Presto CD,
Presto CD - British Music Collection - Part 2
Here, as promised, is the second instalment of our Manufacture on Demand titles focusing on Decca's British Music Collection, launched in 2001 and drawing on the Philips, Argo and Decca archives to give exposure to the younger generation of British composers as well as preserving vintage accounts of earlier works.
This batch includes some of the pioneering performances of British early music by Anthony Rooley and his Consort of Musicke (several featuring Emma Kirkby, who made her name with the group) and also more recent landmarks such as Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek performed by the original cast, and works by Maxwell Davies, Graham Fitkin and George Lloyd.
British Music Collection - Part 2
This two-disc collection includes some of Delius's most attractive miniatures, such as 'The Walk to the Paradise Garden' from A Village Romeo & Juliet and A Song of Summer as well as Julian Lloyd Webber's account of the Cello Sonata, and Sea Drift in a commanding performance by John Shirley-Quirk.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
The Mistry Quartet perform Elgar's sole String Quartet (1918), and are joined by David Owen Norris for the Piano Quintet of the same year.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Turnage's visceral 1980 reworking of the Oedipus myth for Thatcher's Britain is performed here by the original cast, including Quentin Hayes as the anti-hero Eddy and Fiona Kimm as his wife/biological mother. Richard Bernas directs The Greek Ensemble.
Available Format: Presto CD
Hakan Hardenberger performs the 1988 Trumpet Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Elgar Howarth, and the composer conducts The Fires of London in his Renaissance Scottish Dances.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Half a dozen works by the new minimalist composer Graham Fitkin (b. 1963), including Hard Fairy, Log Line, and Loud and Hook, peformed by Ensemble Bash, Delta Saxophone Quartet, the John Harle Band and the composer himself.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
The composer conducts the orchestra and chorus of Welsh National Opera in his mammoth 1980 setting of an anonymous Latin poem praising spring and its sensual delights: the Evening Standard praised its 'exhilarating joie-de-vivre' and Gramophone the performance's 'great intensity and bubbling spontaneity'.
Available Format: Presto CD
The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble are directed by Elgar Howarth, John Iveson and Howard Snell in works by Arnold, Bax, Bliss, Brian, Britten, Tippett and Walton.
Available Format: Presto CD
A selection of chamber, choral and orchestral works, including Appalachia, the Florida Suite, North Country Sketches, the two Dance Rhapsodies and Aquarelles. Charles Mackerras conducts the forces of Welsh National Opera, with soloists including Julian Lloyd Webber and Bengt Forsberg.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Andrew Marriner performs the Clarinet Concerto under his father Sir Neville and his Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and pianist Piers Lane joins the English Chamber Orchestra for the Eclogue Op. 10.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Simon Rattle conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Maxwell Davies's First Symphony, and the composer himself directs The Fires of London in his Points and Dances from 'Taverner'.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Oliver Knussen directs the London Sinfonietta in the Fourth Sonata for Orchestra (1976), Suns Dance for Ten Players (1985) and Broken Symmetry (1992).
Available Format: Presto CD
Helen Field, Arthur Davies, Thomas Hampson, Barry Mora and Stafford Dean star in this complete recording of Delius's 1901 opera, recorded in 1989 under Sir Charles Mackerras with the ORF Symphonieorchester & Arnold-Schönberg-Chor.
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Benjamin Luxon and Felicity Palmer are accompanied by David Willison and John Constable in songs by over two-dozen composers, including Quilter, Tosti, Sullivan, Sterndale Bennett and James Molloy.
Available Formats: 2 Presto CDs, MP3, FLAC
Soloists on this Consort of Musicke survey of the First Booke of Songes include Emma Kirkby, Martyn Hill and David Thomas, directed by Anthony Rooley.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Another early English anthology from Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke, exploring Byrd's sacred and secular works.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
The Brandenburg Consort and Baroque Brass of London perform the mighty Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary and a selection of anthems including 'Thou knowest, Lord', 'Hear my prayer' and 'My beloved spake'.
Available Format: Presto CD
The Amadeus String Quartet perform the String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3, whilst members of the Vienna Octet take on the early Sinfonietta, written when the composer was just 18.
Available Format: Presto CD
Christopher Hogwood presides over the Academy of Ancient Music in this 1994 account of The Indian Queen, starring Emma Kirkby, Catherine Bott, John Mark Ainsley, David Thomas and Gerald Finley.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Emma Kirkby joins Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke for a selection of Morley's secular works including 'Arise, Awake, You Silly Shepherds Sleeping', 'No, No, No, Nigella' and 'Mistress mine'.
Available Format: Presto CD
The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet perform works by Hugh Aston, Baldwin, Byrd, Carver, Henry VIII, Parsons, Tallis, Taverner and Robert White.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Sir Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in overtures from the Savoy Operas (HMS Pinafore, The Yeomen of the Guard, Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience and The Gondoliers) as well as the Overture di Ballo and Macbeth.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Catherine Bott joins the New London Consort for works by John Blow, John Eccles, Purcell (including the famous 'Mad Bess o' Bedlam') and John Weldon and anonymous songs on the theme of madness.
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
