Chandos Records

Chandos Records – New Project announced this week

2011-10-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

This week a new project was launched at the Italian Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London. The Italian Ambassador announced the start of a three year collaboration between the conductor Gianandrea Noseda, Italian music publisher Universal Music Publishing Ricordi and the Chandos record label.

Chandos will make two recordings each year for the Musica Italiana project with Noseda who will collaborate with the Teatro Regio di Torino and the BBC Philharmonic to focus on previously unrecorded symphonic repertoire by Italian composers of the 20^th century.

Gianandrea Noseda who is keen to explore previously unheard Italian repertoire has already recorded Casella’sSymphony No 2 with us here at Chandos in June last year, which has received some great reviews. We are now looking forward to releasing another Casella recording , which will this time include A note alta, fragments from the opera La donna serpent and the Concerto per Orchestra. This release will be under the Musica Italiana banner and is due in June 2012.

So if you are a fan of Italian repertoire and wish to explore further or if you enjoyed our previous Casella release then the new release due in June next year will definitely be one to look out for.

Film Music Prom Tonight

2011-08-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Calling all Film Music Fans! Tonight's prom is dedicated to some of the most widely recognisable works in classical music. The first works of the evening are by the composer Bernard Harrmann who wrote the music for many classic productions including Psycho, North by Northwest and Citizen Kane. If you like what you hear, check our our recording of his film music , and remember to look our for our upcoming release of Herrmann's cantata Moby Dick, and the original version of his Sinfonietta for Strings which was later adapted for the film score to Psycho - available on the Chandos label this October.

A major part of this prom will be devoted to William Walton's Henry V suite , we have a wonderful recording of this music available for download from the Classical Shop.

For me personally, I cannot wait to hear the second half of this prom, when one of my favourite works will be performed - Richard Rodney Bennett's Murder on the Orient Express! However, if you can't decide on your favourite music from the film world, you will find some all-time greats on Chandos's British Film Music album. I hope you enjoy the performance.

Press Officer at the Proms

2011-08-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Of the four Proms I have been to this year, each has been equally rewarding in different ways. The first (17^th June) marked Juanjo Mena’s debut at the proms where the soon-to-be new chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic bought music from, or inspired by, his native homeland to London. We were treated to the wonderfully evocative Nights in the Garden of Spain (with Steven Osborne, the sensitive pianist), Ravel’s dazzling Rapsodie espagnole and Debussy’s inspired Images, where each movement was, curiously, separated by the other works. The next Prom (26^th July) went from Spain to Hungary, with Jurowski leading the London Philharmonic. Beginning with Kodaly’s colorful Dances of Galánta, it went on to a blistering account of Bartók’s First Piano Concerto. Bartók wrote in the score that the percussion be placed surrounding the piano and it was almost disconcerting to see the piano engulfed in a battery of percussion instruments. But Jean-Efflam Bavouzet electrifying performance was more than a match for them, with conductor, orchestra and soloist filling the Albert Hall with electricity and excitement. The second half of the concert comprised Liszt’s epic Faust Symphony. Whilst the opening is magically haunting and evocative, after an hour of it – despite some wonderful moments - one can’t help thinking that Liszt could have done with a decent editor. The third prom (August 1^st) brought the BBC Philharmonic again with their principle conductor, Gianandrea Noseda. Beginning with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony – with its extended and magical introduction – Saint-Saëns Fifth Piano Concerto followed – and received a scintillating performance with Stephen Hough as the soloist. Subtitled, the ‘Egyptian’, its mixture of pseudo exotic elements combined with French charm is irresistible, and the finale bubbled with champagne-like exhilaration. The second half comprised another mammoth Liszt work, this time his Dante Symphony. The fourth prom (August 2^nd) featured Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the soloist, Tasmin Little, who was on inspirational form. Tasmin made a recording of this work with Chandos with Sir Andrew Davis last year (which won a Classic Brit Award) and her understanding of the piece was immediately apparent: the hushed intensity during the reflective passages was almost luminous in its intensity whilst the more dramatic passages were full of all the passion one could wish for in this masterpiece of a work. The second half featured a prom premiere: a work, by turns quirky and rousing music from Percy Grainger, in the form of his Suite ‘In a Nutshell’ and it was amusing to see the orchestra actually reduce in size for a riotous performance of Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel. The BBC Singers performed a superb performance of Elgar’s haunting There is sweet music.

2011-08-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Tasmin Little who earlier this year was awarded the Critic's Choice at the Classic BRITS will perform Elgar's Violin Concerto at tonight's proms. This work is included on a Chandos album CHSA 5083 which has received high praise from critics and the public alike. For the first time Percy Grainger's 'In a Nutshell' will be performed at a prom.

Later on in the evening Prom 25 is dedicated solely to the works of Grainger and his explorations of folk music. Not to be missed, Chandos' CD box set of works by Grainger is now available at the special price of 19 CDs for the price of 4.

Tonights Prom

2011-08-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

If you will be listening to, or are lucky enough to attend the Proms in person tonight you should be in for a fantastic experience. In Prom 23 Gianandrea Noseda will be leading the BBC Philharmonic in several works, but the concert culminates with the exciting Dante Symphony by Liszt. This work forms part of a series of Liszt recordings undertaken by us here at Chandos. So if you love what you hear tonight you can purchase your own copy of this work or if you would like to view the other items in this series click here.

Press Officer's thoughts on film music

2011-07-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

This month, amongst hundreds of new downloads available on TheClassicalShop.net, you will find some wonderful film music by Michael J. Lewis. Its quality makes one wonder why film music is still regarded, in certain quarters, as the Cinderella relation of classical music.

Yet who would be without the score by William Walton to Henry V, or the magnificent tune he wrote for Went the Day Well? If Walton was one of the greatest composers of film music – if not the greatest of them – there are all those giants in Hollywood. Korngold, for example, was a child prodigy, comparable to Mozart and Mendelssohn. At the age of twenty-three he was at the height of his fame as a composer of operas and orchestral music, yet his film music eclipsed all his stage and concert works. Conversely, the orchestral music of Miklós Rózsa is now beginning to eclipse his film music. And one has to mention Bernard Herrmann, whose musical voice is every bit as distinctive and easily recognisable as that of Tchaikovsky, Debussy, or Beethoven (Chandos will release his striking cantata Moby Dick later this year).

Later, more populist composers, such as the inimitable Henry Mancini (his Pink Panther theme must be one of the most recognised tunes the world over), and the even funkier Lalo Schifrin (his Bullet score makes one feel as cool as Steve McQueen), offer a wealth of fun and frolics at the lighter end of the scale. Today’s blockbuster scores by John Williams and Patrick Doyle and the like are hardly negligible and also have the advantage of exposing younger audiences to the sound of a symphony orchestra.

Perhaps film music is more susceptible to the changes of fashion and thus tends to date more quickly than ‘serious’, classical music (though the passage of time helps to diminish this effect). To ignore film music and be snobbish about it is to close your ears to some of the most imaginative and rewarding music written over the last century.

In the 1973 film Theatre of Blood (music by the aforementioned Michael J. Lewis), a hammy Shakespearian actor (wonderfully played by Vincent Price) takes revenge on all his unappreciative critics by dispatching them to their ghoulish deaths. Whilst we are unlikely to suffer such a fate for not fully appreciating film scores, we will undoubtedly be the poorer for not giving this rich genre our full attention.

Paul Westcott

Press Officer

Chandos Records

2011-03-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

The premiere of Verdi’s Ernani took place today at La Fenice Theatre in Venice, Italy in 1844. Ernani was the first opera to be recorded in its entirety taking up 40 single sided discs in 1904! Luckily we have a version available here on the Chandos web-site that is available as a two disc set. Click here to find out more CHAN 3052

Congratulations to Emma Kirkby

2011-01-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

Chandos Records would like to congratulate Dame Emma Kirkby who in an audience at Buckingham Palace later this year will receive the Queen’s annual Medal for Music. The medal is awarded each year to performers who have had a ‘major influence on the musical life of the nation’. For a list of all Emma Kirkby’s recordings available from Chandos Records, please click here.

Susan Gritton talks Finzi, Britten and Delius

2010-03-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

Susan, many thanks for taking the time to talk to us about your latest Chandos CD.

How did you come about choosing the repertoire for this album?

Edward Gardner and I first worked together under the extremely emotionally stressful conditions at English National Opera when he took over the helm of Riders to the Sea the week that Richard Hickox died, in Fiona Shaw's production. It was therefore an amazing, almost fated decision of Ralph Couzens to invite me to record this disc. Having worked extensively with Richard Hickox over many years especially on many recordings with Chandos, his loss has had a profound effect on me and my work; this has informed my reading of the Finzi Dies Natalis, which I have always found musically never relates to how people describe the text (as childhood's experience of the world). Finzi's music speaks so differently and with so much sense of experience. It was born within a young bereaved man (he had lost brothers, father and importantly his teacher.) In this light and singing the work during this year of bereavement for Richard, I made a profound discovery that this piece speaks of recovery. Recovery after loss. It is like a new dawning in one's perception of the glory of being alive in this world. Finzi intentionally cut out a lot of the religious references in the text which makes it all the more human in its love of this world, rather than a yearning for a perfect world 'beyond the veil.' There is something ecstatic about seeing clearly the beauty and amazing variety in this world around us - that is all about some kind of 'pure' experience, I support akin to the innocence Thomas Traherne was seeking to express through his writing.

Why have you coupled Britten with Finzi?

The contrasts and similiarities between Britten are fascinating On one level they are so opposite, yet they actually shared more than they both realised. I have a deep connection with the Britten Pears School as it was a crucial learning space for me in my early year. Also, I began in my early days of singing as a founder member of the Finzi Singers under Paul Spicer. I recorded on a Chandos disc the solos in the Finzi Lo the Full Final Sacrifice on the disc that we made at St Matthews Northampton all the pieces that were commissioned in that chuch that also commissioned Britten.

Finally, you have an interesting range of hobbies, could you share this with us?

I trained as a botanist in Oxford and London. I am a keen naturalist and my time spent in Aldeburgh is as much about music as it is getting out and about with my binoculars or looking at the plants beneath my feet. I am also interested in heritage apple trees. Finzi was passionate about heritage apple trees at his house in Ashmansworth.

Susan, many thanks for your time.

Susan's album CHAN 10590 is Chandos April Disc of the Month.

Chandos April new releases now available!

2010-03-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Our April new releases are now available for your listening pleasure.

Go to your local retailers, order from online stores or download from digital platforms.

Our recording of the month offers the rarely recorded version of Finzi's sublime Dies Natalis for soprano, featuring Susan Gritton and conducted by Edward Gardner.

Look out for a blog interview with Susan which will be coming later this week!

Our two Handelian beauties talk about their latest collaboration

2010-03-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Handel Duets blog interview with Sarah Connolly and Rosemary Joshua

1) You are both established Handelians. Have you performed together before?

RJ Sarah and i have worked together a few times.We did Semele years ago at ENO-actually Harry Bicket conducted that.......I remember a music call with Sarah where we had to sing through the duet between Semele and Inno, there is a beautiful aria before, But hark the heavenly sphere turns 'round..I will never forget hearing Sarah sing that and welling up... it was so beautiful! We recently did the opening Edinburgh festival with Judas Maccabeus......great fun. (There are a couple of lovely duets in that for Israelite man and woman.) The concert came after our recording sessions and it was interesting to feel how quickly we were able to marry our voices together again! Sarah had just come straight from Wagner at Glyndebourne. I've actually known Sarah since student days at the Royal college-so we go back a long way!!!

2) What draws you to Handel in particular?

SC It is hard to say in words what pulls me to Handel. I simply adore his self-possessed, beautiful melodies and where they come in the drama is very important. He was a master-dramatist. There seems to be such a wealth of musical ideas in each opera, despite him recycling arias from time to time (and other people’s..) one never tires of singing them.

RJ I love the directness of Handel. The character and emotion of each piece is always so clear. I also feel very uplifted by his music, it makes me want to dance, cry... if ever I'm feeling low in energy I put on Dopo Notte. It does the trick every time!! From an artistic point of view I've been lucky to have the chance to perform so many great roles and feel Handel is a very healthy composer for the voice. I wonder if after over 20 years i'd have survived without him as the main staple of my vocal diet?

3) How did you go about choosing the repertoire for this duets album?

SC Harry, Rosy and I selected our favourites and Harry pulled the programme together.

4) Is there one particular track that you are especially proud to have recorded on this album?

RJ I enjoyed recording all the tracks. They're all winners really. I do remember finding Welcome as the dawn of day a challenge and both Sarah and i dissolving into fits of giggles, the tears streaming down as we were recording! Mainly because i couldn't get the key changes! I am really happy with the Theodora duets........I find those two very moving and would love to do the whole oratorio with Sarah...

SC Both the Theodora arias, especially Streams of Pleasure. I think both of us caught the spirit of the music in an unself-conscious way.

5) Why do you think Handel remains so popular today?

SC When we listen to Handel’s music, the characteristics we know and love; wit, surprise, gravity, simplicity, sophistication, we recognize ourselves, our weaknesses and joys and feel validated, uplifted in some way.

RJ Handel is so fresh... there's a simplicity about this music that makes it so easy to listen to yet it touches the soul so deeply......genious! Timeless.

6) And finally, you are both regular performers on stage, as well are recording artists. How is preparing for an album different from preparing for a live performance, if it is?

RJ Of course the basic preparation for a recording and live performance is the same, learning the notes, working together, finding tempi etc but the stress levels are different. Live performances are one offs, never to be repeated or captured the same way again, ever. Recording is like listening with a magnifying glass...EVERYTHING has to be in place. Warts and all, it’s there for posterity. So we have to balance our aspirations for perfection with keeping it alive and real. We can't use our facial expressions or costumes to communicate with the listener-its just the voice-our imaginations have to be on overdrive and the concentration is immense. Once the red light goes on we have to create everything: set, costume, production and all the magic of a performance. A recording situation pulls everyone together. There's always a feeling of intimacy between the players and singers. We share the love and commitment to the music for those minutes with 100 % of our beings; that’s what I find very rewarding. The pacing of recording has to be carefully done. In a live performance our energy levels are 'on' immediately we step onto the stage, whereas in a recording studio we tend to warm up and find the performance gradually-it’s more intimate in approach.

SC There is no need to memorize the music and the focus is on the sound and the meaning rather than the physicalisation for the purposes of staging. There is no ‘presentation’. Obviously, having sung the music on stage already feeds the imagination but largely, the music provides the inspiration. I have to say, Rosy inspired me to sing my best and Harry Bicket and the musicians of the ECO were incredibly wonderful

Podcast: Gerald Finley sings Great Opera Arias

2010-03-09T03:29:00.001-08:00

Podcast: Gerald Finley sings Great Opera Arias

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Hear we have an interview with baritone Gerald Finley about his new Chandos CD. This CD includes arias from two roles he helped create as the first person to sing the lead roles: Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams' Dr. Atomic, and Harry in Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie. Other composers featured on this disc include Tchaikovsky, Weber, Bizet, Puccini, Donezetti, Wagner and Mozart. In this recording, Gerald Finley is accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner.

British tenor Philip Langridge dies aged 70

2010-03-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Chandos mourns the loss of acclaimed tenor Philip Langridge, one of Britain's leading singers who died on Friday from cancer.

Philip was a dear friend to everyone at Chandos, having worked with the label for many years. Not only was he a wonderful singer, he was also a true gentleman.

Langridge's interpretations for major Britten roles were highly regarded. He sang the title role of Peter Grimes all over the world including at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. He recorded the work for Chandos which won a Grammy and also performed on the Grammy nominated Billy Budd, the Gramophone-winning War Requiem and most recently, Death in Venice.

This dedicated and enthusiastic performer of British music will be greatly missed.

Rest in peace.

Bernard Coutaz, Chairman of Harmonia Mundi. R.I.P

2010-03-01T14:44:00.000-08:00

All of us at Chandos wish to express our condolences to Bernard Coutaz's family, and to all the staff at Harmonia Mundi. He was an amazing man, with a fantastic vision.

March new releases available from this Monday

2010-02-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

Our March new releases are available from www.chandos.net from Monday!

Disc of the Month

HANDEL – DUETS-CONNOLLY/JOSHUA

This new Handel collection features two great Handelian singers, Sarah Connolly and Rosemary Joshua, accompanied by the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket. The programme offers a carefully chosen selection from Handel Operas ‘Guilio Cesare’, ‘Belshazzar’, ‘Theodora’, ‘Ottone’, ‘Sosarme’, ‘Radamisto’, ‘Rodelinda’, ‘Agrippina’ and ‘Tamerlano’. Duets play a key role in Handel’s stage works; he understood the dramatic effectiveness of blending two voices together - generally those of a soprano heroine and castrato hero. Sarah Connolly is a highly sought after Artist who has performed a number of Handel roles on stage including Giulio Cesare for the Glyndebourne Festival. Rosemary Joshua has developed quite a reputation for her Handel roles, which include the title role in Semele on stage for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award and on disc for Chandos. This album launches with a Wigmore Hall concert on April 1^st. Also check out the saucy artwork on this disc.

D’INDY – ORCHESTRAL WORKS VOL 3

Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra follow their Grammy-nominated volume 1 and Editor’s Choice volume 2 with four rare orchestral works from Vincent D’Indy’s musical legacy. The previous volumes have attracted such comments as “superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of D’Indy’s orchestral output,”- Gramophone and “this series is going to be virtually definitive” –Musical Opinion. This third volume comprises the Third Symphony subtitled ‘Sinfonia Brevis de Bello Gallico’, ‘Istar’ –Symphonic Variations, ‘Diptyque méditerranéen’, and ‘Choral varié pour saxophone solo et orcheste’. The Saxophone soloist is Sigurður Flosason who is quite a star in his native Iceland.

HALVORSEN –ORCHESTRAL WORKS , VOL.1

This disc begins a journey of discovery with Norway’s national orchestra the Bergen Philharmonic conducted by Neeme Järvi. It is the start of a major new orchestral series featuring the music of Johan Halvorsen who has been described as one of Norway’s best kept secrets. Halvorsen was not only a composer but also an accomplished violinist and conductor. Indeed, he was conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic between 1885 and 1886 and was one of the most important Norwegian composers after Grieg. His music follows the national romantic tradition with a distinctive style and brilliant orchestrations. The series kicks off with the rarely recorded ‘Symphony No.1’, coupled with the ‘Entry March of the Boyars’ which is frequently included in concert programmes, together with ‘Andante Religioso’, ‘Mascarade Suite’ and ‘La Mélancholie’. The Bergen Philharmonic will embark upon a UK tour in March this year.

HAYDN- PIANO SONATAS Vol.1 - BAVOUZET

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s complete Debussy cycle has been a big hit across the world, picking up numerous awards on the way. He has now decided to embark upon a Haydn cycle highlighting the fact that he should in no way be pigeon-holed as a ‘French’ specialist. Many leading pianists have tackled these virtuosic classical Sonatas but Bavouzet really feels he has something new to say. The programme for Volume 1 includes the experimental and ambitious Sonata in A flat No.31, the elegantly virtuosic Sonata in D major No.391, the expressive Sonata in B minor, No.47 and the almost Schubertian Sonata in C sharp minor op.49. Bavouzet shipped in a specially selected Yamaha piano for the recording which he feels give the sort of tonal quality he is looking for. He will play the Sonatas at concerts across Europe and Volume 2 will be released this Autumn.

ST JOHN’S MAGNIFICAT-THE CHOIR OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

This recording is the start of a new exclusive recording contract between Chandos and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge under their music director Andrew Nethsingha.

This first disc introduces the Choir singing music by Herbert Howells. There are two settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis, one of which was written for St. John’s during the time Howells was Acting Organist during World War 2. The other was written for Gloucester Cathedral in Howells’ native county. Andrew Nethsingha comments “We are delighted to be embarking on a partnership with such an excellent label as Chandos. We have chosen to start with a disc of Howells’ music – Herbert Howells was closely associated with St John’s College for several decades. Two major works written for the St John’s Choir, including “Sequence for St Michael” will feature on the CD. ‘By the Waters of Babylon’, is a deeply moving psalm setting for baritone, violin, cello and organ, will also be another highlight of the disc.” Previously on Chandos the Choir of St John’s recorded a disc of Christmas Carols, the Mozart Requiem and works by Gibbons and Tallis. Check out the website for details.

RACHMANINOFF –SYMPHONY No.2/THE ROCK-BBC PHIL/NOSEDA

The BBC Philharmonic’s epic Rachmaninoff series continues with a recording of ‘Symphony 2’, coupled with ‘The Rock’. Unlike his first Symphony, No.2 is standard orchestral repertoire composed in a charming garden villa in Dresden where Rachmaninoff and his family had settled in late 1906. The finished product turned out to be one of the longest of all Russian symphonies. As one critic observed at the 1908 St Petersburg premiere, the new E minor Symphony … may be slightly over long for the general audience, but how fresh , how beautiful it is.’ The Symphony is coupled with the fantasia The Rock written in 1893 and is an excellent example of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration. After a recent concert at the Bridgewater Hall a critic commented “Noseda showed his remarkable affinity with Rachmaninoff’s style. He combines an ability to sustain the long structures of its emotional climaxes with a ‘vocalistic’ approach to phrasing which lifts the tunes out of the texture and lets them sing. It’s almost operatic in its vividness’. City Life

A Thank You to Thomas Edison

2010-02-26T08:54:00.001-08:00

This month sees the launch of our totally re-vamped download site:

TheClassicalShop.net

Perhaps the greatest aim of the new site is to make downloading music as easy and trouble free as possible – thousands of pieces of music available at a few clicks of a keyboard. However, I was reminded of the unease which Britten felt about the whole phenomenon of recorded music, which he thought made access to great music too easy. His point was that, before records, you had to go and hear music live. And that involved saving money to buy a ticket, make travel arrangements, swat up on the work you were going to hear, etc. – in general, dedicate serious time and make a notable effort to the process of listening to music.

Last weekend, I made a ‘serious’ effort to go and hear something (Britten would have been impressed). I went to see a performance of Opera North's Ruddigore in Leeds where, in the interval, we launched (with the stupendous help of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society) our new recording of Ivanhoe.

I can honestly say that it was one of the best operatic evenings of my life – a stunning production, gloriously sung, with marvellous orchestral playing. It was worth braving the British train system at a weekend to hear such a treat. (I’m convinced that ‘engineering’ works didn’t exist when I was young, but one’s memory does play strange tricks as the past grows distant.)

Sullivan was seemingly just as sceptical about recorded music as Britten, and there survives a wonderfully witty speech he made after a dinner party, introducing Thomas Edison’s ‘new’ phonograph, in which he recorded a phonographic letter to Edison – over one hundred and twenty-one years ago It goes as follows:

‘Dear Mr Edison,

If my friend Edmund Yates has been a little incoherent, it is in consequence of the excellent dinner and good wines that he has drunk. Therefore, I think you will excuse him. He has his lucid intervals. For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening’s experiments; astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified of the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same, I think it is the most wonderful thing I have ever experienced, and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery.

Arthur Sullivan’

Of course, not only has plenty of bad music been recorded, but we have had to wait a very long time for much good music to be recorded. Sullivan’s Ivanhoe is a case in point. First performed on 31 January 1891, it launched The Royal English Opera House and was initially a huge success. Its neglect is shocking and the release of a complete professional recording of it scandalously overdue. So, perhaps we need to thank Mr Edison again: his invention, a bit like Sullivan’s music, is not so much under-valued, as taken just a bit too much for granted.

Wow! It's a day of birthdays!

2010-02-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

My goodness February 23rd is clearly a day to be born if you wish to become a composer!

1648 - Composer John Blow was born.

1685 - Composer George Frideric Handel was born.

1730 - Composer Christian Joseph Lidarti was born.

1811 - Composer George Washington Hewitt was born.

1848 - Composer Thomas Paine Westendorf was born.

1873 - Composer Dmitri Arakishvili was born.

1876 - Composer Wadi' Sabra was born.

1876 - Composer Edgar Istel was born.

1886 - Composer Albert Edward Sammons was born.

1887 - Composer Oskar Frederik Lindberg was born.

1924 - Composer Lejaren Hiller was born.

1927 - Composer Ivan Hrusovsky was born.

It's a great opportunity to familiarise yourself with their music and what better place than to visit the Chandos site where you can listen to audio samples. Listen to the organ music of John Blow on Chan 0553 , Handel Classics on CHAN 241-15 and Oskar Lindberg on CHAN 9543 To discover the other composers mentioned why not head over to The Classical Shop where you can choose from a plethora of independent labels.

Are there other composers you can think of who were born on this day? Let me know - and also let us know what you think of the above recordings.

To all U.S fans - Fancy meeting Gerald Finley? Well here's your chance

2010-02-22T03:20:00.000-08:00

As you will all be aware, Chandos released Gerald Finley's Arias recording earlier this month.

If you still haven't got your hands on this fabulous disc, why not head down to the Lincoln Triangle Barnes and Noble (1972 Broadway at 66th Street) on Thursday, February 25 at 7:30 PM. Gerald will be signing his new CD, and will also take part in an interview and Q & A with Opera News‘ Editor in Chief, F. Paul Drisoll.

Read an exclusive interview with Gerald Finley!

2010-02-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

Could you write some words on the process of choosing repertoire for your solo arias disc?

It was a joy to look at what would be suitable repertoire for this disc. Sir Peter Moores gave me great support in the final choices since it is part of the series that he supports with his Foundation. I was keen to do arias that I have been associated within the English repertoire and offer some direction for listeners who are interested in what I still have yet to perform. John Adam's Batter My Heart from Dr. Atomic was an obvious choice. There is no recording of it as yet and I wanted to include it since it was fresh in memory and voice, and J. Robert Oppenheimer is a signature role of mine... Mark Anthony Turnage's Silver Tassie has been a treasure of mine for many years, and I wanted certainly to include that. My joy at singing past repertoire is also influencing my choice for future repertoire, and although my performing has not as yet included Sachs and Wolfram, they are very much to be part of my future. Iago and Scarpia seem a perfect fit for my growing voice, both in size and colour and from Weber's Euryanthe, Lysiart's aria allows the dramatic element of my performing to be presented. Escamillo and Don Giovanni I have known for my whole career, and the pleasure for me of including Some Enchanted Evening could not be ignored. Robert's aria from Iolanta seemed a natural start to the CD - it was wonderful to sing! There were other arias that we could not include due to time, including more Mozart and Handel, but maybe there might be a further chance to sing them....

Secondly, why it is important to have recorded an album in the English language, and what challenges does this bring to the artist?

The essential element of the performer's art is communication, and I have always wanted to share the emotion of the character with the audience through the music. For English speaking audiences, in whose theatres I perform most often, there is always a greater sense of understanding when sung in English, and the vernacular is very important to their experience of the music and drama. When offered in good and sensitive translation, the singing can only enhance the music's power. When learning arias it is usual for the singer to prepare them first in the original language so as to understand the composer's motivation for lyrical response and dramatic highlight. Singing in English does have its challenges, particularly in Italian repertoire which is mostly vowel orientated. Rhymes can be a little clunky, and the English dipthong needs to be carefully handled. German grammar is tough to sort out since many verbs wait til the end of the sentence. When singing in translation, it is important to try to respect key moments in the music, adjust vowels and consonants so that they sound beautiful. I found all the translations on this CD to be sensitive, and I hope that they seem natural and sensitively delivered. Of course, when English is the language set by the composer, it makes the singer's job that much easier!

And finally, how is preparing for an album different from preparing for a live performance?

Recording over 70 minutes of music in five three-hour sessions back to back is a big challenge! You have to be on excellent singing form, and choose the order of recording very carefully. Of course you have to do the chorus bits on one day, so that is fixed. One sings for up to 6 hours each day at full power. Normally, in a performance, spaced every few days, that would be at most only an hour and a half, even in the bigger roles. So a bit like a marathon, you have to put in the training, do a big run a few days before, and on the third and fourth day of recording, find resources that you didn't think you had! Ed Gardner, the LPO and the Chandos recording team were wonderful supports along the way, giving encouragement and water to keep me going! You know that you will listen to these tracks many years away so the effort at getting them just right can be very demanding. However, it was certainly worth the effort, and it was so wonderful to sing all this gorgeous music. A dream!

Ivanhoe heads up our February new releases

2010-02-05T07:11:00.000-08:00

Available now at all good retailers, online and download!

Click on the artwork to see a larger version.

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge teams up with Choir and Organ for Young Composer Competition

2010-01-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share this new competition launched in January, by new exclusive Chandos artists, St John's College, Cambridge.

An exciting new partnership between the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Choir & Organ is set to give young composers the opportunity to work with one of the world's leading choirs.

Throughout 2010 St John’s will specify the theme, forces and length of each of C&O’s New Music commissions. Composers will write in consultation with Andrew Nethsingha, the College’s director of music, and the process will be followed in the magazine's regular features. All the premieres will be given by the choir or the organ scholars at St John’s and will be included in the College’s webcasting programme. Scores will continue to be available online for free download for six months. The sixth composition of the year will be the winning entry in C&O’s Composition Competition 2010 (details to appear shortly on our website).

St John’s College, which celebrates its quincentenary in 2011, has had a chapel choir since the 1670s and daily services have been sung ever since. Today the choir has an international reputation for musical excellence; a rich portfolio of recordings, regular tours in north America, and a weekly webcasting programme ensure that its voice is heard worldwide. Regular commissioning ensures a continuing freshness in repertoire alongside the classics of the English cathedral tradition.

Andrew Nethsingha, Director of Music at St John’s College, comments: ‘We are excited to be collaborating in this project. Choral music has provided so many of the jewels in the crown of British composition during the past millennium. Here at St John’s we are very committed to discovering and encouraging the next generation of successors to Byrd, Purcell, Parry, Harvey etc.’

‘We are also pleased to be making new compositions more widely known through our weekly webcasting project.’

The hottest classical performances for 2010?

2010-01-11T01:53:00.000-08:00

Hugh Canning ran a great article in The Sunday Times outlining his top tips for classical concerts this year.

Do you agree?

Maybe you've got your sights firmly set on tickets for other events in which case please share your plans for going out!

Daniel Barenboim’s Beethoven/Schoenberg

Buoyed by the sellout success of his Beethoven Symphonies cycle with his Berlin Staatskapelle, and his sensational traversal of the 32 solo sonatas, Daniel Barenboim is adding a more challenging ingredient to his Staatskapelle’s programmes with the five piano concertos. Juxtaposed with the early 19th century’s most influential and original composer are masterworks by his 20th-century counterpart, Arnold Schoenberg. Birmingham also gets to hear the most accessible of the four programmes. RFH, SE1, Jan 29 and 31, Feb 1 and 2; Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Jan 30

Bryn Terfel’s Mastersinger

The Welsh bass-baritone’s long-awaited — and several times postponed — debut as the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs in Wagner’s epic comedy The Mastersingers of Nuremberg will be the hottest opera ticket outside London this year. Richard Jones stages Welsh National Opera’s first production of the opera, conducted by its music director, Lothar Koenigs. Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, June 19, 23, 26 and 29; Hippodrome, Birmingham, July 6 and 10

Elgar Concerto Centenary

One hundred years to the day after its first performance — November 10, 1910 — Elgar’s Violin Concerto is the climax of a programme conducted by our leading Elgarian, Colin Davis, with the orchestra that gave the world premiere, the LSO. The outstanding young Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider is the latest non-Brit to take up Elgar’s great late-Romantic masterpiece. Barbican, EC2, Nov 10

Divas and Divos, Royal Opera

June and July — the end of the season — has become a star-studded time at Covent Garden. This year, Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez start the ball rolling in May with a reprise of their acclaimed double act in Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment. Then come Placido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu in respective revivals of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and La traviata, and finally a new Manon (Massenet), expressly staged for Anna Netrebko. ROH, WC2, May-July

Chopin’s Birthday

Two pianists tackle the lion’s share of Chopin’s works in London to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth on March 1: Artur Pizarro performs all of his solo works throughout the year at St John’s, Smith Square, SW1; while Martino Tirimo heads up Chopin Unwrapped, a series of weeks at Kings Place, N1, in which the complete oeuvre — concertos, chamber works and songs — will be heard. Two concerts at the RFH, SE1, feature two of the great Chopin pianists: Krystian Zimerman (Feb 22) and Maurizio Pollini (Mar 1).

Michael Grandage’s Billy Budd

The acclaimed theatre director makes his operatic debut with the opening production of this summer’s Glyndebourne: the festival’s first staging of Britten’s Melville-based nautical tragedy. Mark Elder conducts the LPO and the cast is led by the young South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo, singing the role of the doomed foretopman. Glyndebourne, May 20-June 27

Mahler in the Northwest

Manchester’s three orchestras — Hallé, BBC Phil and Camerata — present a complete cycle of Mahler’s symphonies. Mark Elder conducts a combined Hallé and BBC Phil, with massed Manchester and Birmingham choristers, for the Eighth — the Symphony of a Thousand — on May 2. Not to be outdone, Vasily Petrenko’s Royal Liverpool begins a two-year survey of Mahler’s symphonies and song cycles. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Jan 16-June 5. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, Jan 16-Nov 7

Alden’s Janacek

David Alden’s Peter Grimes was the operatic hit of 2009, and he will be hoping to repeat this success with his production of Janacek’s domestic tragedy Katya Kabanova, based on Ostrovsky’s play The Storm — a tale of adultery and hypocrisy in rural Russia. The American soprano Patricia Racette sings the title role, with Stuart Skelton (who was Alden’s Grimes) as her feckless lover. ENO, Coliseum, WC2, Mar 15-27

Schumann’s Birthday

Robert Schumann is one of Wigmore Hall’s “house gods”, so it is hardly surprising that his 200th birthday — on June 8 — provides the excuse for an autumn focus on his piano trios (Florestan Trio), string quartets (Elias, Vogler and Doric Quartets) and songs (Angelika Kirchschlager, Soile Isokoski and Gerald Finley). Wigmore Hall, W1, Sept 11-Dec 14

Danielle De Niese’s Semele

After enchanting the world with her all-singing-dancing-and-pouting portrayal of Handel’s Cleopatra at Glyndebourne, the glamorous American adds another entrancing sex kitten to her gallery of Handel heroines: Semele, the original gold-digging dumb blonde. This concert performance, from a stage production in Paris, is conducted by Christophe Rousset. Barbican, EC2, July 8

Fascinating BBC Philharmonic due to launch this month

2010-01-11T01:35:00.000-08:00

I've just picked up on a project which is taking place in Manchester this month, performed by Chandos exclusive artists, BBC Philharmonic.

Some of today's best composers including Edward Gregson, Anthony Payne and David Matthews have been asked to write pieces to be paired with each Mahler symphony in the Manchester celebration. Read the full article in the Guardian, where each of the composers consider what Mahler means to them today.

Guardian post in full

New Year's Honours List

2009-12-31T06:32:00.000-08:00

Chandos would like to congratulate Sarah Connolly on her CBE in this year's honours list. Congratulations also go to Maurice Murphy - former principal trumpet player with LSO - on his MBE!

Wishing all of you a very Happy 2010 from Chandos.

Christmas cheer from Chandos

2009-12-24T02:40:00.000-08:00

Next week Chandos blog will be silent as we down tools and enjoy too many mince pies and turkey. As 2009 draws to a close I would like to wish you season's greetings and a Happy New Year. We hope it has been a good one for you. It has for Chandos and The Classical Shop. This year, Chandos celebrated our 30th anniversary, and launched our commemorative anniversary box set. This has been well-received throughout the globe, and introduced new classical buyers to the label. Chandos and our artists picked up a plethora of awards.
In February Phoenix Chorale picked up the Small Ensemble Award at the Grammys! Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Chandos won the Instrumental Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in April, and then scooped the Instrumental Award at the Gramophone Awards in October! Joanna Kurkowicz has been nominated for the German Critics' Award, Preis der Deutchen Schallplaten Kritik and just this month, Howard Shelley won a Choc de l’Année Award from France’s most distinguished music magazine, Classica, for his recording of piano concertos by Schumann, Grieg and Saint-Saëns with the Orchestra of Opera North (CHAN 10509)

2010 will see many of our recently signed artists, such as Jennifer Pike and Edward Gardner launch their highly anticipated debuts. First up is Gerald Finley Arias, conducted by Edward Gardner in February, and he then returns in March with Susan Gritton on an album of British songs.

We are looking forward to introducing you to our new recordings, and hope you will enjoy them as much as we have working on them.

All the best for the Holidays.

Classics Online wins No.1 Classical Download Store

2009-12-22T01:58:00.001-08:00

Classics Online has just announced that it will be presented with the Classical Download Store Awards at the 2010 Midem Awards.

You can buy a plethora of labels from www.classicsonline.com including Chandos!

The Arts | The baritone who forgot his pants, and other crazy classical music stories of 2009 | Seattle Times Newspaper

2009-12-22T01:18:00.000-08:00

Read a great article from The Arts, which takes you through the mishaps in classical music performance of 2009!

James MacMillan talks about The Sacrifice

2009-12-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

Chandos offers the world premiere recording of this theatrically and musically devastating opera commissioned and performed by Welsh National Opera. This is released on CD only, and not available to download.

The Sacrifice, described by The Scotsman as ‘a powerful and evocative piece of music’, is a compelling and timeless story of a ruler’s ultimate sacrifice to safeguard the future of his war-torn, faction-ridden country; a story of love, revenge and reconciliation, inspired by the heightened mythical world of the Welsh folk-tales collected in The Mabinogion. With hints of Tippett, Berg, Richard Strauss and the film music of Bernard Herrmann this opera evokes the late-romantic idiom, with a twenty-first-century twist.

The powerful cast of The Sacrifice reunites a number of artists who have received great acclaim for their recent roles with Welsh National Opera – and internationally: Sarah Tynan (who sang the role of Iphis in Jephtha), Christopher Purves, Peter Hoare, Leigh Melrose and Lisa Milne.

Further praise came from Western Mail: ‘There is no mistaking James MacMillan has a popular hit on his hands, with the cries of bravo as the curtain fell on the world premiere of his new opera… MacMillan also creates music of great beauty and the act two love duet between Siân and Evan is mesmerising as are the songs given to Megan, Siân’s child-like sister, sung exquisitely by Sarah Tynan… big, bold and audience pleasing.’

James MacMillan discusses the genesis of his new opera premiered by Welsh National Opera

How did you and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts first discover the story for the opera?

We were aware that The Mabinogion is one of the great mythic tales of these isles, kept alive by the Welsh but generally unknown outside Wales. I suppose I have always been on the lookout for parallel mythic tales other than the famous Greco-Roman canon, so discovering such a rich seam of narrative and mystery here was a great revelation. The Tale of Branwen provided a kind of root from which Michael grew a brand new story.

How did you collaborate on creating the opera?

I had already set Michael’s words for oratorio, song-cycle, music-theatre and motet but this is the first opera we have written together. In The Sacrifice, he has changed poetic pace from Quickening or Parthenogenesis, so the text is much more immediate. Well-established as a poet, Michael has also had a wide experience of writing in different media. He recently published his first novel and is also an award-winning documentary writer for television and radio, so this experience and versatility proved invaluable for the necessary change in approach that was required for the opera.

How did Katie Mitchell’s input as director feed into the final opera?

Katie was there at the very beginning when Anthony Freud, the previous intendant at WNO, approached me with the suggestion of a new opera. Therefore she was involved throughout in the process of decision-making and creative thought. She workshopped the opera in a series of three sessions over the last few years, probing the dramaturgical potential at every stage. These workshops proved invaluable, not just for the completion of the opera, but also for Katie’s dramatic vision in action.

How do the mythic and the contemporary interact?

The story we have culled from The Mabinogion has a timeless quality which resonates with the King Arthur story, the Fisher-King myth, and Tristan. There is a common source to all of these tales but, because the heart of this story examines core issues of love and communal conflict, we find certain universals which are as contemporary as they are eternal.

The opera’s setting in a semi-derelict hotel reflects the contrast between public and private events. How is this mirrored dramatically?

There is a conflict and a continuum between the public and the private in this piece. Some scenes are very intimate, domestic even, and yet the characters at the centre of these scenes are public figures and leaders who have profound influence in their societies. The private and the personal are therefore inescapably public and political.

How has your vocal writing evolved since your earlier opera Inés de Castro?

The writing for the soloists has become more immediate as I’ve explored ways to communicate the story more directly. The choral style has evolved from a couple of different strands: my interest in liturgy has partly informed my approach, as it did in Inés de Castro, but there is also a different kind of range and power possible from an operatic chorus that was a delight to exploit.

What special role does the orchestra play? Does it have a dramatic life in its own right?

It has always been important in my dramatic and theatrical works to find a special sound palette. It is as if the orchestra provides another dimension to the narrative and to the drama which allows the imagination to travel deeper or in a different direction. There are important orchestral interludes in this opera, providing reflection points during the narrative, and I have extracted three of these to make a symphonic suite which may be performed as a separate orchestral work.

How has the creation of the new opera influenced your thinking about the genre’s possible future?

People will always want to have stories told to them. There will always be new ways of telling the oldest stories. When these are combined with music and song one reaches towards a heightened expression of drama. Opera is part of our culture; it has grown out of its liturgical roots and continues to develop in various different directions. In my view, there will always be a need to continue to refresh the operatic literature.

Interviewed by David Allenby, reproduced by permission of

www.boosey.com.

Christmas Editorial

2009-12-21T07:32:00.001-08:00

I write this Christmas editorial with the first snow falling in Essex, which, I have to say, always gives me a child-like frisson. Weather, a bit like music, can quite easily evoke memories. I remember first hearing a recording of Glazunov’s wonderful ballet The Seasons at Christmas one year, and the icy chill of the opening of that score instantly makes me think of the festive period, and so, too, does Stravinsky’s Firebird, which I also remember playing for the first time on Christmas morning. Perhaps my favourite Christmas music, though, is Offenbach’s only full-length ballet, Le Papillon – an utterly delightful score which always gets played on my stereo at this time of year.

However, I have spent the last week or so on an unusual quest: to look for a bust of Haydn to use in a photo shoot for a series of CD covers (you will see the result in March, on the first of a series of CDs of Haydn’s piano sonatas, performed by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet). What was so extraordinary about this mission was how difficult it was to find one. It made me think that, as a country, we under-appreciate this great composer. Considering that it was for us he wrote the ‘London’ symphonies, and that some notable string quartets and piano trios were published in London, not forgetting that The Creation was inspired by his London visits (thanks to his exposure to Handel’s music whilst staying there), you might have thought there would be a statue here or there, or a blue plaque, or something (he did make it onto the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens). But no, very little at all (I did find some remarkably fine portraits, however).

More alarming still is that one hears concert promoters saying that Haydn is box-office death. But put a symphony or piano concerto by Mozart on, and the audiences come flooding in. Surely, anyone who appreciates Mozart will appreciate Haydn? For my money, Haydn’s symphonies (with the exception of the very greatest of Mozart’s, Nos 40 and 41) trump Mozart’s almost every time in their bubbling wit, glorious tunes and energy – as well as often possessing, in the slow movements, music of real depth of emotion and poignancy. It is nice to think that Bavouzet will do for Haydn’s piano sonatas in the 2010s what Doráti did for the symphonies in the 1970s (not forgetting John McCabe’s deleted cycle of the piano sonatas in the 1970s) – lurking in the scores is a wealth of fantastic music that is simply not known by the public at large. The prospect of Bavouzet bringing it to new audiences is very exciting indeed.

We hope that you have enjoyed our newsletters through the year, and that we have given you plenty of repertoire to sink your ears in to. I thought for the last editorial of the year, I’d just run through some of our releases which were highlights for me:

This year started, sadly, with the two last recordings of Richard Hickox, some rare but marvellous Holst with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (CHSA 5069) and Eugene Goossens (Symphony No. 1 and Phantasy Concerto for Piano and Orchestra) with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (CHSA 5068). January also brought an exciting James MacMillan CD – The Quickening (CHSA 5072), as well as a thrilling new recording of Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, with Sarah Connolly in the female lead role (CHAN 0757).

February was a feast for lovers of twentieth-century music, with two very imaginative short operas by Elizabeth Maconchy (CHAN 10508), a CD of striking orchestral music by David Matthews (CHAN 10487) and the highly original Mass by Bernstein (CHSA 5070).

March brought us a new recording of the Piano Concerto by Schumann, performed by Howard Shelley, for the first time observing the composer’s original tempo marks and bringing revelatory insight to repertoire we thought we knew so well. It is coupled with equally sparkling performances of the Grieg Concerto and the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Saint-Saëns (CHAN 10509). A deliciously tuneful CD of orchestral music by Wolf-Ferrari was also released that month, with the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda (CHAN 10511). A CD which brought out the vivid colours of South America was also launched, Spirit of Brazil, with our newly signed Aquarelle Guitar Quartet (CHAN 10512). The great American soprano Christine Brewer also released her second disc of arias on our Opera in English label in a typically wide-ranging, imaginative programme (CHAN 3159).

April saw the release of the second volume of orchestral music by Vincent d’Indy, with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba – more colourful and charming music which has been unaccountable neglected on CD and in the concert hall (CHAN 10514). Matthias Bamert continued his very successful Contemporaries of Mozart series, this time exploring the music of Georg Joseph Vogler, wonderfully tuneful, light music, all wrapped up in classical elegance (CHAN 10504).

In May, Gianandrea Noseda reached the fifth volume of his Liszt cycle, with the ‘Dante’ Symphony (CHAN 10524), and our exciting young bassoonist Karen Geoghegan released her first disc of music for bassoon and piano, concentrating on some especially attractive French bassoon works, which gave us a chance to admire both her charm and amazing virtuoso technique (CHAN 10521). Christopher Gunning, most famous for the music for the TV series Poirot (as well as for his music for the Martini advert!), released a disc of his Third and Fourth Symphonies and his Oboe Concerto – strikingly attractive modern symphonies which received some superb critical acclaim (CHAN 10525).

Lots of colourful music was released in June: Volume 2 of orchestral works by Smetana, with the BBC Philharmonic under Noseda (CHAN 10518), some seldom heard but very pleasing symphonies of Nino Rota (CHSA 5073) and some equally unfamiliar piano music of Alexandre Tansman, performed with both sensitivity and brilliance by Margaret Fingerhut (CHAN 10527).

Organ buffs were pleased to hear William Whitehead in a recording of the complete organ sonatas by Mendelssohn in July, recorded on the organ of Buckingham Palace.

In September, film music buffs were treated to some little known film music by Mischa Spoliansky (including the delightful music to The Happiest Days of Your Life), with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Rumon Gamba (CHAN 10543). Two very contrasting discs were also released in that month: darkly brooding opera The Miserly Knight by Rachmaninoff with Gianandrea Noseda conducting (CHAN 10544) and a charming CD called Souvenirs, performed by Alison Stephens (mandolin) and Craig Ogden (guitar) – I challenge anyone not to be won over by the charms of the music making on that CD (CHAN 10563).

Some vibrantly tuneful ballet scores by Malcolm Arnold hit the shops in October (with the BBC Philharmonic and Gamba), full of the composer’s characteristically colourful style. A CD of more subdued – but equally compelling – music came to us via Christian Poltéra and Kathryn Stott who gave us a beautiful recording of the cello sonatas of Saint-Saëns – music of great charm imbued with typical Gallic insouciance (CHAN 10552).

The final round of releases this year, in November, brought a blistering account of Don Carlos by Verdi as part of our Opera in English series (CHAN 3162(3)), a stirring premiere recording of the complete music to The Crown of India by Elgar with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis CHAN 10570), and the final volume of the supreme Debussy cycle of Bavouzet (CHAN 10545), concentrating on piano transcriptions by the composer of his three ballets.

We are looking forward to releasing a similarly rich assortment of recordings in the new year, but in the meantime, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Schubert Ensemble talk in depth about their relationship with Fauré

2009-12-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of the January release of Fauré's Piano Quintets Nos 1 and 2, The Schubert Ensemble talks to Chandos about their connection with his music, and also their experiences of working with one another.

CHAN 10576 is released on January 4. Pre-order it now at www.mdt.co.uk

How did the members of the Ensemble meet?

The Ensemble was formed in 1983 around a long-standing duo that I had with the founder violinist. Although three of us been in the Ensemble for these 27 years, we didn’t arrive at our present combination until Simon Blendis joined us in 1995.

What would you consider has contributed most to your success as musicians?

I think the most important explanation of the Schubert Ensemble’s longevity is that we have been able to maintain our enthusiasm and interest in what we do. We love to take on new projects, which have included commissioning new works and collaborating with composers in a variety of ways a wide, exploring new ways to present concerts, curating festivals and concert series, taking on new repertoire challenges, doing workshops and educational residencies, and, of course, recording CDs. All this makes for an extremely varied and interesting working life that never seems to have a dull moment!

How do the members of the Ensemble agree upon which works will the group will play and record?

A lot of discussion goes on between us in rehearsal lunch breaks and sitting around at airports so that we can plan new repertoire quite far ahead. Everyone in the Ensemble contributes ideas for new repertoire and new commissions, although I am probably the most active in searching out less well known works, and usually take on the role of discussing concert programmes with promoters. Planning far ahead enables us to get a good run of performances of works that are new to us before we record them, as was the case with Fauré Quintets.

How do you prepare a work for performance? How much time do you spend in individual performance and how much time do you spend working together?

One of the ironies of the musical world is that when musicians are paid for rehearsal, the time available is necessarily finite. Chamber groups are in this respect more like soloists than orchestras; we simply do as much rehearsal together as the repertoire demands in preparing for a performance, which requires much flexibility on everyone’s part. This is made possible by the fact that we tend to work together quite intensively for several weeks at a time and then have breaks. Our working periods are planned far in advance, so although we do all have other professional commitments, they are generally fitted in around the Ensemble’s schedule. I have never actually calculated how much time we spend working together and apart, but I can say that Schubert Ensemble commitments certainly dominate our diaries!

The Fauré Quintets have been in your performance repertoire for a long time, what draws you to them in particular and why do you think they have been so rarely recorded?

These Quintets are quite simply some of the most beautiful and exquisite music that we have played. I cannot think of a composer with a finer ear for piano and strings textures or for the conversational possibilities of a chamber ensemble than Fauré. And beneath the shimmering and seamless surface of his works there music of extraordinary emotional power and passion. It is challenging but immensely satisfying to play. Fauré’s late works do have an elusive quality and can be baffling on first hearing, but this does not fully explain the extraordinary neglect of the great masterpieces that he wrote in the last twenty years of his life. We have had a strongly positive response from audiences when we have performed the two Quintets, so I hope this new recording will help to give them the popularity they deserve.

Is there anything about Fauré’s chamber music that makes it unusual or stand out from the works of his contemporaries?

I think Fauré’s imagination was especially fired up when he was writing for piano and strings. His two Violin Sonatas, two Cello Sonatas, two Piano Quartets, two Piano Quintets and Piano Trio are among the greatest works of their genres. But what marks him out most from his contemporaries in terms of his musical language is that while other composers of the time tended to make a unity out of dramatically contrasted musical ideas, Fauré tended to do the exact opposite. There is in fact infinite contrast in his extended movements, but it happens on a very subtle level. Fauré was not one for melodrama, or for crowd-pleasing gestures, so audiences have to be willing to submit to his music on its own terms.

Your Chandos discography is very wide, embracing composers from across Europe. Which composers and what repertoire do you find particularly exciting to perform?

It is the variety of repertoire available to us that is exciting. We have a list of works we want to perform and record that will keep us busy for years to come. At the moment we are exploring Fauré’s contemporaries - Saint-Saens, Chausson, D’Indy, Lekeu and others, building up to a Festival at Kings Place in June 2010. Then we will be performing some of Enescu’s extremely complex but wonderful chamber music in a three concert series at Wigmore Hall in the 2010/11 season - with, I hope, a recording to follow. And new commissions to look forward to…It is incredibly hard to single out particular repertoire, but I think we all feel that our immersion in Fauré over the last two or three years, culminating in the Quintet recording and a week of Fauré concerts at Kings Place, has been one of the most rewarding things that the Ensemble has ever done.

KURKOWICZ/BACEWICZ ON TOP

2009-12-17T02:33:00.001-08:00

Polish violinist Joanna Kurkowicz’s recent recording on Chandos Records (CHAN 10533) of Grażyna Bacewicz music for violin and orchestra has been placed #6 on Amazon.com’s list of top 25 "Best Classical Albums of 2009."
This same recording has been nominated for the 2009 Preis der Deutchen Schallplaten Kritik [German Record Critics' Award]. The Award has been in existence since 1963, when it was established to set the "most rigorous standards for supreme achievement" in the field of recording.
In addition to awards, this recording has been receiving laudatory critical praise in some of the industry’s most prominent publications, such as:

Gramophone: “...polished yet passionate playing..”
American Record Guide: “...Expert performances and vivid sonics... [the concertos] are marvelous discoveries and a major enlargement of the CD discography. Bravo to Joanna Kurkowicz , the fine Polish Radio Symphony under Lukasz Borowicz, and Chandos for rescuing these treasures from undeserved neglect.”
International Record Review: “This will go a long way toward establishing Bacewicz as rightfully belonging to the ranks of her contemporaries Lutoslawski and Panufnik...”
Fanfare Magazine: “Kurkowicz sets a standard for committed playing that will be difficult to match, let alone beat…”

Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge launches Chandos recording contract with album of Howells

2009-12-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

January 2010 marks the beginning of an exclusive three-year recording contract between Chandos and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge.

At least five CDs will be released, all conducted by Andrew Nethsingha, the Choir’s Director of Music since 2007. The first release, recorded in 2009, will be available in March 2010. The disc of choral music by Herbert Howells will include two settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis: one setting was written for St John’s, where Howells was Acting Organist during World War II; the other for Gloucester Cathedral in the composer’s native county. The next CD, will be a selection of popular choral works by, among others, Fauré, Parry, Tallis, Rutter, and Vaughan Williams. This will be followed by a disc of music by Lassus, which will appear on Chandos's early music label, Chaconne.

This is St John’s College Choir’s first long-term contract with Chandos. However, it has already made a number of recordings for the label, including Mozart’s Requiem and works by Charpentier and Poulenc (conducted by George Guest) and music by Tallis and Gibbons (conducted by Christopher Robinson).

Andrew Nethsingha said, “We are delighted to be embarking on a partnership with such an excellent label as Chandos. With them, we will release a wide variety of repertoire. We have chosen to start with a disc of Howells’ music – Herbert Howells was closely associated with St John’s College for several decades. Two major works written for the St John’s Choir, including “Sequence for St Michael” will feature on the CD. The recording of “By the waters of Babylon”, a deeply moving psalm setting for baritone, violin, cello and organ will be another highlight of the disc.”

Ralph Couzens, Managing Director of Chandos Records, commented, "Chandos has a history of recording choral music - including some superb recordings with the Choir of St John's, Cambridge - and so, when the chance of an exclusive contract with this wonderful choir arose, it seemed a superb opportunity to collaborate again with this famous English musical institution. Indeed, the distinctive sound of St John's and its imaginative repertoire plans beautifully dovetail into the Chandos catalogue and I am very excited about the prospect of making recordings together."

St John’s College, Cambridge was founded in 1511 and its Choir has participated in daily services at the College since the 1670s. In 2009 the Choir toured both the USA and the Netherlands and featured in a BBC Proms concert in July to celebrate Cambridge University’s 800th anniversary. In the past two months the Choir has performed at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and at the Cambridge Music Festival with the London Mozart Players.

The Choir has become renowned for its brilliant and vigorous ‘continental sound’, initially cultivated by George Guest over his many years at St John’s. Since the 1950s the Choir has built an impressive recorded catalogue of nearly 100 discs on a number of different labels. Notable for innovation as well as tradition, the Choir has given premières of a large number of works from composers including Jonathan Harvey, Robin Holloway, Gabriel Jackson, James MacMillan, John McCabe, John Rutter and Giles Swayne. In October 2008 the Choir launched a weekly webcast of one of its sung services, making it the first British choir to undertake an initiative of this kind. Another recent innovation is the liturgical performance of Bach Cantatas each term, accompanied by members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

For release on Chandos, March 2010

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Sequence for St Michael; By the Waters of Babylon; A Spotless Rose; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Gloucester); Psalm 142; A Grace for Ten Downing Street; One Thing have I Desired; Like as the Hart; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense); Salve Regina; Te Deum (Collegium Regale)

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)
David Adams (Violin)
Alice Neary (‘Cello)
Paul Whelan (Baritone)
Timothy Ravalde (Organ)

CHAN 10587

HMV Sales Jump 12.8%

2009-12-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

HMV Sales Jump 12.8%

Some positive news from the High Street!

Year-End Chart Analysis: Priests, 'Popera' Stars Shine On Classical Charts

2009-12-14T03:12:00.000-08:00

Year-End Chart Analysis: Priests, 'Popera' Stars Shine On Classical Charts

Billboard's analysis of the 'Classical' best-sellers.

Amazon Denies Plan To Open Bricks-And-Mortar Stores

2009-12-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

Amazon Denies Plan To Open Bricks-And-Mortar Stores

Do you think Amazon stores would be a good thing?

All things Ivanhoe

2009-12-04T09:01:00.001-08:00

Whilst preparing for the Chandos recording of Sullivan's Ivanhoe, featuring Toby Spence, Janice Watson with BBC NOW, I couldn't help but be reminded of Elizabeth Taylor in the 1952 Ivanhoe - simply gorgeous!

Gerald Finley fever!

2009-12-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

Chandos releases Gerald Finley Arias on our Opera in English label in February and I'm now getting extremely excited as I spend this afternoon listening to first edits and catching glimpses of this wonderful baritone! We were pleased to welcome conductor Edward Gardner to the studios earlier this week as we work on the master. This is Ed's first recording on Chandos, and will be the first of many as projects now get finalised.

Why not take a look at this Doctor Atomic clip, movements of which are featured in our Arias album.

Have any of you had the pleasure of seeing Gerald on stage before? What productions have you seen? Feel free to let us know!

Howard Shelley scoops ‘Choc de l’Année’ Award

2009-12-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

Chandos is delighted to announce that Howard Shelley has scooped a Choc de l’Année Award from France’s most distinguished music magazine, Classica, for his recording of piano concertos by Schumann, Grieg and Saint-Saëns with the Orchestra of Opera North (CHAN 10509).

The awards ceremony took place at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 3 December 2009. This annual awards ceremony is now an established part of France’s musical life, and this year, only fifteen recipients were chosen. This makes a fine ending to 2009 which started well with the announcement that Howard Shelley had been awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours.

Howard Shelley commented: ‘I so enjoyed the making of this disc. In concert these well-known works rarely merit more than a play-through in rehearsal, and to stray from a fairly ‘traditional’ interpretation is difficult. In the studio, however, and directing the very responsive Orchestra of Opera North from the keyboard, I had a wonderful freedom to experiment and shape the music afresh.’

Ralph Couzens, the MD of Chandos Records, commented: ‘Chandos is very proud of its collaboration with Howard Shelley over the years, which has resulted in many superb recordings. It is particularly gratifying to make a record of standard repertoire that has something genuinely new to say. This award is a tribute to the artistry of this fine musician.’

The recording, released in March 2009, has garnered a string of rave reviews. Howard Shelley brought fresh insights to this well-known repertoire, and in Schumann’s Concerto his approach was revolutionary.

Concerning his approach to Schumann’s Concerto, Shelley writes: ‘I have long wanted to take the Schumann nearer the tempos the composer marked (and which Clara Schumann confirmed in the Complete Edition she oversaw). I feel it gives the work a passion (the Schumanns, after all, were just married and expecting their first child) and a tautness which the traditional practice of slowing the main theme sometimes misses.’

His approach is startling to those used to the traditional way of hearing this great concerto.

Classica review: ‘Howard Shelley, the winner of Classica’s comparative assessment of both the 1st and 3rd concertos of Rachmaninov, dares to direct three big romantic concertos from the keyboard, a highly unusual step, but one which succeeds in formidable fashion. The concertos of Schumann, Grieg and Saint-Saëns burst into life with unique passion under his fingers.’

Stephen Johnson in the magazine BBC Music wrote: ‘Here’s something well worth pointing out: a modern version of Schumann’s Piano Concerto that actually sounds like Schumann… Shelley’s Schumann is undoubtedly very special: I hope he’ll do more.’

Harriet Smith wrote in Gramophone: ‘…it was a particular delight to hear a reading as fleet and joyous as this one… intimate but also sharply characterised. And when virtuosity is required, Shelley provides it in spades.’

Patrick Rucker in International Record Review wrote: ‘…this is the most finely realised and ravishingly beautiful Schumann Concerto to have come along in a very long time.’

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22

Orchestra of Opera North

Howard Shelley (soloist / conductor)

CHAN 10509

Podcast: Elgar

2009-12-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hear clips and discussion around the recording of Elgar's Crown of India recently released on Chandos. This majestic work is recorded for the first time in its entirety and is conducted by Sir Andrew Davis who makes his debut on Chandos.

Podcast: Elgar’s Crown of India

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The Cream of Music

2009-12-03T03:57:00.001-08:00

The Cream of Music

As I was listening to Massenet’s famous Élégie (also known as Mélodie) the other day, it occurred to me that no matter how many times I hear it, it always affects me in quite a special way, sending shivers down my spine. It is a tune which (along with the ‘Méditation’ from Thaïs and the Le Cid ballet music) kept the name of Massenet alive during all the years in which most of his operas were neglected. It is an example of the best kind of ‘light’ music, a sweet but gently melancholic tune which ticks all the emotional boxes (well, at least all mine): the cream of popular music, in a way.

Isn’t it curious how some music seems to become and remain famous, yet other music struggles to survive? Why is it that a composer such as Anthony Collins, though successful as a conductor, particularly of the symphonies of Sibelius, will probably only ever be remembered for his short, deliciously piquant orchestral work Vanity Fair, yet the rest of his music, though attractive, won’t achieve anything like that work’s deserved fame?

Surely, part of the reason for the success of some composers must be the relative exposure of their music (which must be at the expense of that of others), yet, as Constant Lambert wrote in his seminal Music Ho! (1934): ‘The present age [!] is one of overproduction. Never has there been so much food and so much starvation, and (as I pointed out before) never has there been so much music-making and so little musical experience of a vital order… The people, and they are legion, who play bridge to the accompaniment of a loud speaker, cannot be put off their game even by The Amazing Mandarin of Béla Bartók.’

Lambert then goes on to suggest (and, remember, this book was first published in 1934) that people are no longer thrilled at musical sonorities – even at the most powerful modern tutti: ‘When Berlioz wrote the Symphonie Fantastique he was providing probably the greatest sonority that anyone, including those military men present, had ever heard. When George Antheil adds to his score sixteen pianos, and a pneumatic drill he is, after all, providing little more than the average background to a telephone conversation.’

I know what Lambert means. We live in an incredibly noisy age. How many times do you have to shout at the person opposite you in a restaurant, struggling to be heard over the piped music and fellow diners, with all the sounds ricocheting off the bare polished floors and unadorned walls which define the current fashion for a dining ambience?

The question why some music survives and some doesn’t is not an easy one to answer. When one responds to an obviously ‘popular’ work, one can’t help thinking of Noël Coward’s quip, ‘Extraordinary how potent cheap music is’, and keep quiet if one prefers Il trovatore to Falstaff, Offenbach to Janáček or even finds oneself secretly enjoying Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive!

Yet there is nothing wrong in enjoying a bit of ‘cheap’ popular music. Indeed, George Bernard Shaw actively encouraged serious musicians to study the idiom of the music hall, of which the best examples (‘Burlington Bertie’ and the like) achieve a genuine depth of emotion.

Whether or not a piece of music is ‘great’ can be argued endlessly (and pointlessly). It surely is more important if music says something to you or not; that is really the key matter. If it does – and if it does to enough people – the music survives. Perhaps the best music, like the cream in the milk, will always somehow rise to the top, but part of the pleasure of record collecting is hunting out some of the cream which has been – fairly or unfairly – stuck near the bottom.

Egon label scoops 'CDs of the Year' from British Bandsman magazine

2009-12-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

World of Brass, is pleased to announce that Maestro has been named 'CD of the Year 2009' by British Bandsman magazine. The CD features Foden's Band. This therefore represents a clean sweep of the awards made by the major brass band magazines for the label and Foden's Band.

Released in May 2009, Maestro comprises works composed Bramwell Tovey, three of which feature the band in combination with another instrument. The composer is the piano soloist in Pictures in the Smoke, Joseph Alessi is the trombone soloist in The Lincoln Tunnel Cabaret and Mark Fewer plays the violin and narrates in Nine Daies Wonder. Commenting in Brass Band World, Paul Hindmarsh remarked, 'For me, this is one of the outstanding brass band albums, not just of 2009, but of the decade. Tovey's charismatic presence on the podium and the additon of two magnificent soloists from North America make this an exceptional release.'

This recording is available for download, from The Classical Shop www.theclassicalshop.net

I Fagiolini's Christmas Party

2009-11-30T03:20:00.000-08:00

I Fagiolini will be residents for a week at King's Place in London. Sure to get you in the spirit!!

I Fagiolini's Christmas Party

Monday 14th December 2009 - Sunday 20th December 2009

What's On

Christmas around Europe
Wed 16th Dec / 7:30pm / Hall One
Kick start your Christmas with a mix of 20th Century and Renaissance music
Find out more
Schubert – Winterreise
Thu 17th Dec / 7:30pm / Hall One
James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook perform Schubert
Find out more
Alehouse
Fri 18th Dec / 7:30pm / Hall One
Alehouse and Music combine during this exciting reportoire!
Find out more
Intimate Bach
Sat 19th Dec / 7:30pm / Hall One
Get a little closer to Bach during this final Christmas concert!
Find out more

Louis Lortie revisits Chopin's études

2009-11-30T03:09:00.000-08:00

Following a recently acclaimed performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, we are excited to show a new film of virtuoso pianist Louis Lortie performing Chopin's Etudes.

The recording took place in September 2009 with Chandos engineer, Peter Newble, at the new Britten Studio, Aldeburgh. Lortie was re-visiting this repertoire for the first time in over twenty years!
The result is a breathtaking film which captures a pianist at the height of his powers, mastering these challenging work on a Fazioli piano.

Watch and download HD video and audio at Plushmusic.tv, starting from £2.99, to £14.99 for the complete works.

Schubert Ensemble praised for Martinu Chamber Works

2009-11-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

Classical Music magazine has chosen the Schubert Ensemble's newest Chandos recording as their disc of the fortnight.

CHAN 10551

'Recordings marking this Marinu anniversary have tended to concentrate on his orchestral works but here are four appealing, accessible and strangely neglected works. The quartet for oboe, violin, cello and piano, the piano quartet, piano trio and duo for violin and cello are all from Martinu's American years and exude vigorous optimism - even jocosity in the oboe quartet. The players deliver these demanding and difficult-to-balance works with polished style.'

Check out the Schubert Ensemble's website for news and performance details.
http://www.schubertensemble.com/

Check out the Don Carlos promo video created by RedTed Films

2009-11-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

Follow our link to the promotional video for Chandos Opera in English production of Don Carlos. This Opera North recording which features such stars as Julian Gavin, Alastair Miles, Janice Watson and Sir John Tomlinson has been receiving acclaim from all corners of the globe and was released earlier this month as a 3 CD set.

If this is your first stab at opera or Verdi, or you would just like to understand Don Carlos that little bit better then hear some great insights from the cast, conductor and narrator Stephen Johnson.

Stereophile: Linn Abandons CD Players

2009-11-24T03:52:00.000-08:00

Stereophile: Linn Abandons CD Players

2009 What Hi-Fi winners

2009-11-24T03:41:00.001-08:00

I thought I would share this as it's worth finding out what pieces of kit we should all be using to be get the best out of our music.

Click here to take you straight through to all the categories.

Linn news sparks interesting article in the Guardian

2009-11-24T02:42:00.000-08:00

High-end audio maker Linn declares death of the CD player

The British maker of stuff for audiophiles says digital streaming is the way forward for its music products.

The CD player is dead. So says Linn Products, the high-end audio specialist based in Glasgow which for 20 years has been making .. CD players.
The reason: its audiophile customers have moved, with alacrity, to hard drive-based systems - its DS "streaming players" - that allow them to encode their entire CD collection in order to play any track at will.
"We introduced our streaming players two years ago, and thought they would be slow to take off," says Gilad Tiefenbrun, Linn's managing director who is the son of the original founder, Ivan. "But sales of CD players have declined 40% year-on-year, while streaming players now make up 30% of our total business. It's unprecedented growth." The growth in those sales has come while overall revenues have remained stable, he added.
Similar effects are being seen at Linn Records, the part of the company that sells music: CD sales are down 17%, while its uncompressed downloads - which include original studio mixes of recordings, rather than the mixed-down versions sold on CD - have grown by 24% in the same time; 70% of those are now those "Studio Master" versions, each costing £18.
Posted by Charles Arthur Friday 20 November 2009 18.12 GMT guardian.co.uk

See and hear the Don Carlos cast talk about Verdi and his greatest opera

2009-11-23T02:03:00.000-08:00

The Opera North cast came down to London in early October to talk about their experiences of the Chandos recording and also their evaluations of performing Don Carlos in English. Hear their interviews in this vodcast, made by RedTed Films.

Don Carlos vodcast

Happy Birthday Sir Charles Mackerras!

2009-11-17T05:46:00.000-08:00

Chandos wishes Sir Charles Mackerras many happy returns!

Grab yourself the perfect Christmas gift - Sir Charles's Grammy Award winning, Hansel and Gretel.

Jennifer Pike joins the BBC National Orchesta of Wales this weekend

2009-11-13T08:48:00.000-08:00

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will perform a wonderful evening of music, featuring former BBC Young Musician of the Year, violinist Jennifer Pike.

Jennifer will be performing the work which she played when she won her title in 2002.

On Saturday at 7.30pm, guest conductor Garry Walker will join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jennifer at William Aston Hall, Glyndwr University, Wrexham.

Garry Walker is permanent guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, as well as conducting nationally and internationally, he is an enthusiastic hill walker and climber and recently completed his mission to climb all 284 of the Munro Mountains in Scotland.

Following Cimarosa’s Overture, Il matrimonio segreto, Jennifer Pike will join the orchestra for a performance of Mendelssohn’s well-loved Violin Concerto.

Balsom joins Brian Couzens with an honorary award from Anglia Ruskin University

2009-11-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

Following Brian Couzens's honourary doctorate at Anglia Ruskin University in 2007, Alison Balsom is the latest in the classical world to be awarded for her devotion to classical music. She collected her Honorary Degree at a ceremony earlier this week

Leonard Slatkin recovering after heart attack

2009-11-13T01:41:00.000-08:00

All at Chandos wish Leonard Slatkin a speedy recovery after it was announced he suffered a heart attack on 1 November. Slatkin required an angioplasty and stent procedure to unblock a clogged artery, after collapsing in his dressing room following a concert.

Slatkin has made a number of recordings with Chandos including Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Kiddish Symphony and Barber's Vanessa.

BBC Music Magazine offers free weekly download

2009-11-12T01:59:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share this with you all:

Sign up for your
free download!

From today, visitors to our website will be able to enjoy a free download every single week. Taken from five-star discs reviewed in BBC Music Magazine, each download will be a complete track for you to take away and enjoy at your own leisure. All you have to do is head to bbcmusicmagazine.com,
sign up to the website and follow the instructions. Our first track is from The Sixteen’s stunning Coro disc Bright Orb of Harmony – Purcell’s moving
Let mine eyes run down
with tears.

Oliver Condy, editor
BBC Music Magazine

Bavouzet scoops yet another award!!

2009-11-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to announce that Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has scooped the

‘Best Interpretation of Standard Repertoire’ Award

for his recording of
Debussy: Complete Works for Piano, Vol. 4
Images, Series I and II; Études, Books I and II
Chandos (CHAN 10497)

at the

INTERNATIONAL PIANO AWARDS 2009

International Piano magazine announces the winners of its annual IP Awards for 2009

International Piano magazine, the British bi-monthly journal for the piano world, announced the winners of its annual International Piano Awards for 2009 in the November / December 2009 issue. The Awards celebrate the best piano recordings, sheet music, books and DVDs from the past twelve months.

The magazine’s team of reviewers submitted their nominations of items released between October 2008 and November 2009. In addition to the recording, book and DVD awards, there was also a ‘Services to Music’ Award, voted by the magazine’s editorial team, and a ‘Readers’ Choice’ Award, voted by IP readers

Chandos heads over to the US of A to carry on our 30th anniversary celebrations

2009-10-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

In the spectacular surrounding of the Steinway Hall and hosted by the eminent, Christine Brewer our American distributor, Naxos of America and Chandos jointly hosted this celebration for the great and good of the North American music industry.

The event seemed to be a great success and an opportunity for both established artists and recent incumbants to mix. In fact some established artists on the label such as Tempeste di Mare had never met the Chandos Directors before! It especially proved a showcase for recent artists on the Chandos label - pianist Philip Fisher and violinst Joanna Kurkowicz, who dazzled the audience.

What a great way to begin closing off this 30th anniversary year!

Hear are a few photos from the evening.

Ways not to die! Thanks to Classic FM

2009-10-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

A short article in this month's Classic FM caught my eye.

Gone but not forgotten! How the great composers died.

1. Henry Purcell who died from a chill after his wife locked him out because he was late coming home. Let that be a warning to us all!

2. Charles-Valentin Alkan was crushed to death beneath a large umbrella stand. How grizzly! Rain has never seemed so good!

Bavouzet takes the Instrumental category at this year's Gramophone Awards

2009-10-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

The star-studded event took place yesterday lunchtime at The Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane with an incredibly strong list of contenders for all the awards. Congratulations go to ECM on taking Label of the Year, in this their 40th anniversary year, and also to The Sixteen for Artist of the Year.

Chandos shared in the celebration, taking the Instrumental Award for Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's fourth volume of his Debussy cycle. CHAN 10497.

Watch out for photos from the ceremony which will be added soon.

Arts series kicks off with chorale performance - Newton, KS - The Newton Kansan

2009-10-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

Arts series kicks off with chorale performance - Newton, KS - The Newton Kansan

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Check this video out

2009-09-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Pike joins first winners of London Music Masters Awards

2009-09-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

"... with phenomenal tuning, pace, control of timbre and range of dynamics, she brought the house down with Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.' Robert Maycock, Independent

Recently signed to Chandos, violinist Jennifer Pike has just been presented with London Music Masters Award.

London Music Masters is a registered charity which aims to build bridges to excellence through the Bridge Project, a long term music education programme for children, and the LMM Awards which are given every three years to three extremely talented violinist aged 18-28. During their tenure the award holders recieve substantial financial support, performance opportunities, and mentoriing from important individuals in the arts industry.

London Music Masters works in partnerships wiht the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal College of Music and Wigmore Hall.

www.londonmusicmasters.org

Hear Alison Stephen's podcast for Classic FM

2009-09-28T02:25:00.001-07:00

Today's Classic FM Arts Daily Podcast is with Alison Stephens. Have a listen

The Fanfare Archive - treasure trove for classical enthusiasts

2009-09-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

I've just come across the Fanfare Archive and felt that I just had to share this with you.

http://www.fanfarearchive.com/

You'll soon find a wealth of information and opinions about tens of thousands of CD, SACD, and DVD recordings of Classical, Jazz, and Film music that have been reviewed in Fanfare in recent years. The Archive is a work in progress, and it will eventually encompass every issue of Fanfare

Exclusive Chandos Film Music Feature and Sampler on ClassicsOnline

2009-09-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

Follow this link to this exclusive film music bundle available on ClassicsOnline. For only $2.99 USD you can get a flavour of the music released on Chandos Movies, and sure to inspire you to purchase future recordings on this innovative label. But hurry, this sampler is only available for one week!

Delius Song inspires new album dedicated to the memory of Richard Hickox

2009-09-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

This coming Monday, 28th September will see the launch of Within a Dream. This beautifully compiled 2-CD set is released to coincide with the launch of the charity, The Richard Hickox Foundation.

The inspiration behind the album came from Ernest Dowson's words, used in the concluding passage of Songs of Sunset by Frederick Delius.

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
Ernest Dowson (1867–1900)

The profits of this CD set will go to the newly founded, Richard Hickox Foundation.

Richard had a long and deeply fulfilling relationship with Chandos, which enabled him to realise his artistic vision. His recorded legacy remains as a testament to his musical ability and the excerpts on this two-disc set have been chosen to capture all aspects of his art. It was difficult to know what to leave out as Richard seemed never to make a poor recording. However, here we have some of his greatest achievements, from the recording of the original version of Vaughan Williams’s A London Symphony to the poignant setting of Delius’s Songs of Sunset from which the title of this celebration, ‘Within a Dream’, is taken. In between there are excerpts from Britten operas and from the Grainger, Arnold and Holst series, as well as much repertoire from beyond the British isles, including Mendelssohn, Menotti, Hummel and Schubert. The achievements of Richard Hickox reached an astonishing breadth and depth, as this brief selection of his music making demonstrates. Through the recordings represented here we can continue to marvel at the consistently high level of his interpretations whilst wondering what more he might have achieved had he lived to the age of eighty. It is our deeply held hope that The Richard Hickox Foundation will build on his legacy in the years to come.

An introduction to Richard Hickox and The Richard Hickox Foundation

The premature death of Richard Hickox on 23 November 2008, at the age of just sixty, deprived the musical world of one of its greatest conductors. The depth and breadth of his musical achievements were astonishing, not least in his remarkable work on behalf of British composers. His recorded legacy – more than 280 recordings with Chandos alone – will ensure that his art will never be forgotten. The Richard Hickox Foundation, by supporting those causes about which Richard felt passionately, will sustain those interests into the future. The Foundation aims to enhance what is already a remarkable legacy.
Richard Hickox was an inspiring figure, a guiding light to his friends and colleagues. He had a generosity of spirit and a wonderful quality of empathy for others. For someone of his musical achievements, he was never arrogant, never pompous. Indeed, there was a degree of humility about Richard that was as endearing as it was unexpected. He was light-hearted and, above all, incredibly enthusiastic for those causes which he held dear. His determination to make things happen for these passions was astonishing – without this energy and focus he could not have achieved all that he did. He was able to take others with him on his crusades, and all in the pursuit of great music. It is hard to see how he could haveachieved more during his life. His early death leaves it to The Richard Hickox Foundation to carry on, with equal energy, determination and focus, the desire to achieve his vision.

Thanks to gifted and musical parents, Richard Hickox quickly realised his early promise. At the age of seven he was playing the organ in the church in which his father was the vicar. Very early he showed those special talents which later distinguished the man, including a capacity for hard work and an enthusiasm which seemed to carry all before it. In his teens he was conducting at the Wooburn Festival, and in 1973 – at the age of just twenty-five – he became the youngest person to conduct at the BBC Proms. He formed his own orchestra in 1971, the City of London Sinfonia, and was quickly taken up by record companies. His English National Opera debut, with Dido and Aeneas, followed in 1979, his operatic achievements broadening what was already a remarkably wide range of musical interests. Closest to his heart, however, was British music. His performances of works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Delius and others showed profound musical insights, the interpretations big-hearted, expressive and rooted in the colours and contours of the English countryside.
Richard was a completely rounded musician with a patience, kindness and charisma that endeared him to players and singers alike. His enthusiasm bred its own energy and this, in turn, inspired performers. He was superb at marshalling large forces. He cared about the development of the artists with whom he worked and they repaid this loyalty by giving of their best for him.
An unassuming man who was always a delight to meet, Richard was a tireless musical explorer who was able to create a wonderful sense of spirituality, which lifted performances to become special, memorable events. For all these reasons, Richard was loved as well as respected.

The goals of the Foundation
The Richard Hickox Foundation will continue to cherish and support those interests that were close to Richard’s heart. These interests were very catholic – who can forget Richard’s recordings and performances of the music of Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn or Dvořák? However, the focus will be, rightly, on British music, for this repertoire brought something extra from Richard. The Foundation will also acknowledge and develop a genuinely international approach that reflects Richard’s own worldwide activities and success.
The goals of the Foundation can be summarised as follows:
1) To commission and financially support recordings of British composers, focusing on those of importance, who have been neglected by record companies and concert promoters. This will include composers such as Holst, Leighton and Stanford;
2) To identify and support young conductors and singers worldwide, through grants to enable the appointment of Associate Conductors (known as Richard Hickox Conducting Fellowships) and through grants for concert training for young singers (known as Richard Hickox Singing Fellowships);
3) Through grants and other forms of support to encourage performances of British music outside the UK. Richard Hickox pioneered British music from Sydney to San Diego – this objective will maintain the momentum;
4) To communicate information about the life and
work of Richard Hickox, mainly through a new website:
www.richardhickoxfoundation.com.
To help us realise these ambitious objectives and plans, the Richard Hickox Foundation has been set up as a company limited by guarantee (number 6858087) and
will be registered as a charity under UK law.
Partnerships with organisations that worked closely with Richard Hickox will be developed in support of our objectives.
Our goals can only be achieved by raising funds from those organisations and individuals who cared about Richard Hickox and who want to see his legacy enhanced. To keep costs to a minimum, no salary or fees will be payable to anyone associated with the Foundation. Those involved will give of their time freely, out of love for Richard, the man and musician.
How you can help
To realise our vision for The Richard Hickox Foundation we need the help of those organisations and individuals who believed in Richard and who cherish his memory. Many will want to support the Foundation even if
they did not know Richard personally, for they
responded wholeheartedly to his music making, which touched their hearts. To support the Foundation,
perhaps by becoming a Friend or by making a donation, please contact us at:
The Richard Hickox Foundation
Crystal Wharf
36 Graham Street
London N1 8GJ
e-mail: richardhickoxfoundation@intermusica.co.uk

Leadership of the Foundation
The Richard Hickox Foundation will appoint a strong and committed group of Officers, Patrons and Trustees to offer leadership, guidance and wisdom.
The Foundation’s President and Vice President are Richard’s widow, Pamela Helen Stephen, and Richard’s eldest son, Tom Hickox. The Foundation would not exist without their joint determination to build on Richard’s remarkable musical legacy.
Patrons and Trustees from all spheres of Richard’s life will be appointed over the next twelve months.

Chandos artist Paul Watkins is appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra

2009-09-24T09:17:00.001-07:00

Sulivan Sweetland is delighted to announce the appointment of Chandos artist Paul Watkins as Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra with immediate effect for an initial period of three years.

Recently appointed Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Watkins has previously conducted the Ulster Orchestra in BBC concerts and last November in the Orchestra’s own series at the Belfast Waterfront Hall. Watkins returns to the Ulster Orchestra at the Ulster Hall next March where he will conduct a programme of Schumann and Brahms.

David Byers, Chief Executive of the Ulster Orchestra warmly welcomed the appointment: “Paul Watkins is a great communicator who enjoys the respect of the orchestral players, thanks to his innate musicality and his attention to detail without losing any of the music’s spontaneity.”

Paul Watkins has acquired a reputation as an insightful and communicative conductor in the years since winning the Leeds Conductors’ Competition in 2002. He has conducted all of Britain’s leading orchestras including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras, and is increasingly in demand abroad working regularly with orchestras including the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Queensland Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Nordic Voices Lamentations tour - buy your tickets now!

2009-09-15T01:26:00.001-07:00

Nordic Voices is a six-voice a cappella group blending solo and ensemble qualities. They have received glowing praise for their concert performances, and their initial release on Chandos (CHSA 5050) received praise from around the world. Washington Post wrote, ‘Intonations? Impeccable. Ensemble? Unfailing precision in phrasing, dynamics, colour – everything finely tuned. A succession of works ever-changing and expressing in meaning.’ Gramophone noted ‘ringing, clear timbres and an impressive blend.’

In this current tour Nordic Voices perform works from their new album, Lamentations. This current collection, superbly sung by these Norwegians, draws attention to the idea of global conflict. An idea inspired by the Offices of Tenebrae. The offices of Tenebrae (on the last three days of Holy Week) have always been celebrated with a sense of the drama appropriate to their commemoration of Christ’s Passion. The texts are about conflict and are as relevant and moving today as they must have been to the composers of the sixteenth century. Most major composers active in Catholic Europe in the late sixteenth century wrote at least one set of Tenebrae lamentations and/or responsories, partly because of liturgical demand but also because their highly-charged texts provided an opportunity for expressive writing.

The four composers represented here present a fascinating contrast to approaches to text setting. Luis de Victoria was born in Avila but spent his formative years in Rome where he published his Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae in 1585, containing a complete set of music for Holy Week. The lessons sung here come from all three days and show Victoria’s careful setting of the text and his ability to control texture by a constant grouping and regrouping of different voices. Perhaps unexpectedly, a significant group of Latin lamentation settings was composed in the England of Elizabeth I. The lamentation texts, with their undertones of religious persecution, could speak to both Protestants and Catholics alike. Robert White worked at Ely and Chester Cathedrals before moving to Westminster Abbey as Master of the Choristers by 1570.

Nordic Voices will donate a portion of their royalties for this recording and tour to UNICEF.

Oslo: Paulus Kirke 25.09
Haugesund: Var Frelsers Kirke 27.09
Bergen: Bergen Domkirke 28.09
Arvika: Ingesund Musikhogsk 29.09
Stockholm: Adolf Fredriks Kyrka 30.09
Helsinki: Gamla Kyrkan 03.10
London: St John's, Smith Sq 08.10

Richard Hickox Foundation launches 15 October

2009-09-08T01:53:00.001-07:00

The Richard Hickox foundation will be launched on 15 October with a concert by the City of London Sinfonia and the London Symphony Chorus.

Celebrated conductor Richard Hickox died prematurely in 2008, one of the world's greatest conductors and a pioneer of British music. The Foundation aims to continue Richard's work by supporting recordings of British composers, especially those who have not received the recognition which they deserve, to support young conductors and singers, to encourage British music outside of the UK and to communicate the life and work of Richard Hickox.

The concert is being held at the Barbican with a programme of British music by two ensembles which Richard was closely associated with. Richard founded the City of London Sinfonia in 1971 and was Music Director until the end of his life. He was Chorus Master and Music Director of the London Symphony Chorus from 1976-1991 and Conductor Emeritus until his death.

The programme is as follows:

Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Elgar The Music Makers
Holst The Hymn of Jesus
Vaughan Williams Toward the Unknown Region

Felicity Palmer mezzo soprano
London Symphony Chorus
City of London Sinfonia
Joseph Cullen and Andrew Litton conductors

Chandos will be releasing a two-disc set of highlights of Richard's recording career, ‘Within a Dream - A Celebration of Richard Hickox' at the price of one CD with proceeds being donated to the Richard Hickox Foundation.

Win Tickets to Gala Fundraising Concert

2009-09-08T01:43:00.001-07:00

Win 2 tickets to Alison Stephens and Craig Ogden Fundraising concert! Simply reply to blees@chandos.net with the answer to this question - which novelist inspired their previous duo CD - and you will be entered into the draw!

MacMillan Cancer Support presents Alison Stephens and Craig Ogden - Gala Fundraising Concert

2009-09-03T03:54:00.001-07:00

Macmillan Cancer Support presents Alison Stephens and Craig Ogden with special guest The Cambridge Chord Company.

Fascinating and eclectic mixture of works played by the acclaimed mandolin & guitar duo from the newly released Souvenirs CD (Chandos CHAN 10563) and favourite barbershop style show-stoppers from the award winning Cambridge Chord Company.

Date:
Friday, October 2, 2009
Time:
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Location:
St John's College Chapel, Cambridge
Street:
St John's Street
City/Town:
Cambridge, United Kingdom

September releases now available!

2009-09-03T03:53:00.001-07:00

Geoffrey Tozer 1954-2009

2009-08-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Australian classical pianist Geoffrey Tozer. Geoffrey was an exclusive artist to Chandos and recorded the solo piano works of Nikolai Medtner. His recording of the three piano concertos won a Diapason d'Or in 1992.

Tozer championed the music of many under-recorded composers, such as Alan Rawsthorne, John Blackwood McEwen, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Roberto Gerhard, Ottorino Respighi, Percy Grainger, John Ireland (the Piano Concerto in E flat) and Nikolai Tcherepnin.

Amongst his other career highlights was becoming the youngest semi-finalist ever at the Leeds International Piano Competition and soon afterwards made his European debut at the Proms under Sir Colin Davis. He was also the youngest person to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship.

iTunes now accounts for 25% of all U.S music sales

2009-08-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

It has been reported today that Apple's iTunes digital media storefront now accounts for 25 percent of all music sales in the U.S., up from 21 percent last year and from 14 percent in 2007 (according to a new report issued by market research firm NPD Group.)

Retail giant Wal-Mart accounts for 14 percent of all U.S. music sales between its physical CD sales and online sales--iTunes passed Wal-Mart to become the nation's largest music retailer in early 2008. Looking solely at digital music sales, iTunes represents 69 percent of all U.S. purchases, followed by Amazon MP3 at 8 percent.

Cheryl Barker Arias out in just over two weeks - have a sneak preview here!

2009-08-14T02:15:00.001-07:00

Available from The Classical Shop, iTunes and all good retailers from only £9.99

The Classical Shop is now on Facebook!

2009-08-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of all things, The Classical Shop then you will want to become one of our Facebook fans too! Keep updated with news and reviews on the site, and spread the word about this superior quality classical download store.

Please visit and be a fan!

Bumper Gramophone issue for Chandos!

2009-08-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Neeme Jarvi's Prokofiev Piano Concertos recieves Reissue of the Month

'Storming Prokofiev reissues that brim with thrilling virtuosity and musicianship'

CHAN 10546 Rota Symphonies performed by Filarmonica '900

'Rota's two little-known symphonies make for a quietly rewarding disc... with sumptuous Chandos sound this is the version to have.'

CHAN 10504 Vogler Symphonies with London Mozart Players

'Atmospheric and colourful works by a composer dismissed by Mozart. The London Mozart Players grant Vogler the honour of a robust but well balanced sound complimented by clear textures and well defined contrasts.'

CHAN 10526 Lydia Mordkovitch Russian Works for Violin and Viola

'Here is a fascinating programme of out-of-the-way Russian repertoire. Mordkovith is a passionate advocate for everything she plays, her accompanists are excellent, and no collector of Russian/Soviet music would want to miss the chance to encounter Volkonsky's Viola Sonata, or to thank her and Chandos for the opportunity.'

CHAN 10527 Tansman Piano Works, Margaret Fingerhut:

'Tansman's charming music receives a poetic performance from Fingerhut... Fingerhut has an unerring sense of when to indulge the flamboyance, as well as of how to introduce a poetic quality.'

CHAN 10528 Lennox Berkeley Songs, James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook.

'At last, a disc devoted to the forgotten songs of Lennox Berkeley... They are songs for a fastidious ear and a mind that shuns overstatement, the banal and the sentimental. Gilchrist is particularly well suited to these songs. Anna Tilbrook is the totally admirable accompanist...'

Raising money for Cancer Support

2009-07-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

To Rome and Back on a Bright Red Vespa. Why? To raise £100,000 to help people affected by cancer.

In 2008 mandolin virtuoso, Alison Stephens and her colleague Mike Maran were both diagnosed with cancer when they were on the roading doing Captain Corelli's Mandolin. They have both supported one another through their personal battles and have decided to raid £100,000 to support others who have cancer. Alison is the project manager. Mike will drive the Vespa to Rome and back in August.

Please come and join in!

Go to their website www.ccccc.uk.com

From there you will be directed to the Just Giving website. They you decdied who you would like to make a donation to. 1. The Kis Endowment is based in Edinburgh and funds research into the treatment of bowel cancer - they are doing research into the very drugs that Mike is taking right now. 2. Macmillan Cancer Support provide fantastic support for cancer suffers in many ways including advice, website, information and very handy booklets covering just about every aspect of cancer. Ali was helped in the early days by booklets, readily available information and support given by Macmillan. 3) The Addenbrooke's Charitable trust is for the hospital where Mike and Ali were treated.

Please find out more about this adventure.

If you'd like to contact Ali
e-mail info@alisonstephens.com www.alisonstephens.com

Contact Mike
mike@mikemaran.com www.mikemaran.com

Watch out for Alison's new recording titled Souvenirs, which is a duos recording with guitarist Craig Ogden. The album is released on Chandos in September. Alison will be donating all her royalties from this CD/digital release to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Gramophone Artist of the Year 2009 - please vote!

2009-06-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

The shortlist for Gramophone Artist of the Year has now been announced. Once again, Gramophone invites you to log on to www.gramophone.co.uk and select the musician who has over the past 12 months, most impressed you. This year's list, chosen by the Gramophone editorial team includes two Chandos artists - Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Sarah Connolly.

The editorial team comment:

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Even at a time when great pianists are hardly thin on the ground, Bavouzet all but demands attention with his superb series of Debussy discs for Chandos.

Sarah Connolly: Her recent triumph on disc in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas merely underlined this mezzo-soprano's ascension to the royal line of great British mezzos, a worthy successor to Dame Janet Baker et al.

Other artists nominated this year include: Perre-Laurent Aimard, Diana Damrau, Gustavo Dudamel, Gerald Finley, Rene Jacobs, Mariss Jansons, Bryn Terfel and The Sixteen.

Please be sure to visit Gramophone and place your vote for this coveted accolade.

June editorial

2009-06-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last month, Chandos celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in style on board a boat on the Thames. The turnout was exceptional. The boat was laden with artists, press, producers, presenters, orchestra representatives, agents, distributors, the Chandos staff – everyone who had contributed to Chandos’ success over the past thirty years. It suddenly occurred to me, how long ago thirty years was.

In 1979 we lived practically on a different planet. The ‘Winter of Discontent’ as it was known in the UK. No laptops, mobile phones, internet, decent coffee vendors, air conditioning. Flares had just gone out of fashion and Britain was just about to enter the Thatcher era. It is hard to believe that Chandos started when the Ford Cortina MK IV was the best selling rep-car on UK roads.

It is funny that the early 80s seem more dated than the swinging 60s (nothing dates more quickly than the recent past). Personally, I loathed the 1980s: the fashion, pop music – all of it synthetic and manufactured. It was the decade when market forces completely took over and the world became just that bit colder. But it was also the decade when Chandos Records emerged, and although the world is now completely different – for better and worse – we have remained here – still doing what we do best, producing top quality recordings which are enjoyed by the music-loving world.

Despite the fickle nature of fashion, one thing remains constant: the playing and recording of great music. True, classical music has its fashions too: Mahler hardly wrote his symphonies in the same way that Haydn wrote his – but the works of both have survived. It is probably impossible to tell which music of today will survive: we are too close to it, and it will depend on the course music takes in coming years, but I expect very little of it will have staying power. Also, a naughty part of me cannot help thinking that enough music has already been written. After all, how many of us know all Haydn’s 104 symphonies, never mind the scores of string quartets, piano sonatas and piano trios (oh yes, and his operas and oratorios). And that is just one composer!

Of course, I do really think that new music should be encouraged and now that it is OK for serious classical composers to write in styles other than ‘intellectual’ serialism, modern classical music has got rather better. Music, though, invariably reflects the period in which it was written. One only has to hear a wah-wah guitar and instantly the 1970s are evoked (and what a great sound it is – it survived until the late 1970s, even making an appearance in the theme music of To the Manor Born, 1979). However, it remains a period sound.

The odd thing is, when one listens to the great works of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Mendelssohn – one tends not to think particularly of the nineteenth century (though their music is very much a product of that century) but rather of a very ‘here and now’ kind of musical expression.

Perhaps that is what defines great music, a certain timeless, ageless quality – and it may also explain why Chandos Records is still going strong thirty years after it was founded, during that chilly time of the ‘Winter of Discontent’.

Soundstage website reviews The Classical Shop

2009-06-03T01:37:00.001-07:00

June 1, 2009

The Digital Music Revolution: What Download Sites Have to Offer -- Part Eight

My latest download stop was The Classical Shop (www.theclassicalshop.net), a site presenting a few frustrations, but boasting a catalog of titles and labels so extensive that it’s well worth the effort required to snag some.

The Classical Shop is owned and run by Chandos Records, a pioneer label in the digital revolution. One of the very first digital recordings I heard, long before the launch of the Compact Disc, was Chandos’s LP edition of Holst’s The Planets, with Sir Alexander Gibson conducting the Scottish National Symphony Orchestra. It makes sense that Chandos should be at the forefront of the new digital-download movement. And Gibson’s recording of The Planets is available at the Classical Shop, still proudly standing up to the competition 30 years later.

The site is a good-looking one, with "New Releases" and "Recently Added Highlights" sections. It operated very much as do many of the sites I’ve already visited. After filling out a brief profile, you sign in with a user name and password. It’s then easy to access an account and attach downloads to it. The Classical Shop takes most major credit cards.

The higher-quality downloads are all lossless, but most are at only the standard CD resolution of 16-bit/44.1kHz. There were quite a few at 24/44.1, but I found only one at 24/48. I know that many Chandos masters were recorded at 24/96; it seems it will be only a matter of time before that resolution, too, is offered for download. Meanwhile, the resolutions Chandos offers now are not to be sneezed at.

I believe in using numerical measurements as guidelines, but ultimately it’s my ears that matter, and 95% of the recordings I downloaded from the Classical Shop sounded excellent -- as good as any CD I’ve ever heard, and better than many. The remaining 5% were below par not because of lower sampling rates but because of faulty microphone placement or some other original technical problem, such as a difficult recording location. The Classical Shop also offers its titles as MP3s, but that will be little significance to audiophile readers.

The Classical Shop offers lossless downloads in the FLAC, AIFF, WAV, and WMA formats. There’s no onboard download manager for the first three, but with WMA you can download up to 20 tracks at once. All of the Shop’s downloads border on the painfully slow, especially if you’re used to the simplicity of HDtracks’ fast and simple process. But loading one track at a time, very slowly, using FLAC, AIFF, or WAV, was beyond the call of duty for me, so chose WMA files, which were converted to Apple Lossless when I loaded them into iTunes. All of the tracks loaded properly, even titles comprising more than 20 tracks each -- I downloaded them in two separate chunks to the same folder on my desktop, and everything was sorted out correctly.

All of the files offered at the Classical Shop are free of Digital Rights Management (DRM); once you’ve bought them, you can use them however you see fit. Costs vary: Because Chandos is based in the UK, the prices are in pounds sterling, and the rate of exchange changes daily. As I write, the pound is worth $1.52 USD, so the cost of each download is between $12 and $18 -- not cheap, but not as high as the downloads from the UK sites of Linn and Gimmell.

The list of titles is enormous. The Chandos catalog alone has hundreds, and Chandos is but one of about 50 labels offered here. You can search for recordings by "New Releases" or "Advanced Search"; the latter lets you search by composer, artist, label, genre, or any combination of those fields. And you can listen to samples before you buy -- a handy feature for a site that offers so much lesser-heard music.

Some specific recommendations on Chandos: William Alwyn’s symphonies and film music, conducted superbly by Richard Hickox; Arnold Bax’s symphonies and tone poems in definitive readings by the late Vernon Handley, as well as Handley’s Grieg disc, featuring the Symphonic Dances; Leif Segerstam’s cycle of Mahler symphonies, spaciously recorded with no loss of detail; Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s dramatic Nielsen symphony cycle and his thoroughly idiomatic recordings of the symphonies of Borodin; any title in Chandos’s film-music series, but especially the Korngold; and some big oratorios, done to a turn by Hickox, who was the backbone of the Chandos conducting staff, and whose sudden death last year is being felt in many ways: Elgar’s The Kingdom, The Apostles, and Caractacus, and Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress.

As for other labels, one in particular stands out: Arts Music. Regular readers of my columns know that I’ve raved about the Baroque music performances of Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti on Arts Music SACDs, and you’ll find them at the Classical Shop. Perhaps even more important, you’ll find a large number of performances led by the late Peter Maag. The Swiss maestro was very well known in the early days of stereo for his impeccable recordings with the London Symphony of works by Mendelssohn and Mozart. Late in his life, Maag re-recorded these works for Arts. Though these later recordings were made with lesser orchestras from Venice and Madrid, they played like world-class ensembles for Maag. He had a way with Mendelssohn that surpasses any other conductor’s touch, and for Arts he did all of the composer’s symphonies. Also at the Classical Shop you’ll find all of Maag’s recordings of Mozart’s late symphonies, his Beethoven symphony cycle (all studio recordings except for No.6), and much more.

Each of the other labels at the Classical Shop also has special qualities and offers specific repertory. It’s like the Metropolitan Museum of Art: there’s a lot to see. Plan to spend a long time looking around.

. . . Rad Bennett
radb@soundstageav.com

Julian Lloyd Webber presides over Elgar Society

2009-06-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

The society, which is the largest in the world dedicated to a single composer, was founded in 1951 and has previously been presided over by Sir Adrian Boult, Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Hickox.

Lloyd Webber, 58, won a discretionary BRIT award in 1987 for his recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto. The interpretation was named Best British Classical Recording of that year, and described by Elgar scholar Dr Jerrold Northrop Moore as 'the finest ever version' in BBC Music magazine.

'I am thrilled and honoured to accept the presidency of the Elgar Society,' said Lloyd Webber at a reception held at Elgar's birthplace in Broadheath, Worcester.

It has been an eventful few days for Lloyd Webber, who announced last week that he would marry fellow cellist Jiaxin Cheng on 4 July.

Julian Lloyd Webber will be performing Elgar's Cello Concerto on 9 June with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, London and on 1 November with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Thanks to Musolife.com

Phoenix Chorale 'reveal' party shots!

2009-06-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Phoenix Chorale received their much-awaited second grammy Award! What better way to celebrate than have a party, and being the best of musicians it looks like they know how to throw a good one!

Christopher Gunning talks of his move to classical music

2009-05-28T03:04:00.001-07:00

Symphony no 3, Symphony no 4, Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra

Composing “serious” classical music is not a new thing for me - not at all! Throughout my school and college years I was intent on pursuing a career as a composer of concert music, and that intention has never left me. It’s just that there have always been more immediate concerns to be attended to. For a start I have had four daughters to feed and water, and anyway it’s virtually impossible to support yourself financially as a concert composer in this country - so you have to do something else. Most composers teach. I decided very early on that I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher, and preferred to make my way composing somehow, and it therefore had to be via the media. Since I already had great enthusiasms for films, pop music, and jazz, it didn’t seem like a dreadful cross to bear.

As a teenager I thought that one could compose film scores for six months of the year and compose one’s own music for the other six months. In fact I had read that was what Elizabeth Lutyens did, and later I could see that Richard Rodney Bennett managed several careers at once, so why shouldn’t I?

Little did I realise what demands the media would make! No, I’m not complaining - I have enjoyed nearly every minute of it, and have learned a fantastic amount through sheer hard experience. But it’s been a full time job; for example, when composing “Poirot” for about forty episodes, there was absolutely no time to think of anything else for months and months on end, and then, when a break happened, I was completely exhausted.

Perhaps another reason for “not getting down to it” was a growing concern about the very nature of concert music. The audience for contemporary music has been small, and I have felt it isn’t solely the fault of music lovers. The idioms favoured by most composers particularly during the 60’s and 70’s have been difficult. Indeed, much contemporary music is still just as difficult, and I have found myself out of sympathy with much of it. And yet, at the same time, I have not relished the thought of being a fuddy-duddy composer writing in worn out idioms. I suppose I was trying to define a way in which I could write music which communicates directly but is not hopelessly predictable or slave to the various “isms” which have cropped up over the past fifty years or so.

For me, the breakthrough happened about ten years ago, when I was out of work and badly needed something to do. I found myself writing a saxophone concerto (now recorded by John Harle) and then several other pieces. Of these I am most fond of the Piano Concerto - in it I found the basis of a style of working which had been eluding me to some extent. I’ve enlarged on that since, and my most recent efforts are the 3rd and 4th Symphonies, and the Oboe Concerto, newly released on the excellent Chandos label.

The two symphonies are each in single 20 minute movements, but they are quite different in tone from one another. I hardly dare describe the life events that led to the 3rd. My new wife, Svitlana, had become desperately ill, was misdiagnosed in a London hospital, and operated on in Kiev, Ukraine, in early 2005. She then developed peritonitis and was on life support for several days. From these two operations, Sveta did not recover for two years and her condition deteriorated to the point where we all thought she would pass away at any moment.

Simultaneously, I was diagnosed with a heart condition with pretty dreadful survival rates. So I couldn’t travel to Kiev, and the two of us endured these worrying times in separate countries. One of the doctor’s recommendations for my condition was to walk as much as feasible. I took this seriously and one of the places I loved to visit was Wales and the Brecon Beacons. I found the rawness of the mountains beguiling, and was particularly attracted to the changing light patterns which pervade the area. It is astonishing how the mountains can be hospitable one moment and the next anything but! I saw a parallel with certain musical devices - the same material changed, perhaps radically, by reworking the same notes to different effect. The result is that in this symphony everything is derived from the opening dissonant chords - for several weeks I was obsessed with them. And when I was at home I would look at pictures of Pen y Fan and want to be there.

By the time I came to write symphony no 4, much had changed, thankfully for the better. I had found a miraculous doctor in Kiev who, over the space of a couple of months, cured Sveta. And my own heart was pumping enthusiastically again. So, for the most part, Symphony no 4 is a far more optimistic affair. It even dares to be triumphant. And the idiom is much more tonal.

The Oboe Concerto presents another side of me - I suppose it’s more conventionally “classical” on some ways. I wrote it before the two symphonies, towards the end of 2004, and gave it to my 3rd daughter Verity as a Christmas present. If you know Verity, you might agree that it echoes her personality to some extent. Youthful, witty, and “poised.” She’s a great player! The outer movements are bright, but the middle movement is melancholic, and it was composed in a single day - the day Yasser Arafat died. No, it isn’t supposed to be a eulogy for him, but my mind was taken with a sense of sorrow for the appallingly tragic situation in Israel and Palestine.

The recordings of these three pieces took place in March 2008 at Air Studios, with my dear friend Chris Dibble engineering. The RPO pulled out the stops for me - superbly musical and efficient, and I’m so grateful to everyone involved. I’d love to work with them again soon, and I’m hoping that Symphony no 5, which is well on the way, can be recorded before too long.

Christopher Gunning

Glyndebourne then and now

2009-05-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the first ever Glyndebourne.

28 May saw the very first performance at Glyndebourne, Sussex. Who would have thought that it would be thriving 75 years later. Having only visited for the first time last year I am utterly in love with the festival and cannot wait until I have the opportunity to attend again. Look out for Chandos artists, Sarah Connolly who appears in Julius Caesar, Lucy Crowe in The Fairy Queen and Jirí Belohlávek who conducts Rusalka this season.

Happy birthday, Glyndebourne!

Chandos tops the Classic FM Hall of Fame!

2009-05-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Classic FM offers a recap of the nation's favourite classical music chart as voted for by the public.

For the third time in a row, Chandos's rendition of The Lark Ascending has topped the chart. This performance taken from CHAN 6611 and played by Michael Davis, London Symphony Orchestra and Bryden Thomson.

The top 10 British compositions:

1. Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
2. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on the Theme by Thomas Tallis
3. Elgar: Cello Concerto
4. Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, 'Enigma'
5. Jenkins: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
6. Holst: The Planets
7. Handel: Messiah
8. Handel: Coronation Anthems ' Zadok the Priest'
9. Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
10. Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance

Top 5: Most popular works by living composers

1. Jenkins: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
2. Ungar: Ashokan Farewell
3. Howard Shore: Lord of the Rings
4. Hess: Ladies in Lavender
5. Morricone: The Misson

Here are the other Chandos entries:

No.260 Mendelssohn Elijah, CHAN 8774
'For many years this choral masterpiece was even more popular than Handel's acclaimed Messiah'

No.249 Vaughan Williams Symphony No.5 CHAN 9666
'Many feel that the majestically opulent Fifth is this composer's finest symphony'

No.237 Walton Spitfire Prelude & Fugue CHAN 8870
'A rousing piece from The First of the Few (1942), the classic film about RJ Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire.'

No.225 Bach Magnificat, BWV243
'Vocal splendour reaches Olympian heights in the Magnificat's ravishing solos, duets and choruses.'

No.220 Borodin: String Quartet No.2 CHAN 9965
'Romantic composers usually struggled writing quartets - Borodin makes it seem like child's play'

No.202 Elgar: Symphony No.1 CHSA 5049
'At its 1908 premiere, Elgar's First was rightly described as 'the greatest symphony of modern times.'

No.186 Elgar: Chanson de matin CHAN 8380
'Elgar's early days as a first-rate violinist came in handy when writing this delectable sweetmeat.'

No.172 Walton: Crown Imperial CHAN 8998
'Written for the coronation of King George VI in 1937 and heard again at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.'

No.147 Vaughan Williams The Wasps Overture CHSA 5047
'Rimsky with a bowler, mackintosh and umbrella,' wrote one critic of this delight.'

No.129 Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves CHAN 241-9
'A superb matching of two folksongs: My Lady Greensleeves and Lovely Joan.'

No.125 Faure Pavane CHAN 9416
'A glowing miniature from the French master, who turns a 16th-century dance form into sheer poetry.'

No.107 Holst: St Paul's Suite CHAN 9270
'An enchanting delight composed for Holst's pupils at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, London'

No.96 Vivaldi: Gloria CHAN 0518
'Vivaldi's most exciting choral work, replete with sparkling textures and soaring vocal lines.'

No.78 Verdi: Requiem CHAN 9490
'It is useless to add another,' Verdi once said about requiems. Thankfully he changed his mind.'

No.27 Handel Messiah CHAN 0522
'Featuring the electrifying 'Halleujah' chorus, Messiah remains Handel's most celebrated work.'

Royal Philharmonic Society honours Richard Hickox at ceremony

2009-05-13T01:46:00.000-07:00

A special presentation was made during the Royal Philharmonic Music Awards to honour the conductor, Richard Hickox, who died unexpectedly in 2008.

Royal Philharmonic Society Chairman, Graham Sheffield, announced that in future the Award will be known as the RPS Richard Hickox Award and will be presented at the discretion of the Society for services to British Music.

The citation was read by Sir Charles Mackerras who made the presentation to Richard Hickox's wife, mezzo soprano Pamela Helen Stephen:

"Whether you worked with Richard Hickox, or came to know him through hearing his performances and recordings, the same qualities shone through: his passion, warmth, generosity, enthusiasm, commitment, ability to inspire, his indefatigable energy and, above all his quintessential humanity. While his repertoire ranged from baroque to contemporary, at the heart of it lay his championing, both at home and abroad, of British Music from the last 100 years.

The list of composers is remarkable. Not only Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Walton, Holst, Tippett and Britten; but Alwyn, Arnold, Bliss, Bridge, Butterworth, Delius, Dyson, Finzi, Goossens, Howells. The list goes on: Leighton, Parry, Rubbra, Stanford. Then there are the Berkeleys - Lennox and Michael -, Minna Keal, Colin Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Nyman and Nigel Osborne. How fortunate we are that he left the most extraordinary recorded legacy – over 300 recordings in total - an astonishing 280 of these made in the last 20 years for Chandos.

In honouring Richard with this special Royal Philharmonic Society award for his services to British Music we acknowledge not only his personal commitment to this repertoire but we also extend his legacy just a little further. In future the RPS Richard Hickox Award will be given, at the discretion of the Society, to those who share his vision and conviction."

Classical music prevails at the Sony Radio Academy Awards

2009-05-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

Chandos would like to congratulate Radio 3 on becoming Station of the Year at this year's Sony Radio Awards. This a tremendous achievement, and follows the weekends accouncement that it's audience figures have risen 11% year on year.

It just goes to show that there certainly is a demand for classical music, and that the schedule re-jig that took place at the station it now paying off.

Follow Radio 3 updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcradio3live

You can also follow Chandos updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChandosRecords

Edward Gardner conducts Peter Grimes at ENO

2009-05-01T01:33:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of The Independent; Edward Seckerson talks to Singer Stuart Skelton, Director David Alden and Conductor Edward Gardner about ENO's new production of Britten's Peter Grimes

The Independent

Host Myleene chats on the red carpet

2009-04-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

Classical Brits

2009-04-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

The oh-so glamorous Classical Brits launch took place on Tuesday evening at the Mayfair Hotel. Take a look at a couple of the Brit babes.

More videos like this on www.t5m.com

New artists sign to Chandos

2009-04-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

The conductors Sir Andrew Davis and Edward Gardner have formally signed exclusive recording contracts with Chandos Records.

As revealed in a recent Gramophone interview with Chandos managing director Ralph Couzens, the two conductors are among a number of new additions to the label.

Plans for Davis will begin with the complete music for The Crown of India by Elgar, to be performed by the BBC Philharmonic. This will be followed by works for chorus and orchestra by Percy Grainger with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Delius works with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Edward Gardner, music director at English National Opera, will record a disc of British orchestral songs with Susan Gritton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a new series focusing on Polish music, starting with Lutosławski. In a statement, Gardner said he was “thrilled to be starting an association with Chandos”, and was looking forward to “exploring known and lesser-known repertoire with some of the world’s top orchestras.”

The other Chandos signees include violinist Jennifer Pike, a former BBC Young Musician of the Year and current BBC New Generation Artist, whose initial release will feature the Violin Concerto by Miklós Rózsa.

Rózsa’s Cello Concerto, meanwhile, will feature on the forthcoming disc from Paul Watkins, who will also record the cello sonatas of Martinů for the label. Pianist Kathryn Stott will focus on French repertoire for the label, while the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet complete the artists joining Chandos.

"The Internet Symphony" Global Mash Up

2009-04-17T03:58:00.001-07:00

Here is the world premiere of the Tan Dun composition commissed for the world's first Internet Orchestra - the Youtube Symphony.

The Bach Choir - Delius's Mass of Life

2009-04-16T01:27:00.001-07:00

If you've never experienced Delius's Mass of Life live then here is the opportunity for you! The acclaimed Bach Choir will perform this magnificent work on Thursday 21 May at the Royal Festival Hall, London

Craig Ogden steps in for John Williams at the Royal Albert Hall

2009-04-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Classic FM Live concert this Thursday at the Royal Albert Hall will star Craig Ogden as John Williams has had to cancel his booking. A disappointment for John of course, but for those not familiar with the stunning guitarist Craig Ogden, you will not be disappointed.

If you have not got tickets for the concert I think it will be difficult to get hold of them but check out www.classicfm.com in case any are still available.

Craig will perform the famous Concierto de Aranjuez which he has recorded for Chandos, on CHAN 9604

Watkins signs exclusively to Chandos

2009-04-09T01:24:00.000-07:00

Following releases of concerti by Cyril Scott, Richard Rodney Bennett and Tobias Picker, conductor and cellist Paul Watkins has signed an exclusive recording agreement with Chandos Records. Next on the list to record is Dallapiccola's cello concerto with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda in April.

Watkins' forthcoming conducting highlights include engagements with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Kristiansand Symphony. A recent highlight was a performance of Faure Requiem at Cadagon Hall wiht the English Chamber Orchestra, of which he is Associate Conductor.

Bavouzet takes the Instrumental Award at the BBC Music Awards

2009-04-09T01:16:00.001-07:00

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet took the Instrumental Award at this year's BBC Music Awards for the third volume of his complete Debussy piano music series. CHAN 10467.

'What makes this disc special is not so much Bavouzet's exceptional playing, but the intelligent programming. From what could easily have sounded a "bits and pieces" micellany, Bavouzet has created a wide-ranging programme which both encapsulates Debussy's entire work, and at the same time has a sense of a coherent progression.' Christopher Dingle.

The fabulous event took place at the recently opened King's Place Arts venue.