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Bohemian Rhapsodies
Fell Clarinet Quartet
Colin Blamey, clarinet & bass clarinet
Helen Bywater, clarinet & C clarinet
Marianne Rawles, clarinet & Eb clarinet
Lenny Sayers, clarinet & bass clarinet

DCD34083

The Fells' journey through Eastern Europe takes in sophisticated reworkings of Bartók and earthy reimaginings of klezmer, and introduces some unfamiliar names along the way. The four clarinets lend a wonderfully suggestive reediness to these laments and dances which enhances the music's rustic tone. With the Fell Quartet as your guide, this whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe is sure to be seductive, virtuosic, and not without some moments of real grit.

‘Their style is electrifyingly unanimous ... ice-cool virtuosity and moody whispers that colour in equal measure.'
– The Scotsman, April 2008

‘An incredible sound ... slick ensemble ... beautifully expressive playing. The ensemble gives a flawless performance ... the quality of the repertoire is matched by the quality of the playing. This is a group with a bright future.'
– MusicWeb International, August 2008 (CD of the Month)

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Choral Evensong from Tewkesbury Abbey
The Abbey School Choir, Tewkesbury
Benjamin Nicholas, director
Carleton Nicholas, organ

DCD34019

For thirty-two years the Abbey School Choir sang daily evensong in Tewkesbury Abbey. One of their final services was captured for posterity by Delphian. In this recording swansong, the choir offers a treasurable memento of a uniquely English Office; complete with lessons and prayers, this sumptuous tapestry of Anglican jewels also includes the first recording of Gabriel Jackson’s refulgent new setting of the Evening Canticles. Reborn as Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, the choir was immediately signed by Delphian and has embarked on a series of much-lauded recordings.

‘I've been consistently impressed by the work of Benjamin Nicholas and his Tewkesbury singers on the Delphian label ... the recorded sound is never short on detail thanks not least to the full-blooded singing of Tewkesbury's boy choristers and smart engineering. The choir's men are on top form too ... compelling energy. Terrific choral listening. ’
— Classic FM Magazine, April 2009

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Birds & Beasts: Music by Martyn Bennett & Fraser Fifield
Mr McFall's Chamber

DCD34085

Martyn Bennett was one of Scotland’s most innovative musicians, combining the traditional and modern, the local and international. A long-planned collaboration with Mr McFall’s Chamber was never realised during his tragically short lifetime. For their second disc with Delphian, Robert McFall has put together a programme of his own sympathetic arrangements of Martyn’s music alongside original works by Fraser Fifield, another of Scotland’s virtuosic musical innovators. The premiere recording of Martyn’s ‘Piece’ epitomises his sophisticated mastery of fusion.

‘[Bennett] caused a sensation – and much controversy – in british folk music … Scottish bagpipe and fiddle music with techno beats ’
— Guardian obituary, February 2005

‘I believe the group – in what it does, and in what it represents – is potentially the most important single development on the Scottish musical scene in a long time'
— Michael Tumelty, The Herald, on Mr McFall’s Chamber

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Mátyás Seiber (1905–60): String Quartets Nos 1-3 Edinburgh Quartet

DCD34082

Mátyás Seiber’s three string quartets span his career, from the astonishingly assured student essay of the first quartet, composed at the age of just eighteen, to the mature synthesis of his third and final Quartetto Lirico. Seiber’s work was nourished by several of the twentieth century’s most significant stylistic trends, from jazz and serialism to the folk music of his native Hungary. He was also, like many of the mid-century’s most important artists, an émigré and an influential teacher; Hugh Wood’s booklet essay pays tribute to his lasting influence on a generation of British composers.

Recent praise for the Edinburgh Quartet:
‘a bright sound with a ring of steel around it that is ideal for modern music’
— Daily Telegraph

‘scorchingly focused performances’
— The Herald (on the Delphian CD The Cold Dancer)

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Mike Brewer's World Tour
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
Mike Brewer conductor

DCD34080

‘Coming from backgrounds of both English choral music and jazz, I have always been obsessed by musical connections. I love to perform music of one culture with singers of another, to help performers to share an awareness of music in different contexts.

I have had the good fortune to travel around the world every three years with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. In South Africa I became fascinated by the rhythms and sounds of the music of the African continent. Mexico and Cuba opened up new vistas of musical connection for me, from elderly musicians performing the son jarocho in village tavernas in Veracruz to Afro- Caribbean jazz ensembles performing unbelievably complex music which arose out of that mix of cultures.

The pieces of choral music found here are similarly hybrid, because in most cases they combine elements from more than one source …’

The internationally-renowned National Youth Choir is peerless in bringing to life Brewer's transcontinental choral imaginings. Headed up by the first commercial recording of Mike’s Hamba Lulu, the programme journeys us from the Icelandic tundra to the sultry jazz clubs of Latin America. Is your hi-fi ready to go?

'Praise for NYC on Delphian Records:

‘Sung by the glorious young voices of Mike Brewer's 140-strong National Youth Choir, coupled with a clear, excellently balanced recording from Delphian. Brewer fashions from these talented, young singers a was radiant wash of sound that is simply stunning ’
– Choir and Organ, January/February 2009

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John Taverner (c.1490-1545): Sacred Choral Music
The Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh
Duncan Ferguson conductor

DCD34023

John Taverner brought the English florid style to its culmination and final flowering; his music is quite unlike anything written by his continental contemporaries. In his debut recording with the critically acclaimed Edinburgh choir, Duncan Ferguson presents this music with forces akin to those of the sixteenth century – a small group of children and a larger number of men. The singers respond with their characteristic freshness, and an emotional authenticity born of the daily round of liturgical performance.

Praise for the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral on Delphian:

‘abundant atmosphere ... natural clarity’
— Gramophone, Awards Issue 2006

‘complex, colourful and exciting’
— Choir & Organ, 2007

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Gavin Bryars: The Church Closest to the Sea
Susan Hamilton soprano
Nicholas Mulroy tenor
Rick Standley double bass
Mr McFall’s Chamber

DCD34058

The double bass has always been close to Gavin Bryars' heart. His own instrument, it has also featured strongly in his music for other players - as in The Church Closest to the Sea, written for Mr McFall's Chamber and their bassist Rick Standley. Bryars' music straddles worlds: classical and jazz, composition and improvisation, the works on this disc moving between the lushly sensuous and the coolly laid-back as they meditate on geographical and emotional borderlands.

‘ I believe the group – in what it does, and in what it represents – is potentially the most important single development on the Scottish musical scene in a long time’
— Michael Tumelty, The Herald, on Mr McFall’s Chamber

‘ He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle’
— Michael Ondaatje on Gavin Bryars

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Into this world this day did come
Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Geo¤rey Webber director
David Ballantyne & Matthew Fletcher organ

DCD34075

Fresh from their 2009 Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Webber’s choir has put together an intriguing programme in which medieval works illuminate contemporary settings by some of the UK’s finest living composers. From the plangent innocence of Sweeney’s The Innumerable Christ to the shining antiphony of Burrell’s Creator of the Stars of Night, this selection will seduce and enchant. Caius, as we’ve come to expect, combine polish with verve, Webber’s meticulous attention to detail floodlit by the luminous acoustic of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.

Praise for Caius on Delphian:

‘ glittering precision … marvellous choral sheen’
— International Record Review, June 2009

‘ Geoffrey Webber’s choir sings with greater passion than most of its Oxbridge rivals’
— Classic FM Magazine

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David Wilde plays Schumann
David Wilde piano

DCD34050

The original first-movement manuscript of Schumann’s Fantasie in C has a number of differences from the editions commonly used today – significant tempo and textual changes which David Wilde has reinstated in a revelatory reading of this tumultuous love-poem to the young Clara. In contrast, Kinderszenen, a touching and vernal evocation of childhood, is given a performance of artless innocence that chimes with Wilde’s conviction that ‘it shouldn’t sound mature’. Carnaval’s colourful cast of characters is viscerally and imaginatively brought to life, culminating in Wilde’s fearsome ‘March against the Philistines’.

A veteran of the Romantic piano tradition, David Wilde brings six decades of intense experience to this recital. His playing harks back to a time when audiences expected much more from the performer. This is Schumann with personality – listeners searching for a ‘safe’ experience will be disappointed.

Praise for David Wilde on Delphian Records:

‘‘one of the most intense and involving performances of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor that I’ve heard … one of the most revelatory CDs of 2007’
– International Record Review

‘… the most impressive aspect of this disc is the beautiful sound Wilde coaxes from his superbly voiced Steinway … pliant treble and richly resonant bass’
– Gramophone [on Wilde plays Brahms]

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Scotland at Night
Laudibus
Mike Brewer conductor
Beth Mackay mezzo-soprano
Thomas Laing-Reilly organ

DCD34060

These collaborations between noted Edinburghians Alexander McCall Smith and Tom Cunningham appear on disc here for the first time, in a programme of Scottish poetry settings by some of today’s leading composers. From the ethereal tenderness of Cunningham’s Lullaby to the muscular angularity of Ronald Stevenson’s A Medieval Scottish Triptych, Laudibus responds with affection and athleticism to the expert direction of UK choral doyen Mike Brewer.

Praise for Laudibus on Delphian Records:

‘magnificently sung … Superlative recording’
–Daily Telegraph, July 2008, FIVE STARS

‘fascinating and splendidly executed … enlightens and reveals as much as it impresses and delights’
–Classic FM Magazine, September 2008, DISC OF THE MONTH

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Handel: Overtures & Suites
John Kitchen harpsichord

DCD34053

Handel’s overtures had an independent life almost from their inception, and the practice of performing them on keyboard instruments has a similarly long pedigree, beginning with a number of transcriptions made by the composer himself. Keyboard specialist John Kitchen virtuosically evokes Handel’s orchestral palette in the welter of timbres and colours which he summons forth from Jacob Kirckman’s 1755 harpsichord, a classic instrument from the very apex of the English harpsichord-building tradition.

Praise for John Kitchen on Delphian Records:

‘His playing is exemplary’
– Early Music Review, February 2009

‘… crisp articulation, splendidly agile fingerwork and a strong sense of purpose’
– International Record Review, April 2009

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Thomas Wilson: A Chamber Portrait
Simon Smith piano
Allan Neave guitar
Edinburgh Quartet

DCD34079

An influential figure both personally and musically, Thomas Wilson was the leading light in a group of composers whose vision and technical assurance brought an international modernism into 20th-century Scottish music. In the chamber works collected here, moments of extraordinary stillness continually release into fast, propulsive music whose compelling energies are matched by the individual and collective virtuosity of Simon Smith, Allan Neave and the Edinburgh Quartet.

'an astounding player, with a huge expressive range'
– International Record Review on Simon Smith

'a bright sound with a ring of steel around it that is ideal for modern music'
– Daily Telegraph on the Edinburgh Quartet

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Lamentations of Jeremiah
Lay Clerks of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Timothy Byram-Wigfield conductor

DCD34068

Not since the early 1600s have the refulgent strains of John Mundy’s Lamentations setting been heard in Windsor. It has been reconstructed especially for this recording, made in Windsor Castle’s Albert Memorial Chapel by gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen. The men’s voices resonate in the resplendent chapel acoustic, transcending the desolation of the texts’ anguished laments in singing of extraordinary conviction and certainty.

‘beautifully balanced singing … robust and energetic performances’
– Organists’ Review, August 2006

‘Their freshness is an asset … demonstrates the choir’s versatility …’
– Gramophone, September 2006

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The Usher Hall Organ
John Kitchen, Organ

DCD34022

The first recording of the newly refurbished Norman & Beard concert organ in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. In an eclectic selection of repertoire ranging from transcriptions of popular orchestral works to Liszt’s tortuous ‘Weinen, Klagen’, internationally acclaimed organist John Kitchen demonstrates the instrument’s sonic versatility and brilliance of tone.

‘Built in 1914, the monumental organ in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh has been restored to its former Edwardian glory. City Organist John Kitchen celebrates the aesthetic of that period. Three Handel marches are delivered in grand style, with irrepressible brio. Kitchen brings rhythmic swagger and élan to Hollins’ Triumphal March (complete with carillon), Walton’s Orb and Sceptre and Bach’s “St Anne” Prelude and Fugue. The great Edwardian, Elgar, is represented by the Larghetto from his Serenade for Strings, giving Kitchen the chance to demonstrate the organ’s quasi-orchestral strings before letting rip in the celebrated “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations.’
– London Evening Standard, May 2004