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Luminate Records releases Elgar, Piano Quintet, with pianist Robert Markham and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chamber Musicians Jack Greed, Bethan Allmand, Chris Yates and Kate Setterfield, on 14 March 2025, in partnership with Ulysses Arts (LR246708).
Click above to download on iTunes with digital booklet or stream on Apple Music
Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts.
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ENGLISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RECORDS RELEASES SIBELIUS SYMPHONIES 6 & 7 AND TAPIOLA ON 25 APRIL 202510/2/2025 ESO Records releases its second album, with live recordings of Sibelius's Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7, and symphonic poem Tapiola, on 25 April 2025, with the English Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Woods (ESO2502), in partnership with Ulysses Arts.  Full details including artwork, pre-order and streaming links will be published here. Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts.
Click above to pre-order on iTunes with digital booklet
Denis Delair is known today as a theorist and the author of the Traité d’Acompagnement pour le Theorbe, et le Clavessin, first published in 1690. Despite mention of his instrumental compositions in the 1724 edition of his treatise, Delair’s compositions have - until now - fallen into obscurity.
In looking through the catalogue of the Düben Collection, a Swedish musical manuscript collection started in the 1640s, members of The Levée came across seven ‘Sonates à Violino seul’ by a ‘Mr De L’air’. When we began studying these sonatas, we were captivated by Delair’s unique style of composition: the rich harmonies, his rhetorical, vocal writing for instruments, the heavy chromaticism and surprising modulations. These sonatas are an excellent counterpart to Delair’s theoretical writing: they are the perfect vehicle for the application of ideas from the treatise, and they feature examples of the harmonies that Delair mentions in his chapter on ‘Acompagnemens [sic] extraordinaires’. DELAIR’S SONATAS IN SWEDEN While no other copies of Delair’s Sonatas have yet been found, their appearance in the Düben Collection suggests that the works circulated amongst musicians. The Sonatas were copied by the Swedish church musician Carl Hintz. Hintz held positions in churches in Sweden and Latvia, but there is no evidence that he travelled to France. In the 17th century, the Swedish court had a taste for French aesthetics, and many artists were sent to Paris for educational purposes. Hintz was employed as a copyist under the Hofkapellmeister Anders von Düben to copy parts from French stage works by composers like Lully for performances of a French troupe of actors and musicians resident in Stockholm from 1699 to 1706. It is possible that these French musicians brought Delair’s sonatas to Sweden, and that Hintz was tasked with making a copy. Hintz died in either 1710 or 1711, so Delair’s sonatas must have been written and circulated before this date. 
The Levée is an early music ensemble formed to bring forgotten music back to life and to explore new stories of music history. They want to interrogate why some music had a continuous performing tradition, and why other music remained untouched. They find that relatively unknown music presents exciting challenges to modern historical performance practice and understanding of music history.
The Ensemble reflects the interests of its constituent members in its focus on the ‘unwritten’ aspects of music which bring it to life: historically informed ornamentation, improvisation, and basso continuo realisation. Works like these Delair’s Sonatas on their debut album break down preconceptions about what we now categorise as Italian, French or German national styles, and are of particular interest to the group. The Levée takes its name from a painting and engraving of the same title in William Hogarth’s series A Rake’s Progress (1732-35). The eight painting series depicts the machinations of a spendthrift, hedonist son of a wealthy merchant who comes to no good but enjoys himself along the way. The Levée, the second painting in Hogarth's series, shows the protagonist "Tom Rakeford" indulging in sport and artistic luxuries. Present at Rakeford’s levée (morning ceremony) is a harpsichordist thought to represent Handel or Porpora, alongside a dancing master holding a small violin. The Levée comprises founding members: Marguerite Wassermann - Baroque Violin Josef Laming – Harpsichord Niels Pfeffer – Theorbo Martin Jantzen – Viola da Gamba Guest artist (Delair album) Elise Dupont - Baroque Violin The Levée on CONTINUO CONNECT
Instrumentalists Marguerite Wassermann (violin), Martin Jantzen (viola da gamba) and Josef Laming (harpsichord) studied together in Switerzland at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and benefitted from coaching from professors such as Amandine Beyer, Eva Saladin, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and Thomas Leiniger. The Levée made this recording in St John's Church, Loughton, in the UK, where they also presented a showcase concert of selections from Delair's Opus, followed by performances of their 'Delair in Context' programme in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
ALBUM LAUNCH CONCERT: BASEL, SWITZERLAND, 24 APRIL 2025 Zunftsaal Schmiedenhof, Rümelinsplatz 4, 4001 Basel, 7:30pm For press invitations, contact Ulysses Arts (in English, French or German).
Full download and streaming links will be published here on release day.
Electronic press kit available for editors, reviewers and radio producers from Ulysses Arts.
Nimbus Records releases Discover Jean Françaix: The Best of Martin Jones, on 2 May 2025 (NI.7732). The album is a compilation of Martin Jones's acclaimed three-volume set of Jean Françaix's complete piano music.  Jean René Désiré Françaix was born in Le Mans on 23 May 1912 into a musical family – his father was a composer and pianist, his mother a singing teacher. Françaix was a prolific composer, whose output amounts to over 200 works in a wide range of genres. His œuvre includes symphonies and cantatas, but he was most prolific in writing for the forces of soloist and orchestra. He first made his name in 1932, with a performance of his Eight Bagatelles for piano and string quartet at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Vienna. His language is resolutely tonal, with a generally restricted but effective harmonic vocabulary… Charm wit and elegance, often with a sense of wry detachment, inform his scores, which are distinguished by their precision and clarity. Though an archetypally French composer, he exhibited a cheerful eclecticism, ranging over the Western musical tradition in all its diversity, which chimes with the ‘magpie’ instincts of his compatriots Poulenc and Ibert, for example. The piano occupies a prime position in Françaix’s output, whether as a concertante instrument or in the more intimate forms of chamber music and instrumental pieces for solo piano and duets. He used it principally as a vehicle for exhibiting his virtuosity, yet his piano scores contain several examples of introspection and nostalgic reflection. © Paul Conway  Celebrated British pianist Martin Jones recorded the complete piano music of Jean Françaix (1912-1997) in 2012 on 3 CDs. This is a compilation of his best music, in which wit, sophistication and extreme virtuosity combine in one of the twentieth century’s instantly recognisable voices. Martin Jones has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a prolific recording artist and his many major projects include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Grainger, Stravinsky, Korngold, Szymanowski, Granados, Guastavino, Mompou, Ernesto Halffter, Joaquin Nin, Has Gál, Jean Françaix, Jean Roger-Ducasse, and Alan Richardson. Digital pre-order and streaming links will be published here. Electronic press kit & listening links available for reviewers and radio producers from Ulysses Arts. Lyrita Recorded Edition releases British Piano Concertos on 2 May 2025, with music by John Addison, Philip Cannon and Francis Chagrin, performed by soloist Simon Callaghan with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by William Boughton (SRCD.444)  Philip Cannon’s Concertino for piano and strings (1951) dates from his formative years. It was written for the Petersfield Festival, where it was premiered on 27 January 1951 by soloist Joseph Cooper, with the Petersfield Orchestra conducted by Kathleen Merritt. This lively, neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand performances internationally. Though John Addison’s Concertino for piano and orchestra is, for the most part, couched in a light-hearted language, it is the product of a serious, and unfailingly inventive, approach to keyboard and orchestral writing. Speaking of the work to Lesie Ayre of the London Evening News, the composer remarked that, ‘it is a real concerto in the full sense of the word...I would not be ashamed to show the work to any first-class pianist’. Francis Chagrin maintained an intensely practical and unpretentious attitude towards his own craft, observing that, ‘My music is not for first performances– it is just to be played’. His Piano Concerto was first performed by soloist Franz Osborn, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, at an SPNM Experimental Rehearsal held at the Royal College of Music on 4 February 1944. Conversation Piece by John Addison was written in 1958 to a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra for that year’s British Light Music Festival. John Addison felt that, by the late-1950s, too great a divide had opened up between serious and light music: ‘Concert goers think contemporary music is so alarmingly serious that when confronted with a mildly witty turn of phrase, they assume something has gone wrong. I remember the astonished sigh of relief when, in the course of introducing one of my chamber works, I told the audience I would not mind if they smiled’. In Conversation Piece, Addison exploits to the full his talent to amuse and divert.  Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. A favourite performer at the internationally-renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in Germany, Callaghan’s recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a “cleverly curated recital full of discoveries” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “technically brilliant”. Callaghan has developed a wide following and appears on a regular basis in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe. Recital partners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicholas Daniel, Adrian Brendel, Feng Ning, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. BBC Young Musician of the Year Finalist Coco Tomita and Callaghan have a successful duo partnership which saw their first record released in 2022 on Orchid Classics. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet, joining colleagues from the renowned Piatti Quartet to showcase the repertoire for piano quartet with a particular focus on revivifying works that have fallen into obscurity. Digital pre-order and streaming links will be published here. Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio presenters available from Ulysses Arts.
English Symphony Orchestra Records announces the release of its first album, with live recordings of Elgar Symphony No. 1 and In The South conducted by Principal Conductor and Artistic Director Kenneth Woods, on 28 March 2025, in partnership with Ulysses Arts (ESO2501).
 Kenneth Woods, conductor
'From my first contact with the ESO, it was clear this music was in their blood. My predecessor, Vernon Handley, was as fine an Elgarian s there’s ever been, and a protégé of Elgar’s preferred conductor, Adrian Boult. Yehudi Menuhin, possibly Elgar’s closest collaborator at the end of his life, was our Principal Guest Conductor for the last decade of his life.
With the memory of their contributions to the orchestra’s Elgar legacy still fresh, it felt from day one that Elgar here is no distant historic figure of the past. Unlike Gustav Mahler, whose own performances only survive on a few piano rolls, we can even see and hear Elgar the conductor. These performances are informed deeply by the many revelatory lessons I have gleaned from listening to his definitive and thrilling interpretations of his own music. There are studio recordings aplenty of Elgar’s major works. Our aim with these Elgar Festival Live recordings is not simply to share a performance of a piece, but to share a memory of an occasion and a flavour of this magical place. Each is a record of a single performance that grew out of a week’s immersion in all things Elgar, down to the sights he saw, the streets he walked and the air he breathed. I never take for granted that I get to stand on the same spot in Worcester Cathedral that Elgar did so many times, not so long ago. I hope the passion and virtuosity of my incredible colleagues, the intensity of our audience’s listening, and the magical acoustics of this great building all help you to feel closer to Elgar. Elgar Festival Live is to remind us that Edward Elgar is someone whose personality remains fresh in the memory. He is somewho whose legacy is very much alive, whom the listener can think of more as a friend of a friend.' Kenneth Woods, ESO Principal Conductor and Artistic Director Pre-Release Singles
More pre-order and streaming links will be published here.
Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts.
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