The orchestral music of the English composer David Hackbridge Johnson (b. 1963) is one of the most important discoveries to have been made by Toccata Classics. This second volume brings two mighty symphonies: the dark and tragic No. 10 (2013), cast in a single monumental span, and the three-movement No. 13 (2017), a fierce and fiery affirmation of life. They are complemented here by an orchestral ‘motet’ which passes plainchant in kaleidoscopic review. Writing in Gramophone, Guy Rickards said of Hackbridge Johnson’s Ninth Symphony: “what is so astonishing is not his ambition in attempting such large, big-boned structures… but that he possesses the compositional technique to achieve them so completely… This is a profound, complex, and visionary utterance.” Paul Mann, who here leads the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, is a regular guest conductor with many orchestras throughout Europe, the USA, Australia and the Far East. He enjoyed a famous collaboration with the legendary rock group Deep Purple and was a close friend of its keyboardist Jon Lord. He first came to international attention as first prizewinner in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, and as a result was appointed assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. This is his twelfth project with Toccata Classics.

The English composer-conductor Henry Cotter Nixon (1842–1907) had entirely disappeared from music history until this series – presenting all his surviving orchestral music in its first-ever recordings – revealed him to have been one of the most accomplished English composers of his generation, with a style that takes in elements of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber, Brahms and Sullivan. This third and final volume mixes music for the concert hall and the stage and adds the Coronation March for Edward VII that turned out to be Nixon’s last composition. Most of the pieces here were left incomplete, but thanks to Paul Mann’s orchestrations they now confirm Nixon’s position as one of the superior tunesmiths of Victorian England.

Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) was yet another Austrian composer driven by the Nazis into American exile. His output– ripe for rediscovery – includes 7 symphonies, 15 violin sonatas among much other chamber music, songs, choral and piano pieces. His two cello and piano works, recorded here in the first of a series of Stöhr CDs, reveal a lyrical and expressive composer downstream from Brahms and Schumann. The disc continues the Toccata’s rediscovery of composers who suffered under the Third Reich.

Although the Mexican composer Julian Carrillo (1875–1965) came to be remembered as a pioneer in the science of acoustics, the music he wrote in the first part of his career has a late-Romantic opulence and spaciousness that was very much of its age. Here his powerful and dignified Second Symphony, which sits somewhere between Bruckner, Wagner and Rachmaninov, is joined by two early pieces d’occasion and excerpts from his grand historical opera of 1910, Matilde, or Mexico in 1810, which marked the centenary of the Mexican War of Independence.

The Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925) is best remembered for a handful of virtuoso piano pieces, but he also produced a substantial body of orchestral music, most of it unperformed for decades. Astonishingly, he was only in his early twenties when he wrote his monumental ‘Symphonic Poem in Four Movements’ Johanna d’Arc – heard here in its first recording – a vast symphonic fresco depicting the life, death and transfiguration of the heroine of Friedrich Schiller’s 1801 play, Die Jungfrau von Orleans. Moszkowski admitted to the influence of Wagner and Raff on the work – but he also managed to prefigure the musical language of the Hollywood epics of sixty years later. As pianist, Ian Hobson has a long-standing relationship with Toccata Classics, and this is the fourth recording he has made in his alter ego as conductor – at the helm of the Sinfonia Varsovia, as with his previous albums, which uncovered the early orchestral music of Martinu. This is the first of a series of Ian Hobson recordings for Toccata Classics that will focus on Moszkowski’s piano and orchestral music.

Known in his lifetime as ‘the north German Schubert’, Carl Loewe (1796–1869) is remembered today chiefly as a composer of ballads. Yet there is a considerable body of piano music that is strikingly innovative in content, expression and harmony, containing the germs of ideas later taken up by composers such as Wagner and Liszt. Loewe was unquestionably a brilliantly original talent, a major figure in ushering in the Romantic era. This release is the second of three recordings of Loewe’s piano music, in the first ever systematic survey of Loewe’s piano music; the pianist is Linda Nicholson, one of the world’s leading performers on period pianos. Carl Loewe died on April 20, 1869; this recording is being released to mark the 150th anniversary of that occasion.

As composer, pianist and educationalist, the Prussian Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917) was one of most highly respected musicians of his day, although his star faded soon after his death. His music – more conservative and classical in orientation than that of his pianist-composer brother, Xaver – sits somewhere between Chopin and Brahms, with echoes of Schubert and Schumann. This first installment of a survey of his piano music is intended to put these immediately attractive works before the public once again – for the first time in over a century. They are played here by the Portuguese pianist-composer Luís Pipa, professor of piano and chamber music at the University of Minho, near Porto, following up on his well-received Toccata Classics album of music by his compatriot José Vianna da Motta.

The Belgian composer Joseph Ryelandt (1870-1965) was a humble and reverent man, writing in 1940: 'If it is God's will that my works be propagated some day in the future, then it will happen'. Toccata Classics cannot knowingly claim divine intervention as explanation of this first release in a series exploring Ryelandt's chamber music for piano and strings but offers this entirely unknown but thoroughly attractive repertoire - honest and sincere music downstream from Debussy, D'Indy and Faur� - as evidence of a long life well lived.

This sparkling collection of folk dances from Norway and Sweden, offset by two Estonian chorales and three improvisations, comes from two of the finest practitioners of this kind of material: Gunnar Idenstam, playing on the new Klais organ of Kristiansand Cathedral in southern Norway, and Erik Rydvall, on the nyckelharpa, the keyed folk fiddle of Sweden. The combination of rhythmic vigor, the harmonic ambiguity of Scandinavian folk music and the huge range of instrumental color gives these tunes – all in spontaneous, semi-improvised performances – an irresistible and immediate appeal. Gunnar Idenstam, concert organist, composer and folk musician, is known throughout the world for his virtuouso playing, stunning improvisations and untraditional and original take on organ music. Gunnar Idenstam aims to expand his audience's appreciation of the organ and to transcend the limitations of genre. Born in 1983, Erik Rydvall began playing violin at the age of five, before at last discovering the nyckelharpa at 18. Between 2003 and 2008 Erik studied nyckelharpa at the Eric Sahlström Institute in Tobo and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Meeting the legendary nyckelharpa pioneers, Johan Hedin and Olov Johansson as well as other musicians such as Magnus Zetterlund and Anders Löfberg persuaded Erik to begin the development of his own approach.

The Anglo Mexican Foundation celebrates it's 75th anniversary with this programme of three of it's recent commissions - from Mexican composers Alejandro Basulto and Arturo M�rquez - joining the first recording of M�rquez's harp concerto M�scaras, in an album that interleaves nocturnal warmth with an infectious spirit of dancing energy. Alejandro Basulto is a Mexican award-winning composer and orchestral conductor. His music is characterized by a profound Latin-American identity, a vibrant integration of contemporary popular culture, a continuous exploration of diverse techniques and the use of new narrative approaches. Arturo Marquez was born deep in the Sonoran desert in the colonial town of Alamos, Mexico. He currently works at the National University of Mexico, Superior School of Music and the National Center of Research, Documentation and Information of Mexican Music.

This unusual album shows the contemporary trombone in a rich variety of guises – dramatic, lyrical, flirtatious, solemn, capricious and many more – in four recent concertante pieces for trombone and symphonic wind band, demonstrating the striking versatility of the instrument. It’s an international undertaking, too: the soloist is English, the band and conductor American, and the composers American, Danish, Dutch and English, all four writing in a language that is direct and immediate. Brett Baker is viewed internationally as a leading brass performer and educator. One of the most often recorded brass soloists, he is passionate about encouraging composers to write pioneering new repertoire. Brett is Programme Leader for Musical Arts at the University of Salford. He continues to be an ambassador for Michael Rath Brass Instruments and is Principal Trombone of the Black Dyke Band. He is Festival Director of both the Singapore and Thailand Low Brass Festivals and is a Past President of the British Trombone Society.

This remarkable recording explores an unsuspected soundworld - that of guitars, electric and acoustic, and chorus, in new works by five contemporary Estonian composers, whose styles range from the primitivism of ancient Estonian magical incantations via plainsong-like meditation to electronic sampling. Ain Agan writes of this release: "The idea for this recording came about thanks to a guitar festival which takes place in the town of Viljandi in southern Estonia. As I was compiling the festival programme, I began to look for opportunities to broaden guitar music with other musical groups. First and foremost, I wanted to commission some new Estonian compositions. As I have been active in the world of guitar music as a producer and musician for decades, I have many contacts and I know what people are capable of. Hence it was easy to decide whom to engage in the project. For the choral contribution, I immediately thought about the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, which is known around the world for it's sensitive interpretations of different genres..."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Soghomon Soghomonian (1869-1935) took the name Komitas (or Gomidas) when he was ordained a priest in 1894; a year later he became Komitas Vardapet (doctor of theology) - one of the two names by which he is known to history. The other is 'father of Armenian music', since he collected thousands of songs from his compatriots, his fieldwork preserving and identifying the accent which makes the works of Armenian composers readily identifiable - as these piano trios prove: one twentieth-century classic and three new works, one of which completes the circle by recasting six of Komitas' own folksong arrangements.