss of his mother. He also wanted it, in some way, to be for both of his late parents. He told me how fond of my tone poem the Valley of Vision she was, so I ‘hid’ a few quotations from that piece in the new one. He also requested something akin in mood to Elgar's Elegy for Strings. The resulting composition, I hope, meets all these wishes.

The viola concerto was written in 2020. The idea came after attending recording sessions and performances of a double concerto for violin, viola and string orchestra by my fellow composer and friend David Matthews. The lovely playing of the viola part by Sarah-Jane Bradley set off some ideas for a viola concerto of my own.

In 2007 the mixed chamber music ensemble ‘Liquid Architecture’ commissioned me to write them an octet for their appearance at the Chelsea Schubert Festival. The Schubert Octet was on their programme so the instrumentation was pre-determined: clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello and double bass. The piece is in one continuous movement in four sections: Adagio, Allegro, Andante and Allegro.' (Philip Sawyers)

This is the sixth title available in the Philip Sawyers series available on Nimbus Alliance.

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel, February 2023

Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 5 March 2023

Electronic press kit available for review use.

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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

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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

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DREAM CATCHER - WORKS FOR VIOLIN BY AUGUSTA READ THOMAS PERFORMED BY CLARISSA BEVILACQUA WITH BBC NATIONAL ORCHESTRA OF WALES, RELEASED ON NIMBUS RECORDS, 6 JANUARY 2023

14/11/2022

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Nimbus Records releases Dream Catcher: Clarissa Bevilacqua's debut release, with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, on 6 January 2023 (NI.8109)

Augusta Read Thomas, works for violin
Clarissa Bevilacqua, violin
Juggler in Paradise, Concerto No. 3 for violin and orchestra
Nine solo works for violin including Dream Catcher
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor
Augusta Read Thomas and Adrian Farmer: co-producers

Clarissa Bevilacqua

Clarissa Bevilacqua won first prize at the 14th International Mozart Competition of the Mozarteum University Salzburg. The 18-year-old, from Italy, received not only the first prize but also the audience award and the special award for the best interpretation of a piece by Mozart – a copy of Bärenreiter’s New Mozart Edition. Bevilacqua, who has studied with Maria Luisa Ugoni, Daniele Gay, Olga Kaler and David Taylor, performed the composer’s Violin Concerto no.5 KV219 in the final round. Two years ago, aged 16, she became the youngest student ever to receive a Bachelor of Music in Italy.

'Clarissa is also the Grand Prize winner of the Cape Symphony International Online Violin Competition, is not only a wonderful violinist, but also a wonderful person. We received applications from around the world and the quality was extraordinarily high, but her exceptional talent stuck out above the rest. A true violin prodigy, Clarissa would have been an outstanding guest artist for the May 2020 concert. Sadly, the pandemic forced us to cancel the concert, but Clarissa will definitely join us in the future. Enjoy her conversation with me, a glimpse of her award-winning performance, and a special demonstration of her talent. Congratulations to Clarissa!' Jung-Ho Pak, Artistic Director Cape Symphony

Augusta Read Thomas and Clarissa Bevilacqua

Dream Catcher

'Native American tradition attaches special meaning to dreams. One tradition was to hang a 'dream catcher' that would move freely in the night air. According to tradition, good dreams know their destination: they slip through the hole in the center of the web and glide gently down the feather into the subconscious of the dreamer. Bad dreams become entangled and dissipate with the light of the dawn. Although highly notated, precise, carefully structured, soundly proportioned, and while musicians are elegantly working from a nuanced, specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled - on the spot. As if we listeners are overhearing a captured improvisation.' Augusta Read Thomas

Juggler in Paradise: Concerto No. 3 for Violin and Orchestra

Flowering across a 20-minute arch, the work can be considered a series of poetic outgrowths and variations which are organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections. The violin solo is present for almost the entire sweeping arc, serving as protagonist as well as fulcrum point, around which all musical force-fields rotate, bloom, and proliferate. The Concerto begins with a slow, spacious, elegant solo for violin, accompanied, at first, by delicate sounds in the harps and percussion. With each new phrase the tempos quicken, the intensity climaxes and suddenly we are in a spacious landscape leading to the final minutes of the composition, which are dreamy, as if the soloist were delicately floating while chanting an ardent incantation. Juggler in Paradise, is a poetic image for the way soloist and orchestra relate, a continuous rhapsodic cadenza set against colourful "paradisiacal constellations." It's physical, too: dance is often close by. When the violin starts to speed up, the score suggests playing "as if 'juggling' the notes, rhythms, articulations" and, further on, "like several objects in motion, in the air." The animated, quicksilver orchestrations, at times pointillist like a Seurat paining, at other times akin to bold brush strokes, full and brassy, are continuously juggling and flexibly rearranging."

'Classical Music as a Constantly Evolving Organism'
Mareen Buja interviews Clarissa Bevilacqua: Interlude, 16 March 2023

'Variety aplenty in this snapshot of a distinguished American composer.'
Peter Quantrill, The Strad, 23 Feb 2023

'In this premiere recording ... the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni) makes a strong case for further performances. Bevilacqua balances the jerky playfulness of the early movements with the subtlety and space demanded in the final dream-like sequence.'
Claire Jackson, BBC Music Magazine, 21 Feb 2023

'Bevilacqua’s performances in Dream Catcher reveal mature musicianship and an intimate knowledge of the program — a notable slice of contemporary classical music from the U.S. With a warm tone in the low register, her fluent shifting in dynamics adds emotional resonance, and her approach to phrasing flows engagingly between Thomas’ moodiness and sunnier temperaments.'
Esteban Meneses,I Care if You Listen, 6 Jan 2023

Gramophone Magazine Recommended Classical Releases, 6 Jan 2023

Pizzicato, 10 Jan 2023

Planet Hugill Interview with Clarissa Bevilacqua, 14 Jan 2023

Classical New Releases: Classical Music Daily, Jan 2023

Laurie Niles, For The Record, The Violinist, Jan 2023

Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts for press use.

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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

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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

'An album recorded by inspired musicians for enthusiastic and adventurous listeners who are looking for depth in music... Beautifully performed, you really have a jewel of a CD in your hands.' Mattie Poels, Music Frames

Phillip Scott, Limelight: 25 August 2022

Stuart Millson, The Quarterly Review, August 2022

Download now:
iTunes
Qobuz
Amazon Music

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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

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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, April 2022

'This is a very fine release on all counts.'
Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International, May 2022

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

Dr Michael Loos, Klassik.com, 16 September 2022

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DANCE FOLDINGS FOR ORCHESTRA, BY AUGUSTA READ THOMAS, RELEASED BY NIMBUS RECORDS ON 7 JULY 2023

Orchestral Masters Vol. 10, released by Ablaze Records on 17 March 2023 - Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Mikel Toms

Nimbus Alliance releases Philip Sawyers Concertos Album: Daniel Rowland and Maja Bogdanović with English Symphony Orchestra/English String Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Woods, 3 March 2023

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

DREAM CATCHER - WORKS FOR VIOLIN BY AUGUSTA READ THOMAS PERFORMED BY CLARISSA BEVILACQUA WITH BBC NATIONAL ORCHESTRA OF WALES, RELEASED ON NIMBUS RECORDS, 6 JANUARY 2023

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

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

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