New Releases

The harpsichord music of Antonio Soler is to a great extent overshadowed by the keyboard works of his near contemporary Domenico Scarlatti, music master to Queen Maria Barbara of Spain. Soler though, rightly claims a prominent position amongst those few select composers who became beacons of the Classical Enlightenment and whose music possessed elements of genius. At the age of twenty-three Soler took Holy Orders, entering the Escorial as a Hieronymite monk in the Order of Saint Jerome where he remained in relative confinement for the rest of his life. His existence at the Escorial is well documented by a colleague who wrote an extremely detailed obituary notice, describing a man who loved his cell and was always there except for duty. Whilst at the Escorial, Soler studied with José de Nebra and Scarlatti. Soler’s output of around 200 harpsichord sonatas were written for the Infante don Gabriel, whom Soler taught from around 1765. The sonatas on this CD can be pigeonholed into three categories: the dance (sonatas R21, R118, R43 & R92d). Those which are slower and more vocal in nature (R4 & R110) with a hint of the melismatic expression found in cante hondo: a pure form of Andalucian folk music. And those which lean towards the new ‘galant’ style (R56 & M27). There are also frequent echoes of the guitar punteado and rasgueado styles, R86 & R43 which are also related to the dance.

Luigi Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy in 1743 and was renowned as a composer and ‘cellist. In 1761, Boccherini went to live in Madrid where he was appointed music master to the Infante Luis Antonio, and he would certainly have met Soler. This version of Boccherini’s fandango, from the last movement of Quintet No 4 in D major, is Richard Lester’s own arrangement for two harpsichords.

"This album is a paean to the life-enhancing qualities of the dance. Eternal Dance, Elf Dance, Pan Dance and Force 11 are predominantly upbeat affairs, the juxtaposition of contrasting meters an important feature of each piece. Farewell Patagonia is unashamedly a tango from start to finish, the Latin flavor also pervading the slow burn of Lochria’s Rhumba and Ice Maiden. We enter into the world of the intimate waltz in Remembrance, In The Eyes Of A Child and The Last Kiss. By contrast, it is jazz syncopation and Irish dance rhythms that drive the music forward in In The Pocket. Song For My Mother is a tribute to my own mother and The Sad Little Geisha Girl was inspired by Arthur Golden’s novel, Memoirs Of A Geisha."

Geoff Eales Nov 2012

It is a remarkable coincidence that 2013 happens to be, along with Britten’s centenary, the 50th anniversary of Nocturnal, the 450th birthday of John Dowland and the 80th birthday of Julian Bream. In an attempt to mark all of these events, this recording presents, along with the Britten, three important works which span the fifty years which have followed it - Walton’s Five Bagatelles, Thomas Wilson’s Dreammusic, and John McLeod’s Fantasy on themes from Britten’s Gloriana, the latter composed specifically to mark Britten’s centenary, alongside short pieces by John Dowland.

Chamber music has played a significant part in the output of all four composers featured on this disc. The piano quartets by Bridge, Bax and Walton are sufficiently heterogeneous to illustrate the multiplicity of approaches the genre can accommodate as well as highlighting the stylistic diversity of British chamber music dating from what may be regarded as its Golden Age - the first decades of the twentieth century.

The publication of a double album devoted to Mathilde de Rothschild’s music constitutes a further important step in the reassessment of nineteenth-century women composers. Anyone who is familiar with the cultural life of the time, would be aware of the importance of the Rothschild family who were patrons of many prominent composers, such as Mendelssohn, Herz, Bellini, Spohr, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Rossini and Chopin. The latter, in 1849, was eager to teach the teenaged “Rothschild girl,” whom he clearly considered very talented. Mathilde went on to become a respected, prolific and well-published composer of beautiful music.

'This CD release celebrates Philip Ledger’s pianism and his musicianship, which were never eclipsed by his vision of the future of the performing arts and the operational and administrative skills which he brought to the conservatoire scene in the UK.'

Professor John Wallace CBE

Principal, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland