The UA Blog - Press Centre

ULYSSES ARTS RELEASES FIVE NEW ALBUMS IN AUTUMN 2023, ALL INCLUDING WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDINGS

11/8/2023

British label Ulysses Arts is releasing five new albums in autumn 2023, all including world première recordings. Founded as a digital consultancy for classical music in 2008, Ulysses Arts has developed into an innovative record label presenting albums dedicated to original programming and new works.

Ulysses Arts' director, James Ross, comments: 'This is the most ambitious series or releases in our history. We are proud to be presenting this outstanding range of new music, great performers and ensembles, including musicians from the UK, USA, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Hungary. Collectively, these five albums include the work of nineteen living composers, showing classical music today as a thriving, evolving art form, full of energy and imagination.'

Click above covers and titles below for full details:

22 September: Paul Henley Piano Works
Duncan Honeybourne, piano

Piano Sonatas No. 1, 2 and 3; Five Epigrams; Suite; Adagietto

UA230060

29 September: Todd Mason Violin Concerto & Chamber Suite

Tosca Opdam, violin; Budapest Scoring Orchestra; Péter Illényi, conductor

UA230080

6 October: All Shall be Amen

Caritas Chamber Choir, directed by Benedict Preece

New choral music by Gabriel Jackson, Cecilia McDowall, Phillip Cooke, Sarah Cattley, Eric Choate, Benedict Preece, Neil Wright, Andrew Smith and David Conte.

UA230120

3 November: Neoteric Ensemble Volume 1
Toby Street, James Fountain, Sarah Field, Rob Buckland, Richard Watkin, Adrian Miotti

New music for brass and saxophone sextet by Rob Buckland, Misha Mullov-Abado, Andy Panayi, Charlotte Harding, Toby Street, Dan Jenkins and Mark Nightingale.

UA220001

10 November: Soliloquies

Songs by Messiaen, Chausson, Frank Bridge, Hanns Eisler and Paul Willot-Förster

Maria Hegele, mezzo-soprano and Anna Szałucka, with Connie Pharoah, viola and Emily Turkanik, violin.

UA230090

Eletronic press kits, listening links and CDs for all albums are available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.

SOLILOQUIES - SONGS BY MESSIAEN, CHAUSSON, EISLER AND PAUL WILLOT-FÖRSTER WITH MARIA HEGELE AND ANNA SZAŁUCKA ON 10 NOVEMBER 2023

13/7/2023

Click above to pre-order from iTunes with digital booklet

Ulysses Arts releases a new album of songs by Messiaen, Frank Bridge, Chausson, Eisler and new works by Paul Willot-Förster on Friday 10 November 2023, performed by mezzo-soprano Maria Hagele and pianist Anna Szałucka with Connie Pharoah, viola, and Emily Turkanik, violin. Full details of streaming links will be published here.

SOLILOQUIES ALBUM DETAILS

OLIVIER MESSIAEN, Harawi - Chant d'amour et de mort
1: I. La ville qui dormait, toi 02:31
2: II. Bonjour toi, colombe verte 03:27
3: III. Montagnes 02:58

FRANK BRIDGE, Three Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano, H. 76
with Connie Pharoah, viola
4. I. Far, far from each other 03:33
5. II. Where is it that our soul doth go 03:08
6. III. Music when soft voices die 02:01

'CLEMENS CZERNIK'
with Emily Turkanik, violin
7. Graciella 02:02

PAUL WILLOT-FÖRSTER
with Emily Turkanik, violin
8. Selbstgespräche: I. Vorwort/Entschuldigung 01:48
9. Selbstgespräche: II. Schlaflied 03:05
10. Selbstgespräche: III. Vokalise 03:22
11. Selbstgespräche: IV. Weltende 01:45

ERNEST CHAUSSON, Serres chaudes, Op. 24
12. I. Serre chaude 03:03
13. II. Serre d'ennui 02:30
14. III. Lassitude 02:22
15. IV. Fauves las 01:51
16. V. Oraison 02:16

HANNS EISLER
17. Fünf Elegien No. 4: Diese Stadt hat mich belehrt 01:28
18. Der Pflaumenbaum 01:41
19. Faustus‘ Verzweiflung 00:50
20. Fünf Elegien, No. 1: Unter den grünen Pfefferbäumen 00:53
21. Goethe-Fragment 01:45
22. Was ich dort gelebt 00:57

OLIVIER MESSIAEN, Harawi - Chant d'amour et de mort
23. X. Amour, oiseau d‘étoile 04:47
24. XI. Katchikatchi les étoiles 02:01
25. XII. Dans le noir 05:42

Click here for texts and translations

Maria Hegele

Anna Szałucka

Connie Pharoah

Emily Turkanik

Chausson, Lassitude, on Apple Music's New in Classical playlist

ModernMedieval Voices releases debut album The Living Word - 10 March 2023 with Ulysses Arts

27/1/2023

Vocal ensemble ModernMedieval Voices releases The Living Word, its debut album, on 10 March 2023 on Ulysses Arts. The Living Word pairs chants by Hildegard von Bingen with new works by Daniel Thomas Davis, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Caroline Shaw and Caleb Burhans, inspired by her music, life and message. The album's title pays tribute to Hildegard as a pioneer – a woman ahead of her time. Her words, music, and achievements continue to resonate today.

Download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

ModernMedieval was created byDr Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, a member of world-renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4, to explore the worlds of early and new music through lectures, workshops, masterclasses, performances and recordings. ModernMedieval Voices (MMV) is an all-female ensemble directed by Jacqueline. She is joined by early and new music specialists for concerts and special projects that combine medieval chant and polyphony with music from later eras and new commissions influenced by the poetry and sonorities of music from the Middle Ages.

ModernMedieval Voices takes the vocal techniques developed by Anonymous 4 for singing this repertoire and combines them with a fresh approach to programming that introduces this wonderful music to new audiences.

The Ensemble gave its debut performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, performing Hildegard's chant O Jerusalem as part of the Al-Quds : Jerusalem concert with MetLive Arts, described by Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal as ‘exquisitely sung’. MMV has given performances at The National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., The Virginia Arts Festival, and the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York City, broadcast live on WNYC NewSounds Live, hosted by John Schaefer. The Ensemble has also given residencies and performances at Notre Dame University, East Carolina University NewMusic Initiative, Florida’s University of Tampa, Binghamton University, Pittsburgh Dance Project, Liquid Music in Saint Paul Minnesota, Princeton University Sound Kitchen, Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, Dumbarton Oaks, and The Cloisters in New York City as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts series.

ModernMedieval Voices feature on award-winning album To Shiver the Sky with music by Christopher Tin, which received its world première performance in May 2022 in Washington DC.

‘Although more than eight centuries separate us from this music, ModernMedieval’s approach to Hildegard is above all natural, emphasizing her fluent expressivity in perfect medieval Latin. Hildegard is always a good listen, and juxtaposed with sympathetic contemporary works, her beauties were especially resplendent.’ (Patrick Rucker, The Washington Post)

ALBUM ARTISTS

Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek
Chloe Holgate
Martha Cluver

ALBUM DETAILS

Hildegard von Bingen, O Presul vere Civitatis
Daniel Thomas Davis, Three-Winged Wisdom *
Hildegard von Bingen, O Virtus Sapientie
Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Meditation *
Hildegard von Bingen, Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans
Hildegard von Bingen, Karitas Habundat
Caroline Shaw, Caritas Abundat *
Hildegard von Bingen, O Viridissima Virga
Caleb Burhans, We Cannot Live *
Hildegard von Bingen, O Jerusalem

*Commissioned by ModernMedieval

Listen on YouTube

Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.

Rameau Re-Imagined: Edward Higginbottom, Holly Teague, Felix Higginbottom - CRD Records, 7 July 2023

20/1/2023

Pre-order on iTunes: click above

Edward Higginbottom is joined by rising star soprano, Holly Teague and percussionist Felix Higginbottom as he takes Rameau's most theatrical compositions into the organ loft and 'reimagines' their performance, meanwhile taking us on a journey through exotic landscapes and arresting scenes.

To be released by CRD Records on 7 July 2023.

CARITAS CHAMBER CHOIR AND BENEDICT PREECE - THE ASH GROVE - RELEASING ON 26 AUGUST 2022, CHOATE, BELOVED LET US LOVE, 16 SEPTEMBER, CARLSSON, UBI CARITAS, 14 OCTOBER, COOKE, I SING OF A MAIDEN, 28 OCTOBER AND CATTLEY, WHAT CHILD IS THIS?, 11 NOVEMBER

28/7/2022

The Caritas Chamber Choir and Benedict Preece's recording of traditional Welsh song The Ash Grove releases on all major digital service providers on 26 August 2022, followed by Eric Choate, Beloved, Let us Love, on 16 September, Mikael Carlsson, Ubi Caritas on 14 October, Phillip Cooke, I Sing of A Maiden on 28 October, and Sarah Cattley, What Child is this? on 11 November. These singles are a prelude to Caritas' Christmas album, released on 25 November 2022.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music.

The Ash Grove on Apple Music's Classical New Releases playlist

NIMBUS RELEASES MAX KOWALSKI ENGLISH AND GERMAN SONG ALBUM - 5 MAY 2023

31/5/2022

Nimbus Records releases 'Max Kowalski: A Song Recital in German and English', on 5 May 2023, with baritone Simon Wallfisch, soprano Camille Butcher and Edward Rushton, piano (NI.8112).

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.

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 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)

Ulysses Arts lauches Ich spiele noch by Johannes Schlecht on 4 March 2022

16/2/2022

Ulysses Arts releases German composerJohannes Schlecht's album Ich spiele noch on Friday 4 March 2022, with Landeskapelle Eisenach (now Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach) conducted by Wolfgang Wappler and Tetsuro Ban , soprano Susann Möbius-Huss and 'cellist Grita Bühler.

Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

Johannes Schlecht comments:

'At some point, many years ago, I had my first contact with poet Rose Ausländer during a night drive. On the radio. I heard her talk about herself andher exciting, fulfilling life, I heard her read from her poems. Her voice sounded cheerful and lovable, friendly and comforting, modest and humble, amazed and hopeful, curious and lively. This voice came from a woman who had been bed-ridden for years, sick, in a Jewish old people’s home in Düsseldorf. I was impressed and touched by the clarity and simplicity of her language and above all, the brevity in which she said the important, essential and necessary. For a long time I had the idea of composing poems by Rose Ausländer, of tracking down the melody of her language and poetry.

For me that means composing by listening to the melody of the language and bringing it to life musically. In this sense, as a composer, I see myself as a creator and mediator. I put my personal, subjective view of poetry up for discussion: I try to provide a comment that brings the word, at best read or spoken, sung to another level of experience and feeling. Understanding the word, initially an ostensibly intellectual means of communication, becomes unimportant. It took me years to tackle Rose Ausländer’s poems. In between, to name just two important works, were the composition of ten songs based on poems by Paul Celan. For this cycle I received the last Hanns-Eisler Composition Prize from GDR Radio in 1989. Paul Celan, just like Rose Ausländer, comes from that melting-pot and centre of Eastern Jewish intellectual life - Cernowitz. I have developed a great affinity for this way of thinking and feeling. And in between there was also the composition of the small volume “DIR”, which was composed and drawn by Heinrich Vogeler, fourteen very soft, tender, sad-melancholy love poems for voice, cello and viola.'

Album Details

Ich spiele noch: Sieben Stücke für Singstimme, Flüte, Oboe, Fagott, Violoncello und Streichorchester nach Texten von Rose Ausländer
Susann Möbius–Huss – Sopran; Landeskapelle Eisenach, Leitung: Wolfgang Wappler

Streichquartett Nr. 1
i. nicht zu schnell
ii. sehr langsam
iii. unglücklicher Walzer mit glücklichem Ausgang
iv. schnell, ausgelassen

Divertimento Streichquartett der Landeskapelle Eisenach:
Simona Balan, Violine; Silvia Peter, Violine; Gheorghe Balan, Viola; Roxana Mereutza, Violoncello

Kommen und Gehen – Orchestermusik für Sophia
i. Sehr ruhig
ii. Ruhige Viertel
iii. Sehr ruhig

Landeskapelle Eisenach, Leitung: Tetsuro Ban

Kommentare zu einem Thema von Max Reger – für Violoncello allein
i. sehr frei, so langsam wie m glich
ii. gehend
iii. sehr ruhig, sempre col legno schnell, hüpfend
iv. sehr langsam
v. gehend
vi. Thema, Largo

Grita Bühler, Violoncello

DOWNLOAD LINKS

iTUNES

QOBUZ

SPOTIFY

TIDAL

STREAMING LINKS

DEEZER

YOUTUBE

Links to download and stream on HDtracks and other service providers will be published here.

ABLAZE RECORDS RELEASES CLOUD OSSUARY ALBUM BY DOUGLAS KNEHANS - BRNO PHILHARMONIC, MIKEL TOMS, JUDITH WEUSTEN, PAVEL WALLINGER

7/1/2022

Ablaze Records releases Cloud Ossuary (AR00062) by Douglas Knehans, performed by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mikel Toms, with Dutch soprano Judith Weusten and violin soloist Pavel Wallinger, with text by Katarina Knehans, on 7 January 2022. The album is released in partnership with Ulysses Arts.

Composer Douglas Knehans comments:

'Cloud Ossuary began as a setting of my daughter Katarina Knehans' riveting and poignant poem Bones and All. When I first read her poem, I was seized with an immediate desire to set it to music. So, almost as immediately I got to work on it. As work progressed, I became more and more pleased with the piece—until it was finished. Once completed I had some difficulty reconciling the feelings of satisfaction with the setting with my concomitant feelings that it was incomplete.

After much reflection, I came to realize that Bones and All was actually the final movement of a larger work, hence creating the two preceding movements: Breathe Clouded and The Ossein Cage. Breathe Clouded is an inverted and compressed version of Bones and All and The Ossein Cage follows the same harmonic architecture as both of the outer movements. Thus, Cloud Ossuary sits as three different guises of the same harmonic material and structural approach, though with dramatically different surfaces.'

Preceding Cloud Ossuary is Knehans' hauntingly evocative single-movement Mist Waves for solo violin and strings - a 'loose chaconne based on veiled repetition of its initial eight bars' - performed by Pavel Wallinger, leader of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra.

VIEW SCORES

CLOUD OSSUARY

MIST WAVES (violin and strings version)
MIST WAVES (violin and piano version)

APPLE MUSIC

Mist Waves on Apple Music's New in Classical playlist

SPOTIFY

YOUTUBE

TIDAL

QOBUZ

BUY CLOUD OSSUARY CD

CLOUD OSSUARY REVIEWS

'Ever-challenging, ever-surprising'.
ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

'Cloud Ossuary is a striking and fascinating work, full of gorgeous textures and colours,
yet throughout it is clear that Knehans brings a strong structural underpinning to the beauty, making for a satisfying symphonic work.’
PLANET HUGILL

'Eloquent and original'.
GAPPLEGATE CLASSICAL-MODERN MUSIC REVIEW

'Atmospheric presence and strong waves of inner exploration:
the perfect match of classical music in modern times.'
Anthony Biasioli, BRNO DAILY

'Sensitive, committed performances by the Brno Philharmonic
under the meticulous guidance of Mikel Toms'.
Michael Quinn, LIMELIGHT

HEAR MIST WAVES LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY

11 MAY 2022 - LEFRANK CONCERT HALL *

12 MAY 2022 - WEILL RECITAL HALL, CARNEGIE HALL, 8PM *

* Note Pandemic re-scheduled changes of date from those in advertised links

CARITAS CHAMBER CHOIR AND BENEDICT PREECE RELEASE CROSSING THE BAR - MUSIC FOR REFLECTION AND HOPE

20/9/2021

Released on 19 November 2021:

Download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music - click above

Crossing the Bar on Apple Music's Classical New Releases playlist

O Nata Lux by Philip Stopford on Apple Music's Sacred Sounds playlist

LISTEN TO CROSSING THE BAR ON YOUTUBE

Ulysses Arts released two singles from Crossing the Bar - Music for Reflection and Hope, performed by the Caritas Chamber Choir directed by Benedict Preece. The first single, O Nata Lux by Philip Stopford, releases on 1 October, followed by Crossing the Bar, by Benedict Preece, on 22 October, on Apple Music/iTunes, Spotify, Qobuz, HDtracks and all other major digital service providers.

O Nata Lux is a world première recording from Philip Stopford, one of the most celebrated contemporary choral composers. It is conducted by Benedict Preece, who featured on Ulysses Arts' 2020 J.S. Bach horn and organ album with Anneke Scott. This calm but powerful work takes us from darkness to light, a theme of Advent, when this piece would normally be sung. It has musical elements that hark back to the familiar version of the same text by Thomas Tallis.

Benedict Preece writes about his motet Crossing the Bar:

'Written in 2016 as a gift to Gothenburg's HagaMotettkör for collaboration with Caritas Chamber Choir, I chose to create deliberately simple hymnlike music to allow this most powerful poem to remain the listener's focus. The 'aw' section, sung by lower voices, is intended to represent the sea. The work builds to an almighty climax: “I hope to see my pilot face to face” before finishing with an echo of the “sea”, this time as a hum, which depicts crossing the bar from this life to what comes next.'

iTunes

Crossing the Bar (album)

O Nata Lux

Crossing the Bar (single)

High definition sound on Qobuz

Crossing the Bar (album)

O Nata Lux

Crossing the Bar (single)

HDtracks

Crossing the Bar (album)

LAURA CATRANI SINGS LA CASA AND MADRIGALE BY MICHELE TADINI, RELEASING ON 18 DECEMBER 2020

28/11/2020

Click here to download on iTunes

Ulysses Arts releases Michele Tadini's contemporary vocal works La Casa and Madrigale, with all parts sung by Laura Catrani, and electronic sampling by the composer. Michele Tadini comments:

'La Casa and Madrigale are built substantially on Laura Catrani's voice,: the recordings, sampling and processing of the voice give total life to the sound palette. La Casa (The House) represents our most intimate space, the heart of our existence. Madrigale is a song, of sorrow and hope. At the origins of these pieces there is a broader work: Unheimlich - exiles in their own land, a variable score for sound and image, female voice, percussion, electronics, first performed at Mittelfest, Cividale del Friuli, in 2002.'

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

Featured on Apple Music's Contemporary Classical playlist

OTHER STREAMING LINKS

YouTube

Deezer

Qobuz

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC'S CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL PLAYLIST

UPC: 5054526834538