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Completing the disc are tributes to other composers: The Fields are White Already “a contemplation for solo piano in memoriam John  McCabe”; Fantasy on a Theme from Malcolm Arnold built around the older composer’s name; and Divertimento on a Theme of Mozart “an aphoristic patchwork” for piano duet suggested by the F major Sonata (K.533)Robert  Matthew-Walker  took  lessons  with  Darius  Milhaud,  has  produced  more  than  130  recordings  and  published  many  books, subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali and David Bowie to Rachmaninov, Havergal Brian and Grieg. Mark Bebbington has recorded extensively for SOMM. His previous collaboration with Rebeca Omordia, The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (SOMMCD 0164), was hailed by MusicWeb International as “spellbinding”. 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Boult had led the UK premiere of Berg’s excoriating setting of Georg Büchner’s play about a war-scarred veteran driven to madness and murder in 1934, although only Act II of that performance survives. This complete 1949 recording with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Heinrich Nillius’s Wozzeck and Suzanne Danco’s Marie – only the second UK performance – adds to Boult’s and the opera’s stature on disc. Recorded live in London’s Royal Albert Hall, it is a remarkable document of an exhilarating performance. Boult’s pioneering championing of ‘new’ music is also heard in his recording of Stravinsky’s Capriccio, with the BBC SO and the prodigiously gifted Australian Noel Mewton-Wood taking the piano line. Boult’s rare outing in 1965 with the Royal Opera House Orchestra saw him returning to a work he premiered 30 years earlier, Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony. “Predominantly dissonant and often fiercely explosive”, as historical recording expert and co-Executive Producer Jon Tolansky observes in his authoritative booklet notes, under Boult’s baton it is a stirring and startling statement of loss and grief. A bonus track features a revealing discussion of his 19-year tenure at the head of the BBC Symphony Orchestra by Boult with Bernard Keeffe for BBC Radio in 1965. Jon Tolansky’s previous SOMM collaborations include Mahler Pioneers (SOMM Ariadne 5022-2), hailed as “a major addition to the catalogue” by OperaWire; the International Classical Music Award-nominated Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic – Live (SOMM Ariadne 5017-2); and Beecham Conducts Sibelius (SOMM Ariadne 5013), hailed by Audiophile Audition as “this seductive disc … heartily recommended”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":47227846197528,"sku":"758871502429","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4389328-3299642_d56aaad7-0901-4718-b89e-a24382afd74f.jpg?v=1777529370"},{"product_id":"a-centenary-celebration-fisher-fingerhut","title":"A Centenary Celebration  Fisher, Fingerhut","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings is delighted to mark the 100th anniversary of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s birth with seven first recordings of arrangements for violin and piano. A prolific composer with a prodigious gift for memorable melodies and technical brilliance, Malcolm Arnold – A Centenary Celebration reflects both the serious and lighter sides of one of the most distinctive voices of post- war British music. 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Indeed, it is an attestation of Handel’s power to speak to the very depths of one’s soul, to touch the heart and to rouse the spirit that after many years performing the repertoire, the London Handel Players present here “Handel at Home” Vol 2. A second selection of popular operatic arias either in contemporary settings or their own arrangements inspired by the original luscious scoring.In the 18th century, the demand for such arrangements was high, since they provided a gratifying means of revisiting theatrical highlights in the domestic environment. Handel’s publisher, John Walsh, made numerous arrangements of various overtures and Handel himself may well have reworked the solo keyboard version\/rendition of Ombra cara from Radamisto. Babell’s florid embellishment of the ever popular Lascia ch’io pianga from Rinaldo demonstrates a free interpretation adorned with extravagant Italianate ornamentation.The beautiful rendition of the Overture to Samson for solo flute with continuo is taken from Walsh’s extensive publication and LHP have reinstated the string accompaniment in Total Eclipse and Thus when the Sun for added drama. The lyrical arias from Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare and The Choice of Hercules proved irresistible and they made their own arrangements! “The London Handel Players often capture the elusive dramatic and orchestral context of the arias in these chamber arrangements. Their consummate musicianship is consistently delightful: sparkling violin-playing (often with two players in perfect unison) and superb continuo contributions are just as impressive as Rachel Brown’s poetic flute solos.” David Vickers, Gramophone – Handel at Home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":47242882089240,"sku":"748871067622","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4389335-3299580.jpg?v=1777533931"},{"product_id":"beethoven-symphonies-vol-4-ben-schoeman-tessa-uys","title":"Beethoven: Symphonies, Vol. 4 \/ Ben Schoeman, Tessa Uys","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings is happy to present the fourth release in the planned First Recordings of the complete Beethoven Symphonies in the legendary edition for piano duet by Xaver Scharwenka, continuing a direct connection to Beethoven via his teacher Franz Kullak who studied with Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny, played by the ‘wholly exceptional’ duo of Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman. This new CD couples Beethoven’s Symphonies 1 \u0026amp; 6 ‘Pastoral’ together with Busoni’s brilliant Concertino BV88 on a theme of Mozart K459, for Two Pianos. Extract from the Duo’s recent Gramophone Blog: We would like to highlight our personal historical connection to this music – particularly the Zeitgeist of Berlin, the city where Scharwenka lived and worked. Tessa’s mother Helga Bassel was a concert pianist who also hailed from Berlin, and in the 1930s had to seek refuge in Cape Town. She was indeed fortunate to be able to leave Germany accompanied by her Blüthner grand piano and her collection of piano music which included Scharwenka’s duo transcriptions of the nine Beethoven symphonies.” Previous releases in this ground-breaking set have received outstanding reviews: ‘Uys and Schoeman play marvellously...SOMM’s fine sonics do justice both to the performers and to their superbly regulated Steinway model D concert grand’ (Classics Today); ‘I was immediately struck by the orchestral quality of their sound – this is an exhilarating account’ (Rebecca Franks, BBC Music Magazine); ‘The result is stunning...these are two superb pianists who breathe through all this music as if they were one’ (Gramophone); ‘In a pure state...the work’s argument has a drivenness and gloriousness that seems to define what a musical argument might be...’ (The Sunday Times); ‘This is undoubtedly superb musicianship throughout’ (Musical Opinion). This new recording is fully up to the superlative standards with which this most gifted of piano duo’s previous recordings have been acclaimed. SOMM is proud to continue this unique integral series of world premiere Beethoven releases.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":47242882122008,"sku":"748871067721","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4389336-3325937.jpg?v=1777533958"},{"product_id":"blake-orchestral-music-philharmonia-orchestra-english-northern-philharmonia-howard-blake","title":"Blake: Orchestral Music  Philharmonia Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonia, Howard Blake","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the label debut of the acclaimed British composer Howard Blake with a disc of his orchestral music to mark his 85th birthday. Blake himself is heard at the piano and conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Paul Daniel also conducting the English Northern Philharmonia. Internationally recognised as the composer of The Snowman’s ‘Walking on Air’, Blake’s prolific and wide-ranging achievements extend into symphonies, concertos, oratorios and music for solo piano to embrace the concert hall, dance stage and cinema screen. This focus on his orchestral music which includes four first recordings begins with his single- movement Symphony No.1 in its 1990 revision, a richly variegated work of vivid images and, as its title has it, Impressions of a City. A work of dazzling, multi-faceted dimensions and execution, it is, writes Robert Matthew-Walker in his authoritative booklet notes, an “organic, truly symphonic, composition from a genuine creative figure”. 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SOMM’s long championing of British composers includes recent discs devoted to Stephen Dodgson (SOMMCD 0659; 0673), Penelope Thwaites (SOMMCD 0612; 0672), Kenneth Leighton (SOMMCD 0667), Holst (SOMMCD 279), Ian King (SOMMCD 0649) and Elgar (SOMMCD 278).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":47242885529880,"sku":"748871067820","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4389337-3299581.jpg?v=1777529347"},{"product_id":"kathleen-ferrier-20th-century-british-treasures-kathleen-ferrier","title":"Kathleen Ferrier - 20Th Century British Treasures  Kathleen Ferrier","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings’ acclaimed series of re-mastered recitals by the much loved, fondly remembered contralto Kathleen Ferrier continues with Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures. 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Thwaites is joined by fellow pianist Benjamin Frith for the exuberant six- part A Lambeth Garland, the enchanting eight-part retelling of Oscar Wilde’s fable The Selfish Giant and Thwaites’ arrangement of Delius’s In a Summer Garden, the first to be made for two pianos. She is heard with John Mills (violin) and Bozidar Vukotic (cello) on Vijay’s Fable, drawn from her culture-fusing score for Indian choreographer Vijaylakshmi Subramaniam, and the atmospheric Mazurka: au Tombeau de Chopin. The Tippett Quartet contribute three memorable performances: Jan Palach’s Theme, recalling the self-immolating student protestor against the Soviet Union’s 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia; For Irina, a tribute to dissident Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya who survived imprisonment but died of cancer in 2017; and with double bassist Laurence Ungless for To the Hills, a string quintet version of Thwaites’ earlier choral setting of Psalm 121. 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In a meeting of kindred spirits and musical minds, Beecham and Strauss enjoyed a long and mutually admiring relationship over nearly four decades. Thomas Beecham Conducts Richard Strauss follows SOMM’s acclaimed Thomas Beecham Conducts Sibelius and again features recordings newly restored and remastered by Lani Spahr. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1946 by Beecham to inject new energy and new ideas into British orchestral life. A decade later, this disc shows them at their finest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCompletely new to the catalogue is the six-part Suite taken from Strauss’s incidental music to Le bourgeois gentilhomme, the erotic ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ from Salome, and the only known recording of Beecham conducting Macbeth. Completing the disc are two signature tone poems, Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, recorded live in early 1955 and newly re-mastered from an earlier SOMM release (SOMM-BEECHAM 31). The disc has been curated by Jon Tolansky, who provides insightful and authoritative booklet notes. MusicWeb International hailed Thomas Beecham Conducts Sibelius (ARIADNE 5013) as “a major addition to [Beecham’s] discography” and “a most important release”. Audiophile Audition’s five-star review declared it “heartily recommended”, while BBC Music Magazine described it as “a blazing performance”. SOMM’s ground-breaking The Beecham Collection spans 24 volumes, many of them with the RPO. 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Cascade explores music’s mercurial ability to change in an instant; to reveal depths beneath the surface; and to illustrate; as Williams says; “that the whole world can change entirely in one twist of perspective; one change of angle; to offer a glimpse of something bigger”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEarly and late Beethoven bookend the program. Unpublished in his lifetime; the C major Bagatelle (WoO 56) flickers and glints; sparkles and surprises with kaleidoscope-like brilliance. His Op.126 Six Bagatelles – among the very last pieces he wrote for solo piano – alternate between the introspective and the garrulous; each turned inside out to reveal new facets and features. A variegated collection of 20 miniatures with hints of Chopin; Scriabin and Shostakovich to be found; Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives; Op.22 are essentially a series of meditations; each individually pursuing a specific idea or mood while collectively exploring the hinterland between surface appearance and what lies beneath; and all expressed with comparable crystalline clarity. Schumann’s Waldszenen (Forest Scenes); his last major cycle for solo piano; is an enchanted landscape lit up by beguiling pastoralism and shadow-cast by darker recesses of the imagination. Two sides of the same coin: Arcadia in excelsis; and red in tooth and claw.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBooklets notes; as with all of Cordelia Williams’ recent SOMM releases; have been written by Michael Quinn. 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Born in Moscow, Medtner was to adopt England as his home, dying in London, aged 70, in 1951. The English capital seemed to provide him with a liberating creative space as the three featured works here eloquently suggest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimultaneously composed between 1935 and 1938 were the two-movement Op.56 Sonata-Idylle in G major – which moves from its ‘Pastorale’ opening to, as composer and pianist Francis Pott comments in his authoritative booklet notes, “a valedictory late-summer haze” – and its immediate successor, the four-part, symphony-sized Epica Violin Sonata No.3, “an act of remembrance” for Medtner’s brother, Emil. Both works are the product of a period in which Medtner was attempting to “pare down the virtuosity of his piano writing”. And both, in their intricate design and execution, illustrate his productive struggle with the ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom his more than 100 songs, the posthumously assembled miscellany of the Op.61 Eight Songs span the near quarter-century from 1927 to the year of Medtner’s death. Employing poems by Pushkin, Lermontov, Eichendorff and Fyodor Tyutchev, they are variegated exercises in temperament and mood that look back towards Schubert and forwards to Medtner’s own distinctive way in setting words and conveying emotions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNatalia Lomeiko and Theodore Platt are making their debuts on SOMM Recordings, Alexander Karpeyev’s previous SOMM release, Composers at the Savile Club (SOMMCD 0601), was “a recital eminently worth investigating” said BBC Music Magazine in its five-star review, while MusicWeb International declared it “will be greatly enjoyed”. 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Formed in 2013 and acclaimed for their “immaculate technique... high degree of maturity, concentration, commitment and energy” by Classical Source, the Minerva Piano Trio – pianist Annie Yim, violinist Michal Cwizewicz, and cellist Richard Birchall – has earned glowing plaudits from audiences and critics alike, Arcana FM marking them as “an ensemble which is clearly going places”, Classical Source declaring “how lucky modern-day composers are to have such expert and sympathetic advocates”, The Times praising them for “the most beautiful sounds”. Dance! features two ballet pieces by Stravinsky and Ravel, the former’s Pulcinella Suite arranged by the Minerva’s Richard Birchall, the latter’s Daphnis et Chloé heard in David Knott’s arrangement of three scenes that, says the Trio’s Annie Yim, illustrate “the discovery of love: innocence, awakening, touch, and passion”. Both arrangements are receiving first recordings. Also making their debuts on album are Birchall’s own Contours, described by Caroline Potter in her informative booklet notes as exploring “the notion and elastic meaning of its title in different ways”, and, in Annie Yim’s arrangement, Caroline Shaw’s Gustave Le Gray. Rooted in a Chopin Mazurka, it eloquently mimics its artist namesake’s facility for poetically layered voices and images. Completing the recital is Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s My Fallen Angel. Inspired by a short story about the dour, deadening domesticity of married life by the poet Sylvia Plath, Potter likens both composer and piece to Olivier Messiaen, hailing the work’s “logic and appealing sound world of its own” and Frances-Hoad as “a sound-color synesthete who associates specific colors with sounds”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602382758168,"sku":"748871065826","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4136192-2892485.jpg?v=1777655787"},{"product_id":"dodgson-the-distances-between-songs-vol-2","title":"Dodgson: The Distances Between - Songs, Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings announces The Distances Between, the second volume of songs – including 17 first recordings – by Stephen Dodgson marking the 10th anniversary of his death. The Distances Between features soprano Ailish Tynan, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and baritone Marcus Farnsworth, accompanied by Christopher Glynn (piano), Mark Eden (guitar) and Ian Wilson (recorder). All but Farnsworth are returning from Volume 1.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSon of Symbolist painter John Arthur Dodgson and a distant cousin of Lewis Carroll, Stephen Dodgson was a prolific composer with a notable focus on works for guitar, harpsichord and recorder. His more than 100 overlooked songs are a substantial and defining part of his output. The Distances Between (1969-88), sets five poems by Louis MacNeice – “a ‘natural’ for music with his keen ear for rhyme and rhythm, his sly verbal colour”, Dodgson approvingly wrote – for soprano, baritone and piano. Three songs for mezzo-soprano and piano from the first series of Bush Ballads (1974) are “character songs” taken from Australian poets and marked by sly wit and a rather macabre finale. Setting Charles Causley, Riley \u0026amp; Co. (2009) for baritone, guitar and recorder is a compendium of four pithily told but evocative ballads.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFive other solo variegated songs and four preludial piano Bagatelles make much of what Robert Matthew-Walker’s informative notes describe as Dodgson’s “inherent creative language [and] fluent expressive lines”. Volume 1, The Peasant Poet (SOMMCD 0659) was hailed by Opera Today as “an incredibly interesting and engaging disc... done excellent service by all the performers”. SOMM’s championing of British song includes Stanford’s Children’s Songs (SOMMCD 0655), “fairly and squarely in the great English song tradition” (MusicWeb International), and Roderick Williams and Susie Allan’s Celebrating English Song (SOMMCD 0177), lauded by Gramophone as “a treat”, and Somervell’s A Shropshire Lass and Maud (SOMMCD 0615), “performances of much beauty, empathy and sensitivity” (British Music Society).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602382692632,"sku":"748871067325","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4389333-3299635.jpg?v=1777534540"},{"product_id":"weill-violin-concerto-symphony-no-2","title":"Weill: Violin Concerto; Symphony No.2","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM RECORDINGS celebrates the mastery of a 20th-century original with superb new recordings of Kurt Weill’s Violin Concerto and Second Symphony by Tomás Kocsis and the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Jac van Steen. Although Weill found fame in theatre-focused collaborations with Bertolt Brecht that produced the era-defining The Threepenny Opera, the onetime pupil of Ferruccio Busoni straddled the worlds of music-theatre, jazz and the concert hall with music of daring aplomb and dazzling achievement. Dedicated to Joseph Szigeti, his five-movement Violin Concerto of 1924 also pays tribute to the ailing Busoni and sports discernible allusions to Stravinsky, Mahler and the potent popular music of Weimar Berlin’s cabaret clubs. A unique blend, as Robert Matthew-Walker comments in his authoritative booklet notes: “No comparable work had appeared before from any composer”. Composed a decade later, the Second Symphony was premiered by Bruno Walter and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In three movements, “Weill’s contrapuntal mastery and his equally unselfconscious command of instrumentation present us with genuinely symphonic music, such as a 20th-century Haydn would have appreciated and enjoyed”. Jac van Steen’s previous SOMM releases include acclaimed recordings of Mozart piano concertos with Peter Donohoe, Valerie Tryon and Mishka Rushdie Momen (SOMMCD 278-2), The Deeper the Blue, an intriguing exploration of color and timbre in music featuring Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Dutilleux and Kenneth Hesketh (SOMMCD 275), and the International Classical Music Awards-nominated pairing of concertos by Albeniz and Mignone with Clélia Iruzun (SOMMCD 265). The Ulster Orchestra has released world premiere recordings of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra and two piano concertos by William Matthias with pianist Mark Bebbington (SOMMCD 246).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602382496024,"sku":"748871328020","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4105803-2847972.jpg?v=1777655636"},{"product_id":"vaughan-williams-live-vol-1","title":"Vaughan Williams Live Vol. 1","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM RECORDINGS celebrates the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth with definitive, newly remastered performances by Lani Spahr of his ever-popular The Wasps Overture and two symphonies – the startling Sixth and, in its world premiere performance, the valedictorian Ninth – with Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As Simon Heffer comments in his authoritative booklet notes, this major new release is notable for containing historical performances (from 1957, 1958 and 1964), for Spahr’s meticulous restorations, and for offering “a clear indication of the genius of” Sargent. From the 1957 BBC Proms, The Wasps Overture blends Ravelian influences with English folk songs to produce a vivaciously genial impression of RVW at his most distinctively infectious. Recorded in 1964 and again for the BBC Proms, the Sixth Symphony – a ‘war symphony’ in all but name – is, as Heffer notes, “rich in orchestral experiment, more innovative than perhaps any other work in the composer’s canon, and whose enigmas and mysteries still remain to be deciphered”. RVW’s final, Ninth Symphony, “a work of beauty and grandeur, and a magisterial signing off”, says Heffer, is heard here in splendidly remastered audio in its very first performance in April 1958, four months before the composer’s death, by Sargent and the RPO. SOMM’s previous Vaughan Williams recordings include Symphony No.5 and Dona Nobis Pacem with the BBCSO (SOMMCD 071), “a mandatory purchase for all lovers of Vaughan Williams’s music and, frankly, a priceless document” (MusicWeb International). And the “compelling” (International Piano) The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Mark Bebbington and Rebecca Omordia (SOMMCD 0164). Lani Spahr’s previous, universally acclaimed SOMM restorations include Elgar Rediscovered (SOMMCD 0167) and the four-album set Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4) hailed by Audiophilia as “a fascinating achievement which will have you wishing for more”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602433581336,"sku":"748871501621","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4105804-2847973_f22279be-1473-4533-85f3-f250aeca303c.jpg?v=1777655707"},{"product_id":"vaughan-williams-live-vol-2","title":"Vaughan Williams Live, Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings’ celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth continues with Volume 2 of Vaughan Williams Live, featuring historic performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult in new, signature remasterings by Lani Spahr with authoritative booklet notes by Vaughan Williams’ biographer Simon Heffer. Two works featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus include a 1945 BBC radio broadcast of the first performance of the wartime masterpiece Thanksgiving for Victory – with soprano Elsie Suddaby, organist George Thalben-Ball and Valentine Dyall as the speaker – and the rapturous Serenade to Music from the opening night of the BBC’s Third Programme (now Radio 3) in 1946. First performed in 1938 in celebration of Henry Wood’s jubilee as a conductor and originally composed for 16 solo singers, it appears here in its version for orchestra, chorus and four soloists – Isobel Baillie (soprano), Astra Desmond (contralto), Beveridge White (tenor), and Harold Williams (baritone). Its dedicatee, Boult, conducts a performance of Job: A Masque for Dancing in 1946 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra before he made his four studio recordings of the work. Volume 1 of Vaughan Williams Live (SOMM Ariadne 5016) was hailed by All About the Arts as “beautifully remastered [and] sounding like pure gold” and was The Symphonist’s Record of the Week. SOMM’s other Vaughan Williams recordings include the Gramophone Award-winning Symphony No.5 and Dona Nobis Pacem with the LPO\/BBCSO (SOMMCD 071), and The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Mark Bebbington and Rebecca Omordia (SOMMCD 0164), described by International Piano as “compelling”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602433548568,"sku":"748871501829","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4136191-2921034.jpg?v=1777655730"},{"product_id":"serge-koussevitzky-conducts-the-london-philharmonic-orchestr","title":"Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestr","description":"\u003cp\u003eSOMM Recordings announces a major new release: the first appearance on album of live performances of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and Sibelius’ Second Symphonies by the iconic conductor Serge Koussevitzky and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This historic, two-album set includes an exclusive, specially-commissioned documentary about Koussevitzky’s Boston Symphony Orchestra tenure and his LPO guest appearances, featuring interviews with four key players from both orchestras by Jon Tolansky. Tolansky’s revealing hour-long documentary includes wide-ranging musical excerpts and contributions from former BSO players Harry Ellis Dickson (violin), Everett ‘Vic’ Firth (timpani), and Harry Shapiro (sub-principal horn), and erstwhile LPO sub-principal horn Patrick Strevens. The symphonies are heard in performances Koussevitzky conducted with the LPO in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1950. Both have been expertly restored by Lani Spahr. Noted authority on historical recordings Rob Cowan provides detailed booklet notes on the “individual, flexible, flammable, emotionally candid and utterly spontaneous” Koussevitzky’s stewardship of both orchestras. He describes the Tchaikovsky as “especially unique [in] its unsparing volatility.... The explosive climaxes leave the audience stunned”. Of the Sibelius, he says: “Koussevitzky’s London Second is as comprehensive an overview of the work as we have”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLani Spahr’s previous restorations for SOMM include the four-disc Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4) featuring recordings from the composer’s own collection, hailed by Audiophilia as “a fascinating achievement which will have you wishing for more”. George Szell: The Forgotten Recordings was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and awarded a Diapason d’Or as “a major discovery”. Jon Tolansky is the founder of the Music Performance Research Centre (now Music Preserved) and a widely admired producer of audio documentaries on classical musicians. For Spahr’s restorations on Beecham Conducts Sibelius, he produced a 30-minute audio documentary. MusicWeb International declared it “an unmissable disc [that] walks straight into a position of eminence in the catalogue”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602433450264,"sku":"748871501720","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4115388-2872256.jpg?v=1777655711"},{"product_id":"r-strauss-enoch-arden-the-castle-by-the-sea","title":"R. Strauss: Enoch Arden, The Castle by the Sea","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSOMM Recordings announces a major addition to the Richard Strauss catalogue with new recordings of his settings of two era-defining melodramas: the epic poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, England’s revered and longest-serving Poet Laureate, and German poet Ludwig Uhland’s atmospheric interrogation of a traveler returning from a mysterious mediaeval fortress, The Castle by the Sea. Making their SOMM Recordings debuts are actor Christopher Kent and pianist Gamal Khamis. Both works were composed for the distinguished German actor and director, Ernst von Possart. A powerful, potent and timeless tale of honor, love and sacrifice within a love triangle, Enoch Arden is one of Strauss’s most evocative and emotional scores. The Castle by the Sea – here in its first recording of Christopher Kent’s translation – is a miniature gothic masterpiece. Christopher Kent has appeared widely on stage (alongside Robert Lindsay and Timothy Spall), screen and radio. One of the UK’s best-known voice actors, he is also known for his extensive collaborations with leading musicians, and has been a regular recital partner of Gamal Khamis since 2016.Gamal Khamis is a multi-award-winning pianist with a flourishing international career hailed by The Times for his “formidable keyboard skills”. He made his Wigmore Hall debut aged 10, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3, and a member of Lipatti Piano Quartet. The booklet includes an authoritative introduction by Andrew Neill, with Christopher Kent and Gamal Khamis providing additional illuminating commentary.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49602433515800,"sku":"748871065123","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4085598-2827730.jpg?v=1777655702"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/collections\/SOMM_Sale.png?v=1737726023","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/collections\/somm-recordings-winter-sale.oembed?page=6","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}