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.
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.
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Vladimir Feltsman's A Tribute to Mozart piano album (NI.6448) is released by Nimbus Alliance on 6 September 2024.
In addition to sonatas, variations, and concertos for piano and orchestra, Mozart wrote numerous works for solo piano: fantasias, rondos, adagios, and other assorted pieces of short and moderate length. We don’t know exactly why these works were written, but we know that Mozart had to come up with new material for his many public and private appearances as a composer and performer.
In Mozart's time, composers inveriably were also performers. Any composition was also a potential source of income from publication and from patrons and friends to whom the works were dedicated. No matter why these marvellous works were written, we are lucky to have them.
'Fantasy in C minor K. 475 - Both C minor and E-flat major have three flats, and for Mozart these keys represent the Masonic values of “Strength, Beauty, and Wisdom,” and carry certain extra-musical and mystical implications… The beginning is dark and ominous… We are gently brought into a second episode in D major with a simple tune, gallant in style and execution. Out of nowhere there is an intrusion, a call of fate that breaks the peaceful atmosphere of the previous episode… This Fantasy ends with an ecstatic upsurge of energy in C minor scales, from low C in the bass to high C on top. Two and a half centuries later, we are still left wondering what just happened.
Fantasy in D minor K. 397… It is another unfinished work; the manuscripts lost. The last ten bars were supplied by the composer A.E. Müller, an admirer of Mozart, and this became the standard version as published by Hertel. This Fantasy is a short work, complex and intriguing. Nine Variations on a Minuet by Duport K. 573 - Towards the end of the 18th century, variations and easy dances for keyboard were in great demand. Countless sets of variations of varying quality by diverse composers were published and sold to the public. Naturally, Mozart did not pass up this opportunity to make money and he wrote fifteen sets of variations for piano, mostly on borrowed themes. K. 573 is one such set. Mozart plays around with his material from the very beginning; the rhythmic formula of the main theme is altered right away in the fifth bar. Different pianistic textures are used in each of the nine variations, the first mimicking piano exercises and the others utilizing arpeggios, repeated notes, broken octaves, scales, double notes and what not. The obligatory slow variation “Adagio” is a parody, a spoof of Italian operatic tradition, with a Diva showing off her amazing vocal ability to an adoring public. In the last variation the time changes briskly from 3 to 2.' © Vladimir Feltsman
VLADIMIR FELTSMAN Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad, he appears in prestigious concert series and music festivals all over the world.
Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr Feltsman made his debut with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra aged 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Music to study piano under the guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. His debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene.
Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio presenters available from Ulysses Arts Ltd.
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CRD Records releases violinist Maya Magub's album Canons on 7 October 2022. The album comprises Telemann's Six Canonic Sonatas and Mozart's Canons and Puzzle Canons. Maya is joined on the album by violinists Ben Jacobson, Marianne Thorsen and Jonathan Morton, with Jonathan Moerschel, viola and Richard Harwood, 'cello (CRD 3542).
Electronic press kit available for reviewers.
Maya Magub writes about Canons:
'The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the arts in many diverse ways, not all detrimental. History has always seen the arts flourish in times of hardship, and this was no different, spawning some incredible innovations out of necessity. Soon after news of the virus’ spread came to light, the movie studios here in Los Angeles found a solution to the restraints of lockdowns and social distancing by helping players like me to set up temporary home studios. Miraculously, we were able to record full movie scores remotely, and I found myself learning basic engineering skills. Many late nights wrestling with unfamiliar technology were soon rewarded by the opportunity to listen back immediately to my – and only my – playing; an amazing journey of self-discovery as a player. With this new skill-set that had become part of everyday life for many musicians, I was excited to realise that it was possible to play ‘together’ with other musicians, despite not sharing a physical space, by recording separately. It suddenly occurred to me that the perfect fit for this ‘remote chamber music’ was the musical canon. As people all over the world were struggling, and failing, to play together in real time over the Internet, they found themselves plagued by echoes and delays. What could be more perfect than a musical form that itself seems to have evolved out of a long echo?! The musical canon needs an even greater time separation between identical lines, demanding that one voice must literally lead, and the next react to what has already been played. I realised that canons could be a great way to collaborate. And if I was not in the same room as another player, why not collaborate across continents as well as across my own city? This was an opportunity to play with some of my favourite players in the world! In our new age of Zoom, this process became more like sending a ‘musical letter’ by mail, each of us recording as a leader and then waiting to follow and be inspired by another player in the next canon. The project evolved into a truly creative collaboration, with emails and internet calls across time zones about musical ideas as well as the technical process of recording. I remember discussing tempo preferences from my car, and emails about “alternating trills” at a particular cadence point... I even received a photo of a moose slipping on an icy road in Norway on the wintery day that Marianne returned her microphones to the hire company! Our patience for the much slower pace of recording was rewarded by the delight of ‘opening’ a new performance from another musician, and the luxury of time to fully absorb it and respond. With the constraints of recording in separate spaces and very different acoustics came the opportunity to position microphones very closely. Without using too much of each performer’s live acoustic and through close microphone positioning, we were able to capture a very ‘real’ and immediate sound which communicates vividly and could later be put into the same virtual acoustic or musical ‘space’. And with that came extra silver linings: such as the ability to virtually ‘walk off stage’ (through fading out and speaker panning) during the unending ‘puzzle’ canons! The final bonus was being able to mix in Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio. We were suddenly able to make a huge feature out of our necessity to record separately, and it brought the project together in a remarkable way. With different voices seeming to appear from many different directions, there was now a whole extra dimension to the project that we had not envisioned at the start, and one that makes so much sense of the music; it’s hard to imagine a more fitting marriage of musical form and technical innovation. It was the most extraordinary and delightful experience to listen to Neil Stemp’s spatial mix for the first time and to be able to untangle each individual line so beautifully within the broader, more vertical structure. We had a lot of fun experimenting with virtual positioning of the many different voices in the multi-part canons and seeing how this affected the listener’s perception of the music.'
Pre-Release Singles
29 July: Telemann, Sonata No. 3 in D Major, TWV 40:120: I. Spirituoso
NIMBUS RECORDS AND ULYSSES ARTS ANNOUCE PRESS AND COMMUNICATIONS PARTNERSHIP FROM MARCH 20224/3/2022
Ulysses Arts will provide electronic press kits for Nimbus and Lyrita recordings, alongside press releases on our website.
CRD Records are delighted to announce the release of Resurrexi! Easter in Vienna with Mozart and the Haydn Brothers on 1 April 2022. Recorded with the The Choir of Keble College Oxford and Instruments of Time & Truth, the album is conducted by Paul Brough. Resurrexi! is CRD’s third album with Keble, following Ceremonial Oxford (2017) and Ave Rex Angelorum (2020).
Resurrexi!, recorded in 2021 in the Victorian splendour of Keble College Chapel, celebrates Easter in music – a full mass sequence based around Mozart’s Spaurmesse K. 258, interspersed with plainchant and a treasury of Viennese classical sacred music by Joseph and Michael Haydn. The result offers an imaginary recreation of an opulent service that might have been heard at Vienna’s Stephansdom, or at the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg’s court. Ressurexi!’s soloists are Emily Dickens, soprano, Rebekah Jones, mezzo-soprano, Philippe Durrant, tenor and Graham Kirk, baritone and cantor.
‘Resurrexi! is an enticing opportunity to hear some rarely played music in eager and engaging performances. ... An immensely enjoyable recording.' David Threasher, Gramophone Magazine 'This celebration of Easter ... amply succeeds in giving both spiritual and musical satisfaction.'Brian Robins, Early Music Review 'So sweetly done that you’re immediately tempted to hit the replay button.' Graham Rickson: The Arts Desk - April 2022
SINGLE PRE-RELEASE FROM RESURREXI
MOZART, REGINA COELI
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
SPOTIFY
'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
Ulysses Arts releases clarinettist Poppy Beddoe's solo version of J.S. Bach's great Chaconne in D Minor on 1 October 2021 on Apple Music/iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Qobuz, HDtracks and all major digital service providers. This is a pre-release for Poppy's forthcoming solo album Solliloquy 0n 3 December 2021.
Poppy comments about her arrangement of Bach's music: 'This original clarinet transcription of Bach's Chaconne was born during the UK's first 2020 lockdown. Facing several months alone with no prospect of playing music with others, Poppy devised a collection of solo clarinet music which could be performed as a recital once live performance re-started. Inspiration came initially from playing daily to her parents over Zoom, especially when her father was ill. The Chaconne is the ultimate music of solitude and reflection, which traslates perfectly to the clarinet.' Solliloquy will intersperse music from J.S. Bach's Partita in D Minor, originally for solo violin, with works by Berio, Hildegard von Bingen, Messiaen, Malcolm Arnold and Gershwin. CARITAS CHAMBER CHOIR AND BENEDICT PREECE RELEASE CROSSING THE BAR - MUSIC FOR REFLECTION AND HOPE20/9/2021
Released on 19 November 2021:
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.'
ALEXANDER TCHOBANOV RELEASES PIANO MUSIC BY SCRIABIN AND RACHMANINOV ON 16 APRIL AND 21 MAY 202115/4/2021
Click above to download or pre-order on iTunes
Ulysses Arts releases recordings by Bulgarian pianist Alexander Tchobanov on 16 April (Scriabin Études) and 21 May (Rachmaninov, Sonata No. 2 - third movement).
OTHER STREAMING LINKS 'Tchobanov's colors and voicing were superb, creating that ineffable aura of Russian sadness we love so much. There is a major virtuoso there'. The New York Concert Review Carnegie Weill Recital Hall solo debut recital ![]()
Alexander Tchobanov performs as a concert pianist, chamber musician, and music pedagogue. Originally from Plovdiv in Bulgaria, he was a top prize winner and finalist in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, The American Prize, Sixth Odin International Competition, Kings Peak International Competition and Los Angeles Spotlight Competition.
Alexander's concerts have been broadcast live on radio stations across the United States including WGBH Boston, NPR, and WXEL South Florida. He has also made numerous recordings for Bulgarian National TV and Radio. Concert venues include New York's Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, WMP Hall, Paul Hall at the Julliard School, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Los Angeles, Jordan Hall Boston, Harriet Himmel Theatre (West Palm Beach), Kaisersaal and Auesperg Palace (Vienna), Schloss Halbturn Palace, Balabanov House in Bulgaria, Madinat Theatre Dubai and Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. He has received critical acclaim in newspapers including the Yakima Herald, Palm Beach Post, Trud, Gulf News and Al-Bayan. Alexander Tchobanov completed his Masters Degree at Rutgers University, where he was awarded an assistantship with Susan Starr. In addition, he won a Fellowship at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, studying with Jerome Lowenthal (Juilliard School). He was also a guest artist at the CME Vienna Concerto Fest, Steinway Piano Festival and North American Contemporary Music Festival. Alexander was a recipient of scholarships by the Leni FeBland Foundation in California. Alexander's mentors include Lars Vogt, Robert Levin, Midori, André de Groote, Min Kwon, John Perry and members of the Takacs Quartet. He has earned full-scholarships from the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University, where he trained with Roberta Rust, and the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He has taught at Rutgers University, Lynn University, and Brighton College. In 2012, he joined the faculty of Seasons Music Festival Academy (Yakima, USA), giving masterclasses, solo concerts and chamber music collaborations. Currently, Alexander is Head of Keyboard Studies at The British School-Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi, where his students have been finalists and winners of numerous national and international competitions.
RICHARD CRAIG - TELEMANN FANTASIAS FOR SOLO FLUTE - FIRST RELEASES ON 7 MAY AND 4 JUNE 202114/4/2021
Richard Craig launches the first two single of his complete Telemann Fantasias for Solo Flute on Ulysses Arts, with No. 11 in G Major on 7 May and No. 9 in E Major on 4 June 2021.
Telemann's inspiration for Fantasia No. 11 came from a 1739 visit to Pszczyna in Poland where he heard fiddlers and bagpipers: 'One would hardly believe the inventiveness with which they improvise when the dancers pause for breath'. Richard Craig writes: 'I imagined a similar scene and relished the challenge of recreating the vivacity of folk musicians and dancers in the twists and turns of my ornamentation.'
STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD LINKS ![]() Richard writes about his work and career: 'In my various guises as a new music performer, collaborator, improviser/composer I have played alongside musicians such as Rohan de Saram, Roberto Fabbriciani, Barry Guy, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies and new music groups ELISION, Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, and the RTÉ Orchestra. Closer to home, I have been a guest musician with most of the UK’s new music groups: Welsh ensemble Uproar, and London-based Riot Ensemble, Ensemble Octandre, Explore ensemble, and in Scotland the Hebrides Ensemble and Red Note. I was a founding member of the Spanish group SMASH and Manchester-based Distractfold Ensemble. Exploring solo performance has been and continues to be an important journey for me. It has led me to develop a distinctive approach to the flute; to re-invigorate older music, as well as exploring improvised and notated contemporary works. My own compositions are often a series of smaller works under a collective title: the first being Amp/Al for flute/s and feedback (2012-15) and the most recent being Hortulus Animae (2015 – 2019) for flute/s and fixed media. Composing and improvisation are linked to my interests in the visual arts and I also use video and photography in my work. Alongside my work as a performer, I am also a teacher. I give masterclasses and lead workshops and seminars in chamber music, ensemble performance and flute playing. I was a Visiting Fellow in Performance at theUniversity of Aberdeen 2010–12. In 2015 I was appointed as a lecturer and Head of Performance at Bangor University, Wales, a post I held until 2019; during this time I was also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield from 2014 to 2019. Outside of academia, I have been invited to teach on courses such as theEstalagem da Ponta do sol residency in Madeira, and also the Distat Terra Academy in Argentina. I received my PhD from Middlesex University in 2020. As a writer I have contributed to publications for Örat, and the Orpheus Institute. My solo discs INWARD (2011) and VALE (2017) were released on the Métier label: they document my work with composers Esaias Järnegard, Richard Barrett, John Croft, Malin Bång, Brice Pauset, Evan Johnson and Fabrice Fitch. Other recordings of note include the composer John Croft’s monograph disc Seirenes in 2019 (First Hand Records), and two discs with Another Timbre, performing the works of Jürg Frey and Magnus Granberg. I have recorded several albums and live broadcasts for the BBC, WDR Cologne, YLE Finland, Radio France, Radio Nacional de España, Swedish Radio, ARTE, Métier, Another Timbre, FHR, Icelandic RUV, as well as curated releases of repertoire, and my own compositions. In 2021, I will be releasing a re-interpretation of the Telemann Fantasias on the Ulysses Arts label, and composer Oliver Seale’s portrait disc with Scottish label, Delphian. I studied flute at the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) with Sheena Gordon and later with Richard Blake. After graduating with honours, I continued my studies at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, France, with Mario Caroli with support from a Dewar Award and the Scottish International Educational Trust. As well as working with the full range of flutes from contra to piccolo, I play on two Rudall Carte wooden flutes from the early and mid-20th century, restored for me by Arthur Haswell. One of these instruments was originally commissioned by renowned Italian teacher and soloist Alberto Veggetti (1874 – 1948). I currently live in Edinburgh where I run my own flute studio.'
'To go directly to the matter in hand: the playing on this disc is sensational.'
Johan Svensson, Nutida Musik 'Pushing the instrument to its technical and expressive limits ... a tour de force.' Tim Ashley, The Guardian
The birthdays of Brahms (1833-1897) and Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) fall on 7th May. The 127th day of the year also marks the night of the première of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in 1824, the foundation of the Council of Europe in 1948 – and the day of the recording session leading to this album, in Vienna, on a Bösendorfer Concert Grand 280VC with Armenian pianist and Bösendorfer Artist Nareh Arghamanyan in 2019. Nareh, acclaimed for her ‘sensual narrative tone’, ‘precise stylistic approach’ and ‘dazzling technique’, juxtaposes two vignettes of the Romantic piano repertoire: Brahms Opus 117 and Tchaikovsky’s Opus 37.
Above the music of the first of Brahms’ Intermezzi Op. 117 of 1892, he quotes the opening of Johann Gottfried Herder’s German setting of Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament; he described the third, in C-sharp Minor, which allegedly was inspired by Henry Longfellow’s Victor Galbraith, as ‘the lullaby of all my sorrows’. Clara Schumann, arguably their covert dedicatee, confided to her diary that these compositions are ‘a true source of enjoyment, everything, poetry, passion, rapture, intimacy, full of the most marvellous effects … in these pieces at least I feel musical life stir once again in my soul.’ Tchaikovsky was working on Swan Lake, when he accepted a commission in 1875 from Nikolay Bernard, publisher of music periodical Nouvellist to compose twelve miniatures, each describing a different month of the year. The Seasons have become Tchaikovsky’s best-known piano works – Troika (November) was a favourite encore of Rachmaninoff's.
![]() Pianist Nareh Arghamanyan has received critical acclaim for her ‘sensual narrative tone’, ‘dazzling technique’, ‘charismatic stage presence’ and has been described as ‘a major talent’ (Harris Goldsmith, Musical America). Nareh has received more than twenty awards, including First Prize at the 2008 Concours Musical International de Montréal. Nareh’s concerto repertoire includes more than 30 works and she has performed with leading orchestras and in solo recitals in major concert venues across the world. Aged fifteen, Nareh became the youngest ever student at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, studying with Heinz Medjimorec and Avedis Kouyoumdjian, and with Arie Vardi at the Hannover Academy of Music. Only five degrees of separation: Nareh’s first teacher was Alexander Gurgenov at The Tchaikovsky Music School in Yerevan, Armenia. Gurgenov was a pupil of Alexander Edelmann, whose teacher Heinrich Neuhaus was taught by Felix Blumenfeld, who studied composition with Tchaikovsky. Nareh Arghamanyan’s discography includes a Rachmaninoff solo album with Pentatone, the Piano Concertos of Liszt, Prokofiev (No. 3) and the Khachaturian Piano Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Alain Altinoglu, and the first recording of Franz Danzi’s Piano Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Howard Griffiths, released by Sony Classical. Nareh also enjoys transcribing orchestral and instrumental works for solo piano, including music by J.S. Bach, Khachaturian, Komitas, Piazolla, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss, Tarrega and Tchaikovsky. Nareh is a passionate teacher, keen to pass on her musical heritage to younger generations. And she engages strongly in supporting benevolent causes and frequently performs for charitable projects including support for children with leukemia, assisting orphanages and disaster zone victims, for which she has raised more than 200,000 euros. Apple Music Playlists Ulysses Arts releases Bosnia-born British-resident pianist Damir Durmanovic's debut solo release of Schubert's great Piano Sonata in A, D.959, on Friday 19 March. Damir comments: 'Schubert described Mozart as "the Christ of music": written in the last months of Schubert's life, this Sonata is his homage to Mozart, but bursting with Schubert's distinctive playfulness, with mercurial changes of mood, virtuoso hand-crossing, and sudden moments of darkness.' Recording this work as his solo debut release combines Damir's love of both these composers. You can hear Damir playing on Ulysses Arts' recordings of Franck and Debussy with violinist Dillon Jeffares released in July 2020; we are delighted to be now releasing his first solo recording too. ![]() ![]()
Embers
While the Pandemic persists in making regular concerts impossible, the Louth Contemporary Music Society continues its work in the studio. Last autumn’s CD release Meadow, featuring music by Linda Catlin Smith, won praise from leading critics on both sides of the Atlantic, including Alex Ross in The New Yorker. Now comes a follow-up, Embers - three world première recordings again devoted to music for strings – instruments that, in their intimacy, seem to touch our moment. In Samuel Beckett's radio play Embers, the main character stands at the sea shore, sifting through fragments of memory and story that are still living embers, hot to the touch. So it is in this recording, in which music by distinguished Irish composer Raymond Deane supports robustly an important quartet by one of the great masters of our age, Valentin Silvestrov. ![]()
The opener, Deane’s Marthiya, is named after a form of Middle Eastern lament. It was composed in the wake of the 2003 Iraq invasion. The music’s 'atmosphere of mourning', Deane writes, is 'not unrelated to the devastation wreaked on Iraq since 2003, and to the wider carnage inflicted upon the Arab and Islamic world'.
Deane’s other contribution is the title track, written thirty years earlier but with the same recognisable voice. Though perhaps more questioning than elegiac, Embers is music again on the edge of tears. Ideas, bits of tune, come and go, and recur, very much as things come and go, and come back once more, like in Beckett's play. To quote the composer: 'The piece obsessively turns over musical fragments which seem to have some remote but uncertain origin.' ![]()
Silvestrov’s music gives voice to the sense we may all feel of being bereft, left behind by what was once a social culture of sympathy and togetherness. Listening to his Third String Quartet, composed in 2011, we seem to be watching from the dock as a great ocean liner slowly slides away, taking with it our hopes and our dreams. Something of this feeling of being on the sidelines of history may come from the composer’s inheritance as a Ukrainian. Ireland, he notes, is not so far away: 'I believe there is some Irish accent, and some simple melodies, that permeate the whole work and may sound as symbols of this wonderful country, in whose destiny and historical legacy I perceive a close spiritual affinity to Ukraine, my homeland.'
All three works are captured in intense, poignant performances by leading ensembles: Crash (Marthiya) and the Carducci Quartet (Embers; Silvestrov, String Quartet No.3).
Embers releases on 5 March 2021 on CD, iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Qobuz and all main digital service providers. It is the world première recording of Silvestrov, String Quartet No.3, Deane's Marthiya and of the string quartet (original) version of Deane's Embers, which has been released previously in its subsequent string orchestra version by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in 2016.
LOUTH CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PROFILE
EMBERS REVIEWS
'Rallying After The Silence', Brendan Finan, The Journal of Music
'Engaging and affecting, it’s a grower ... immaculately produced and designed ... When lockdown eases, I’m Louthward bound.' Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk 'A program of great coherence. ... Superb release from a label we here on our side of the big lake wish to know a lot more soon.' Frédéric Cardin, Pan M 360
MARGARET MARSHALL LAUNCHES SONGBIRD ALBUM: PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED RECORDINGS FROM THE 1970s21/12/2020
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1. Purcell: The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation
2. J. S. Bach: Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209 3. Handel: Guardian Angels, from The Triumph of Time & Truth, HWV 71 4. Mozart: Ah’ lo Previdi - ah t’invola agl’occhi miei, K 272 5. Finzi: Dies Natalis [1] Margaret Marshall comments: ‘I’m thrilled that Songbird has been released digitally. I retired from professional singing fifteen years ago and never imagined I would be releasing ‘new’ music. But thanks to wonderfully supportive friends, here it is! Alongside music by Purcell, J.S. Bach, Handel and Mozart – composers and works I loved to sing – is Finzi’s beautiful Dies Natalis, best known for tenors but also a wonderful sing for sopranos.’ Miss Marshall shares her experience of singing these works on her new website www.margaretmarshallsongbird.com Margaret Marshall is one of the finest discoveries of recent years. A perfect technique carries this radiant voice, more varied in colour than some of her world-famous colleagues, full of life and energy, of exquisite expression where the vocalisation pours forth inner enchantment and surpasses technical virtuosity.[2] [1] 1 and 4: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mosche Atzmon and Hanns-Martin Schneidt; 2: Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Hans Zender; 3. NDR Elbphilharmonie Orkester; Günther Weissenborn: 5. Mainz Chamber Orchestra, Günter Kehr [2] J.S. Bach, Easter Oratorio, Kurt Redel (conductor), Le Monde, 20 April 1976 'I urge all devotees of fine singing to enjoy this previously unheard testimony to the enduring appeal of Margaret Marshall’s lovely voice.' Ralph Moore, MusicWeb International
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Ulysses Arts launches double bass player Valentina Ciardelli's recording of the Andante Cantabile from Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata in celebration of the great composer's birthday on 16 December 2020. This is the first of a series of singles Ulysses Arts is releasing, recording during the Pandemic, including Valentina's arrangements and her own original compositions, with Questi cazzi di bicordo - a vituoso double-stopping extravaganza for double bass - released on 28 January 2021, Vissi d'arte from Puccini's Tosca on 19 March and the Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria rustivana on 2 April.
Coming soon: Igor, Valentina's tribute to Stravinsky, on 11 June, and A Bunch of ... on 2 July.
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February 2025
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