Musically-aware Dubliners in the early 1860s might have already predicted a musical career for Stanford. We may wonder, however, whether they would have foreseen a pianist or a composer. While not yet ten he presented a tasteful if hardly virtuosic program of Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Mozart and Bach. A longer and more demanding program about two years later drew the comment: “… Master Charles V. Stanford …is doubtless destined for a great position in the musical world … a listener alone of whatever experience, not knowing of the youth, or seeing the performer would suppose an artist at the instrument who had passed through years of mature study; neatness and precision, elastic touch, expression and finish seem to have been bestowed by nature in this case, for Master Stanford plays with his head as well as with his hands”. Sheva Collection releases here the first in a series of Stanford’s solo piano music, with many of the works appearing for the first time.

Founded in January, 2009, the Pavan-Canale Duo began as a research project which led the two musicians to explore some compositions of the flute and piano repertory which are among the most complex and often neglected ones, as well as an in-depth study about the traditional repertory of the flute and piano duo; in fact an important part of their activity consisted in performing contemporary music, written especially for them too, as well as joining the traditional ensemble's repertory. Chiara Pavan and Eugenia Canale have won various and prestigious National and International competitions, such as the "Premio Nazionale delle Arti" (Triest and Rome), "Master dei talenti musicali" (Turin), the "Gaetano Zinetti Chamber Music Competition" in 2011, the "Master dei talenti musicali" (Turin), the "Concorso Societ� Umanitaria" (Milan) and the "Luigi Nono Prize" (Venaria, Turin). Since November 2010 they have attended various masterclasses taught by M�Masi in Florence and by M�Ancillotti in Lugano's Musichochschule. The group often performs abroad: it has played in Budapest, Marseilles, Zagreb, Colony, Athens, La Valletta and for this reason it is now one of the most active Flute and Piano duos in Italy and in Europe. The duo members are also very active as teachers and regularly give seminars or workshops.

Virtuoso duo Irina Borissova and Giacomo Battarino present three composers who each found a personal way to pursue Romanticism. Bulgarian pioneer and father figure, Pancho Vladigerov wrote his lyrical Violin Sonata at the tender age of 15 – a work of tremendous precocity. Initially an “enfant terrible”, during the middle years of his life Francis Poulenc increasingly turned to a melancholy Romanticism. Both strands feature in his striking sonata dedicated to the memory of Spanish poet Garcia Lorca. British composer Peter Seabourne disowned his modernist juvenalia, instead forging a distinctively unique expressive voice, readily apparent in this character study of a troubled Frederic Chopin. With playing of huge energy and poeticism, this release is a real highlight in a Sheva catalogue already blessed with many!

Peter Seabourne: Steps, Vol. 1

The German Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin spent most of his life in isolation in a tower on the banks of the Neckar river, following a mental illness. His poems have long fascinated composers. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of his birth. The Nicaraguan-British composer Geoffrey Álvarez’s monumental song cycle, “Hölderlinfenster” imagines the poet through a “frame” of Schubert’s “Schwanengesang”. Poet and composer never met in real life but perhaps here their spirits do. Álvarez writes music of great intensity and intimate drama on a sometimes epic scale. His highly personal tonal language defies easy categorization but conveys a “Hölderlin river journey” with admirable expressiveness.

Robin Holloway (b. 1943) is renowned as a composer, essayist and teacher. A chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral, he subsequently took private lessons with Alexander Goehr whilst reading initially English and then Music at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis at Oxford became the book ‘Debussy and Wagner.’ Returning to lecture at Cambridge he was later appointed Professor of Composition before retiring in 2011. His many students include Judith Weir, Huw Watkins, Thomas Ades, George Benjamin, Peter Seabourne, and David Collins. Holloway’s early works were complex and modernist. What followed, namely his ‘Scenes from Schumann,’ caused much controversy for its radical reengagement with Romanticism, both in gesture and use of tonality. His mature style could be said to forge a path between the two, with excursions more fully into each. This refusal to be constrained is a feature of his musical thinking. On this release we hear two trios and a sonata, all performed by some of the finest young musicians of our day.

Gary Higginson has spent a life writing music for a wide range of formations, ages and abilities. Much of his work explores two great loves: nature and English literature, especially Shakespeare. Accordingly, this release presents a sequence of songs, instrumental works and a substantial cantata. This is music that is always communicative, characterful and accessible. He was born in West Bromwich which, although then semi-rural, also forms part of the industrial Black Country. His first musical experience, listening to his father’s constant singing at home, led him to joining the local church choir at the age of seven, the next year beginning piano lessons with the choirmaster. The constant presence of the church and its music has been a strong influence on him ever since and led to singing in an early performance of Britten’s War Requiem. His first attempt at composition was made when he was eleven and he has not stopped for more than fifty years.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) composed La Nativite du Seigneur (The Birth of the Lord) in the summer of 1935 in Grenoble near the French Alps. Messiaen wrote that in addition to theology, the movements were inspired by the mountains as well as stained glass windows in medieval cathedrals. The work received its first complete public performance at Eglise de la Saint-Trinite in Paris on February 27 1936 and the performance was shared by three distinguished organists- Daniel-Lesur, Jean Langlais, and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. La Nativite du Seigneur consists of nine movements, or meditations, each of which is preceeded by a quotation from the Bible that corresponds to the theological content. Paired with this work on this release is Messiaen’s Offrande au Saint-sacrement (Offering to the Blessed Sacrament) which was discovered posthumously in 1997 by Messiaen’s wife, pianist Yvonne Loriod. This short work was probably composed during the 1930s.

David Collins had violin lessons at school, but never progressed very far, as composing began to occupy more of his time. Despite an absorbing interest in music, he was persuaded to pursue other career options; it was only later, while working in the Northwest that he decided to apply to the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied composition with Anthony Gilbert, supporting himself by working two days a week throughout what was officially a full-time course. It is only recently that he has had more time for composing, and, having discarded almost everything written earlier, has concentrated mainly on chamber music, of which the pieces on this album are representative. Performing these works is the Ardore Duo. Following a debut at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, a busy schedule quickly developed across Italy including appearances at the Villa d’Este, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and more. Now based in London, they enjoy a growing reputation, with a rapidly developing concert diary and recording career.

Peter Seabourne: Steps, Vol. 4, Libro di canti italiano

Ligeti: Complete Études

Peter Seabourne: Steps, Vol. 5, 16 Scenes Before a Crucifixi

Contemporary Romantic Concertos for String Orchestra

Stanford: Complete Works for Violin & Piano

Musically-aware Dubliners in the early 1860s might have already predicted a musical career forStanford. We may wonder, however, whether they would have foreseen a pianist or a composer. While not yet ten he presented a tasteful if hardly virtuosic programme of Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Mozart and Bach. A longer and more demanding programme about two years later drew the comment: “… Master Charles V. Stanford …is doubtless destined for a great position in the musical world … a listener alone of whatever experience, not knowing of the youth, or seeing the performer would suppose an artist at the instrument who had passed through years of mature study; neatness and precision, elastic touch, expression and finish seem to have been bestowed by nature in this case, for Master Stanford plays with his head as well as with his hands”. Sheva Collection release the first in a series of Stanford’s solo piano music, with many of the works appearing for the first time.