Don Owen

After a celebrated career, which has seen her release a number of critically acclaimed albums, tour the world and receive praise from the likes of Annie Lennox and Jamie Cullum, Judith Owen - powerhouse British vocalist, pianist and songwriter - has reached her creative happy place with brand new album, 'Come On & Get It' This next iteration of Owen finds her right back at the beginning of her journey into life as a musician as a six-year-old music-loving kid, with her headphones on, singing along to the jazz records she'd discovered via her parent's record collection in her bedroom. It starts with the arrival of her 13th album, 'Come On & Get It', which is a collection of the songs that soundtracked her youth. Featuring tracks by a legion of female jazz musicians from the '40s and '50s, including Nellie Lutcher, Blossom Dearie and Julia Lee, the album showcases talents who sparked a flame in Owen as a child but who haven't received the widespread recognition they deserve.

After a celebrated career, which has seen her release a number of critically acclaimed albums, tour the world and receive praise from the likes of Annie Lennox and Jamie Cullum, Judith Owen - powerhouse British vocalist, pianist and songwriter - has reached her creative happy place with brand new album, 'Come On & Get It' This next iteration of Owen finds her right back at the beginning of her journey into life as a musician as a six-year-old music-loving kid, with her headphones on, singing along to the jazz records she'd discovered via her parent's record collection in her bedroom. It starts with the arrival of her 13th album, 'Come On & Get It', which is a collection of the songs that soundtracked her youth. Featuring tracks by a legion of female jazz musicians from the '40s and '50s, including Nellie Lutcher, Blossom Dearie and Julia Lee, the album showcases talents who sparked a flame in Owen as a child but who haven't received the widespread recognition they deserve.

Morfydd Owen was born in the Welsh valleys in 1891. Like many of her peers she sang and played piano, but it was her precocious talent as a composer – and her beauty – that dazzled audiences in London. Sadly, having met and married within six weeks Freud’s biographer, Ernest Jones, her once-prolific output tapered off, and she died in mysterious circumstances following surgery in 1918, aged just 26. Inevitably, Owen’s tale is ripe for romantic fantasy as well as regret. But leaving aside the odd tautology of its title, on the basis of this sensitively recorded disc from Ty Cerdd, a recent resurgence of interest in her music proves justified. Pianist and researcher/editor Brian Ellsbury joins forces with Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas to offer a poignant collection of songs and piano pieces spanning Owen’s tantalisingly promising career.

Since Westminster Mass (2000) established Roxanna Panufnik’s firm place among today’sleading British composers, she has often been celebrated for her choral music. Her instrumental and chamber works, however, are equally striking, filled with dazzling imagination and poetic lightness of touch. Her latest album Heartfelt encompasses compassion, tragedy and irresistible humour, while demonstrating her passion for exploring diverse musical cultures, from East Sussex to Myanmar.

Following their début album, Belle Époque, the Orsino Ensemble turns its attention to music from Bohemia. There is a strong tradition of Czech wind playing, and hence a wealth of great repertoire on which to draw. Antoine Reicha was a contemporary (and friend) of Beethoven. His E flat Quintet, published in 1817, demonstrates his harmonic ingenuity and talent for idiomatic instrumental writing. Mládí, described by Janácek as ‘…a sort of memoir of youth’, was composed in 1924 in celebration of the composer’s own seventieth birthday, and the mood of the piece is optimistic throughout.

Regarded as one of Europe’s leading horn players, Martin Owen appears as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. Currently principal horn at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he has previously served as principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and as solo horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Weber’s Concertino was written for the old, valveless ‘natural horn’; its limited range of notes (tied to the harmonic series) was extended mechanically with additional tubing (‘crooks’) and, more artfully, by virtuoso players bending notes, and varied hand stopping. The technical demands of the Concertino are testament to the extraordinary facility of the hornists of the period.

Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva perform a stunning selection of French 20th-century music for piano four hands. Both Milhaud and Poulenc were members of Les Six, a band of composers who specialised in producing colourful, quirky and highly original scores. Milhaud’s Scaramouche epitomises the wit and joie de vivre of this approach and has become one of his most popular works – although at the time the composer nearly forbade its publication. Poulenc combined grace and sparkling humour with a nobility that reflected his desire for a ‘return to simplicity’. His Élégie was written ‘as if improvising with a cigar in your mouth and a glass of cognac on the table’, while the Sonata for Four Hands is full of finger-crossing intricacies, and at the heart of the Sonata for Two Pianos is an Andantino described by the composer as ‘a lyrical, profound outburst… It is piano without pretence, real piano where each instrument converses with the other in perfect understanding and without interrupting.’ Debussy’s evocative Nocturnes arranged by Ravel conclude the release.