SOMM Recordings is delighted to build upon it's critically acclaimed discography with violinist, Adrian Butterfield, and the London Handel Players in a new collaboration featuring the Op. 7 set of six Violin Concertos by the French violinist-composer, Jean-Marie Leclair. The London Handel Players, praised by the New York Times for their "soulful depth" and "consummate skill and musicianship," have previously released five Handel discs with SOMM, along with recordings that celebrate Geminiani, J.S. Bach, and Telemann. The group's co-founder and director, period-instrument violinist Adrian Butterfield, has been described as "a marvel" by Gramophone for his recordings of Leclair's first three books of violin sonatas. The solo concerto emerged in Italy in the early 18th century through composers like Torelli, Albinoni and, particularly, Vivaldi. J.S. Bach acquired a copy of Vivaldi's popular set of twelve concertos, L'Estro Armonico, to transcribe and study, and he put his own stamp on concerto writing with works that are larger in scale, making use of more detailed contrapuntal development and a greater degree of harmonic variety. When Jean-Marie Leclair met an untimely death on 23 October, 1764 in a still-unsolved murder in Paris, he left behind a stellar reputation as the founder of the French violin school, along with a collection of works for violin that includes four volumes of solo violin sonatas and two volumes of violin concertos; his Op. 7, heard here, and Op. 10, to follow in the near future. These virtuosic and elegant violin concertos are something of an amalgam of the Italian concerto style and of Bach's formalistic innovations. Leclair was born in Lyon in 1697, and his dream was to become a solo violinist in his own country. But, at this time in France, violin playing was the province of country fiddlers and orchestral players, while the viol was the chosen instrument for the French upper classes. When the Italian violinist-composer, Arcangelo Corelli, published his iconic set of Op. 5 sonatas in 1700, no French violinist was equipped with the technique to perform them. Having spent a year studying dance and composition in the Italian city of Turin, Leclair moved to Paris, where he soon published his first set of twelve violin sonatas. For a couple of years, he commuted between Paris and Turin in order to study with a former student of Corelli's, and, over the course of two decades, published three more sets of sonatas, along with the two sets of violin concertos. The concertos are justly celebrated for their blend of French elegance and Italian virtuosity, reflecting not only Leclair's skill as a renowned violinist, but also his background, which drew on a variety of Europe's national styles. In the early 1910s, Holst became interested in astrology, and he conceived the idea of a suite for orchestra based on the solar system's individual planets. Originally, he composed The Planets on the piano, using the instrument in his newly-built, sound-proofed room in the music wing at St Paul's Girls School as well as the piano at his home in Thaxted. This version for four hands, two pianos was scored by two of his colleagues at St Paul's, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, who acted as amanuenses, because Holst suffered intermittently from painful neuritis in his right hand. Following the resounding success of the orchestrated version of The Planets, the original piano duet score was overlooked, though it was eventually published separately in 1949-51. In 1979, Holst's daughter, Imogen, reissued the complete two-piano arrangement in one volume, and Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman perform this version here. Elgar's renown was such that, at the height of his fame, several established musicians were commissioned by publishers to make piano transcriptions of his orchestral music. This was no mean feat, given that Elgar's scores are scrupulously marked as to how he wanted every phrase-sometimes even every bar or note within that phrase-to be played. It was the composer, arranger, and conductor, Otto Singer II, who made the transcription for piano four-hands of Elgar's 1905 Introduction and Allegro, scored originally for solo string quartet and string orchestra. Singer's insight and skill are evident in techniques like transferring string double-stopping to spread keyboard chords, and his piano four-hands version is admirably true to Elgar's evolving contrapuntal and harmonic ideas. In Victorian England, the marriage of a tradesman's son to the daughter of a Major-General in the British Army, who was eight years his senior, might not have appeared a perfect match. Yet, the marriage of Edward Elgar and Caroline Alice Roberts turned out to be a love-match. In 1888, as a wedding present, Edward presented to Carice, as he called her, Salut d'Amour. This enduring melody has inspired numerous arrangements for widely varying instrumental combinations, including this one for piano duet.

SOMM Recordings' fruitful collaboration with Leon Bosch, renowned double bass player and director of I Musicanti, has recently produced a group of world premiere recordings, which consist of four delightful and interestingly disparate British Piano Quintets. The two quintets by Percy Godfrey (1899-1945) and Richard Walthew (1872-1951) fall within a post-Romantic idiom reminiscent of Rachmaninoff's music, while those of John McCabe (1939-2015) and Ivor Hodgson (b.1959) share terrific rhythmic vitality and modern harmonies whilst remaining entirely accessible. Although the music of Percy Godfrey is little known these days, he received two notable awards around the turn of the last century. In 1902, he won a competition for a Coronation March for King Edward VII and, in 1899, he was awarded the prize for a newly-announced chamber music competition. That winning piece was his Piano Quintet in E flat major heard on this release. The quintet by Richard Walthew is titled Phantasy Quintet. Walthew was an important figure in English chamber music during the first half of the 20th century, having a natural affinity for the genre. His single movement Phantasy Quintet is his most successful chamber work, and it recreates the spirit of the Elizabethan consort through a varied statement-counterstatement-restatement format. John McCabe produced works in virtually every genre, including music for television. His theme tune for the 1973 family drama series, Sam, became a huge hit and was the inspiration for his 1989 chamber work, Sam Variations. As McCabe noted, "The theme itself is never heard direct - the nearest we get to it is in the rather enigmatic coda... But all of the material is taken from the theme and transformed in a variation-like way... " Among the varied works by the prolific composer and double bass player, Ivor Hodgson, is a set of nine concerti-including one he wrote for the pianist, Peter Donohoe, who is featured on this release. Hodgson's first Piano Quintet, featured here, was inspired by four Derbyshire inns, as indicated by the names of the four movements: The Quiet Woman, Earl Sterndale, Buxton; The Waltzing Weasel, Hayfield; Moonlight over Mount Famine, The Lamb Inn, Chinley Head; and The Oddfellows, Whitehough, Chinley. The mixed instrument chamber ensemble I Musicanti-hand-picked by the group's artistic director, international double bass virtuoso Leon Bosch-comprises some of the most experienced and respected musicians in the UK. Their previous collaborations with SOMM include Giovanni Bottesini: String Quintets, SOMMCD 0645 ("vivacious, colourful, flowing and finely nuanced accounts" -BBC Music Magazine) and Nimrod Borenstein: Piano Concerto, Shirim, Light and Darkness, SOMMCD 281 ("dramatic and energetic accents from the orchestra" -Pizzicato.) This recording features pianist, Peter Donohoe; violinist, Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay; violist, Robert Smissen; cellist, Ursula Smith; and double bassist, Leon Bosch.

SOMM Recordings celebrates the wealth of popular concert music produced in Vienna in the 19th and early 20th centuries with a release called Dancing in Vienna, an exhilarating collection of waltzes to set your feet tapping. The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is led by the versatile Scottish conductor, Iain Sutherland, whose previous, wide-ranging collaborations with SOMM have received enthusiastic critical response: "strong and trenchant, often exhilarating, never sentimental, " Gramophone; "getting pretty much everything right, every nuance and subtle rhythm, " Amazon USA. Einzi Stolz, widow of one of the last masters of Viennese light music, Robert Stolz, wrote to Sutherland, "You have a Viennese heart with the golden arm for Viennese music." Robert Stolz's rousing march, Greetings from Vienna, opens this collection, which also includes his Viennese Cafe Waltzes. Dominating the light music programmes of Vienna for almost a century was the Strauss family-Johann I and his three sons Johann II, Josef, and Eduard. They composed dances and conducted their own orchestras for all the grand balls and concerts almost every day of the week in Vienna, as well as all over the world. Among the works by Johann Strauss II included here is his famous Emperor Waltz, commissioned in 1889 for a state visit by Emperor Franz-Joseph I of Austria-Hungary to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Reflecting the rise of popular Hungarian gypsy music at the time is his Salute the Magyars polka, along with the Trisch Trasch, Thunder and Lightning, and Champagne polkas, and the overture to his operetta masterpiece, Die Fledermaus. Johann II was the most famous of the family of musicians, though he once said of his younger brother, Josef Strauss, that he was "the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular..." From Josef Strauss we have the Chatterbox Polka, Dragonfly Polka-Mazurka, Jockey Polka (incorporating the international trumpet call marking the opening of the racing season), the Feuerfest! Polka to celebrate the Wertheim company's 200, 000th fireproof safe, and the beloved Pizzicato Polka, on which he collaborated with popular brother. The youngest of the Strauss brothers, Eduard Strauss, was better recognized as a dance music conductor than as a composer. Still, this release includes his Clear Track Polka, heralding the opening of a new railway company in 1869. Johannes Brahms greatly admired the melodic genius of Johann Strauss II. Their respect was mutual, and Strauss often included his good friend's Hungarian Dances on his programmes. This present collection includes Nos. 1, 5, and 6 from Brahms's collection of 21 dances. The lesser-known composer, author, and musical administrator Richard Heuberger is represented on this CD of Dancing in Vienna by the overture to his light opera, The Opera Ball.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to collaborate once again with the Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman piano duo following their highly praised six-volume recording of the nine symphonies by Beethoven arranged for piano duet by Xaver Scharwenka-about which International Piano says, "These readings afford unmitigated pleasure... The articulation and voicing of the players persuades us into thinking we're in the middle of an unleashed virtuoso orchestra." Now, these award-winning South African-born artists present music for two pianos and piano duet from their adopted country, highlighting works by Gustav Holst and Edward Elgar. In the early 1910s, Holst became interested in astrology, and he conceived the idea of a suite for orchestra based on the solar system's individual planets. Originally, he composed The Planets on the piano, using the instrument in his newly-built, sound-proofed room in the music wing at St Paul's Girls School as well as the piano at his home in Thaxted. This version for four hands, two pianos was scored by two of his colleagues at St Paul's, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, who acted as amanuenses, because Holst suffered intermittently from painful neuritis in his right hand. Following the resounding success of the orchestrated version of The Planets, the original piano duet score was overlooked, though it was eventually published separately in 1949-51. In 1979, Holst's daughter, Imogen, reissued the complete two-piano arrangement in one volume, and Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman perform this version here. Elgar's renown was such that, at the height of his fame, several established musicians were commissioned by publishers to make piano transcriptions of his orchestral music. This was no mean feat, given that Elgar's scores are scrupulously marked as to how he wanted every phrase-sometimes even every bar or note within that phrase-to be played. It was the composer, arranger, and conductor, Otto Singer II, who made the transcription for piano four-hands of Elgar's 1905 Introduction and Allegro, scored originally for solo string quartet and string orchestra. Singer's insight and skill are evident in techniques like transferring string double-stopping to spread keyboard chords, and his piano four-hands version is admirably true to Elgar's evolving contrapuntal and harmonic ideas. In Victorian England, the marriage of a tradesman's son to the daughter of a Major-General in the British Army, who was eight years his senior, might not have appeared a perfect match. Yet, the marriage of Edward Elgar and Caroline Alice Roberts turned out to be a love-match. In 1888, as a wedding present, Edward presented to Carice, as he called her, Salut d'Amour. This enduring melody has inspired numerous arrangements for widely varying instrumental combinations, including this one for piano duet.

SOMM Recordings is excited to explore the fascinating and largely unknown repertoire of Ibero-American art songs. A shared passion for showcasing hidden jewels of Latin American song inspired the collaboration of Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong and Portuguese pianist Joao Araujo, who began their partnership while studying at the Royal College of Music. Julieth received the 2018 RCM President's Award presented by RCM President, HM King Charles III. She won the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Audience Prize in the 2023 Cardiff Singer of the World competition and was recently named one of Opera Wire's Top Ten Rising Stars. Joao was awarded best collaborative pianist prizes at the Concours Musical International de Montreal in Canada and the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards at Wigmore Hall, and he has been nominated for the Gerald Moore Award. Their recital includes songs in Spanish and Portuguese from seven countries. Reflecting Argentina is "Dance of Two Brothers" by the Impressionistic composer Carlos Guastavino, and "Cancion de cuna India," a haunting lullaby by Gilardo Gilardi, inspired by Argentina's indigenous music. Maria Grever was the first Mexican female composer to gain international success. Her innate melodic gifts are evident in "My Soul" and "You Said 'I Love You'." "Uirapuru," by Brazilian composer Waldemar Henrique, describes the song of the so-named musician wren, while the evocative "Bluebird" by compatriot, Jayme Ovalle, was embraced by sopranos like Victoria de Los Angeles and Montserrat Caballe, and baritone Gerard Souzay. Ernani Braga's gift for transforming Afro-Brazilian musical elements is underscored in a song reflecting Brazilian folk religion and a sugar-mill workers' song. The simple originality of Spanish composer, Maria de Pablos Cerezo, who tragically spent her final decades in a mental institution, is heard here in "The Water Wheel." Ernesto Halffter's much-admired arrangement of a popular fado, "Oh, What a Beautiful Girl" is followed by two selections arranged by the Spanish poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca: "The Moorish girls from Jaen" and "Sevillian Lullaby." Barcelona native Fernando Obradors conjures the Andalusian dance, "El vito," and from zarzuela composer, Joaquin "Quinito" Valverde Sanjuan, we have his sublime "Carnations." "Lullaby to Put Albertico to Bed" and "Rojo," a description of sunset, reflect the folkloric research by Venezuelan musicologist-composer, Modesta Bor. Colombia is represented by the haunting lullaby, "Promises So You Can Sleep" from Luis Carlos Figueroa Sierra; a loving picture of a country girl, "La campesina," by Jaime Leon Ferro; and "Four Questions" from a heartbroken lover by Pedro Morales Pino. The recital ends with two songs from Portugal. "The Willows" by Luis Costa is one of the gems of Portuguese art song. Finally, from Antonio Fragoso, a victim of the 1918 influenza epidemic, we have "Cradling the Little Boy."

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release Clarinet Concertos, four works for solo clarinet and wind orchestra, including two world-premiere recordings. The soloist is the English clarinettist, Peter Cigleris, who enjoys a wide and varied career and is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician. His burgeoning career as a clarinet soloist has taken him to Festivals in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. Recently, he was invited to perform in Gyor, Hungary for the European Clarinet Festival, which led to a special invitation from the Gyor Symphonic Band to record four hugely enjoyable concertos for clarinet and wind orchestra. These are conducted by Laszlo Marosi, the world's foremost authority on Hungarian wind music, and Ferenc Szabo, the founder of the Gyor Symphonic Band. This release opens with the premiere recording of Concerto Semplice for clarinet and wind orchestra by the prolific Hungarian composer Frigyes Hidas (1928-2007). The concerto is written in a direct, almost classical, tonal language that portrays the composer's belief in traditional forms and syntax. Cigleris has given premiere performances of a number of new works for the clarinet, and he played the first performance of Sonatina in One Movement by the award-winning British composer Simon Milton. So, when composing his Concerto for Clarinet and Band, Milton knew that he "could push what I felt was playable and turn it into a challenge, whilst also maintaining a lyrical and sweet sound to the clarinet part." SOMM presents the premiere recording here. The Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Orchestra, written in 2014 by American composer David Maslanka (1943-2017), is an imposing composition in two large movements: "Lamentation" and "Dance." He described these as relating to "old forms such as the toccata and fugue - a free improvisatory movement followed by a rhythmically energized and formally strict second movement." This collection closes with a Clarinet Concerto from 2010 by one of the leading Japanese composers of music for wind instruments, Satoshi Yagisawa (b.1975). The work has achieved great popularity and is considered a major contribution to the composer's "Concerto Series." It is written in the traditional three-movement concerto form, played attacca with linking cadenzas for the clarinet solo. Peter Cigleris's previous collaborations with SOMM include Eclogue - British Chamber Music (SOMMCD 0653) and a full disc of first recordings, Dedication: The Clarinet Chamber Music of Ruth Gipps (SOMMCD 0641). This includes Gripps's Clarinet Sonata, one of the finest such works by any British composer, for which she won the Cobbett Prize of the Society of Women Musicians. The Gramophone review praised Cigleris and accompanist Duncan Honeybourne as "ideal executants in an account I cannot see being bettered any time soon." This recording features the Eusebius Quartet, formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this instrumentation, and praised as "excellent" by The Sunday Times. Their debut CD for SOMM of the Korngold Piano Quintet & Quartet (SOMMCD 0642) received critical acclaim: "Wit and clarity abound in the Quartet's Viennese-sounding performances," The Strad; "The musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface, but direct and straight from the heart," BBC Music Magazine. Elgar and Faure met once at the time of the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908. Although Faure spoke no English and Elgar's French wasn't exactly conversational, it's fascinating to compare the musical language of their two quartets, both in the key of E minor, and written late in the composers' lives. Edward Elgar was a more than competent violinist, and he made several attempts throughout his career to write a string quartet. Finally, ill and depressed by war-time London in 1918, he completed his String Quartet, Op. 83. It is cast in three movements, the outer Allegro movements bookending one marked Piacevole (poco andante). This slow middle movement, which contains a quotation from Elgar's Chanson de Matin, was a favourite of Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine." It was played at her funeral in 1920. Gabriel Faure composed his only String Quartet, Op. 121 in 1924, shortly before his death at the age of 79. By this time, he had been totally deaf for some years, and the quartet suggests a mind driven within itself in a way that hints at Beethoven's Late String Quartets. This final work of Faure presents an extraordinary duality, which masks the romantic ideas of his earlier music with what the English composer and writer Robert Matthew-Walker calls "a soft steely twilight that at times appears almost menacing." As with Elgar's quartet, the central Andante movement particularly captures the imagination with it's musical colouration suggesting a world of half-lights.

The newest release from SOMM Recordings is an unusual but exciting pairing of two string quartets by British and French contemporaries Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Gabriel Faure (1845-1924). Also included is a collection of shorter gems transcribed for string quartet by the British composer, arranger, and pianist Iain Farrington. These comprise Elgar's Carissima (originally composed for small orchestra) and selections from Faure's Piano Preludes: Nos. 4, 8, and 9, this last described by Aaron Copland as being "so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." This recording features the Eusebius Quartet, formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this instrumentation, and praised as "excellent" by The Sunday Times. Their debut CD for SOMM of the Korngold Piano Quintet & Quartet (SOMMCD 0642) received critical acclaim: "Wit and clarity abound in the Quartet's Viennese-sounding performances, " The Strad; "The musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface, but direct and straight from the heart, " BBC Music Magazine. Elgar and Faure met once at the time of the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908. Although Faure spoke no English and Elgar's French wasn't exactly conversational, it's fascinating to compare the musical language of their two quartets, both in the key of E minor, and written late in the composers' lives. Edward Elgar was a more than competent violinist, and he made several attempts throughout his career to write a string quartet. Finally, ill and depressed by war-time London in 1918, he completed his String Quartet, Op. 83. It is cast in three movements, the outer Allegro movements bookending one marked Piacevole (poco andante). This slow middle movement, which contains a quotation from Elgar's Chanson de Matin, was a favourite of Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine." It was played at her funeral in 1920. Gabriel Faure composed his only String Quartet, Op. 121 in 1924, shortly before his death at the age of 79. By this time, he had been totally deaf for some years, and the quartet suggests a mind driven within itself in a way that hints at Beethoven's Late String Quartets. This final work of Faure presents an extraordinary duality, which masks the romantic ideas of his earlier music with what the English composer and writer Robert Matthew-Walker calls "a soft steely twilight that at times appears almost menacing." As with Elgar's quartet, the central Andante movement particularly captures the imagination with it's musical colouration suggesting a world of half-lights.

Spring Fire, the newest release from SOMM Recordings, highlights the complete music for cello and piano by Arnold Bax (1883-1953), with Alexander Baillie, recognized as one of the finest cellists of his generation, and pianist John Thwaites, his long-time musical partner. The Baillie-Thwaites Duo has capitalized on concert performances of the greatest twentieth-century British music over the last decade, and, with this recording, continues it's enduring partnership with SOMM. The release takes it's title from an early masterpiece by Bax, Spring Fire, a Symphony for Orchestra from 1913. Coming from a particularly fruitful period when Bax wrote a series of symphonic poems of consistently high quality, it may well have been inspired by his love for the beautiful young pianist Harriet Cohen. Theirs was a passionate love affair and a fertile artistic partnership that lasted forty years. Through force of circumstance, not least of which was World War I, Spring Fire was never performed during Bax's lifetime; but he repurposed the haunting melody from it's opening movement, In the forest before dawn, for the slow movement of the Cello Sonata in E flat minor. Performances of this three-movement Cello Sonata are vanishingly rare, which makes the present release all the more important. The recording opens with a little-known gem, the Folk-Tale for cello and piano. It is a gorgeous work dedicated to the English cellist, Felix Salmond, who gave the first performance at Wigmore Hall on 27 April 1918 with Bax at the piano. The first two works on this disc are linked to a fantasy world, while the last two are written with formal clarity and concision. In 1933, Bax dedicated his Sonatina for Cello to the legendary cellist, Pablo Casals, and it fulfils it's slight brief with barely a repeated note. The Legend-Sonata was commissioned by and dedicated to the English cellist Florence Hooton. She gave the premiere at Wigmore Hall on 10 November 1943 with Bax's muse and lover, Harriet Cohen, as the pianist. The sweeping survey of twentieth-century cello repertoire that the Baillie-Thwaites duo has undertaken for SOMM includes a double CD of Twentieth-Century Sonatas for Cello and Piano (SOMMCD 251-2) and The British Cello (SOMMCD 0175). The Observer has praised "Baillie's rewardingly intelligent playing... matched by Thwaites's warm, generous, perfectly judged pianism;" and BBC Music Magazine says "It isn't just the excellence of Alexander Baillie's and John Thwaites's playing, but that they invest each work with the power of utter belief." This CD is dedicated to the memory of the Bax scholar Graham Parlett, who, in preparation for this recording, supported the UK performances of these works given by the Baillie-Thwaites duo. Henry Purcell was at the height of his powers at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which saw King William III and his wife Queen Mary II crowned as joint British monarchs. Queen Mary was an avid lover of dance, which led to it being a regular and expected part of Restoration theatrical productions. Purcell's first great operatic work, Dido and Aeneas from the late 1680s, included no less than seventeen original dances. Purcell wrote in every form-ranging from theatre and church to concerts and balls-and his music dominated public demand in almost every genre. His success led to requests for music of all kinds, particularly dance movements, either singly or forming parts of suites for the keyboard. At the time, there was a growing fashion for French keyboard music, and Purcell willingly accepted the structural influences from that school. And yet, his music remained infused with the individual expression of an undoubtedly English composer. Tragically, Purcell died at the peak of his career on 21 November 1695 at his home in London. He is believed to have been 35 or 36 years old at the time. A year after his death, Purcell's widow, Frances, posthumously published A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet. These eight suites, long overshadowed by his more celebrated theatre works, are the core of Purcell's keyboard output, shifting from major to minor keys, from humour to seriousness, to create a uniquely expressive musical world. The suites incorporate French dance forms like the Almand, Corante, and Minuet, and the Spanish Saraband, which Purcell imbued with a quintessentially British idiom. This finds particular expression in movements like a Corante that deftly incorporates tunes from Ireland and Scotland; a brilliant Jigg that seems to catch the listener unawares; and a burly Hornpipe that draws on earlier incidental music. Cristian Sandrin intersperses Purcell's posthumously published eight keyboard suites with occasional additions from other works, and his recital concludes with the beautiful Sefauchi's Farewell. Purcell was deeply impressed on hearing one of the greatest of all castrati, the Italian 'Sefauchi' (Giovanni Francesco Grossi), in London. This keyboard work is a tribute from one noble musician to another.

With Ukraine's defence of it's sovereign nation against Russia's invasion in the news and in our conscience, SOMM releases a timely recording that pays tribute to a rich heritage of Ukrainian music that was long subsumed by the former USSR. Margaret Fingerhut, described by Gramophone as a pianist of "consummate skill and thrilling conviction," has become increasingly involved in using the power of music to raise money for charitable causes. In 2019, drawing on the stories and music of composers who had to leave their homelands because of war or persecution, she undertook a major recital tour, performing "Far from the Home I Love" at thirty-two venues across the UK to raise money for refugees. In 2022 she collaborated with a young Ukrainian film-maker on a powerful video in support of Ukraine. Margaret Fingerhut was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours in recognition of her services to music and charitable fundraising. For SOMM's recording, UKRAINE: A Piano Portrait, she has selected works written between 1877 and 2005 for a deeply personal recital featuring composers from the country of her grandfather's birth. Mykola Lysenko, the earliest Ukrainian composer represented here, published a definitive ethnological study of the Ukrainian Dumky, and his Dumka-Shumka is from the opening pages of his second piano rhapsody on Ukrainian folk themes. We owe our knowledge of Lysenko's music to his pupil and editor, Lev Revutsky, who fell foul of new Stalinist cultural demands in the 1930s, but later revisited earlier compositions that include Three Preludes and Improvisation. Viktor Kosenko, a contemporary of Revutsky, also pursued his composing career in Ukraine, and his expressive Nocturne comes from a set of etudes for Piano in the Form of Old Dances. The opening and closing pieces in this collection are by Sergei Bortkiewicz, who suffered under both Soviet and Nazi tyrannies. Les Rochers d'Outche-Coche is the first of three Sketches of the Crimea, while Consolation is from a group of eight Lamentations et Consolations. From Vasyl Barvinsky, who shared Bortkiewicz's adoption of late-Romantic Impressionism, we have Two Preludes and Loneliness - the sorrow of love from his piano cycle, Love. Boris Lystoshynsky, whose featured works are the Elegy-Prelude 'Mourning' and Two Preludes on Ukrainian Folk Songs, survived the Zhdanov Decree in the 1940s, which aimed to control Soviet culture and art; while the most contemporary Ukrainian composer on this recital, Valentin Silvestrov, fled to Berlin to re-establish his career following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His Three Bagatelles are written in a neo-classical, post-modernist musical language. Royalty sales from this recording will go towards British-Ukrainian Aid, which raises money for emergency vehicles and medical supplies for Ukraine.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release the first-ever recording on piano of the eight keyboard suites by one of England's greatest creative artists, Henry Purcell (1659 -1695). Making his SOMM debut is the Romanian-British pianist Cristian Sandrin, who is building a career in the UK as a rising young artist following his debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall in 2017. Reviewers have noted "Sandrin's generous sonorities issue forth in marvellous diversity," Fanfare Magazine; and "An immaculately played recital," Music Web International. Henry Purcell was at the height of his powers at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which saw King William III and his wife Queen Mary II crowned as joint British monarchs. Queen Mary was an avid lover of dance, which led to it being a regular and expected part of Restoration theatrical productions. Purcell's first great operatic work, Dido and Aeneas from the late 1680s, included no less than seventeen original dances. Purcell wrote in every form-ranging from theatre and church to concerts and balls-and his music dominated public demand in almost every genre. His success led to requests for music of all kinds, particularly dance movements, either singly or forming parts of suites for the keyboard. At the time, there was a growing fashion for French keyboard music, and Purcell willingly accepted the structural influences from that school. And yet, his music remained infused with the individual expression of an undoubtedly English composer. Tragically, Purcell died at the peak of his career on 21 November 1695 at his home in London. He is believed to have been 35 or 36 years old at the time. A year after his death, Purcell's widow, Frances, posthumously published A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet. These eight suites, long overshadowed by his more celebrated theatre works, are the core of Purcell's keyboard output, shifting from major to minor keys, from humour to seriousness, to create a uniquely expressive musical world. The suites incorporate French dance forms like the Almand, Corante, and Minuet, and the Spanish Saraband, which Purcell imbued with a quintessentially British idiom. This finds particular expression in movements like a Corante that deftly incorporates tunes from Ireland and Scotland; a brilliant Jigg that seems to catch the listener unawares; and a burly Hornpipe that draws on earlier incidental music. Cristian Sandrin intersperses Purcell's posthumously published eight keyboard suites with occasional additions from other works, and his recital concludes with the beautiful Sefauchi's Farewell. Purcell was deeply impressed on hearing one of the greatest of all castrati, the Italian 'Sefauchi' (Giovanni Francesco Grossi), in London. This keyboard work is a tribute from one noble musician to another.

Multi-part music for the same instrument, dating back to Elizabethan consorts of viols, remains outside the typical orchestral repertoire nowadays, but as ever, SOMM remains true to it's stellar reputation for presenting rare and singular releases. Habanera, Music for Eight Cellos and Voice is a joyous recording that grew out of a collaboration between baritone Roderick Williams and cellist Joely Koos, joint Artistic Directors at the 2023 Endellion Summer Music Festival. The camaraderie enjoyed by the artists and the Endellion Cellists was particularly strong, and a special concert was devised for cello ensemble and voice featuring British-Spanish soprano Ana Beard Fernandez.  Now, SOMM presents the formidable Endellion Cellists, soprano Ana Beard Fernandez, and baritone Roderick Williams in a recording of these two artists' uniquely colourful arrangements. The musicians are led by award-winning choral, orchestral, and operatic conductor William Vann. As an added bonus, Roderick Williams plays eighth cello, and recorder-player Iain Hall joins the artists for this recital of shared pleasure and a sense of fun that is palpable. The programme opens with the most famous original composition for cello ensemble: Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 for soprano solo and eight cellos. From the set of nine Bach-inspired Brazilian pieces by Heitor Villa-Lobos, it's two movements are a haunting A´ria and a Danc¸a inspired by a Brazilian saudades song. When the Spanish composer and pianist Manuel de Falla was asked by a soprano for his advice about Spanish songs, he was inspired to arrange some himself. The result was Siete Canciones Populares based on seven folksongs from different parts of Spain, for which he composed wholly original accompaniment, here transcribed for eight cellos. The best-known works by Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge are born of his fascination for the music of the Antilles and West Indian music. His Cinco canciones Negras came out of this aesthetic, and are among the finest examples of late twentieth-century Spanish art-song. The individual songs that make up the second half of this recital include the haunting Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera by Maurice Ravel, who was born in Basque country near the Spanish border. Three varied songs collected as Tres Canciones include I am madness by the seventeenth-century French composer Henri du Bailly; an anonymous song, So the Oak; and Black Shadow from Six Galician Ballads by the nineteenth-century Spanish composer Xoan Montes. Two twentieth-century Russian songs are the much-transcribed Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff from his Melodies; and a relatively unknown gem by Dmitri Shostakovich, Farewell, Granada, from Six Traditional Spanish Folksongs. By way of a rambunctious encore, the recital closes with the duet, Forêts paisibles (Peaceful forests) by the eighteenth-century French master Jean Philippe Rameau from his opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes.

In it's latest release, SOMM Recordings focuses on Ivor Gurney, Arthur Bliss, and Gerald Finzi who, each in their own distinct way, played a pivotal role in the rapid transformation of English pastoralism in early twentieth-century British Music. Ian Venables' music, also included on this disc, draws on a lineage that includes Gurney, Bliss, and Finzi, yet it incorporates modernist elements, creating a style that is uniquely his own. The seven works for violin and piano by Ivor Gurney-appearing here for the first time-come from 1908-1909, pre-dating his studies in London with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. They include the poignant Elgarian Chanson Triste; In September and In August; a Romance; a Legende; a melodic Folk Tale; and a rare attempt at a lighter mood with a Humoreske. Arthur Bliss was wounded in the Battle of the Somme, and his single-movement Violin Sonata marks a transition in his musical style in response to the emotional and cultural upheaval of the War. Bridging the pastoral warmth of his early influences with the bold innovations that would soon define his voice, the sonata captures the last traces of English pastoral romanticism in Bliss's output. The Elegy for Violin and Piano by Gerald Finzi exudes a pastoral tranquillity, but beneath it's serene surface lies a complex emotional landscape shaped by the personal grief of losing his three brothers and his beloved teacher, Ernest Farrar, in World War I. This present performance also emphasises the Elegy's contrapuntal texture and rhythmic precision, which show the influence of Bach, a cornerstone of Finzi's musical inspiration. The recital opens and closes with works by Ian Venables, widely regarded as one of Britain's most accomplished living composers. His two-movement Sonata from 1989 begins with a melancholic dialogue of introspective lyricism between the violin and piano. By contrast, the second movement exhibits a virtuosic interplay of the instruments. The Three Pieces for Violin and Piano come from 1986, shortly after Venables moved to Worcester, and they capture his response to the Severn Valley landscape. The opening Pastorale conveys a tranquil yet expressive simplicity; the Romance is more reflective and introspective; while the final Dance showcases Venables's ability to inject energy and playfulness into his music. The award-winning Taiwanese violinist Joe Chu-Yu Yang, whose career in Britain is beginning to flourish, is a passionate advocate for British music and founder of the British Music Festival in Taiwan. He performs in recital as a duo with Eric McElroy, described by Musical Opinion as "one of the leading composer-pianists of his generation." Eric's debut CD, Tongues of Fire, featuring his own works for piano and tenor, was released on SOMMCD 0665.

Following the success of Prokofiev Milestones Vol. 1, SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the release of the second volume of Prokofiev Milestones featuring the Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovsek and Spanish pianist Maria Canyigueral. For Russian composers born in the last decades of the nineteenth-century, the October Revolution of 1917 was cataclysmic. Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) was born in Ukraine, known at that time as 'Little Russia,' and he sought exile in the United States in 1918. By 1924, he had appeared as soloist in his first three piano concertos in London. But the pull of his homeland remained strong, and in the mid 1930s he decided to return. The initial works that Prokofiev produced in the Soviet Union-the film score for Lieutenant Kije, the children's tale Peter and the Wolf, and the ballet Romeo and Juliet-enjoyed wide public success. It was against this backdrop that Prokofiev began work on his First Violin Sonata, Op. 80, one of his most serious works with a singular depth of expression. The second sonata on this release was commissioned by the Soviet Committee of Arts Affairs. The Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 115 is a remarkably approachable work in neo-classical style. It wasn't publicly performed until six years after Prokofiev's death due to a decree in 1948 condemning the 'formalism' of much contemporary Soviet music. This recording also includes four transcriptions. During his first visit to America in 1918, Prokofiev composed a short suite for solo piano, Tales of an Old Grandmother. The second tale, an evocative piece with a nostalgic character, was later transcribed by the Russian-born violinist, Nathan Milstein. While in California, Prokofiev composed a set of songs without words, Five Melodies for soprano vocalise and piano. Five years later, in 1925, he arranged the pieces for violin and piano. After his return to the Soviet Union, and following the success of Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev produced another highly successful ballet, Cinderella. Five pieces from the ballet were transcribed by the Soviet violinist Mikhail Fichtenholz for recital repertoire. In 1939, Jascha Heifetz published his transcription of the March from Prokofiev's 1921 opera, The Love of Three Oranges, which won praise from the composer himself. Prokofiev's instrument was the piano. This fact makes his lasting contributions to the violin repertoire, and his deep understanding of the inherent nature of the instrument, all the more remarkable. Of Vol 1: "a real coup for die-hard fans of my grandfather" Gabriel Prokofiev "This is an intriguing start to a series by imaginative and sensitive musicians."  "... both Boris Bizjak (flute) and Lana Trotovsek (violin) advocate for their respective versions with great affection and sympathy for the style. The well-balanced contribution of pianist Maria Canyigueral allows both flute and violin to take flight over a broad palette of timbres." Gramophone (Maria Frolova-Walker) "Sterling performances. Certainly, Prokofiev is in good hands." Textura

SOMM Recordings brings it's major six-volume series of Franz Xaver Scharwenka's transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies to a close with his 9th Symphony, the monumental Choral Symphony. Since the first volume, listeners have eagerly awaited each new release in the series from duo pianists, Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman. As Ates Orga has noted in International Piano Magazine, "What in July 2021 began as something of a curio outing has blossomed into a major recording landmark." Beethoven first conceived the idea of setting Schiller's Ode to Joy to music when he was in his twenties; an early iteration of the theme in the song, Returned Love, comes from before 1795. His Choral Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra followed in 1808, when he was thirty-eight. By the time he conducted his Choral Symphony No. 9 in D minor in Vienna on May 7, 1824, aged fifty-four, Beethoven was completely deaf. One of the iconic images in music history is that of the soprano gently turning him around, so he could see the rapturous response from the audience that he was unable to hear. The work had broken all barriers in terms of conception, duration, compositional power, and the incorporation of voices in the finale. The impact of the Choral Symphony was instantaneous and lasting. It was printed by Schott and Company within 18 months, and there were immediate demands for keyboard transcriptions. Given the forces that Beethoven employed in his 9th Symphony, transcribing the work for piano is challenging to say the least. The German pianist and composer, Xaver Scharwenka, was a student of Theodor Kullak, who had studied with Beethoven's pupil, Carl Czerny, thus providing Scharwenka with a singular musical line leading back to Beethoven. His duet transcriptions of all nine Beethoven Symphonies, published in 1905, still remain a touchstone for musical understanding of the cycle. The Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman Piano Duo began their in-concert exploration of Scharwenka's four-hand Beethoven transcriptions in 2015. Their recording of these transcriptions for SOMM began in 2023 with volumes 1 to 5 receiving ecstatic reviews. Vol I (SOMMCD 0637) "Utterly beguiling, " BBC Music magazine. Vol 2 (SOMMCD 0650) "The performances are state-of-the-art, " BBC Music magazine. Vol 3 (SOMMCD 0666) "Clarity, conviction and impressive unanimity, " Gramophone; "CD of the Week, " Sunday Times. Vol 4 (SOMMCD 0677) "so musical... so Beethovenian as to defy criticism, " Musical Opinion. Vol 5 (SOMMCD 0687) "remarkable ensemble synchronicity, " Jed Distler, Gramophone. Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman have long-established careers. Uys has been awarded the MacFarren Medal by the Royal Academy of Music, where she is an Associate, and she has an impressive reputation as a concert and broadcasting performer at major venues throughout the world. Schoeman is a Steinway artist who has performed in prestigious concert halls on several continents. Both pianists are past winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition.

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was-to characterize him in contemporary terms-a workaholic, thanks to which we have, amongst his 3,000-plus works, his two sets of marvellously rich Paris Quartets. SOMM Recordings is pleased to release TELEMANN Paris Quartets Volume 1: 6 Quadri, featuring leading period-instrument specialists from The London Handel Players, praised by the New York Times for their "soulful depth" and their "consummate skill and musicianship." At the height of his phenomenal productivity, Telemann held the positions of Kantor at the Johanneum Lateinschule in Hamburg; Kapellmeister to the five largest churches in the city; and Director of the Hamburg Opera. He also had obligations to the courts in Eisenach and Bayreuth. As if that wasn't enough, he embarked on an ambitious project of self-publication of his works. Amongst these were Quartets for violin, flute, viola da gamba or cello, and continuo; divided into 2. Concertos, 2. Ballets, 2. Sonatas. The first set of quartets, or quadri, was published in Hamburg - certainly by 1730 though the exact date is unknown - and such was their popularity that they were republished in Paris by Le Clerc in 1736 without Telemann's permission. It would seem that this prompted him to make a long-awaited visit to the French capital where he stayed for eight months in 1737-38. While there, he composed a second glorious set of quartets, naming his two collections Quadri and Nouveaux Quatuors. In the latter part of the 20th century, the editors of the Telemann Musikalische Werke titled the two sets collectively as The Paris Quartets, by which name we still know them. As their extended title indicates, the Quadri are not six works of the same genre. Instead, they comprise two Italianate concertos, two German-style sonatas, and two Balletti or suites of French dances, bringing together a variety of national styles. The ensemble of London Handel Players is flexible in size, consisting primarily of strings, flute/recorder, and harpsichord. The featured musicians on SOMM's first volume of the Paris Quartets by Telemann are Rachel Brown, flute; Adrian Butterfield, violin; Gavin Kibble, viola da gamba; Sarah McMahon, cello; and Silas Wollston, harpsichord. The London Handel Players' critically acclaimed discography for SOMM includes five discs of Handel chamber music: his Trio sonatas Opp. 2 (SOMMCD 084) and 5 (SOMMCD 044); his Complete Sonatas and Works for Violin & Continuo (SOMMCD 068); and two volumes titled Handel at Home (SOMMCD 055) and Total Eclipse, Handel at Home Vol. 2 (SOMMCD 0676).   David Vickers, reviewing Handel at Home for Gramophone, wrote, "Their consummate musicianship is consistently delightful: sparkling violin-playing (often with two players in perfect unison) and superb continuo contributions are just as impressive as Rachel Brown's poetic flute solos."

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce a release devoted to the singular 20th century Spanish composer and pianist, Manuel de Falla, with three late-Romantic scores that capture the very essence of Spain: The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Seven Spanish Folksongs. Against the backdrop of the First World War, Falla found fame and recognition in Spain as not only a leading composer, but one with a growing international reputation. This status was confirmed when Sergei Diaghilev commissioned the ballet, El sombrero de tres picos, for the Ballet Russes to perform in London in 1919, with stage designs by Pablo Picasso. The ballet, like the novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon that inspired it, incorporates Spanish storytelling that conjures up everyday village life, and Falla's music is rich in echoes of traditional Spanish folk tunes. Following a musically enriching sojourn in Paris from 1907 to 1914, Falla returned to Spain with the completed Siete canciones populares españolas and sketches for what would become Noches en los jardines de España. Subtitled 'symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra,' Noches en los jardines de España is a three-movement portrayal of the sounds and sights of Falla's native Andalusia rendered magical under the cover of darkness. Following the premiere in Madrid in 1916, Falla himself was the soloist for the work's first performance in London in 1921. While El sombrero de tres picos and Noches en los jardines de España were Falla's imaginative evocations of Spanish folk music, both the texts and the melodies of Siete canciones populares españolas were traditional, although Falla's original arrangement for soprano and piano added much to the effectiveness of these songs from different regions of Spain. This work is one of Falla's most arranged compositions; the orchestrated version here is by Luciano Berio. This recording features the Ulster Orchestra with their Principal Guest Conductor, Jac van Steen. The soloist for Noches en los jardines de España is the London based Brazilian pianist, Clelia Iruzun, one of SOMM's long-time collaborators and treasured artists. She is undoubtedly amongst the finest pianists in South American and Iberian repertoire currently performing in Europe, and several composers have dedicated works to her. The prize-winning Irish mezzo soprano, Sarah Richmond, is making her CD debut in Siete canciones populares españolas. Jac van Steen's previous SOMM releases include acclaimed recordings of Mozart piano concertos with Peter Donohoe and Valerie Tryon (SOMMCD 278-2); The Deeper the Blue, an intriguing exploration of colour and timbre in music featuring Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Dutilleux, and Kenneth Hesketh (SOMMCD 275); and the International Classical Music Awards-nominated pairing of concertos by Albeniz and Mignone with Clelia Iruzun (SOMMCD 265).

To mark the November 2014 publication of Philip Glass's 20 Etudes for piano, SOMM Recordings is proud to release a 10th Anniversary Special Edition of Philip Glass Selected Etudes performed by the versatile and eclectic pianist and composer, Giusto Di Lallo. Di Lallo poses a question to his audience that is typical of his creative vision: "Why offer the public another recording of Glass's Piano Etudes when there are already dozens of them out there?" The answer is that when he first acquired the sheet music for the Etudes and began to analyse and study them, he was struck, "almost with disappointment," by the fact that many pianists had deliberately transformed the sense of some of the Etudes. The main discrepancies that caught Di Lallo's attention were primarily regarding the tempi, although he also realized that pianists had often altered the dynamics and phrasing as well. In wishing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the publication of Glass's Etudes then, Di Lallo chose a selection of the pieces, and attempted to stay as faithful as possible to the original intentions of the composer. Using a scholarly approach, he adhered strictly to the score to preserve the tempi, dynamics, and phrasing exactly as noted. His aim was to restore the work to it's original spirit and present the Etudes in their most authentic form, creating a sort of reset point after ten years of several "personal" interpretations. Piano etudes, or studies, come from a long compositional tradition. Initially, they were intended as exercises for pianists to master a specific aspect of keyboard technique-be that scales, arpeggios, trills, and the like. During the 19th Century, in the hands of composers such as Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and Brahms, the etude evolved into a true art form. That tradition continued into the 20th Century with composers like Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Debussy. It is within this tradition that Philip Glass's Etudes find their place. Composer-pianist, Philip Glass, widely known as one of the most celebrated and prolific of contemporary composers, describes his work as "music with repetitive structures." His unique style is strongly recognizable in each of the 20 Etudes, and he has referred to them as a self-portrait of sorts. Until their publication in November 2014, he was almost the only person who had performed the pieces live. Giusto Di Lallo is renowned for an innovative approach that bridges genres and cultures. Since 1996, he has been a dynamic presence on the concert scene, making more than 1,800 appearances both as a solo pianist and accompanist. His performances showcase a wide-ranging repertoire that spans classical, contemporary, and experimental music. Recent concerts include a series-held in both Italy and the UK-featuring Philip Glass's Etudes for piano, selections of which he now presents in this anniversary release.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce an exciting new album from the London Chamber Ensemble and violinist and director Madeleine Mitchell of premiere recordings of early 20th century English string music by Herbert Howells and his Royal College of Music teacher Charles Wood, including the recently discovered earlier version of "In Gloucestershire", thought lost, alongside two delightful short pieces, Luchinushka and Chosen Tune, newly arranged by Madeleine Mitchell. Herbert Howells first composed a string quartet entitled "In Gloucestershire" in 1916, though the score was immediately lost. He began re-composing the work a few years later before announcing it's completion in 1920. Following early performances and revisions, this version also disappeared. However, in the 1980s it emerged that a set of parts of the original 1920 version had survived, and it is this version, newly constructed and edited by the author of the booklet notes, Jonathan Clinch, and cellist Joseph Spooner who also features on this disc. Howell's Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 28 is also from this same period. The title of No. 2, "Chosen Tune", refers to Chosen Hill, Howell's birthplace near Gloucester, which affords beautiful views of the surrounding countryside where he enjoyed walking. Mitchell first performed these three pieces at the St. Petersburg Festival of British Music in 2009. Having played the Three Pieces... in many countries since 2009, Mitchell arranged two of these, "Chosen Tune" and "Luchinushka" for a quartet program to be given at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London in January of 2022. The Charles Wood Quartet in D major was his last string quartet and most likely composed during the years of the First World War after the premiere of his Quartet in F major on 7 March 1916. This well crafted work incorporates Irish jigs, folk tunes and laments which reflect both his Irish roots and the growing sense of nationalism celebrating British Music during the period. Woods' music, along with many other early 20th century writers of tonal music, fell out of fashion during the decades that followed, but as this recording shows, SOMM considers the music very well worth re-discovering and plans to record Wood's remaining five numbered quartets in future.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to present Music for Two Pianos by the French virtuoso pianist and composer, Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921), whose output for solo and duo pianists totals almost 200 compositions. The programme on this release comprises original works for two pianos alongside selections transcribed by Saint-Saens from his orchestral pieces. The featured pianists, Artur Pizarro and Ludovico Troncanetti, made their piano duo debut in Lisbon in 2023 with a recital featuring the repertoire on this album. The artists share a love of performing two-piano and four-hands repertoire, and they have plans to continue their collaboration with further projects on stage and in the studio. The renowned Portuguese pianist, Artur Pizarro, winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition amongst others, performs internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with the world's leading orchestras and conductors. The Italian pianist, Ludovico Troncanetti, is a graduate of the Milan Conservatory and is actively involved in reviving the works of the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. The recital opens with Saint-Saens' transcription of Le Rouet d'Omphale (Omphale's Spinning-Wheel), the most famous of his four symphonic poems inspired by Greco-Roman mythology. Both this work and the Marche heroique had their premiere in the original version for two pianos, the march seeming to presage the war that broke out between France and Prussia in July 1870. The first and most substantial of Saint-Saens' original two-piano works is a set of Variations on a Theme of Beethoven, based on the Trio section of the Minuet from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18, the Hunt. The eight variations plus a fugue, presto, and coda require considerable ensemble skill from the pianists to pull off. From 1886-the year of the Organ Symphony and The Carnival of the Animals-comes Saint-Saens' tribute to Chopin, whom he had passionately admired since he was a student. Saint-Saens vividly evokes the spirit of the Polonaise without actually quoting any of Chopin's own works inspired by the national dance of his native Poland. Saint-Saens frequently wintered in North Africa; in fact he died in Algiers in December 1921. During an 1889 trip to Las Palmas in Northern Africa, he began composing his Scherzo for two pianos. It's a work with echoes of Debussy, Ravel, and Satie, which he cautioned would be difficult to read at sight and would require much practice. Caprice arabe, along with the symphonic poem Africa and the "Egyptian" Piano Concerto, is one of a trio of piano compositions inspired by Saint-Saens' journeys to North Africa. The recital ends with another caprice, the virtuosic Caprice heroique, which leans more towards being capricious than heroic, despite it's powerful opening and fugue-like ending.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce a stunning new solo piano recital from label veteran Peter Donohoe following his recent acclaimed coupling of Chopin's Second and Third Sonatas with Rachmaninoff's Chopin Variations, over which BBC Music Magazine's Rebecca Franks enthused "Donohoe's approach has a robust honesty and an appealing straightforward feel, with an instinct for the emotional rises and falls." Now the pianist revisits Chopin in the genre for which the composer is arguably best known and loved: the waltz. Donohoe has fashioned a substantial selection of 14 of Chopin's Waltzes into a set of his own design, juxtaposing the intimate numbers with the grand and virtuosic in fortuitous key relationships that the pianist says "form a more satisfying collection" compared with simply playing them through as numbered. It is hard to imagine any other composer that could have infused a dance-form with Chopin's lyrical pianism and singular dramatic storytelling. But the waltz naturally appealed to a great many other composers, among them Robert Schumann, Chopin's exact contemporary and fervent, if unrequited admirer. His Opus 1 "Abegg" Variations, in triple-time throughout and brimming with elegant fioritura, form one of a pair of waltz bookends to the Chopin set and begin this recital with an exhilarating take-off. On the other side of the Chopin set and leading the waltz suavely into the 20th-century is Maurice Ravel's cycle of eight Valses nobles et sentimentales, again organised to contrast vigorous (noble) numbers with evocative (sentimental) counterparts in an eclectic blend of Impressionism and Modernism, but this time according to the composer's own design. A lovely postlude comes in the form of La plus que lente, in which Ravel's fellow impressionist Claude Debussy crafts a harmonically sumptuous ode to the "slow waltz" (valse lente) steeped in languid nostalgia. Peter Donohoe's acclaimed discography of previous SOMM releases includes the complete cycle of Prokofiev Piano Sonatas and a complete survey of Mozart's Piano Sonatas - Volume 1 of the Mozart series was named a BBC Music Magazine "Recording of the Month", citing "a gloves-off spontaneity that imbues these magical scores with a compelling vitality and freshness". Other discs include Stravinsky's Music for Solo Piano and Piano and Orchestra and Scriabin's Complete Piano Sonatas.

Songs are the heart of the African people. -Rebeca Omordia SOMM Recordings is excited to announce African Art Song, a continuation of pianist and "African classical music pioneer" (BBC World Service), Rebeca Omordia's exquisite exploration of African classical music repertoire in her African Pianism series, in which she partners award-winning soprano Omo Bello. Throughout, an illuminating, and frequently mesmerizing musical tapestry appears, incorporating five indigenous languages and cultures with songs that merge African and Western European musical forms with African melodies to produce songs full of simplicity, playfulness, and most importantly, joy. The repertoire recorded by the two artists ranges from the love songs of Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), to works by living composers Shirley Thompson and Errollyn Wallen, whose "Peace on Earth" has grown from a song for Christmas to a song of peace for all seasons. The plaintive longing heard in "Adura fun Alafia" (Prayer to God / Prayer of Peace," by Nigerian composer Ayo Bankole, is a prayer reflecting the depth of devastation and starvation experienced during the Nigerian Civil War, known as the Biafra War (1967-1970). Ghanian-Nigerian composer Fred Onovwerosuoke's "Twelve African Songs" are a kaleidoscope of dances, healing dances and calls on the rain. Percussionist Richard Olatunde Baker's two compositions "serve as intermission, as a way of bridging the multiple musical languages". Baker's compositions join those of Ayo Bankole, Akin Euba, Christian Onyeji, and Chijioke Ngobili as first recordings. French-Nigerian Omo Bello is the winner of many of Europe's most prestigious awards, including the Luciano Pavarotti Giovani competition (2010), Arca d'Or Prize (2013), Paris International Opera Competition (2014), and more after beginning her career as a scientist. Bello combines her talents by giving charity performances in the service of medical research associations and in working with the Operabuja festival in Nigeria to build a music conservatory and promote classical music and the lyrical arts. Nigerian-Romanian Rebeca Omordia has been labelled "a classical music game changer" (Classical Music). Her recording of Errollyn Wallen's Piano Concerto won the BBC Music's 2024 Premiere Award. Alongside her wide-ranging career as a soloist and chamber musician, she is artistic director of the African Concert Series, in residence at London's Wigmore Hall. African Pianism, Volume One was hailed by Gramophone as a "fascinating new series", featuring, "a bounty of largely unfamiliar yet richly rewarding music", and selected as a Top Album of 2022 by Canada's Textura Magazine for "the remarkable music and Omordia's sterling realization." Volume Two, was named an August 2024 Gramophone Editor's Choice.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce African Pianism, Volume 2, a new installment in a collection of piano music by African composers. Following suit from her critically acclaimed first African Pianism album, Rebeca Omordia brings us a fascinating program with no less than 8 First Recordings. Among these is the 4th in a selection of three Studies in African Pianism by Akin Euba, a Nigerian composer who makes a return on this second volume and whose “African Pianism” style, inspired by the research of Ghanaian composer J.H. Kwabena Nketia. The music of Algerian composer Salim Dada attempts to be a means by which a natural message of peace and dialogue may exist between the Arab-Muslim world and European civilization. Moroccan composer Nabil Benabdeljalil, like Akin Euba, makes a second appearance in this series with a new set of four pieces including 3 first recordings. Fellow South African Grant McLachlan contributes his arrangement for solo piano of the anti-apartheid protest song “Senzeni Na?”, which begins “What have we done? Is our sin that we are black?”. Fela Sowande, a Nigerian composer of the previous century, figures on the program with hauntingly original “K’A Mura” from 2 Preludes on Yoruba Sacred Folk Melodies. Also representing the first half of the 20th century is celebrated African American composer Florence Price in her luxuriantly pianistic Fantasie nègre.

Hailed as an "African classical music pioneer" (BBC World Service) and "a classical music game changer" (Classical Music), award-winning pianist Rebeca Omordia is an exciting virtuoso with a wide-ranging career as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the new solo piano album War Poems by phenomenal Ukrainian pianist Maria Narodytska. With this, her debut album on SOMM Recordings, she makes a bold and impassioned, yet inclusive artistic statement, using solo piano works of various historical periods, written in the midst of conflict (our own included), to ask listeners to reflect on the ravages of war and safeguard the flickering flame of hope in peace. As the vastly talented composer of a work on this recital, Narodytska writes as a Ukrainian, but performs her programme as a member of the artistic community and a world citizen. Her recital unites her own composition and that of another contemporary Ukrainian composer, Artem Liakhovych, with the war-time work of past masters: Poland's Szymanowski, who was born in the centre of modern-day Ukraine and sheltered there as he wrote his Masques near the end of World War I; his compatriot Chopin, who wrote his Opus 40 Polonaises from a new home in Paris after the Revolutions of 1830; and Shostakovich, whose Second Piano Sonata he began during a family evacuation amid the Siege of his native Leningrad (St Petersburg) in World War II. Maria Narodytska plays six of Artem Liakhovych's 24 Postludes for solo piano, his "War Notebook", composed in the wake of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Liakhovych's words: "This cycle is my reaction to the war in Ukraine, written during the evacuation in Uman. It covers all tonalities, but in a contrary motion [to the circle-of-fifths key sequence in Chopin's 24 Preludes, for example]. This is due to the importance of the postlude as an epilogue, an afterword, encoding a certain ending of time, even a reversal of it." Of Narodytska's own composition, After, she says: "I wrote this piece shortly before the recording, and for me it is a direct reflection of the war in Ukraine. While writing it, I was imagining what happens after one gets a call that no one would want to get or reads the news that no one would like to read. It's the kind of 'after' as in: 'life got divided into before and after'." A prize winner of the Takamatsu, Santa Cecilia and WorldVision International Music Competitions, Maria Narodytska has also achieved wins in many more major competitions while continuing to give concerts worldwide and serving as a much sought-after teacher and jury member.

SOMM Recordings proudly announces this fifth and penultimate release in the complete cycle of the Beethoven Symphonies arranged for piano four-hands by the great Polish-German composer and pianist Xaver Scharwenka. This is a series that has consistently had listeners "waiting impatiently for the next volume" (MusicWeb International). Of the many piano-duo versions of the Symphonies, Scharwenka's benefit from an unbroken link back to Beethoven himself, for the arranger was a piano student of Franz Kullak, who in turn studied under the master symphonist's pupil Carl Czerny. The present Volume 5 adds Symphonies 4 & 8 to the collection, coupled with Ferruccio Busoni's two-piano transcription of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture BV B 93, leaving only Beethoven's "Choral" Ninth still to be released on the series' concluding instalment. The performers undertaking this monumental recording project, the "phenomenal" piano duo of Tessa Uys & Ben Schoeman ("In Tune", BBC Radio 3), have performed all nine symphony arrangements in public for almost a decade, breeding a familiarity that informs the impeccable ensemble and authoritative vision they bring to the recordings. Gramophone's Peter J. Rabinowitz lauded this in Volume 4: "Uys and Schoeman cut through the clutter with impressive unanimity; and their finely gauged handling of dynamics and their rhythmic drive... assure that the symphonies emerge with their shape intact, even shorn of orchestral colour. It all sounds idiomatic, both as Beethoven and as piano music... knowledgeable and illuminating." The Sunday Times' Dan Cairns, who named Volume 3 a "Classical Album of the Week", also relished those "dual delights: you can just as easily feel you are listening to entirely new works as experience moments when your response will be along the lines of: 'Ah yes, that bit'. Both are richly rewarding... a fascinating listening experience." The two-piano Magic Flute Overture included here echoes Volume 4 in the series, which featured the Mozart-Busoni Duettino concertante based on the Finale of Piano Concerto No.19, a performance hailed in BBC Music Magazine as "brilliantly conceived and light as a feather". Ates Orga, reviewing for International Piano, noted the change in aural texture from the four-hands Beethoven to two pianos, "the audible separation of instruments enhancing their spatial impact". Ferruccio Busoni was a younger contemporary of Scharwenka, and they died the same year, making this the centenary of the deaths of both pianist-composers. Perhaps most associated with arrangements of Bach, Busoni also championed the music of his fellow Freemason Mozart, and he celebrates that link in his transcription of the Masonic opera's overture.

SOMM Recordings announces Canticle of the Sun, an album dedicated to choral works by Stephen Dodgson. This recording adds to SOMM’s growing discography of music by this unjustly neglected and richly deserving British composer (the label last year launched an ongoing three-volume series embracing Dodgson’s rich and varied output of songs) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The performances are given by the chamber choir Sonoro, one of the UK’s foremost vocal ensembles. Described as “outstandingly refreshing” (BBC Music Magazine) and “abundant in vibrant colour” (The Guardian), they are tonally immaculate and technically astounding in Dodgson’s tuneful, yet challenging choral writing. They are joined in one work by Michael Higgins at the organ and in another by Katherine Bicknell on flute, while the remaining pieces feature the choir in stunning a cappella with soloists drawn from the choir throughout, and the entire programme is led by conductor and Co-Artistic Director of Sonoro Neil Ferris.

The selection of works, all of them first recordings, reveals in Dodgson a genuine composer for voices – one of abundant gifts, and special among them a sensitive approach to word-setting. The album’s titular piece, Canticle of the Sun (2008), one of Dodgson’s last vocal compositions, sets a text by the prolific English poet John Heath-Stubbs (1918–2006). The cantata Four Poems of Mary Coleridge (1987) sets the texts for the unusual and striking combination of mixed voices and solo flute, played by Katherine Bicknell, a flautist of “sumptuous tone” (The Straits Times, Singapore) and “striking musical ability” (MusicWeb). Incredibly effective throughout, the contrast between voices and flute is particularly evocative in the wonderfully dark “Nocturne I: (The Fire, the Lamp and I)”, with its interplay between almost recitative-like flute and solo bass interspersed with choir playing the characters of the fire and lamp.

’Tis Almost One (1984), is a short cantata for mixed voices and organ to words by Robert Herrick (1591–1674). The organ accompaniment is provided by pianist, organist, composer and arranger, and Co-Artistic Director of Sonoro Michael Higgins.

Following three undated but likely quite early shorter works for a cappella upper voices on anonymous texts (Winter, Lullaby and All Bells in Paradise), the programme concludes with Lines from Hal Summers, a setting for unaccompanied mixed choir. Dodgson chose three poems from Smoke After Flame (1944) by the English poet Henry (known as Hal) Summers (1911–2005), excerpting from them and setting to music carefully selected lines, as referenced by the title. It is difficult not to feel the growing sense of expected war-time victory in these texts – the music reflecting an unstated hopefulness for peace and rebirth.

This recording is supported by the Stephen Dodgson Charitable Trust.