Lament For Letho

Cantata Memoria commemorates through new music the Aberfan tragedy of October 21, 1966, when 116 children and 28 adults tragically lost their lives as a coal tip enveloped Plant Glas school, together with some houses, in Aberfan, South Wales. This large-scale choral work in English, Welsh and Latin has been commissioned by S4C, the Welsh language TV channel, to mark the 50th anniversary of what has become known to subsequent generations both in the UK and around the world as the Aberfan Disaster.

On this new release, cellist John Kneiling and pianist Mescal Wilson perform a selection of Music for Cello by Otto Luening. The compositions span several decades, and both performers have spent a number of years specializing in this composer's work. German-American composer Otto Luening was an early pioneer of tape music and electronic music. He was also a passionate teacher with notable students including Joan Tower, Karl Korte, Sol Berkowitz, and others. His conducting premieres included Virgil Thomson's 'The Mother of Us All,' Gian Carlo Menotti's 'The Medium,' and his own 'Evangeline.'

Secure in his reputation as a mainstay of Anglican church music, Charles Wood reveals a deeper, more versatile talent in his secular songs.

'Music For A New Century' is a portrait of composition in postmodern times. Its quartet of pieces were all commissioned or co-commissioned by New Century Chamber Orchestra and stand as emblems of its wholehearted commitment to new work.

Vol. 3 in our successful series with "Music for Strings by British Composers" features works by four important women composers, some of whom initially were underappreciated and whose music only later was performed again and received proper recognition. However, the period from 1893 to 1934 was still an extremely favorable time for British women composers who wanted to present their works on their country’s concert stages in as much as they could count on support principally from Sir Henry Wood at the Prom's and Dan Godfrey in Bournemouth