WYASTONE ESTATE LIMITED DISTRIBUTED LABELS FEBRUARY 2016 NEW RELEASES NEW RELEASE NI 5937 RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2016 TO PLACE AN ORDER CONTACT DISCOVERY RECORDS LTD TEL: 01380 728000 EMAIL: [email protected] DISCOVERY RECORDS LTD, NURSTEED ROAD, DEVIZES, SN10 3DY For further details visit our website: www.discovery-records.com /NimbusRecords @NimbusRecords /NimbusRecordsTV [details in this release book are correct at time of production] FEBRUARY 2016 NEW RELEASE JULIUS RÖNTGEN (1855-1932) Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) was both a composer MARK ANDERSON, PIANO and a gifted pianist and as such he knew how to write well for his instrument. Ein Cyclus von Phantasiestücken, Op. 5 (1871) 21.32 Röntgen was a child prodigy and from an early 1 I Allegro con brio 3.34 age composed ambitious works for the piano. He 2 II Andante con espressione 1.42 frequently performed his own, and others, piano 3 II Allegretto moderato 3.10 concertos. Beethoven's Fourth and Brahms's Second 4 IV Andante con moto 2.45 were particular favourites. It was through 5 V Presto 3.43 6 VI Allegretto con grazia 2.11 performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op.111 and 7 VII Grave 4.27 Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques that Röntgen established himself. However, it was not as a soloist Neckens Polska Variationen über ein but as an accompanist that Röntgen would make a schwedisches Volkslied, Op. 11 (1874) 17.55 lasting impression. The partnership with his 8 (Theme) Ruhig 1.24 contemporary, the baritone Johannes Messchaert, was 9 (1) Tema ben tenuto 1.05 legendary and they made several European tours. At 10 (2) Langsam, feierlich 1.06 11 (3) Ruhig 1.21 one of their recitals, in the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, it 12 (4) Lebhaft 0.46 was noted that Brahms and Grieg were sat together in 13 (5) Lebhaft, nach und nach leidenschaftlicher 1.06 the front row. JULIUS RÖNTGEN 14 (6) Mit grösster Kraft 1.21 Röntgen composed constantly throughout his 15 (7) Etwas langsamer als das Thema 2.19 IANO USIC OL performing and teaching career. Opus numbers were P M V . 2 16 (8) Sehr markirt 0.43 only applied to printed works, itself a fraction of his 17 (9) Schnell 6.44 MARK ANDERSON more than 600 compositions. Recent renewed interest Sonata No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Op. 10 (1875) 29.13 in Röntgen has revealed many treasures still waiting to 18 I Allegretto, sempre tranquillo 8.57 be awakened in the Röntgen Archives (Den Haag). Catalogue Number NI 5937 19 II Scherzo. Allegro vivace 4.08 Alongside a huge series of unknown string quartets, Total Playing Time 68.50 20 III Andante cantabile 8.32 string trios, piano trios and symphonies there are some 21 IV Finale. Allegro con fuoco 7.36 thirty piano sonatas and sonatinas from 1922-1932 alone. Röntgen started and ended his creative life as a Total playing time 68.50 BUY NOW piano composer. FEBRUARY 2016 NEW RELEASE ARNOLD COOKE ‘My music is mainly based on traditional SYMPHONIES NOS. 4 & 5 procedures and principles … I do not have any particular theories of composition, just a natural ARNOLD COOKE (1906-2005) inclination for it’. These clear and precise observations by Arnold Cooke (1906-2005) are indicative of a Symphony No.4 in E-Flat (1974) 27.12 practical approach to his craft. During a long creative 1 I. Allegro assai 7.04 life he abstained discreetly from a battery of stylistic 2 II. Poco lento 8.22 trends, including serialism, aleatoricism, minimalism, 3 III. Scherzo. Molto vivace 5.34 musique concrète and electronic music, and 4 IV. Finale 6.12 established single-mindedly a substantial canon notable for its unfaltering cogency and integrity. BBC Symphony Orchestra (Leader Bela Dekany) In his review of the BBC broadcast of Cooke’s conducted by John Pritchard Symphony no.4, Meirion Bowen commented that, ‘The format is entirely that of the traditional four- BBC Broadcast 15 January 1975 movement symphony – crystal clear to follow, First performance. Live from the Royal Festival Hall perfectly proportioned in the best academic traditions’. The score has a certain Brucknerian grandeur and it is a tribute to the closely-argued intensity of Cooke’s Symphony No.5 in G (1979) writing that he achieves this feeling of thematic 5 I. Allegro 7.14 opulence in a work which is roughly half the time span ARNOLD COOKE 6 II. Lento 10.55 of an average Bruckner symphony. 7 III. Scherzo. Molto vivace - Trio. Allegretto THE LYRITA RECORDED EDITION TRUST SYMPHONIES NOS. 4 & 5 pastorale 8.26 ITTER BROADCAST COLLECTION 8 IV. Finale. Allegro 5.57 THE BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA In 1952 Richard Itter, the founder of Lyrita, began to BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra make domestic recordings of BBC transmissions using conducted by Bernard Keeffe state-of-the-art disc and tape recorders. He Catalogue Number REAM.1123 BBC Broadcast 17 July 1981 documented his collection but rarely listened to it, thus Total Playing Time 59.44 preserving a pristine archive. The Lyrita Recorded Total playing time 59.44 Edition Trust began a transfer programme in 2014 with the intention to release the best and rarest of these BUY NOW recordings to the public. FEBRUARY 2016 NEW RELEASE PETER RACINE FRICKER (1920-1990) Peter Racine Fricker was among the first composers in Britain to be influenced by the music of The Vision of Judgement Op. 29 (1957) 47.27 Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, 1 Part 1: With sudden fear, at midnight, dreadfully 7.14 assimilating aspects of their very different styles into a 2 Part 1: Miserere nobis 6.54 distinctive musical voice of his own. Unconcerned by 3 Part 1: Well shall it be for those souls 9.01 the vagaries of musical fashion, he proceeded to build an impressive body of work in his highly expressive, 4 Part 1: Then shall it come to pass 4.36 urbane and freely atonal language. His catalogue, 5 Libera me, Domine 5.32 which exceeds 160 pieces in total, encompasses all the 6 Part 2: Then unto Zion’s hill a mighty main genres with the exception of staged opera. host, radiant and blessed 3.49 The Vision of Judgement was first performed on 7 Part 2: Theirs is the home that never shall 13 October 1958 at Leeds Town Hall as part of the know end 10.21 Leeds Centenary Festival. The performance presented Jane Manning, soprano • Robert Tear, tenor here is conducted by Charles Groves, who was familiar Leeds Festival Chorus with the Fricker style, having taken up the composer’s (Chorus Master Donald Hunt) First Symphony and performed it in one of his last Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra concerts as conductor of the BBC Northern Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves and then introduced it in Bournemouth and on the Continent. BBC Broadcast 14 October 1980 Dedicated ‘to the many fine musicians with whom PETER RACINE FRICKER I have had the pleasure of working so happily in the Symphony No.5 for organ & orchestra Royal Festival Hall’, Fricker’s Symphony No.5 was THE VISION OF JUDGEMENT Op. 74 (1976) 19.21 premiered by organist Gillian Weir with the BBC 8 I. 1st movement 7.21 Symphony Orchestra under Colin Davis on 5 May 1976 SYMPHONY NO.5 9. II 2nd movement 4.05 at the RFH in the presence of the composer. It was 10. III 3rd movement 7.55 featured at the Proms on 11th August 1976 with the organist Jennifer Bate and the BBC Northern Symphony Gillian Weir, organ Catalogue Number REAM.1124 Orchestra under John Pritchard. Terse and direct, the BBC Symphony Orchestra Total Playing Time 66.48 score offers some grand gestures in its lively outer conducted by Colin Davis sections which are offset by eloquent dialogues BBC Broadcast 5 May 1976 between its two principal protagonists in the Live from the Festival Hall. First performance interludial central segment. Considerable tension is BUY NOW generated in the closing pages, which present an unbuttoned, euphoric display of bravura. FEBRUARY 2016 NEW RELEASE Celebrating the centenary on 15th March of Harry James (1915-1983), this Retrospective compilation of 50 classics throws renewed light on a trumpeter who belongs amongst the very greatest in all of jazz music. The survey covers every aspect of his fabulous career, from his first recording sessions as a 21-year-old with Ben Pollack’s band (Spreadin’ Knowledge Around – already with a salvo-level solo), through to joyful examples of “Double Dixie” from 1962 with Matty Matlock (Weather Bird Rag). And all steps in between. These include his breakthrough as a member of Benny Goodman’s Orchestra (Sugar Foot Stomp), and with Teddy Wilson (Just A Mood). He formed his own orchestra in 1939, and thereafter every track has his dominant leadership stamped upon it. You Made Me Love You made him a household name in 1942, revealing the schmaltz that was an essential part of his repertoire – as was the staggering virtuosity displayed in such non-jazz items as The Flight Of The Bumble Bee. Then there was a certain 1939 recording made with a young Frank Sinatra that suddenly became a smash in 1943, All Or Nothing At All. Harry, of course, always had a superior cast of vocalists, and there are prime examples here of Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, Kitty Kallen, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney . and even wife No.2, Betty Grable. But, above all, Harry James was a hot jazz player par excellence, and the two discs are full of superlative examples of his artistry.