The composer and pianist Percy Sherwood (1866-1939) was born in Dresden, the son of an English teacher and a German singer. His compositional output encompassed five symphonies, concertos for piano, violin and cello, a Requiem for solo voices and orchestra, chamber music for various combinations of instruments, and numerous solo piano pieces. Sherwood's career was almost equally divided between Germany and England. In the twenty-five years before the outbreak of the First World War Sherwood established himself as a prominent figure in Dresden's musical life. But despite early successes Sherwood never gained a lasting foothold in London's musical life despite settling there after the outbreak of the First World War. The Suite in C major for two pianos was not published during the composer's lifetime. The manuscript is held by the Bodleian Library. It's first known performance was given by the composer and Bertrand Roth on April 20th 1902 at his home in Dresden. An inscription on the surviving manuscript names two dedicatees: Lucy Bambring and Edith Hempseed, a pianist active in the UK from around 1900 until the 1930s.

Richard Blackford : Polymetric Studies (2016)For solo pianoDuration: c. 12 minutesFormat: 32-page A4 saddle stitched sheet musicPolymetric Studies was performed at MusicFest in 2016, it began as a study of polymetric patterns and intervallic development, and then developed into an organic whole unified by thematic and textural cross-references.

Camille Saint-Saëns : Wedding Cake Caprice-Valse Op. 76 (2017)For two pianosOriginal work for piano and string orchestra, arranged for two pianos by Adrian FarmerDuration: c. 6 minutesFormat: Two piano scoresAvailable on CD, NI5941

Augusta read thomas : Rhea enchanted (2016)For solo violaDuration: c. 5 minutesFormat: A4 loose sheetsAlso available for solo violin (NMP1035) and solo cello (NMP1037)Available on CD, NI6355“Although highly notated, precise, carefully structured, soundly proportioned, and while the musician is elegantly working from a nuanced, specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled – on the spot - as if we listeners are overhearing (capturing) an un-notated, deeply musical improvisation.” Augusta Read Thomas

Format: 32-page A4 saddle stitched sheet music. 4p 4/4 cover, 28p 1/1 internalReizenstein was a skilled arranger, in his Lambeth Walk Variations, based on the popular song from Noel Gay's 1937 musical, ‘Me and My Girl’, which assigns a different composer to each variation, he does not merely write in the style of the featured masters, but cunningly recomposes one or two of their pieces – Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, ‘La Donna e Mobile’ from Act Three of Verdi’s Rigoletto, Wagner’s Prelude and Overture to Die Meistersinger, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, etc. - by morphing them into the ‘Lambeth Walk’ theme. As with all first-rate examples of comedy, the humourist (and executant) must be on absolutely top form for the joke to succeed. Dating from the late 1950s, the Variations were premiered by the composer at the Royal Albert Hall on 17 July 1958 at a concert presented by Anthony Hopkins and Fritz Spiegel.

Richard Harvey : L'Homme Arme Study ScoreFor three brass choirs and percussionDuration: c. 9 minutesFormat: 48 page scoreThis was written in 1983 for a follow-up tour of The Brass of Aquitaine and London. We decided to stick with the style of La Citadelle and I chose to write a set of variations on the theme of L’Homme armé, a popular cantus firmus of the early 15th century. This song formed the basis of several settings of the Mass, including a famous version by Guillaume Dufay. Its origins are unclear, but one theory claims it started life as a battle hymn for the crusaders. So it seemed appropriate that one of the great churches we performed in on that tour was the magnificent Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, near Anjou, where King Richard the Lionheart is buried. The tour was a great success and we decided to record the whole repertoire in the church of La Sauve-Majeure in Entre-Deux-Mers. The album was released later that year, met with considerable critical success and is still available today.

Duration: c. 28 1/2 minutesFormat: Sheet Music - 2 parts: 48 page - piano; 16 page - guitarIn 1989 I was commissioned to write a large-scale work to be premiered at the Exeter Festival. When the festival’s director, Richard Gregson-Williams, told me that cartoonist Ralph Steadman (an idol of mine) and guitarist John Williams (a good friend I’d already worked with many times) would both be involved in the festival, it seemed like a good idea to get them onboard for the project. What developed from this was an “eco-oratorio” called Plague and the Moonflower, which caused some excitement. A year or two later, John asked me if the guitar solos from P&M could be extracted and joined up to make a concert piece for guitar and orchestra. I was delighted to be asked, of course, and as we were discussing this over a curry in St John’s Wood, we set about weighing up the options. In the end I said I would honestly prefer to create a new work from scratch. This was partly because John was looking for a substantial concert piece that would constitute almost half a programme. But I was also thinking ”I’ll only ever get one stab at writing a full length piece for a guitarist like John Williams, so why not start with a blank canvas?” I had originally called the work Concerto in Modo Antico, and it was John who suggested losing the “in modo” so it would trip off the tongue better. Completed in late 1994, Concerto Antico was recorded a few months later with John and the London Symphony Orchestra under the able baton of Paul Daniel. It has been performed many times since (usually with John taking the solo part) and has gradually gained fans and momentum, becoming a fixture in Classic FM’s Hall of Fame for the last five years.  [Richard Harvey]

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Shostakovich composed his String Quartet No. 2 in A major Op. 68 in just nineteen days during the summer of 1944 at a 'House of Rest and Creativity' in Ivanovo. It's allusions to Russian folk music made it a loyal response to the 'Great Patriotic War', but it's incorporation of style elements of the sacred and klezmer music of Eastern European Jewry, historically oppressed within Russia and Eastern Europe, took it's implications further afield. By including aspects of Jewish style, he may have desired to express his sympathy for the persecuted Jewish people, especially when news broke in 1944 of the atrocities carried out at the Treblinka concentration camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during WWII. While staying in Batumi, Georgia in late October/early November 1931, he adapted in one evening two short movements from earlier works as a gift to the Jean Vuillaume Quartet. His beautiful Elegy for string quartet is derived from Katerina Ismailova's aria 'The foal runs after the filly' in Act I, Scene 3 of Lady MacBeth, which he completed in it's original version in 1932. The Polka derives from Shostakovich's first ballet The Golden Age Op. 22 (1929-30), which dramatizes the visit of a Soviet football team to a decadent Western European city. The footballers are subjected to various indignities, including imprisonment, but they are eventually freed when the working classes revolt against their bourgeois rulers and the ballet ends with a dance of solidarity between the footballers and the workers. Kissin's String Quartet is a fitting companion to Shostakovich's works on this disc, not least because both composers' musical language has much in common. The work is modernist, starkly constructed but deeply communicative and it comprises an eclectic mixture of styles that appertain to Kissin's life and career.

The history of Argentine concert music during the 20th century was a process of the absorption of various European influences and their melding with more indigenous traditions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Argentine composers tended to study in Europe or North America, and the result was the appearance of a number of striking personalities who eventually attracted worldwide attention. Three names now stand out: Alberto Ginastera, Mauricio Kagel, and Astor Piazzolla. In addition to these stylistically extreme figures, a number of quality composers remained known principally only within Argentina. The leading creative figure among them was Carlos Guastavino. Guastavino's music remained firmly based in the language of the late 19th and early 20th century, maintaining that music should be based on singable melody and tonal harmony, and written for the here and now, not for discovery by future generations. He succeeded instead in creating a national music that was genuinely popular and accessible to a very wide audience. Celebrated pianist Martin Jones recorded the complete music of Carlos Guastavino in 2008. This is a compilation of the best selections from those recording sessions.

From the artists: "Our objective in creating this new arrangement was to remain as faithful to the original as practically possible. We set out to embrace not only the capabilities of the two pianos but also their limitations - we wanted to create a true piano work, rather than a less-than-satisfactory imitation of the orchestral version. We first performed our arrangement at St John's Smith Square in London in 2017 and for the next five years we worked to refine the textures and to create something comfortably pianistic while incorporating as much of Rachmaninoff's intention as is feasible. We sought inspiration from the composers own arrangement of the Symphonic Dances Op.45, from his two Suites for two pianos Opp.5 and 17, and from his four-hands version of The Rock Op.7. We hope that our arrangement will be enjoyable to all pianists who have a love for Rachmaninoff's music. The much-loved Adagio will serve as a great challenge for musicians of diploma level, while anyone who has enjoyed performing the Suites will surely enjoy this new challenge."