Ulysses Arts announces the release of DIR, a new double album of songs and chamber music by German composer Johannes Schlecht, on 24 October 2025. This is Ulysses Arts's second album with Johannes Schlecht, following Ich Spiele Noch in 2022.

Part One/Teil Eins: SPRICH AUCH DU

ZEHN LIEDER NACH TEXTEN VON PAUL CELAN
1. Chanson einer Dame im Schatten 4.36
2. Eis, Eden 1.48
3 Lob der Ferne 1.59
4. Auf hoher See 1.19
5. Die Halde 1.54
6. Sprich auch du 2.54
7. Irisch 1.35
8. Du liegst im großen Gelausche 1.17
9. Nachmittag mit Zirkus und Zitadelle 2.04
10. Krokus 1.02
Stefan Freiberge, Singer/Stimme / Eva Gerlach-Kling, Klavier

WENN ALLE BÄCHLEIN FLIEßEN
Sechs Kommentare zu einem Choral von Johann Sebastian Bach für Violoncello allein
11. Sehr ruhig 2.49
12. Schnell, motorisch 1.35
13. Wieder ruhig 3.13
14. Gehend 1.23
15. Langsam und ruhevoll 1.59
16. Ruhig 3.14
Grita Bühler, Violoncello

SECHS HOLZSCHNITTE FÜR CELLO ALLEIN
Elly Viola Nahmacher gewidmet
17. Neutraler Beginn 0.59
18. Auf spechtische Art 0.39
19. Komischer Choral 0.58
20. Hölzerner Walzer 0.45
21. Ungewöhnlicher Takt 1.03
22. Kurzes aber schönes Ende 0.37
Grita Bühler, Violoncello

MEIN VATERLAND IST TOT
Fünf Lieder nach Texten von Rose Ausländer
23. Damit kein Licht uns liebe 3.03
24. New York 2.12
25. Muttersprache 1.56
26. Mutterland 1.26
27. Freund 2.00
Ulrika Strömstedt, Singer/Stimme / Daniel Gutierrez, Violoncello

Part Two/Teil Zwei: ACH GOETHE ODER

SAH EIN KNABE KEIN RÖSSLEIN STEHN: Sieben Stücke für Violoncello allein
28. Heißspornig und was sonst noch 2.11
29. Verliebt, aber nicht verlobt 2.16
30. Neugierig auf Carl & August 1.02
31. Platonisch, aber wer weiß schon 2.35
32. Politisch, aber nicht schlecht 1.35
33. Gastlich, auch ein bißchen selbstgefällig 2.23
34. Schon älter, aber immer noch klassisch 3.36
Grita Bühler, Violoncello

FÜNF ARTEN ZU GEHEN - UND EINE ZU STEHEN: Gangarten des Island-Ponys
35. Galopp 1.17
36. Rennpass 1.01
37. Schritt 1.40
38. Sehr ruhig 3.03
39. Tölt 1.19
40. Trab 0.41
Eva Gerlach-Kling, Klavier/piano

ALLEZEIT HEYDERKEIT: Jost Heyder gewidmet
41. Laßt uns froh und Heyder sein 1.04
42. Heyderlein, ging allein 0.57
43. Hoppe,hoppe, Heyder 0.58
44. Heyderwalzer 1.16
45. Heyderröslein 1.28
46. Auf den Feldman Heyder 2.41
47. Stille Nacht, heydere Nacht 1.03
Grita Bühler, Violoncello

DIR: Vierzehn Lieder nach Texten von Heinrich Vogeler
48. Sehr ruhig, heiter, mit herziger Ironie, nicht satirisch, nicht sarkastisch 1.30
49. Betrachtend, sehn- und mondsüchtig, nicht melodramatisch 1.18
50. Heiter, hüpfend, fast ausgelassen, nicht überschwänglich 0.32
51. Ratlos, ängstlich, nicht hoffnungslos 1.43
52. Mit viel Sehnsucht und Melancholie, nicht traurig 2.42
53. Verinnerlicht, liebevoll, nicht sentimental 1.01
53. Drängend, glücksahnend, nicht sicher 0.59
54. Anmutig, heiter, erzählend, nicht wehmütig 1.53
54. Traumtänzerisch, mir ängstlicher Sehnsucht, nicht gramvoll 0.58
57. Rückschauend, resümierend, nicht fatalistisch 0.52
58. Mit leichter Verzweiflung, schöner Erinnerung,
wenig Hoffnung, nicht froh 2.34
59. Absichtsvoll, mit innerem Frieden, nicht wehmütig 2.02
60. Erinnernd, paradiesisch, verklärend, nicht weltfern 0.53
61. Testamentarisch, mit unendlicher Weisheit, nicht vorwurfsvoll 2.48
Ulrika Strömstedt, Singer/Stimme / Luise Denis Nesprias,Viola / Daniel Gutierrez. Violoncello

Johannes Schlecht was born on the 27th of November 1948 in Neuhaus - Schierschnitz, South Thuringia. In 1967 he achieved his ‘Abitur’ (highest high school exams in Germany) in Eisenach. He then commenced study in Theology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. From 1969 his natural inclination and academic nouse led him to the Franz-Liszt-Hochschule in Weimar, with studies in Pop music, piano, theory and methodic by Erika Heide and M. Schmitz, organ lessons with Rainer Böhme, arrangement lessons with Alo Koll and composition lessons with Joachim Thurm); Johannes graduated in Theology as ‘Diplom-Theologist and continued music study until 1976.

His works in music have been vast and varied such as performing as the piano player of the ‘Old Time Memory Jazz Band 1968-1973’, freelance work as a composer in Berlin from 1975 on, composing pop music and recording for radio and television. He has also toured Europe with many different projects. Johannes was a founding member of famous East German children’s music group CIRCUS LILA. With this group, he has:

– Developed many musically pedagogical programs for children and young people in nurseries and schools
– Won first place at many national festivals
– Composed and conducted many records for children
– Produced children’s series for radio and television. He has been a producer and composer of many GDR television series, e.g. Gisela Mays ‘Pfundgrube’ and worked with many renowned and well-known artists of the European Singer,-songwriter & acting scene. Composed Original Soundtracks for the ‘DEFA’ (east german film production firm); such as dramas, documentaries and children’s movies.

His catalogue of work and achievements is vast, including:
– Winning national and international awards (e.g. for the OST of ‘Kai aus der Kiste’ (‘Kai in the box’)
– Member of the ‘VKM’ -Verband der Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler der DDR (‘collective of composers and musicians of the GDR’)
– Private lessons as choir and orchestra conductor with Manfred Fabricius at the School of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin;
– More work as a composer in the area of the ‘E-Musik’;
– Student of Rainer Bredemayer;
– Winner of the ‘Hanns-Eisler-Price’ (radio price of the GDR) for composing ‘Paul-Celan-Songs’(for piano and singing) in 1989;
– Compositions for music theatre premieres in Eisenach, Kassel, Gemünden & Marl;
– Several orchestra pieces, chamber music ensembles, choir pieces and live singing and instrument compositions;
– Arrangements and productions for his band ‘Medical Syncopater Jazzband’ and other groups, ensembles and artists;
– Since 2015, choir leader for the ‘Eisenbahn-Chor Friedrich List e.V.’ in Eisenach;
– Since 2016, piano player for the ‘Old Time Memory Jazz Band’ again.

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Osvaldo Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind for clarinet and string quintet, with the CBSO Chamber Musicians - live recording, releases with Luminate Records on 2 May 2025, in partnership with Ulysses Arts.

Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind is an important piece of contemporary
chamber music that melds the traditions of classical string quartet writing with the idiomatic language of klezmer. Composed in 1994, the music epitomises Golijov’s innovative style and pays homage to Isaac the Blind, a mystic whose life and thought continue to inspire Jewish artistic expression.

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Luminate Records releases Elgar, Piano Quintet (live recording), 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).

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Luminate Records releases Brett Dean's Eclipse (String Quartet No.1) on 24 January 2025, performed by the Slate Quartet (LR246707). This EP is Luminate's first recording released in partnership with Ulysses Arts.

DOWNLOAD OR STREAM ON PRESTO MUSIC

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Lyrita Records releases British 'Cello Works Volume Three with music by William Hurlstone, Felix Swinstead, Doreen Carwithen and Frank Bridge, with Lionel Handy, 'cello and Jennifer Walsh, piano, on 7 February 2025 (SRCD 441).

William Hurlstone’s Cello Sonata in D major (1899) was written for the noted cellist and composer May Mukle. In his review of the score, Havergal Brian opined that Hurlstone’s sonata ‘shows ripe and mature musicianship... The Adagio Lamentoso is unusual in its sustained eloquence... the slow movement and the lovely final Rondo standing out in a rare and attractive work’.

The manuscript of Felix Swinstead’s Cello Sonata was discovered by the pianist Clive Williamson, while he was clearing the house of Vivian Langrish and his wife Ruth Harte, Swinstead's friends. It is possible that this F major Sonata might have been written just before the composer’s death and never performed in public. According to Lionel Handy, Ruth was ‘a second study cellist and Swinstead may have thought a run-through, if not a performance, might be possible, but there is no record of any performance nor date of composition as yet’.

Doreen Carwithen’s 'Cello Sonatina (1944) draws upon the stringed instrument’s sonorous, lyrical qualities. The often-striking piano material is crucial to the unfolding narrative, rather than offering mere accompaniment and creates a genuine dialogue between the two protagonists.

Frank Bridge’s two-movement Cello Sonata was begun in 1913, but not completed until 1917. Bridge always looked fondly upon the Cello Sonata, which has proved to be one of the composer’s most popular chamber works and remains the most regularly played of all his substantial pieces for two players.
 
Lionel Handy
 
“Lionel Handy was principal cellist at the Academy of St Martin for ten years with whom he recorded and toured extensively throughout USA and Europe... As a soloist he has played as guest principal cellist with many of the UK’s leading orchestras including the Philharmonia, LSO, RLPO, LPO, ECO and Halle.”  © Royal Academy of Music
 
Jennifer Walsh
 
“Jennifer Walsh is a collaborative pianist and duo coach who performs across the UK and internationally.  She has given recitals at venues including Wigmore Hall, Sala Verdi Milano, Oslo Opera Housel and Xinghai Conservatory, China.” © Jennifer Walsh, 2023

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Lyrita releases its Chamber Music of William Busch album on 3 January 2025, with members of the Piatti Quartet, Simon Callaghan and Ashok Klouda (SRCD 439).

Three Pieces for Violin and Piano were written as individual works: as such, they can be presented separately or, if given collectively as a suite, played in any order. Busch wrote his Passacaglia for violin and viola in 1939: the score takes the form of a decisive, four-bar theme followed by thirty variants upon it. These mini variations range widely in character, from trenchant and forceful to airy and smooth.

A Memory for 'Cello and Piano was written for Elizabeth Poston. Busch subtly conveys the idea of a reminiscence suggested by the title with simple, lightly sketched ideas presented with an air of hazy nostalgia. Eventually, the feeling of distance and reserve created in the opening portion of the work is replaced by a more troubled mood. The music ends in sorrow with a heartfelt, steeply descending sequence for unaccompanied cello followed by the merest hint of the opening material.

The Quartet for Piano and Strings is the most substantial of William Busch’s chamber pieces. Although the composer’s lyrical gifts are much in evidence, the four movements are also rigorously concise. Considerable dramatic rewards are gained from the creative tension between the music’s unforced expressivity and the formal rigour with which Busch’s powerful themes are worked out.

The Suite for 'Cello and Piano is among Busch’s most searching and variegated instrumental works. In a postwar assessment of the score, The Times’ critic noted that its four pieces ‘reveal a sensitive and interesting mind’.

Elegy for 'Cello and Piano exploits fully the stringed instrument’s lyrical qualities and capacity for rich, autumnal colours. The work begins with an extended soliloquy for unaccompanied cello and the cellist continues to preside over the entire opening section, which features only a couple of brief interjections from the piano.  © Paul Conway

'The performances here are excellent. The members of the Piatti Quartet, violinist Michael Trainor, violist Zahra Benyounes and cellist Jessie Ann Richardson are joined by pianist Simon Callaghan and 'cellist Ashok Klouda. ... The recording in the Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys has been well judged and the notes, as mentioned, are in the best of hands – Paul Conway’s. Busch is a composer with a gift for expressive intensity.'
Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International, 25 November 2024

'This is wonderful and original music, superbly performed.'
Gary Higginson, British Music Society, 26 November 2024

'Aquest disc és per a nosaltres una revelació. La música serena de William Busch, interpretada impecablement pel Piatti Quartet, ens duu a un desenllaç emocionant i desafiant.'
Marçal Borotau, Sonograma, 29 December 2024

'William Busch (1901-45) whose Three Pieces for Violin and Piano (1943-44) and Passacaglia for Violin and Viola (1939) are among the gems of little-known English music. ... Confirming his reputation as an interpreter of 20th-century English music, pianist Simon Callaghan gives an impressive projection of Busch’s music. ... Full marks, too, for members of the Piatti Quartet: Michael Trainor, violin; Zahra Benyounes, viola; and Jessie Ann Richardson, cello — all beautifully recorded in the famously rich acoustic of the Wyastone Leys Concert Hall.'
Stuart Millson, Quarterly Review, 4 January 2025

'I have been most impressed by the music and performances here, and I live in hope that this composer enjoys the recognition that he truly deserves. ... Also to be commended are the accompanying notes and the excellent sound recording. I highly recommend this disc.'
Geoff Pearce, Classical Music Daily, 5 January 2025

'... die Symbiose aus ausdrucksvoll gezeigter spielerischer Linie und plastischer Ausarbeitung der Strukturen.'
'... the symbiosis of expressive, playful line and vivid elaboration of the structures is successful.'
Pizzicato, 9 January 2025

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William Busch (1901-45)  'developed a passion for music and took piano lessons at an early age, though he harboured no ambitions of a professional career as a pianist until his teenage years.' (Paul Conway). During many years he studied music with France Woodmansee and A. W. Lilienthal, piano with Leonid Kreutzer and Benno Moiseiwitsch, harmony with Hugo Leichtentritt, and composition with leading British composers Alan Bush, John Ireland and Bernard van Dieren.

'As the 1930s progressed, Busch began to focus increasingly on composition and soon forged his own personal creative language. This decade saw the first of his many songs, a widely acclaimed Piano Concerto, and on 1 June 1935, his marriage to Sheila, with whom he had two children, Nicholas and Julia. His life was cruelly cut short when he died of an internal haemorrhage at Woolacombe, Devonshire on 30 January 1945, robbing British music of one of its most promising and versatile talents.' Paul Conway

Ulysses Arts releases Piano Phase Project's album Sound Meditation, with works for piano duo by Debussy, Ravel and Čiurlionis, performed by Monika Lozinskienė and Anna Szałucka, on 18 April 2025 (UA250010).

Anna Szałucka's and Monika Lozinskienė's first creative music installations, Summertime and Piano Phase, were showcased in Lithuania at Vilnius's MO Museum in 2021 and 2022. Monika's and Anna's varied individual experiences contribute to the Duo's projects, providing a dynamic energy and interpretational uniqueness. Monika is a co-founder of the international piano festival Kaunas Piano Fest, a producer of the openARTed podcast, and the curator of the online international platform PianoBuffs. Anna, in addition to creating electronic music, is a chamber music lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music and has released solo and chamber music albums with labels such as October House Records, Naxos, and LINN.

In 2022, the Duo became artists of London's City Music Foundation, performing in venues such as St. Martin in the Fields, Wiltshire Music Centre, Sienko Gallery, and at the Bloomsbury Festival. They have also performed at the CLASSICAL:NEXT conference in Hanover and during Kaunas 2022 European Capital of Culture. In 2024, they toured Scotland as laureates of the Tunnel Trust Award.

Piano Phase Project creates original piano arrangements, composes new music, and collaborates with filmmakers, visual artists, jazz musicians, and electronic music producers. Among their notable projects are Sound Meditation, an artistic movie filmed in the forests of Western Canada, which fuses classical and electronic music with visual arts, and also their new arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for piano four-hands, percussion and dance.

This album is financed partly by the Vilnius Municipality Culture Fund, Lithuanian Council for Culture and The City Music Foundation.

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Pre-release singles

The Richard Thomas Foundation with Nimbus Alliance released Joseph Phibbs String Quartets album on 1 November 2024 (NI 6452), with the Piatti Quartet.

“Having studied the cello as a child, I have always felt a special affinity with string music. My introduction at the age of 14 to the music of Britten was through his first string quartet, the opening of which still fills me with awe, and his works - especially those for strings - have remained a lifelong inspiration. I am delighted therefore that this recording of my String Quartets Nos. 2-4 has been released, made possible by the generous support of the Richard Thomas Foundation. I have been fortunate to work closely with the Piatti Quartet over a number of years. It was they who commissioned my String Quartet No. 1 (2014), a piece they have performed extensively and recorded (Champs Hill Records 2018). Their enthusiasm encouraged me to continue exploring the genre, and - a decade later – it has been both a privilege and a huge pleasure to have another opportunity to write for them (String Quartet No.4).

Much of my music is inspired by light and landscapes (as well as cityscapes): these two elements drawn from places in the past that have been especially important to me, including Ithaca (NY) and New York City. When considering which images would best sum up the overall feel of the album, light-both natural and artificial - as seen within a landscape, seemed the most fitting choice. The vibrant colours of Casting Nets (2024) by my niece, the artist Rose Jones (reproduced on the rear inside cover of this booklet) provides a perfect contrast to the reflective Whistler image on the front cover, both works presenting light and water in completely different ways.” © Joseph Phibbs

'The Fourth Quartet ... mixes turbulent restlessness with a more predominant songful element. The composer’s touchstone here, a querulous beauty, has a remote enchantment about it. A dance of the heavenly spirits casts a sideways glance at Hovhaness in his more recessed moments.' Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International, 14 October 2024

'Pierre Boulez thought the string quartet was dead. I beg to differ'.
Joseph Phibbs Profile: Gramophone Magazine, 1 November 2024

‘One of the most rewarding musical relationships’ - Joseph Phibbs’s string quartets recorded by the Piatti Quartet - Interview:  The Strad, 1 November 2024

'[The Piatti Quartet] master these challenges with technical finesse and deepening verve in their performance..intensively explore and present the life-affirming and sometimes downright lively movements.. lyrical warmth and rich playing.'
Pizzicato, 5 November 2024

'Phibbs has an individual voice: compelling, expressive... Listening carefully to these performances, registering time and again, one realises not only just how powerful the music is, but also the superb nature of the performances. All four instrumentalists: Michael Trainor, Emily Holland, violins, Miguel Sabrinho, viola, Jessie Ann Richardson, cello - is expert in their own right, but they combine to make a whole greater than the sum of their four parts - surely the very definition of hot string quartet playing.' Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer, 8 November 2024

'Phibbs is a resourceful while often imaginative writer for string quartet, his music demonstrably in the lineage of 20th-century totems such as Bartók or Shostakovich (with a nod toward Britten), without being beholden to these or any other precedents. It helps when the Piatti Quartet ... sounds so well attuned to his idiom and has evidently prepared each one of these works with unfailing commitment.' Arcana, 28 November 2024

1. 'I really enjoyed these quartets and look forward to hearing more of Phibbs’s music... The Piatti Quartet repay the composer’s confidence in them with strong and committed performances, and the recording is excellent. Those who care for string quartets should explore these works.' Stephen Barber, MusicWeb International, 17 December 2024
   

'English whimsy unafraid of its passionate emotional core'.
Steph Power, BBC Music Magazine, 20 December 2024

'Presenting light and water',Maureen Buja, Interlude, January 2025

The Piatti Quartet are Michael Trainor (violin), Emily Holland (violin), Miguel Sobrinho (viola) and Jessie Ann Richardson (cello). Resident Quartet at Kings Place, London, the distinguished quartet are widely renowned for their ‘profound musicmaking’ (The Strad) and their ‘lyrical warmth’ (BBC Music Magazine). Following their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries. Contemporary music has been ever present in their repertoire and major commissions and dedications have stemmed from Mark-Anthony Turnage, Emily Howard, Charlotte Harding, and Joseph Phibbs whilst they have premiered a huge number of new works over the years.
 
“From that first moment we played Joe’s music we felt this was a voice that spoke to us, music that we instantly understood and connected with. He is the contemporary composer we have performed most often and audiences have always been enthralled by his music.”
The Piatti Quartet

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Album supported by The RIchard Thomas Foundation.

Didier Recloux's single Enotis (Wedding Song), performed by Leos Strings Quartet (Brookspeare Music), releases on 9 July 2024.

'Striking and tender', Grace Bradford, Music Review World, June 2024

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Didier Recloux is a Belgian-born composer based in London, his passion for music was fostered from an early age, having come from a musical family where he was introduced to a wide range of music by his Polish grandmother. His musical career began aged six, studying guitar, drums, piano, singing, and composition at his local music academy. He also studied counterpoint, music for film and television with Berklee Online, orchestration in New York with Steven Scott Smalley and learned about music production at IMW London. He still studies with pianist, music teacher and author Jonathan Walker.

Didier started his musical career playing in bands, writing and demoing songs with friends, mainly in a pop/rock style. Progressive rock, heavy metal, pop, electronic and classical music or film composers like Maurice Jarre and Ennio Morricone have all played influential roles in shaping Didier's musical sensibilities. Belgium is also a mosaic of communities and he was therefore exposed to a huge amount of foreign music and styles.

Didier's music emphasises melody, which he describes as something he would like to call “portable”, that one can carry away from a film, bringing back the feelings experienced while watching the movie. His aspiration is to touch and move people, the way that he has been moved by the music he loves. 

Didier's latest album Monsieur Linh and His Child was released on the 7 March 2024. Inspired by a novel by French author Philippe Claudel, the music illustrates the story of Monsieur LInh, an old and frail man who has to leave his country because of war, taking with him a small suitcase and his baby grand-daughter Sang Diû. The album was rated “outstanding” byMusic Review World.

His first television credit was 2014 documentary The Lost Child, written and presented by renowned broadcaster and director Zeinab Badawi (World News Today & HARDtalk), produced and broadcast by BBC World.

Didier's most significant musical contribution so far is his collaboration with Zeinab Badawi on her twenty-eposide BBC series The History of Africa part I and II. Broadcast on BBC World, it has had more than 14 million views on YouTube alone.  This was followed by the series Take me to the Opera (2021-24) for which he wrote the main theme and arranged well-known classical pieces. Its third season currently is in pre-production. Zeinab describes collaborating with Didier: ‘He is a wonderful composer who worked meticulously to capture the spirit and authenticity of each programme'.

Earlier in his career, Didier wrote his first original score for the documentary Featherweight, directed by Christophe Hermanns (Belgium 2005). He collaborated twice with award-winning British director Lou Hamilton on Desire of the Pitbull Warrior (2010) and Angie (2012), and later with Keith Mackin and John Reck on Cops and Robbers (2013).

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Following the success of his 2023 Solo Piano Works album, with more than 1.5 million streams, Ulysses Arts releases Paul Henley's Works for String Quartet on 20 September 2024, performed by the Jarualda Quartet.

Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 26 September 2024

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To coincide with the centenary of 100th anniversary of Kenneth Victor Jones's birth, Lyrita Records is releasing an album containing five première recordings on Friday 3 May 2024, performed by soloists from the London Mozart Players (SRCD 434).

Jones, who also composed a substantial catalogue of film scores, wrote music in neo-classical style: direct and energetic, he stretches the boundaries of tonality without breaking them. The language is familiar - Françaix and Shostakovich come to mind - engaging, playful and immediately graspable.

Kenneth V. Jones's “love of music began at the age of ten, when he started composing hymn tunes. He began his musical career as a chorister at St. Nicholas’s College of Church Music, Chislehurst, under Sir Sydney Nicholson, and received his first newspaper review in 1935 for his participation in a children’s opera by Nicholson.

The Times’ critic observed that ‘Master Kenneth Jones must be mentioned for his playing of the harpsichord at an age when most of us did not know there was any such thing’… In 1947 he enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition, theory, piano, organ and conducting… In his final year, he won the Royal Philharmonic Prize for composition with his Concert Overture, premiered at the College in November 1950. Only eight years later, in 1958 he became Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music and was also appointed an examiner to the Associated Board.” © Paul Conway
 
London Mozart Players principal cellist Sebastian Comberti writes:
“My first encounter with Kenneth V. Jones was in 2016 when our family moved to the village of Bishop stone in the Sussex Downs. Over the course of several months, I was able to learn more of Kenneth’s musical life. As soon as he mentioned having once written a string quartet, it was decided to programme the work during the following Season of Seaford Music Society, of which Kenneth was a long-standing member and whose programming I had recently taken on. Such was the warmth of the reception upon hearing the work that it was decided to explore more of Kenneth’s chamber music output, and thus the idea for this album was born.

We have Kenneth to thank for the fact that the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music made the decision, at his suggestion, to include contemporary compositions in their graded examination syllabuses. Several of the short character pieces that Kenneth wrote for the ABRSM remain in the syllabus to this day, and a selection of these is included on this recording. It gave me huge pleasure to be able to present to Kenneth the first edit of the current album, just a few days before his death in December 2020. He was absolutely thrilled.”

Maureen Buja,Interlude, 10 June 2024

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LYRITA PUBLISHING
                                                               
Kenneth V. Jones: Sonata for Pianoforte | Wind Quintet No. 2 | Quinquifid (1980) | String Quartet (1950) | Piano Quintet (1967)

Sheet music for all the works on SRCD.434 awre also published as individual volumes by Lyrita Publishing on 3 May 2024 (SRMP 0164 - SRMP 0168).

Nimbus Alliance releases the Wiener Schubert Trio's album, with works by Pfitzner and Smetana, on Friday 3 November 2023 (NI.6441).

'Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) and Bedřich Smetana (1824-84) hold special places in music history as ardent nationalist composers and creators of significant stage works. Pfitzner’s operas and incidental music culminated in his Palestrina (1917), while Smetana established a canon of eight national operas incorporating traditional Czech dance and song into much of his mature oeuvre. Both composers also contributed widely to other genres, including significantly, if not extensively, to the chamber music repertory. Although written more than forty years apart, these two piano trios share notable common ground. Both were written during troubled times for their creators and count among their composer’s first mature artistic achievements; moreover, both resort to motivic recall or transformation between movements with the intention of realising structural unity, and both received hostile critical receptions.' Robin Stowell.

The Wiener Schubert Trio (Vienna Schubert Trio) was founded in 1985 and performed as a full-time ensemble until 1993. From the outset the Trio appeared regularly in the music centres of Europe, North America and Asia, and established rapidly a reputation as one of the foremost piano trios. After its first United States tour in 1986, the Trio was named the year’s ‘Best New Visiting Chamber Ensemble’ by The Washington Post. The Ensemble devoted itself to both the established masterpieces of the repertoire and many less familiar works, often presented in the context of concert series designed to demonstrate relationships between various composers and styles.

Boris Kuschnir (b.1948) studied violin at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory but his artistic development was profoundly influenced by Dmitri Shostakovich and David Oistrakh, who also taught him. He was a founding member of the Moscow String Quartet, where he played for nine years. He was a co-founder of the Vienna Schubert Trio and later the Vienna Brahms Trio, making numerous recording for record labels such as EMI, Naxos and Nimbus Records. He has received numerous awards at international violin and chamber music competitions in Paris, Belgrade, Sion, Trapani, Bratislava, Florence, Trieste and Hamberg.

Claus-Christian Schuster (b.1952): Taught initially by his father, he went on to study at the Vienna Musikhochschule, Indiana University School of Music and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He has won numerous international piano and chamber music competitions, and until 1984 he performed worldwide as a soloist. After he founded the Vienna Schubert Trio he made regular guest appearances. However, immediately after the break-up of the Vienna Schubert Trio in 1993 he formed the Altenberg Trio Vienna, where he continued his international chamber music activities with increased intensity.

Martin Hornstein (1954–2009) was most influenced by his teachers Valentin Erben and Harvey Shapiro as well as by members of the Alban Berg Quartet, who stirred his early interest for chamber music. He has performed as a chamber musician with numerous colleges including Christian Altenburger, Thomas Christian and Eszter Haffner as well as with ensembles like the Aron Quartett, the Artis Quartet and the Orlando Quartett. Between 1985 and 1993 he was the Vienna Schubert Trio's 'cellist, and from 1994-2004 a member of the Altenberg Trio Vienna. With these two ensembles he gave more than 1,000 performances across the world.

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