All Things Strings

Orange Mountain Music presents this new limited edition 11 disc boxed set - The Symphonies by Philip Glass. This collection features conductor Dennis Russell Davies who has arranged the commission of nine of ten Glass symphonies, leading the orchestras over which he has presided during the past 15 years including the Bruckner Orchester Linz, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. This collection is the fruit of a 20 year collaboration between Glass and Davies and showcases a wide variety within this surprising body of work by Glass.

This Grappelli box set bringing together 37 titles, including 23 previously unreleased, celebrates the violinist's friendship with the pianist, composer, arranger and conductor Gérard Gustin. A first album, entirely unpublished, produced by Sacha Distel in 1970, allows us to hear Stéphane in a “string” context. A setting that perfectly suits this gentleman of the violin. The two quartet sessions brought together in the second volume present another aspect of the discographic collaboration between the two men, which spanned almost ten years. As a bonus, a new unpublished quintet session from 1961, with guitarist Pierre Cullaz.

There’s nothing disastrous about Daniel Pemberton’s fine score. Pemberton’s star has been on the rise for a few years now and it was 2015 that turned out to be his real breakthrough year, with his very impressive (and very different) scores for The Man from UNCLE and Steve Jobs. There’s a bit of the effortless cool of the former heard in Gold but by and large this is another very different affair, a fun action/adventure score that stays refreshingly free of the turgid sounds that tend to dog these things these days.

Erno” Dohnányi is the least celebrated of the seminal triumvirate of twentieth-century Hungarian composers; Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók have become household names, yet Dohnányi’s posthumous fame hangs upon an unrepresentative handful of compositions. This recording brings together three of his finest chamber works; the two masterful yet hugely contrasting Piano Quintets, and his remarkable essay in that most underutilized of instrumental genres, the string trio.

Septura head homeward with a recording of British music from the first half of the twentieth century- a golden age in England’s otherwise checkered compositional history, and a period in which brass instruments, in the form of the brass band, established their place at the very heart of British musical culture. From the many composers of the period whose music endures we have chosen four of the finest: iconic works by Elgar, Parry, Finzi and Walton, reimagined for the unique sound of the brass septet. Septura brings together London’s leading players to redefine brass chamber music through the uniquely expressive sound of the brass septet. By creating a canon of transcriptions, arrangements and new commissions for this brand new classical configuration, Septura aims to recast the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium. Currently ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the group is recording a series of albums for Naxos, each focused on a particular period, genre and set of composers, creating a ‘counter-factual history’ of brass chamber music.

Taking their name from a type of cooked pudding, the electronic duo Blancmange interlaced the arty, exotic dance rhythms of Talking Heads with the quirky melodrama of early-'80s British synth pop. Consisting of Neil Arthur (vocals, guitar) and Stephen Luscombe (keyboards), Blancmange formed in London, England in the late '70s. Originally called L360, Blancmange received immediate recognition when they sent the song "Sad Day" to DJ Stevo, who added it to a compilation LP of then-unsigned new wave groups, including future alternative icons like Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. Drummer Laurence Stevens was a member of the band for a short while, but they eventually replaced him with a drum machine…