October's news from the label in the festival ciry

If your email client does not support rich text email, please click here or enter www.delphianrecords.co.uk/monthly_newsletter/oct04/oct04.htm into your internet browser's address bar.

*news from the label in the festival city

October 2004

* new release

The Peoples Mass
Dunedin Consort
DCD34018

* buy your copy

* listen here (1 MB)
La Muerta - Anthea Haddow (b. 1969)

* listen here (1 MB)
Black over Red 2 - Anthea Haddow

The Dunedin Consort has adopted a fresh approach to the Latin Mass by commissioning a different composer to write each movement. Six contemporary Scottish-based composers come together in this new Mass setting whose most striking aspect is its remarkable homogeneity, given the varied background of the six composers.

The blending of six-part a cappella voices together with solo songs, harp accompaniment and an upper voice choir for the plainsong sections also gives the work an added dimension of space within its harmonic framework.

Polychoral pieces interweave with harp-accompanied songs in a spiritual work that achieves unity in diversity, designed to stimulate and inspire the listener's inner soul.

The 24-page booklet comprises all texts and translations with an accompanying essay written by the Dunedin Consort's co-founder, Ben Parry.

* featured composers

Tommy Fowler's work is acclaimed, and has been performed at music festivals across Britain : Nesting Cranes gained first prize in the 2001 British and International Bass Forum Composition Competition. Fowler holds a PhD in Composition and has been commissioned to write for the RSNO, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Cappella Nova, the Hilliard Ensemble and Dunedin Consort.

John Gormley has worked extensively with a number of Scottish vocal ensembles. His music has been performed by Scottish Voices, Cappella Nova, St. Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow and Dunedin Consort. Gormley teaches at the University of Glasgow, Douglas Academy Music School and at the RSAMD.

Anthea Haddow's work has been performed widely across Central and Eastern Europe, North and South America. Composer in residence at Glasgow 's Theatre Cryptic since 1997, recent commissions include Apocalypse, to be presented during City of Culture, Cork 2005; Scenes from an Execution for Dundee Repertory Theatre; and works for and Lung Ha's Theatre Company.

Malcolm Lindsay is celebrated for his musical diversity as a jazz musician and composer: his string quartet music, Solitary Citizen, has been broadcast worldwide. He has worked as a string arranger for international stars, such as David Byrne (Young Adam, 2003) and has written orchestral film scores. Lindsay's most recent major project was in collaboration with the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (2003).

Christine McCombe recently attained a PhD in Composition from the University of Edinburgh and, now teaches at the Queensland University of Technology. Previous compositions included Night Alchemy; Anregung; Utterance and an audiovisual piece, Tidal. Her music-theatre work, An Opera of Clouds, had its recent premiere in Edinburgh , combining chamber music, electro-accoustic soundscapes, video projections and live electronics.

Rebecca Rowe has been commissioned to write for such groups as the Allegri String Quartet, Cappella Nova, the Hilliard Ensemble, One Voice and her compositions have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and World Service. She teaches music at George Heriot's School (Edinburgh), and, this year, is working with poet Brian Johnstone and artist Jean Johnstone on a large-scale project involving six Celtic saints.

* critical acclaim

The Usher Hall
John Kitchen
DCD34022

*buy your copy

* listen here (1.03 MB)
Coronation March: Orb and Sceptre - arr. Robert Gower

Gramophone, September 2004

Supported by a splendidly vivid recording, [Kitchen] revels in Walton’s jazzy rhythms. Altogether this is a thoroughly enjoyable disc and the programme, ranging from Bach’s E flat Prelude and Fugue (BWV552) to three delightful Scottish folk melody arrangements by Geoffrey Atkinson provides a source of endless delight.

- Marc Rochester

BBC Music Magazine, November 2004

A demonstration disc for the newly restored Usher Hall organ in Edinburgh, this ‘town-hall’-type programme ranges from Bach to Hollins via Walton. The organ is an Edwardian period-piece by Norman and Beard, with some astonishingly bold timbres to it. These include pungent, not to say acrid, strings, bright choruses, orchestral reeds and a carillon sounding uncannily like a suburban door-chime. Kitchen leaves no stone unturned in his search for colour and reveals how close this type of instrument is to its cousin, the theatre organ. Given that fact, the St Anne Prelude and Fugue of Bach come off surprisingly well, and Liszt’s Weinen, Klagen is suitably dark-hued. The Walton Popular Song and Hollins Triumphal March see the organ in its natural habitat and Kitchen’s playing is instinctive and full of pizzazz... ...this is a commendable disc from a label with high artistic aspirations. Watch out for many more excellent discs appearing from this source.

- William Whitehead

contact us

website

*You have received this email because either you or someone on your behalf expressed an interest in receiving news from Delphian Records.
To remove yourself from this list, please reply with 'unsubscribe' as subject.