The UA Blog - Press Centre

NIMBUS RELEASES TRIO SHAHAM EREZ WALLFISCH: COMPLETE BEETHOVEN PIANO TRIOS AND TRIPLE CONCERTO ON 6 MARCH 2025

6/12/2024

Nimbus Records releases Trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch performing Beethoven's complete Piano Trios, and Triple Concerto with The Orchestra of The Swan conducted by Eckehard Stier on 7 March 2025 (NI1709).

Trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch was founded in 2009 and comprises three of the finest international instrumentalists performing today. Playing chamber music together at the Pablo Casals Prades Festival Hagai Shaham and Raphael Wallfisch recognised an immediate musical synergy. Arnon Erez joined them for trio concerts in Lucerne and the Netherlands later that year and the Trio Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch was established. Since its formation, the Trio has been invited numerous times to prestigious chamber music series at venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam De Doellen, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. The Trio often appears in Spain, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel and Canada, and were invited by the Wigmore Hall to present the complete Beethoven piano trios in 2020.

The monumental 'Archduke' Trio Op.97 represents Beethoven at the peak of his creativity in the genre. Sketches for all four movements of this 'symphony scored for atrio' are included in a sketchbook of 1810 containing also drafts for the Egmont music and the String Quartet in F minor Op.95… Three years elapsed before the work's public premiere, by Beethoven, Schuppanzigh and Linke, on 11 April 1814 as part of a charity concert in the hall of the 'Hotel zum Römischen Kaiser' in Vienna. This concert sounded the death knell of Beethoven's public career as a pianist, owing to his profound deafness… Although Haydn and Mozart contributed much to the piano trio's evolution, Beethoven breathed new life and dynamism into the medium, expanded its size and scale and enriched its thematic and tonal substance. His trios provided a benchmark for the further flowering of the genre in the nineteenth century, as exemplified in the works of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorák.

Digital download and streaming links will be published here.

Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts.

LUMINATE RELEASES BRETT DEAN ECLIPSE (STRING QUARTET NO. 1) ON 24 JANUARY 2025

30/11/2024

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

Click above to pre-order from iTunes

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

Pre-release listening links for press and radio producers are available from Ulysses Arts.

LYRITA RELEASES BRITISH 'CELLO WORKS VOLUME 3 - HURLSTONE, SWINSTEAD, CARWITHEN, BRIDGE - WITH LIONEL HANDY AND JENNIFER WALSH ON 7 FEBRUARY 2025

16/11/2024

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).

Click above to pre-order on iTunes

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

Press kit and private listening link for reviewers and radio presenters available from Ulysses Arts.

LYRITA RELEASES WILLIAM BUSCH CHAMBER MUSIC ALBUM ON 3 JANUARY 2025

10/10/2024

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

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

EKP and listening link for reviewers and radio programmers available from Ulysses Arts Ltd.

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 SOUND MEDITATION: PIANO DUOS BY DEBUSSY, RAVEL AND ČIURLIONIS, ON 18 APRIL 2025

20/9/2024

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).

Click above to pre-order on iTunes with digital booklet

Monika Lozinskienė and Anna Szałucka

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.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM iTUNES

More pre-order, download and streaming links will be published here.

Electronic press kit available for reviewers and radio producers from Ulysses Arts Ltd.

NIMBUS RELEASES JOSEPH PHIBBS STRING QUARTETS ON 1 NOVEMBER 2024

4/9/2024

Nimbus Alliance releases Joseph Phibbs String Quartets album on 1 November 2024 (NI 6452), with The Piatti Quartet.

Joseph Phibbs

“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 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

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

Electronic press kit and pre-release listening link available for reviewers and radio producers.
Album supported by The RIchard Thomas Foundation.

DIDIER RECLOUX RELEASES ENOTIS ON 9 JULY 2024, WITH LEOS STRINGS

28/6/2024

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

Click above to stream on Apple Music or download in iTunes

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

For press kit, more details, and interviews, contact Ulysses Arts.

Leos Strings

Didier Recloux

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).

CLICK BELOW TO FOLLOW DIDIER RECLOUX ON SPOTIFY

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW DIDIER RECLOUX ON YOUTUBE

DIDIER RECLOUX ON AMAZON MUSIC

PAUL HENLEY STRING QUARTET ALBUM RELEASED BY ULYSSES ARTS ON 20 SEPTEMBER 2024

5/6/2024

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.

Click above to download on iTunes with digital booklet or stream on Apple Music

Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 26 September 2024

Press kit and listening links for reviewers available from Ulysses Arts.

Follow Jarualda String Quartet on Spotify.

LYRITA RELEASES GEORGE LLOYD WORKS FOR BRASS ON 2 AUGUST 2024

4/6/2024

Lyrita Recorded Edition releases George Lloyd, The Works for Brass, on 2 August 2024, with The Black Dyke Mills Band conducted by David King, and the Equale Brass Quintet.

George Lloyd, far right, in Royal Marine Barracks with Bandies 1942 © The George Lloyd Society

George Lloyd was familiar with music for brass from an early age. One of his first musical recollections was listening with rapt attention to a Salvation Army Band with his mother in St Ives. As a student, he attended regularly brass band concerts at London’s Crystal Palace, where he heard the premiere of John Ireland’s, A Downland Suite at the National Band Festival Competition on 1 October 1932.

Lloyd played the cornet when serving as a Bandsman in the Royal Marines, giving him invaluable practical experience as an executant within a group of players. His scoring for the brass section in his large-scale works is invariably idiomatic, impressively wrought and indicates a keen understanding of all the instruments’ range, character and versatility. Yet, despite all these indications that he was a natural composer of brass band music, he turned to writing music for brass instruments only in the last two decades of his creative life.

Though music for brass band was the last major genre Lloyd added to his catalogue of works, his enthusiasm for the medium, once he had embraced it, was unstinting. The wide popularity of his music within the brass band movement was an enduring source of considerable pride and satisfaction for George Lloyd, as he once confessed: ‘To realise that the people who are actually doing it, the players themselves ... seem to like it, that is what pleases me the most’.

© Paul Conway

“Lloyd's early years in St Ives were spent surrounded by music as his parents were both accomplished amateur musicians, holding weekly chamber concerts with friends in the studio of their house. Despite being “seduced”, as he said, by the sound of brass instruments played by the
St Ives Salvation Army Band, he took up the violin, going on to study with the great violinist Albert Sammons…. In 1939, when Lloyd joined The Royal Marines Music Service he became a Cornet player in the Band aboard HMS Trinidad. Asked by the Director of Music to compose a ship’s march he quickly obliged, only to find that the Captain had asked his friend Vaughan Williams to do the same. In the end both marches were played before a panel of the ship’s Officers for them to choose their favourite and George Lloyd’s won.” Phillip Hunt, Cornish National Music Archive

“George was delighted to be commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes to provide ‘Royal Parks’ for the 1985 European Brass Band Championships. It seemed to open up other exciting opportunities as he then went on to compose works such as Diversions on a Bass Theme, English Heritage and King’s Messenger amongst others.” Bill Lloyd, 4barsrest

Electronic press kit, pre-release listening links and CDs available for reviewers via Ulysses Arts.

LYRITA RELEASES ALBUM FOR KENNETH VICTOR JONES CENTENARY ON 3 MAY 2024

2/4/2024

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

Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.

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 Releases Wiener Schubert Trio Album - music by Pfitzner and Smetana - on Friday 3 November 2023

9/9/2023

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.

Electronic press kit for reviewers available from Ulysses Arts.

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 RELEASED ON 10 NOVEMBER 2023

13/7/2023

Click above to download from iTunes with digital booklet or stream on Apple Music

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.

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

NIMBUS RELEASES DVORÁK PIANO TRIO ALBUM WITH SHAHAM-WALLFISCH-EREZ TRIO ON 2 JUNE 2023

2/5/2023

NI5952: Antonin Dvořák Piano Trio No.3 – Shaham Wallfisch Erez Trio

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was a prolific and versatile composer who made richly diverse contributions to practically every genre of classical music. As a violist and keyboard player, he had a particular affinity with chamber music composition. Some of his chamber outputs held significance at crucial milestones in his career, as this disc clearly corroborate. Piano trio.No.3 is dark and reflects Dvořáks personal grief due to the loss of three of his children in infancy, the death of his mother and self-doubt. Dvořák began to compose his Sonatina Op.100 in 1893 and completed it the same year, dedicating it ‘to my children’ after taking into consideration his 15 year old daughters piano playing abilities, and 10 year olds sons violin. It was ‘intended for young people … but grown-ups, too, may not be unwilling to amuse themselves with it.’ The legendary violinist, Fritz Kreisler’s version of the Slavic Dance in E minor remains fairly faithful to Dvorak’s original whereas his arrangement of Op.72 is much freer from its waltz like strains and skillful use of double stopping making much of it sound like a violin duet.

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch was founded in 2009 and comprises three of the world's finest international instrumentalists. Since formation, the Trio has been invited numerous times to prestigious chamber music series at venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam De Doellen, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. The Trio oftens appears in Spain, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel and Canada. It was invited by the Wigmore Hall to present the complete Beethoven Piano Trios in 2020, the composer’s 250th anniversary.

NI5952 Antonin Dvorak Piano Trio No.3

1-4. Piano Trio No. 3 Op. 65                          37:53

5-8. Sonatina Op. 100                                     18:48

9-11. 3 Slavonic Dances arr. Fritz Kreisler
            Op. 46 No. 2, Op. 72 & No. 8               12:13

Also available from Shaham Wallfisch Erez Trio on Nimbus Records: Rachmaninoff – Russian Piano Trios.

NEOTERIC ENSEMBLE DEBUT ALBUM RELEASED BY ULYSSES ARTS ON 3 NOVEMBER 2023

18/12/2022

Neoteric Ensemble - a sextet of leading London brass and saxophone players, releases its debut album, Neoteric Volume 1, on 3 November 2023, with music by Rob Buckland, Toby Street, Misha Mullov-Abado, Charlotte Harding, Andy Panayi, Dan Jenkins and Mark Nightingale. Neoteric will be performing live in London at their album launch concert at The Pheasantry, King's Road, Chelsea, on Wednesday 8 November, 8pm.

Click above to download with digital booklet on iTunes or stream on Apple Music

Neoteric Ensemble is a dynamic, expressive group of the UK’s leading brass and saxophone players founded by Toby Street and Adrian Miotti, also including James Fountain, principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra, Rob Buckland (saxophone), Sarah Field (saxophone and trumpet) and Richard Watkin (trombone).

Neoteric offers a contemporary fusion of classical and jazz influences through its distinct line-up of brass and saxophones, performing entirely new commissioned pieces. Our rules are simple: we seek out and perform the most contemporary compositions that inspire both us and our audiences. This is Neoteric's debut album, which has featured already on Scala Radio, Jazz FMN, BBC Radio 3's Record Review, Breakfast and live on InTune.

1-3. Soundscapes ROB BUCKLAND
1. i. Mojito
2. ii. Fjord
3. iii. Bosh

4. The Effra Parade MISHA MULLOV-ABBADO

5-8. Pandemic Suite ANDY PANAYI
5. i. Huanan Market
6. ii. The Traveller is Named
7. iii. The Traveller Goes Forth
8. iv. Lockdown Release

9. Neo CHARLOTTE HARDING

10. Karatina Market TOBY STREET

13. Bach in Barbados DAN JENKINS

12. Arriba MARK NIGHTINGALE

Martin Chiltern, London Jazz News, 16 October 2023

Video of the Day, JazzWise, 23 October 2023

'Neoteric Ensemble’s fusion of jazz and classical music definitely works and the standard of both the writing and the playing is exceptional throughout. ... This is one of the most successful and convincing projects of its kind.'
Ian Mann, The Jazzman, 3 November 2023

'The album offers modern compositions and first class playing in a highly distinctive soundscape. The brass and woodwind combinations are always innovative and they neatly fuse the contemporary classical with African and Latin jazz elements.'
Neil Duggan, All About Jazz, 12 November 2023

'A feast for the ears. Astonishing accuracy is interspersed with tight timing, crystal-clear playing and virtuosity.'
Mattie Poels, MusicFrames, 23 November 2023

'An important piece of modern music-making, Neoteric Ensemble Volume 1 is seriously enjoyable and capable of being enjoyed by the serious. It also sounds like they loved making it. In common with the best projects in contemporary culture, it speaks to the personal, artistic and wider societal benefits of curiosity, open-mindedness and engagement.'
David Shiers, London Jazz News, 25 November 2023

LISTEN TO NEOTERIC ENSEMBLE, VOLUME 1 ON SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC, AMAZON MUSIC, DEEZER, QOBUZ OR YOUTUBE

Electronic press kit available for review use: contact Ulysses Arts.

For UK press and invitations to Neoteric's album launch concert at The Pheasantry, King's Road, London SW3 on Wednesday 8 November, contact Emma Perry at ECN Music.

Listen to Neoteric Ensemble Volume 1 on BBC Radio 3 Record Review (starting at 57')

Neoteric Ensemble on Apple Music

Follow Neoteric Ensemble on Spotify

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