Weely from 24 April to 29 May 2026, Ulysses Arts releases a weekly series of live performance videos from Vienna by Bösendorfer artist Nareh Arghamanyan, with music by J.S. Bach, Schubert/Liszt, Fanny Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss/Grünfeld and Schütt, Frank Churchill, Earl Wild and Gershwin.

Release Schedule: April to May 2026

24 April
Johann Sebastian Bach: Siciliano from Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031, arranged for solo piano by Wilhelm Kempff

30 April
Franz Liszt: Variations on the Basso Ostinato from J.S. Bach's Cantata, 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen', S. 180

1 May
Fanny Mendelssohn: Der Traum (Januar), from Das Jahr, H. 385
Frank Churchill, Remininscences of Snow White, arranged by Earl Wild

8 May
Alfred Grünfeld, Concert Paraphrase on Waltz Motifs from Johann Strauss's Cinderella, Op. 52
Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Swans, Swan Lake Act II, No. 13/IV, arranged by Earl Wild

15 May
Eduard Schütt, Concert Paraphrase on Johann Strauss the Younger's 'Tales from the Vienna Woods', for solo piano, Op. 10
Earl Wild, Virtuoso Étude No. 3, based on George Gershwin's Song 'The Man I love'

22 May
Komitas, Garun A (It is Spring)
Franz Schubert, Der Müller und der Bach, from Die Schöne Müllerin, Op. 25, D.795 No. 19, arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt.S. 565/2
Tchaikovsky, The Seasons, Op. 37a No. 1: January - At The Fireside

29 May
Earl Wild, Hommage à Poulenc based on the Sarabande from J.S. Bach, Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825
Leopold Godowski, Triakontamerion, No. 11: Alt-Wien

Producer: Thomas Egger
Videographers: Sigrid Friedmann and Ulrich Kaufmann

Nareh Arghamanyan was born in Armenia and is a Bösendorfer artist based in Vienna. Since winning the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition, she has performed at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, The Wigmore Hall in London, New York's Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Osaka Concert Hall and many others worldwide. 

Conductors with whom she has worked include Sir Neville Marriner, Riccardo Chailly, Kent Nagano and Alain Altinoglu, with the Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle -Orchester Zürich, Radio-Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and L'Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal.

Nareh's festival performances include the Lucerne Festival, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Domaine Forget and Schwetzinger Festspiele. Her awards include the Franz Liszt Prize, the Georgy Cziffra Wward, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, and distinctions from the Karajan Foundation and Orpheum Stiftung.

As a recording artist, Nareh's discography includes albums with Analekta and Pentatone, releasing critically acclaimed albums of Rachmaninov, Liszt, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. In 2018, she recorded the premiere of Franz Danzi’s Piano Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra for Sony Classical. Recent solo albums feature works by Brahms and Tchaikovsky, released by Ulysses Arts, Komitas and since 2025, with German label Hänssler Classic, starting with Femme de Légende, dedicated to piano works by female composers. Her next album will be devoted to the vibrant dance music of Johann Strauss and Aram Khachaturian.

Deeply committed to fostering the next generation of musicians, Nareh organises and leads masterclasses, serves on competition juries in both Austria and her native Armenia. Her initiatives reflect a passionate dedication to nurturing young artists and building bridges between cultures through music.

Nareh's artist approach connects with the lineage of pianists such as Godowsky, Cherkassky, Arrau, Schnabel, Gilels and Michelangeli. At the heart of her artistry is the desire to connect - intimately, honestly and profoundly, whether in a quiet rehearsal room or the largest concert hall.

'A force of nature at the piano.' Musical America
'Blazing virtuosity meets soulful depth.' La Scena musicale
'A major talent with unstoppable presence.' International Piano Review

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

Ulysses Arts releases Paul Henley Piano Works Volume 2, performed by Pavel Timofeyevsky, on 29 May 2026, in partnership with Bridges Music (UA260050).

Christopher Kettle writes:

'Henley's Sonata No. 4 is a substantial work in three movements. The Allegro con brio opens clangorously and with a sense of upward striving; a repeating pattern of four notes seems to embody this. The music makes its way through quieter, though not necessarily calmer waters – some writing of icy brilliance for the right hand – before recovering the movement’s opening gestures and reaching a high plateau of full-throated affirmation. The ending is brusque, almost dismissive.

The searching Adagio begins with a wistful, sadly falling melody over a gentle rocking rhythm. The music gathers intensity until, at the movement’s climax, the melody achieves a genuinely tragic stature. Then its energies drain away until it is reduced to its sparest form, and it
expires, mid-phrase.

The brief finale, Molto energico, sets all to rights: a torrent of syncopated energy, followed by a lilting tune like a folk dance, light as thistledown, in the right hand. Irresistible! (Did I hear a lively transformation of the wistful Adagio tune just before the ‘folk dance’?) At the end of the recording session, Pavel said to Henley: “You create such a magical world…and so Romantic – I imagine a couple dancing.”

The Eighteen Preludes form a huge work, a significant landmark in Henley’s career as a composer. I say ‘work’ because, whilst he allows that the Preludes can be performed individually or in a selection, Henley writes that “due to the structure of the work and the way in which the Preludes relate to each other with regard to their tonal centres, it is preferable that they are played all together as a set – that was my original intention.” Pavel sensed this very strongly: he remarked that they belong with Schumann’s Carnaval and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition rather than with Chopin’s Preludes, and although they were first recorded individually, he was keen to play them in sequence in a single ‘take’ – which he did: the impact was gigantic, a compelling revelation of the whole work’s imaginative reach, its integrity and its drama.'

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English composer, Paul Henley, considers that the primary purpose of music should be to communicate. As such, he believes in writing music that is accessible, with significant melodic content, a harmonic language based on tonality and a considerable emphasis on rhythm – the foundation of all music. Dance and theatre are also part of Paul’s diverse artistic interests and he has directed various stage works. For Paul, music at its greatest is of spiritual value and that, as such, it is essential. Its link with faith is of profound importance to him. 

Originally from Worcester, he lives in Shropshire with his cellist wife, Ruth. His earliest musical inspiration came from his grandmother, a keen amateur pianist and actress. During the 1960s, she used to take Paul to the Children’s Theatre Club at the newly established Swan Theatre in Worcester. She also had a tape recorder and with various members of the family playing different characters, she used to record sketches. At secondary school in New Malden in south-west London, he played trumpet in the school's band. Aged of fifteen, he commenced piano lessons with Reymour Rice.

Paul left school aged 16, working first as a shop assistant, but continued to get experience as a musician – singing in his church choir, playing trumpet in local orchestras and performing as a pianist both in his teacher’s pupils’ recitals and in local festivals. He also started to compose and continued to train as a pianist. Eventually, at the age of twenty-one, he went to Birmingham School of Music (now Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) where he commenced studies in 1980, first in piano and trumpet, then singing and composition.

After leaving college, Paul had a career as an opera singer and made his South Bank debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1990 to national acclaim. He performed much contemporary music and in 1997 created the role of William Byrd in the world premiere of False Relations by David Stoll. He worked regularly for BBC Radio 4 and performed at many national festivals. He maintained his early interest in composition, and in 2019, decided to devote himself to working solely as a composer.

Following that decision, Paul received a commission from Bridgnorth Sinfonia, the result of which was the orchestral tone poem, The Firmament on High. Since then, Paul has written in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental mediums. Recordings of his music have been released on the Ulysses Arts and Prima Facie labels. His music has featured on Apple Music playlists including ‘Pure Piano’.

His works have been performed both nationally and in Europe and reviewed to international acclaim. His music has also been broadcast on BBC Radio. He has written many cello works for his wife, Ruth who has performed and recorded many of them. He also collaborates regularly with pianist, Duncan Honeybourne, a champion of contemporary British piano music and the Jarualda String Quartet, both of whom have recorded albums of his works and given many performances of his music. His works also feature regularly in concerts by Shropshire Chamber Orchestra.  He is a featured composer with The Marches Songbook Project. 

Paul and Ruth established the Corvedale Festival in 2022 in Shropshire, where he was its Artistic Director. After three years the Festival evolved into the Corvedale Concerts series for which he continues in his role as Artistic Director.

Recent premières include his Sonata for Flute and Piano, ‘Notes and Sorrows’ for High Voice and Piano, Voice for Solo Cello and String Orchestra, Lyric Movement for String Quartet and Five Epigrams for Piano. This is Paul Henley's third album with Ulysses Arts.

Pianist and composer, Pavel Timofeyevsky was in Russia and educated in England, Pavel graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, London. Solo and chamber music recitals, as well as concerto performances with orchestras has brought him to nearly all major UK  concert venues, including London's Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls. Concert tours, television and radio appearances internationally include in the USA (Merkin Hall, New York and Fred Kavli Theatre, Los Angeles), China (Shanghai Oriental Centre for Arts, Guangzhou Opera House), Italy, Russia, France, Spain, Sweden, Greece, South Africa, Kenya and India. Pavel is the recipient of several prestigious British music awards, scholarships and national competition prizes including the Musicians Benevolent Fund Award, the 2007 Myra Hess Award, and the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship for piano, as well as winning the BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the Year award for composition.

Having made London his home, Pavel is highly sought after as a solo performer and a chamber music partner, collaborating with some of the world's finest musicians. A keen and eloquent speaker, Pavel enjoys giving lecture-recitals and has his own regular lecture-concert series for the Kensington Music Society.

A fervent advocate of contemporary music, Pavel has given many premieres of fellow composers works and featured on the album ISLAS by British composer Ian Stewart for the MUSIC CHAMBER label, as well as participated in the recording of music of Hungarian composer Hans Gal, as part of Ensemble Burletta, for Toccata Classics label.

Pavel's passion for film has led him to work in that field too. He recorded the soundtrack and starred in the US documentary Tchaikovsky (US Bioghraphy channel) and has composed music for several films, including the critically acclaimed “Le fin de la belle époque” documentary for Russian television. Most recently he created a soundtrack for Russia's oldest Animated film studio Souyzmultfilm.

Pavel is the founder and Artistic Director of Philomel Creative Circle: a concert series in London, currently in residence at the Francis Crick Institute, as well as the Founder and Director of Philomel Music Academy, a summer course in residence at The Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. In 2023 Pavel was appointed Music Director of Devon Opera, UK.

Pavel continues to collaborate with orchestras and to tour extensively with recitals across the UK and abroad, making regular appearances on the British music festival scene.

Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts.

We Remember Moments, the debut recording by Canadian composer and pianist Joel Toews, is released by Ulysses Arts on 1 May 2026 (UA260020).

'“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” (Cesare Pavese) My music evokes memories - not specific recollections, but moments imparting an experience’s emotions. Memory is fallible; remembering an entire day is impossible. Instead, we retain moments, snapshots of life affecting our minds and present.

Each work alludes to moments surrounding experiences, emotions and people. The melodies, harmony and rhythms are straightforward, composed not for show or gravitas, but as meditative reflection on moments worth remembering.' (Joel Toews)

1. Four Thousand and One: Joel Toews
2. Evergreen: Joel Toews, Jacqueline Goring
3. January (of 2020): Joel Towes
4. Prairie Skies: Joel Toews, William Lamoureux
5. August (of 2006): Joel Toews, Jess Lajner, William Lamoureux
6. Solace: Joel Toews, Matt Smith
7. Stephanie’s Theme: Joel Toews

Joel Toews, piano
Jacqueline Goring, harp; William Lamoureaux, violin
Jess Lajner, guitar; Matt Smith, trumpet

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Joel Toews is a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter and pianist based in Toronto.

He studied at Berklee College of Music, then Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music at MacEwan University, where he wrote and arranged for string quartet, choir, jazz big band, piano trio and more, studying with Dr. Allan Gilliland, Kent Sangster and John McMillan. Currently he studies composition at York University, Toronto.

Composition credits include:
2018: Piano Trio 'Influence': International Keuris Composers Contest 4th prize.
2019: 'Ra’ah': Borealis Orchestra, Edmonton
2019: Film score for 'The Transit Lodge', directed by Kalyan Acharya
2021: Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Explore the Score program: mentorship from TSO composers and conductors and recorded reading of 'Athabasca', awarded first annual Litha Symphony Orchestra Composition Contest; first performed in New York City, 2022
2021: MacEwan University commission: 'Miriam', for big band, recorded in its 'Generations' Project.
2021: Suite for Piano and Cello, for Sahara von Hattenberger, blending elements of Canadian and Japanese culture, funded by Canada Council for the Arts: recording with visual accompaniment. 2022: 'Mirrors in Haida Gwaii' première: Sofia Symphonic Summit: Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria
2022: 'Sleeping Giant': Orchestra Toronto Composer Prize commission.
2023: River City Big Band Edmonton commission, celebrating the planets, including a re-working of the opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra
2025: New Conductors Orchestra's Call for Scores winner, New York City.

Joel lives and works in Toronto. He is a piano, theory and composition teacher for children, youth, and adults; he works as a composer, arranger, and songwriter, and is Orchestra Manager of the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra.

Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts.

Music Centre Slovakia releases Slovak Piano Sonatinas double album performed by Magdaléna Bajuszová, on 31 October 2025, in partnership with Ulysses Arts, on all digital services.
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Nimbus Records releases Discover Jean Françaix: The Best of Martin Jones, on 2 May 2025 (NI.7732). The album is a compilation of Martin Jones's acclaimed three-volume set of Jean Françaix's complete piano music.

Jean René Désiré Françaix was born in Le Mans on 23 May 1912 into a musical family – his father was a composer and pianist, his mother a singing teacher.

Françaix was a prolific composer, whose output amounts to over 200 works in a wide range of genres. His œuvre includes symphonies and cantatas, but he was most prolific in writing for the forces of soloist and orchestra. He first made his name in 1932, with a performance of his Eight Bagatelles for piano and string quartet at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Vienna. His language is resolutely tonal, with a generally restricted but effective harmonic vocabulary… Charm wit and elegance, often with a sense of wry detachment, inform his scores, which are distinguished by their precision and clarity. Though an archetypally French composer, he exhibited a cheerful eclecticism, ranging over the Western musical tradition in all its diversity, which chimes with the ‘magpie’ instincts of his compatriots Poulenc and Ibert, for example.

The piano occupies a prime position in Françaix’s output, whether as a concertante instrument or in the more intimate forms of chamber music and instrumental pieces for solo piano and duets. He used it principally as a vehicle for exhibiting his virtuosity, yet his piano scores contain several examples of introspection and nostalgic reflection.
© Paul Conway

Celebrated British pianist Martin Jones recorded the complete piano music of Jean Françaix (1912-1997) in 2012 on 3 CDs. This is a compilation of his best music, in which wit, sophistication and extreme virtuosity combine in one of the twentieth century’s instantly recognisable voices.

Martin Jones has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic.

He is a prolific recording artist and his many major projects include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Grainger, Stravinsky, Korngold, Szymanowski, Granados, Guastavino, Mompou, Ernesto Halffter, Joaquin Nin, Has Gál, Jean Françaix, Jean Roger-Ducasse, and Alan Richardson.

Electronic press kit & listening links available for reviewers and radio producers from Ulysses Arts.

Lyrita Recorded Edition releases British Piano Concertos on 2 May 2025, with music by John Addison, Philip Cannon and Francis Chagrin, performed by soloist Simon Callaghan with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by William Boughton (SRCD.444)

Philip Cannon’s Concertino for piano and strings (1951) dates from his formative years. It was written for the Petersfield Festival, where it was premiered on 27 January 1951 by soloist Joseph Cooper, with the Petersfield Orchestra conducted by Kathleen Merritt. This lively, neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand performances internationally.

Though John Addison’s Concertino for piano and orchestra is, for the most part, couched in a light-hearted language, it is the product of a serious, and unfailingly inventive, approach to keyboard and orchestral writing. Speaking of the work to Lesie Ayre of the London Evening News, the composer remarked that, ‘it is a real concerto in the full sense of the word...I would not be ashamed to show the work to any first-class pianist’.

Francis Chagrin maintained an intensely practical and unpretentious attitude towards his own craft, observing that, ‘My music is not for first performances– it is just to be played’. His Piano Concerto was first performed by soloist Franz Osborn, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, at an SPNM Experimental Rehearsal held at the Royal College of Music on 4 February 1944.

Conversation Piece by John Addison was written in 1958 to a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra for that year’s British Light Music Festival. John Addison felt that, by the late-1950s, too great a divide had opened up between serious and light music: ‘Concert goers think contemporary music is so alarmingly serious that when confronted with a mildly witty turn of phrase, they assume something has gone wrong. I remember the astonished sigh of relief when, in the course of introducing one of my chamber works, I told the audience I would not mind if they smiled’. In Conversation Piece, Addison exploits to the full his talent to amuse and divert.

Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. A favourite performer at the internationally-renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in Germany, Callaghan’s recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a “cleverly curated recital full of discoveries” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “technically brilliant”.

Callaghan has developed a wide following and appears on a regular basis in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe. Recital partners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicholas Daniel, Adrian Brendel, Feng Ning, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. BBC Young Musician of the Year Finalist Coco Tomita and Callaghan have a successful duo partnership which saw their first record released in 2022 on Orchid Classics. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet, joining colleagues from the renowned Piatti Quartet to showcase the repertoire for piano quartet with a particular focus on revivifying works that have fallen into obscurity.

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

Nimbus Records releases Julius Röntgen Piano Music Volume 6, performed by Mark Anderson, on 4 April 2025 (NI 8117).

'I must confess that I’ve been following this series since it began and I’ve been very impressed with all of the discs so far.' Jonathan Welsh, MusicWeb International

This recording provides the listener with a chronological overview of Julius Röntgen’s creative output, from his earliest published composition, written in 1864—when he was just nine years old—to pieces written as a mature composer five decades later. The latter reveals a composer of outstanding skill, diverse influences, and a master of musical forms and compositional techniques. It has been said that “One would look in vain for anything truly original or shocking in Röntgen’s output....”. However, there are works included on this recording that dispel that assumption. This pianist would argue that three works stand out, which are truly unique and powerfully original. The first is a short Toccata, which is something of a mystery work having never been published and lacking a date of composition. The others are the Sonata in C Minor from 1877 and the Passacaglia and Fugue of 1911. It is the latter that most decidedly distinguishes Röntgen as having a truly original voice. Julius Röntgen composed over 600 works and is especially known for his concertos, symphonies and chamber music. His piano music has remained unjustifiably neglected since he died in 1932. © Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson
 
Pianist Mark Anderson’s recordings and performances have met with widespread critical acclaim. Since his successes at the 1993 Leeds (U.K.) and 1994 William Kapell (U.S.) International Piano Competitions, Mark Anderson has appeared frequently as recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. He has performed in Japan, throughout much of Europe and Great Britain, Ireland and North America. Mark Anderson has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Nicholas McCegan, William Boughton, George Cleve, and Adam Fischer. Mark given recitals at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Weill Hall, the Kennedy Centre and the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., London's Wigmore Hall and Zurich's Tonhalle and elsewhere throughout Europe and North America. His solo and concerto performances are complimented by chamber music work, most recently with the newly formed Röntgen Piano Trio.

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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.

Frances Wilson, Interlude, 6 Sep 2025

Ron Schepper, Textura, Sep 2025

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Nimbus Alliance releases Robert Blocker: Contemporary Character Pieces for PIano, with works by eight composers, on 1 November 2024 (NI 6453).

“The romantic character pieces of Schumann and Brahms have been my musical companions since childhood. In earlier years, I was immersed in their emotional content. The craft, especially the economy of scale and refinement of compositional technique, captured my attention as a college student…Throughout my career, I have championed new music created by fellow students and colleagues. Shortly after assuming the deanship of the Yale School of Music, it occurred to me that the expansive piano repertoire could be enriched further by contemporary character pieces. These would be in the tradition of the romantic era, each one being three to five minutes in length with an inherent emotional impulse...When asked to compose a contemporary character piece that I would perform and record, my faculty colleagues and friends were most gracious and responded affirmatively…My gratitude and admiration foreach of them is boundless not only for their personal encouragement but also for this significant contribution to the piano repertoire and our musical life.” © Robert Blocker
 
This release includes compositions from Ezra Laderman (Decade), David Lang (Winter Piano), Joseph Schwantner (Palindrome’s Dance), Warren Lee (Three Novelettes), Martin Bresnick (Extrana Devocion), Paul Reale (The Pooka’s Revenge), Aaron Jay Kernis (Toward The Setting Sun) and Christopher Theofanidis (Wake Up, Calleth The Voice).

“Robert Blocker began his study of the instrument at age five, presenting his first public recital two years later. Following baccalaureate studies at Furman University, Blocker earned master’s and doctoral degrees in piano performance at the University of North Texas under the tutelage of the eminent American pianist Richard Cass.”

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Lyrita Records releases its Graham Hair Piano Music album on 1 November 2024, performed by Martin Jones (SRCD 436).

Composer Graham Hair writes: “I met pianist Martin Jones as a consequence of writing the Concert Study Wild Cherries and Honeycomb as a test-piece for the Scottish International Piano Competition, in 1998. Martin heard about this piece from the chairman of the competition jury, Bryce Morrison, and this eventually led to my writing more Concert Studies over the next fifteen years, as well as the other works on this album.

Twelve Transcendental Concert Studies on Themes from the Australian Poets, refers specifically to the post-Lisztian Tradition of virtuoso pianism (including such figures as Australian pianist Percy Grainger), which has always seemed to me a corecomponent of Martin Jones’s pianism. The titles are all drawn either from specific poems or from specific passages within those poems.

Two other commissions are also represented: Dances and Devilment and Sunlit Airs, commissioned by the Australian pianist Michael Harvey in 2000, and Under Aldebaran, commissioned much earlier, by the Sydney International Piano Competition, during the mid-1980s. All of the other works were written between 2008 to 2024.

Étude-variations: Under Aldebaran is also a Concert Study, based on the poem by Australian poet James McAuley, but is very different from the collection of the ‘Transcendental’ 12. It’s the only atonal piece in this album, and by far the most complicated in its detail, and was written many years earlier.

Rococo Fantasies is a set of 11 bagatelles. Each moves from one tone-centre to another: often via ‘chromatic mediant’ harmony (a major or minor third above or below the tone-centre). Book One contains 6 of them. They endeavour to create a variety of idiosyncratic rhetorical characters by swerving between multiple metrical, thematic and textural ideas rapidly in the course of a few measures in some of the pieces, but beavering away at just one or two (over rapidly modulating harmonic changes) in others.

Passacaglia on the chorale ‘Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist’ by J.S. Bach is based on a chorale melody derived from the famous plainsong hymn Veni Creator Spiritus. This is the ‘ground bass’ on which this Passacaglia is built. However, like many Passacaglias in the Canonic Repertoire, the theme often strays into the upper voices of the texture, and because of the relative length of the theme, it has something of the sense of a set of variations as much as of a Passacaglia.
 
…During recent times (2008-2024), I have completed more compositions than in all the previous periods put together, though in some cases that has meant completing projects started earlier: in a time characterised by the decay, and in many cases the collapse, of the institutions which have dominated political, social, economic and cultural life and practice during the three post-war generations (1950-2024). The subtitle of my forthcoming book, The Scottish Voices Reader, puts it thus: Cultivating the Classical Traditions in the Age of the War on Everything.”   © Graham Hair

'A revelation of 21st-century pianism, both in Hair’s writing and in Jones’ playing.'
Maureen Buja, Interlude, 23 December 2024

Martin Jones has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances in Europe, Russia, Australia, Canada, North & South America. He has made over 90 recordings with Nimbus Records exploring music that is not often played including the complete works of 18 composers.

'Martin Jones is a skilled and sensitive artist with an imaginative response that is faultless.' Gramophone

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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

Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition, 15 September 2024

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.

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Tamayo Ikeda, originally from Japan and resident in Paris, releases her latest solo piano album, Le Nocturne, on Friday 11 October 2024, with music by Chopin and Fauré. This is her second release with Ulysses Arts, following her Schubert album of 2022.

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Tamayo Ikeda writes:

'The recording is a game of mirrors between the night of Gabriel Fauré and that of Frédéric Chopin. After reading the novel titled The Nocturne by French philosopher Vladimir Jankelevitch, I was profoundly amazed.  His book inspired me to associate these two composers.  Written clandestinely during the dark period of World War II, this book has the rare ability to express precisely what I feel, but in words.

Jankelevitch compares Chopin’s Nocturnes which accompany us through the deep pain experienced in the solitude of the night to those of Fauré, which evoke dark nights but with the promise of a "golden sun".  They offer hope, transforming those same nights into a promise of light.'

'Ce disque est une traversée, un jeu de miroirs entre la nuit de Gabriel Fauré et celle de Frédéric Chopin. C’est une nuit claire que nous propose Tamayo Ikeda, toute bruissante des sons de la nature, bienveillante et apaisée jusque dans ses ombres, une nuit vivante, frémissante de poésie, avec des élans qui tendent vers le jour nouveau.

Tamayo Ikeda sait exactement où elle veut aller et nous y emmène, avec générosité et une douce autorité. Chaque pièce est abordée avec une vision d’ensemble qui se déploie sans faiblir jusqu’à la note finale. Tamayo Ikeda joue comme elle parle, éloquente et inspirée, puisant sa liberté dans une maîtrise impeccable du clavier qui autorise toutes les prises de risque. Venu du fond de l’âme, son rubato est la vie même. Sa science du son lui offre une palette infinie qui éclaire et révèle ce qu’on croyait connaître par coeur. Fauré, en particulier, y retrouve des couleurs oubliées, une jeunesse et une fougue qui n’ont plus rien à envier à celles de Chopin.

Les deux compositeurs finissent d’ailleurs par parler ici la même langue, sans rien perdre de leur caractère propre.

Parvenue au sommet de sa maturité, Tamayo Ikeda ose ce voyage au bout de la beauté qui s’achève sur une berceuse, retour au paradis perdu, et retrouvé, le temps d’une interprétation à couper le souffle.'  Arièle Butaux

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Lyrita Records releases Cyril Scott, Piano Sonata No. 1, performed by Simon Callaghan, on 5 April 2024.

Sonata for Piano Op. 66: composed 1908; revised edition from 1930s

'Cyril Meir Scott (1879-1970) is one of a group of British composers to have benefitted from three cultural features of recent decades: increased curiosity from performers and listeners; a more inclusive outlook from musicologists and critics; and the music industry spotting a gap and a demand. A much more colourful picture of British music in the first half of the twentieth century has resulted.

Scott was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a composer of several hundred pieces. His writings and music are deeply invested in mysticism and the occult. This element in Scott’s work, as Sarah Collins has noted, helps us to see beyond received notions of Scott as either a trivial exoticist or an unjustly-neglected pioneer, and to appreciate his music on its own terms.' ©Brian A. Ingis

'Strongly recommended'.
Kevin Mandry, British Music Society, 14 March 2024

'Back into the light'
Maureen Buja,Interlude, 8 April 2024

Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a successful recording career. Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita, among others. He is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and on multiple streaming platforms: his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita
surpassing one million streams in its first month of release.

He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it to promotion for classical music in general and seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored. He is Director of Music at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the Series's foundation in 1887. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.

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