Among the new releases this month is one from Michael Foyle and Iain Burnside which traces connections through three strikingly individual voices across more than a century.
Elgar’s Violin Sonata – one of his late masterpieces – emerges here not as nostalgic farewell but as music of restless energy, shadowed by war, loss and private grief. Walton’s expansive, bittersweet Sonata combines fierce virtuosity with moments of disarming tenderness, while Thomas Adès’s Suite from The Tempest reimagines his opera in music of glittering theatricality, the violin writing encompassing the earthy growl of Caliban and Ariel’s airborne brilliance. Alongside these large-scale works, Elgar’s Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin offer moments of luminous repose.
Meanwhile SOMM Recordings has released a new CD to celebrate the South African-born pianist-composer David Earl’s 75th Birthday. The release features Oxymorons – 24 Preludes (1993) and Scenes from a South African Childhood – 9 pieces for solo piano (2013). Read Martyn Strachan’s review of David Earl – 75th Birthday Tribute.
Upcoming releases in September from Ulysses Arts incude:
- Howells: Five Songs Op.7a & Peacock Pie Op. 33; Stanley Bate, Five Songs from Pomes Penyeach, Op. 53 and York Bowen, Songs – Emily Gray, mezzo-soprano and Timothy Salter, piano – world première recordings, except Peacock Pie (Ulysses Arts UA260080)
- Nicholas Simpson: Flourish – orchestral album including violin concerto, Absence of Clouds (four movement suite) and Flourish – Manchester Camerata, Caroline Pether, violin; Nicholas Simpson, conductor – world première recordings (Ulysses Arts UA260010).