Classical Music

With this release, SOMM continues its series with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the remarkable pianist Valerie Tryon. It brings together three French works for piano and orchestra. Valerie Tryon's career as a concert pianist began while she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for the BBD and she was one of the youngest students ever to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Music. Tryon's career has extended from England where she has played with many of the leading orchestras and condutors.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Somm's celebration of John Joubert's 90th birthday brings to the catalogue yet more new riches, this time no less than seven premiere recordings fo his choral music. South of the Line was recorded last June at the Birmingham Conservatoire and poignant is the fact that it was commissioned from the composer for the opening of the Adrian Boult Hall and the last music heard there for this recording, before its demolition. Choirs are at the heart of John Joubert's music and it is by his choral music that he seems to communicate most directly with audiences. He once commented. 'Communication is important to me. I want to be understood, enjoyed and used.' It's perhaps for this reason, this capacity for dramatic articulation of meaning, that his choral music holds such a certain place in the listeners' hearts. Indeed he has composed choral music throughout his career winning, in 1952, a Novello Anthem competition with O Lorde, the Maker of Al Thing set to a poem by Henry VIII. The lullaby-like There is no Rose is another work with af irm place in the English choral repertoire, and another setting of an ancient text. Incantation, Pilgrimage Song and Three Portraits as well as Sonnet, This is the Gat eof the Lord, Autumn Rain and Be Not Afeard, his most recent work a commission for Novella honouring the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, are all first recordings.

In the centenary anniversary year of the end of the First World War and on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, SOMM Recordings pays tribute to those who fought and fell in battle with In Remembrance. A moving compendium of music spanning 130 years, it features the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Choir of Chelsea Pensioners, Staff and Volunteers, sopranos Katy Hill and Leah Jackson, baritone Gareth John and organists James Orford and Hugh Rowlands under the direction of William Vann. Founded in 1682 by King Charles II, the Royal Hospital is home to the world-famous Chelsea Pensioners - retired veterans of the British army - whose contributions on three tracks adds it's own special poignancy to In Remembrance. Moving choral works commemorating courage and offering comfort by Hubert Parry, Gustav Holst, and Edward Elgar are heard alongside equally affecting pieces by their contemporaries and successors, Charles Villiers Stanford, John Ireland, Douglas Guest and Charles Harris. Faur�'s Requiem, arranged for choir and organ by Iain Farrington, and Ian Venable's newly-composed Requiem aeternam (in it's first recording) both offer succor and solace in their conviction that death is not the end but, as Faur� thought of it: "a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience."

Classical Music

Following Great American Sonatas, his admired debut on SOMM RECORDINGS, pianist Nathan Williamson turns to British piano music of the 20th century in Color and Light, a revealing exploration of how the past influences the present and the new. A century-spanning programme from Delius's quixotic 1887 Nocturne (more familiar as An Nacht, the Florida Suite's finale, here in Robert Threlfall's 1986 transcription) to Anthony Herschel Hill's combustible Toccata of 1985 also lights on three other distinctive but highly contrasted composers. Modernity makes itself felt in Elisabeth Lutyens' The Ring of Bone (1975), which strikingly employs the use of spoken text in what Williamson describes in his booklet notes as "a bold and heartfelt gesture". William Alwyn's Twelve Preludes (1958) pay a glancing nod to Lutyens' serialist techniques even while displaying "a peculiarly English combination of both tonality and modality" characteristically his own. Peter Dickinson's "postmodern, poly-stylistic" Paraphrase II (1967) is the work of a composer open to the broadest influences, it's seven sections inventively re-working an earlier three-part motet and receiving here their first studio recordings. Slowly emerging into the light, Anthony Herschel Hill's Litany (1992) and Toccata (1985) - heard here in first recordings - are the product of a wholly individual compositional voice, boasting, says Williamson, "some of the most gorgeously idiomatic and exhilarating piano writing of any late-20th century composer". Delius's Prelude and Duet from his one-act opera Margot la Rouge, composed in 1902 yet un-performed until 1983, are distinctive for their delicate harmonic textures and colors, masterfully transcribed for piano by Maurice Ravel. Featuring music by Bernstein, Copland, Charles Ives and Lou Harrison, Great American Sonatas, Nathan Williamson's 2017 SOMM Recordings debut was hailed by Gramophone as "a release of distinction".

Incomparable composer and pianist John McCabe, who passed away in February 2015, had recorded Nielsen's Piano Music on LP for Decca's Ace of Diamonds back in 1975. More recently, the SOMM label was approached by John's wife, Monica McCabe, to ask if they would consider issuing it on CD. From an early age, John loved to explore little-known works and considered Nielsen's Suite, Op. 45 a true masterpiece. The piano music of Nielsen, whose 150th anniversary is celebrated this year, is overshadowed by his six symphonies but his piano music has always had a special place in the hearts of music lovers worldwide. These recordings have been unavailable for many years; now newly re-mastered, they are given a new lease on life and serve as a timely reminder of McCabe's unique interpretations.

Classical Music

This new SOMM release features two perennial favorites, the Glazunov and Dvorak Violin Concertos. They are often recorded together, deriving their inspiration from Russian Bohemia's musical heritage whilst still remaining close to Brahmsian Viennese traditions. Greek-born violinist Efi Christodoulou has been reviewd by The Strad as "a powerful violinist, demonstrating a high level of technical achievement" Efi is developing a career in the UK where she has recently given recitals at St. John's, Smith Square and Wigmore Hall.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Grieg was the first great composer in the late 1880's to travel around Norway collecting folk tunes from the rural population and these proved to be a genuine source of inspiration to him. For John McCabe, as his original note for these recordings makes clear, Grieg was a far more significant figure than popular appreciation would suggest and these recordings came as quite revelatory in the early 1980's to wider audiences outside of the inner circle of specialists in Norweigian music.

A follow-up to the successful release of the first volume of piano music by Federico Mompou with Clélia Iruzum, volume II continues with thirty more tracks of hauntingly beautiful and memorable music by this unique Spanich composer and pianist. With her combination of colorful Brazilian spirit and musicianship, London-based pianist Clélia Iruzum is one of the most exciting musicians to emerge onto the international scene in recent years.