Classical Music February 2019

Grace Williams (19 February 1906 – 10 February 1977) was a Welsh composer. Born in the coastal town of Barry, near Cardiff, Grace learned piano and violin and developed her musical skills early. She won the Morfydd Owen scholarship to Cardiff University in 1923 where she studied under Professor David Evans and in 1926 she proceeded to the Royal College of Music, London, where she was taught by Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Williams is regarded by many as one of Wales finest composers. She wrote two symphonies, the earlier being the first symphony ever composed by a Welsh composer, a mass, one opera, numerous other pieces for orchestras and chamber ensemble, as well as accomplished vocal works. She was also the first British woman to score a feature film, with Blue Scar in 1949. Her chamber music, recorded here for the first time, spans 40 years.

Yann Tiersen has announced details of a brand new album, ALL, out on 15 February 2019. The album coincides with an extensive European tour throughout February and March, which includes two London dates at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 19 and 20 February 2019.

Acclaimed pianist and organist Jae-Hyuck Cho is one of the most active concert artists in Korea. He has been described as “a musician who is nearing perfection with an extraordinary breadth of expression, flawless technique, and composition, sensitivity, and intelligence, insightful and detailed playing without exaggeration.”

Deutsche Grammophon is set to issue the world premiere of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann on 20 September 2019. The album will be released a day after the future-embracing Icelandic composer would have turned 50.

LA Phil 100 Years is the most comprehensive collection of the orchestra’s history to be assembled. This century-spanning volume tells the story of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s evolution in the language through which it expresses itself best: extraordinary music.

After Lucifer (2014) and Pour sortir au jour (2016), the French composer Guillaume Connesson returns to Deutsche Grammophon with "Lost Horizon", a new double-album directed by Stéphane Denève at the head of the Brussels Philharmonic. Already awarded the Victoire de la Musique Classique in the Composer category in 2015, Guillaume Connesson received last February his second award as Composer of the Year 2019 for "Les Horizons perdus", Concerto for Violin created in September 2018 that we find within this double album. These two CDs show two facets of the composer's art and offer two trips. One outside, with the fantastic and festive "Cities of Lovecraft" and the saxophone Concerto A Kind of Trane performed by Timothy McAllister

A few years back Gonzo released the original soundtrack for Tony Palmer's "The Space Movie" 1979 documentary by Mike Oldfield. It consisted of consists of the un-edited sountrack (movie commentaries and all) which includes pieces from Oldfield's released "Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge", "Ommadawn" and "Portsmouth" and also excerpts from what was Oldfield's then-new album, "Incantations". The film also made use of the orchestral arrangements of Oldfield's first two albums, "The Orchestral Tubular Bells" and notably "The Orchestral Hergest Ridge" (with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra), which has never been released before. And now… The demos.