Musical Works And Performances Davies

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - January 2017. Ich habe genug is a timeless, transcendental masterpiece: a profound expression of Christian faith at the very end of life. It demands artistry of a special order, and Iestyn Davies now joins the likes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the work’s distinguished discography. The couplings are equally ravishing performances of two other great solo cantatas, while the two orchestral sinfonias which complete the album will prove refreshingly familiar.

Philip Glass' opera from 2009 explores the life of scientist Johannes Kepler though a series of dramatic scenes with two hours of Glass' music. Kepler in many ways hearkens back to Glass' portrait operas of the early 1980s and continues the composers interest in scientists after having also written operas on Einstein and Galileo. The opera premiered at the Landestheater Linz in 2009 as part of Linz 09, the European Cultural Capital, and continues the amazing 30 year collaboration between Glass and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, the music director of both the Landestheater Linz and its orchestra, the Bruckner Orchester Linz who has also recorded Glass' music extensively for the Orange Mountain Music label including Glass Symphonies 6, 7, and 8, and Glass' large scale opera The Voyage which was originally written for the Metropolitan Opera. Kepler is a refreshing return to large scale symphonic writing for the opera house. Recent Glass operas including Waiting for the Barbarians and Appomattox carry more dialogue and intimate narrative scenes whereas Kepler is a musical dedication to the life of this great scientists - triumphs and human flaws.

Third ECM release dedicated to new works by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher (born 1963). This is contemporary music full of infectious rhythmic energy, imbued by grippingsonic ideas. Larcher juxtaposes tonal harmony and avantgardistic compositional technique in most original ways. Larcher's works reenact traditional musical forms such as the solo concerto or the string quartet with great sense for existential drama. His music is performed around the world by leading international musicians, and his reputation is growing also in the United States.

Peter Maxwell Davies's later music powerfully evokes the isolated majesty of his Orkney island home, yet it also bears witness to his talent for friendship – to his associations, both personal and musical, with friends and supporters in Scotland and further afield. Among the warmest was with William Conway, whom Davies first encountered as principal cellist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and for whom he wrote the demanding solo part of his second Strathclyde Concerto.

London, Saturday 6th May, 2023 – Decca Classics is thrilled to announce that The Official Album of the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla is now available! After an undertaking of immense scale and precision (with 192 microphones in the Abbey and using over 7 miles of cable) the final recording was safely delivered and uploaded to digital streaming platforms across the globe, ready to be enjoyed by the public from this evening, complete with an official photograph from the Coronation ceremony as the album cover.

The Welsh composer Arwel Hughes (1909-88) played many different roles in what E.T.Davies – the first Director of Music at Bangor University – termed the ‘new musical awakening’ in Wales during the 20th century. Arwel Hughes was born in Rhosllanerchrugog, North Wales, the youngest of 10 children from a coal miner’s family.