The three violin sonatas on this release are by composers who had enjoyed a direct professional relationship during the period between the two world wars, mainly through their involvement on the teaching staff at the Moscow Conservatoire. Despite being on of Nikolai Myaskovsky's most appealing and approachable later works, his Violin Sonata op. 70 remains rarely performed in concert. The work begins with a wistful first movement, followed by the final movement containing a series of 12 Variations on a theme eloquent and restrained by turns. The following work is by a student, colleague and friend of Myaskovsky, Vassarion Shebalin. Formed in the classically arrayed four-movement design, it shows the composer's musical language at it's clearest and most direct. The final work on this album is by the composer Vasily Nechayev who is hardly known outside of Soviet music circles. His Sonata Op. 12 shows Nechayev was aware of stylistic developments pursued by Bartok and Prokofiev in it's richly whole-tone harmonies and it's motoric rhythms. Sasha Rozhdestvensky and Viktoria Postnikova are a mother and son partnership who form part of a famous Russian music family. These are premiere recordings.

The Franklin Effect is a set of variations for vocal quartet, focusing on the work of DNA scientist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) at King’s College, London and her inspiration through four of the College’s current female scientists in collaboration with four highly regarded female composers – Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Kate Whitley, Shirley J. Thompson & Lynne Plowman. The Patron of the Minerva Scientifica project is Judith Weir (Master of the Queen’s Music), who also mentored the composers for The Franklin Effect. Electric voice theatre has been active as a multi-disciplinary music-theatre ensemble of singers and designers for sound, light and stage since 1985 and have performed throughout the UK, Europe & Japan.

Gaspar Cassad�'s Requiebros, dedicated to his teacher Pablo Casals, was one of the few pieces which Rohan de Saram studied with him and heard him perform many times. During the first two decades of the 20th century in Paris, Cassad� came into contact with both de Falla and Ravel. Hence the inclusion of works by de Falla and Ravel on this album. Schumann's F�nf St�cke i'm Volkston was inspired by folk idiom as was de Falla's Suite populaire espagnole. Granados, Faure and Saint-Sa�ns were composers closely connected either as friends or as teacher-pupil with de Falla and Ravel during that period in Paris. de Saram and Yamamoto performed this programme at the Takefu International Music Festival, Japan at the invitation of the director, the composer Toshio Hosokawa, whose Lied III formed part of the programme.

The present album features four works which have come to the forefront of repertoire for solo cello from the modern era. Arnold Bax's 'Rhapsodic Ballad' is his only solo piece for this instrument. It is dramatic, inventive and full of atmosphere. Likely the most often performed of his earlier works, Ligeti's 'Sonata for Solo Cello' has for over a decade been used as a test piece for the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Dallapiccola's composition was written for the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassad�. It is a substantial, powerful work, and an early serial composition of the composer, full of colourful effects and humour. Rohan de Saram gave the UK premiere of Arnold Bax's 'Rhapsodic Ballad' in 1967 and the first public performance of Gy�rgy Ligeti's 'Sonata for Solo Cello' in 1979. From the age of twelve, Gaspar Cassad� was de Saram's main cello teacher. de Saram met Luigi Dallapiccola several times when he came to Cassad�'s home in Florence specifically to work on 'Ciaccona, Intermezzo and Adagio'

The Secret Life of Carols brings together a mixture of the earliest medieval English carols and traditional carols from across Europe. The title is inspired by the fact that many carols have intertwined roots, dating back centuries, often to the Middle Ages, with melodies being adapted and reinvented, and new sets of words written. In the Middle Ages the term "carol" didn't have the same meaning as today. It was merely an indication of the form of the piece which would start and end with a chorus (named a burden) and would be interspersed with verses which told the story. The word carol is derived from the Old French word carole, a circle dance accompanied by singers. Several medieval carols including The Coventry Carol and There is No Rose are also still sung in modern arrangements at Christmas carol concerts and church services across the country. And indeed these early English carols are very much "for the people". The programme on this album includes a selection of traditional carols from across Europe. Many, like the Burgundian carol Patapan, have roots going back centuries, some as far back as the Middle Ages. There is also a personal dimension to the choice of carols, drawing on three of the roots of the performers on the album- Finnish, German and Irish roots to include several carols which are not well known in the UK.

The combination of violin and guitar is not as uncommon today as it used to be, partly due to the appeal of the instruments' complementary timbres. However, it is still quite challenging to find works for the duo where the roles are equally demanding and virtuosic. With this new release, Nazrin Rashidova and Stanislav Hvartchiklov wanted to demonstrate music which displays this equal balance, through brand new arrangements of finely crafted selections of popular classical works.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Released in Rohan de Saram’s 80th birth year. The present collection follows on from an earlier release [FHR49] and is devoted to works that were written for and were premièred by Rohan de Saram, his championing of new and unfamiliar music having been a hallmark of a career which now stretches back across six decades. A repertoire that is as extensive as it is varied in overall range, encompassing as this does many of those stylistic traits that have emerged during the post-war era and which here eschew the mutual exclusiveness that has too often proved an obstacle to the reception of contemporary music. A vindication, if such were necessary, of Rohan de Saram’s advocacy.

In the spring of 2007, pianist Beate Wein and sitarist Matyas Wolter met in India. Challenged by the idea of combining such different instruments, they started to play together. Later in the year they joined forces with drummer Aaron Christ and the Pulsar Trio was born. Although each of them came from very different musical backgrounds, the trio quickly connected through improvisation and created their own very unique sound. Fresh from many acclaimed festival performances on their European tour, the Pulsar Trio offer their debut album Erpelparka Suite, a recording flush with danceable, hypnotic, ambient compositions. This is fresh, instantly appealing music, blending jazz with a hint of Kraftwerk and Can over a classical landscape. Above all, Erpelparka Suite is innovative, imaginative music.

First Hand Records offers a second volume in their series of recordings of the complete HMV stereo recordings made by the London Mozart Players and Harry Blech. This disc includes newly discovered Abbey Road Studio recordings from 1954 and 1956. All tapes were re-mastered at Abbey Road using original analogue session & masters. The London Mozart Players are the longest established chamber orchestra in the UK. Repertoire featured on this release includes the Symphony No. 36, the Piano Concerto No. 24 (featuring Louis Kentner at the keyboard) and the twelve Minuets of K568. This title will only be offered as a physical CD and will not be available for digital download.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Artist Bettina Furnée and writer Lucy Sheerman have created a choral work based on candid responses from a series of interviews with twelve Peterborough couples about an extended trip to the moon. Excised, edited and rearranged, these form the basis of a new libretto, which reflects the format of Evensong, set to music by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The première of the work, in February 2017, incorporated digital projections of domestic interiors, captured during the interviews. These images appear in the booklet. Admired for her originality, fluency and professionalism, Cheryl Frances-Hoad has been composing to commission since she was fifteen. Classical tradition (she trained as a cellist and pianist at the Menuhin School before going on to Cambridge and King’s College, London) along with diverse contemporary inspirations including literature, painting and dance, have contributed to a creative presence provocatively her own. ‘Intricate in argument, sometimes impassioned, sometimes mercurial, always compelling in its authority’ (Robin Holloway, The Spectator), her output – widely premièred, broadcast and commercially recorded, reaching audiences from the Proms to outreach workshops – addresses all genres from opera, ballet and concerto to song, chamber and solo music.