‘This Curious Harp’ features a programme of mainly unrecorded British music for solo harp performed superbly by the distinguished harpist Eleanor Hudson, former Principal Harp with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and recorded in St Saviour’s Church, Wildboarclough, in the heart of Macclesfield Forest in north west England during the earlier stages of the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown – quite legally with the harp needing no ‘social distancing’! The programme opens with York Bowen’s beautiful Arabesque, the only item on this CD to have been commercially recorded before (once) and features delightful unrecorded music, specially composed for the Harp by Bantock (Sapphic Dance), Hamilton Harty (Two Spring Fancies), Leonard Salzedo, Geoffrey Burgon, Stephen Dodgson, Ian Parrott and Thomas Pitfield.

This is the latest release in MPR’s series of chamber music by the excellent and unduly neglected English composer Arnold Cooke, all performed by The Pleyel Ensemble. This attractive programme includes the Trio for clarinet, violoncello and piano, the Quartet for flute, clarinet, violoncello and piano, the Sonatina for alto flute and piano and various short pieces for flute and piano and for clarinet and piano. As you will have come to expect, all the performances are superb as is the recording. Cooke lived for many years in Whetsted Road, Five Oak Green, Kent which is also by coincidence the home of MPR, an area which features hop gardens, oast houses and orchards full with apples, pears and blackcurrants.

'The Archaeus Quartet play each of these works with energy and conviction'.........'the sound is transparent and natural and these players certainly catch the music's drama'.........'in Parry's anniversary year it fills a gap in the recorded repertoire very handsomely'  Gramophone Magazine July 2018

Released in the 100th Anniversary year of Sir Hubert Hastings Parry's death, this is the first ever recording of his complete music for string quartet. Although the mighty Quartet no. 3 has been published and recorded once, Quartets 1&2 have languished unperformed and certainly unrecorded for many years. The early quartets are very much influenced by Mendelssohn and are quite delightful; the charming Scherzo in C, which Parry did not complete one hundred percent, is fully realised in an edition by Professor Jeremy Dibble (who also provided a performing version of Quartet no. 2),  without whose invaluable help this recording would not have taken place. This double album was recorded in November 2017 in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Salehurst, East Sussex and our recording engineer was once again the superb Tony Faulkner. This recording is an absolute must for lovers of English music but also for those who enjoy early 'Romantic' chamber music and is a fascinating document of how Parry's voice as a composer developed over the years. Utterly amazing that these pieces have been overlooked, it's now time for them to be brought out into the sunshine!

This is a rich and varied collection of 21 Part Songs by none other than Sir Arthur Sullivan. With texts by poets such as Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Scott, HF Chorley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, we are transported back to Victorian times and can enjoy all four seasons from ‘Fair Daffodils’ to ‘The Last Night of the Year’. Many of these songs are undeservedly less well-known and there are a few alternative settings of Christmas Carols. Kantos are a 16 piece choir on this recording and sing beautifully, producing a rich an mellifluous sound with the texts beautifully brought to life in a church acoustic.

Robert Franz (1815-1892) was an unjustly neglected German composer who specialised almost entirely in lieder and was highly thought of in his day, being admired by Liszt, Mendelssohn and Schumann. This is a collection and sequence of beautiful and very moving miniatures (nearly all previously unrecorded), with the songs shared between and superbly performed by soprano Harriet Burns and tenor William Searle - both hugely talented young soloists with sensitive accompaniments from pianists Marc Verter and Sebastian Wybrew. The gorgeous recorded sound was engineered by Tony Faulkner and the sessions produced by Mike Purton. This is a double album containing all 51 songs set by Franz to poems by Wilhelm Osterwald (1820-1827), the project being originated by musicologist Victoria Edge, who through her research has discovered that composer and poet were even closer than very close friends as can be seen in the texts. It's a delightful and very moving musical journey about unrequited love and will be available for general release in early November.

As well as containing two CDs, this set has a most informative 60 page booklet including excellent programme notes and detail about the lives of and the relationship between the composer and the poet by Victoria Edge, with a very enthusiastic introduction by none other than Graham Johnson OBE. Each relatively short song is a work of art and the 51 songs (plus Franz’s only tiny composition for solo piano) are equally divided into the four seasons, to help tell the story. Franz was certainly unparalleled as a miniaturists and this album is a must for lovers of early romantic music and of song.

'This  hugely enjoyable CD' - British Music Society

'This  CD  is  recorded  with  clarity  and  a  warm  tone quality;  the  instruments  are  always  well  balanced and  both  performers  play  with  impressive  accuracy and  conviction.  I  particularly  enjoyed  the  sense  of simplicity  that  comes  across  in  this  recording;  that’s  not  to  say  that  the  music  is  particularly  easy,  but  one has  the  sense  when  listening  that  the  music,  and  its interpretation,  has  been  carefully  considered  and  is presented  in  a  clear,  logical  way,  with  appropriate  expressivity,  without  giving  in  to  overindulgence.  These are  two  instinctive  musicians  who  judge  the  pacing  and  expression  of  the  music  with  sensitivity  and  intelligence.  There  are  some  real  gems  amongst  the  repertoire  here  which  deserve  to  be  better  known  with contemporary  audiences;  well  worth  exploring.' 

Pan Magazine, The British Flute Society

Recorded in the beautiful acoustic of the Menuhin Hall in Surrey, we have a superb selection of music for Flute (mainly with Piano) by composers who either taught or studied at the Royal College of Music in London. None of these works have been recorded commercially for this instrumentation. Composers are Richard Walthew, Cyril Bradley Rootham, Sir George Henschel, Robin Milford, Armstrong Gibbs, Norman Demuth, Stanley Bate, Leonard Salzedo and John White. All these works beautifully performed by James Dutton (Flute) and Oliver Davies (Piano) and recorded in 24/96 high definition by the peerless Tony Faulkner.

‘These works rank with Elizabeth Maconchy’s 13 Quartets as major British additions to the repertoire’

‘so beautifully produced by Mike Purton, with detailed, informative glossy liner notes’

‘These are totally committed performances by the Archaeus Quartet’ Paul RW Jackson BMS Journal

Re. Quartet no 10 ‘This is a major contribution to the String Quartet repertoire by any stretch of the imagination. I would personally give reams of ‘established repertoire’ to ensure that I had this Quartet in my CD library. It is my favourite work on this disc and is one of the finest quartets by any composer from any period of musical history that I have heard’. John France - Music Web-International

Leonard Salzedo was originally a violinist, trained at the Royal College of Music and also studied composition with Herbert Howells, orchestration with Gordon Jacob and conducting with George Dyson. In 1947 he joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a violinist, eventually moving to the Royal Philharmonic, where Sir Thomas Beecham insisted on performing some of his compositions including his First Symphony and his ballet The Witch Boy (eventually credited with more than 1,000 performances).

The three String Quartets (1,5 & 10) date respectively from 1942, 1952 and 1997, covering the first and last of his compositions in this genre. It’s very interesting to note the various influences in these most attractive pieces and we can often hear hints of Leonard’s own Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

The Pleyel Ensemble

Benedict Holland (Violin) Harvey Davies (Piano) and Susie Mészáros (Viola)

Sonatas 1 & 2 for Violin and Piano, Solo Violin Sonata and the Duo for Violin and Viola

Arnold Cooke (1906 - 2005) was born in Yorkshire and eventually moved to Kent, living a stone’s throw from the home of MPR, amongst Kentish oast houses, hop gardens and apple orchards. Cooke studied firstly at Cambridge University with EJ Dent (Professor of Music, Cambridge University) moving to Berlin to study with Hindemith. He went on to teach at the Royal Manchester College of Music and moved to London, shortly after which came wartime service in the Royal Navy after which he took a post at Trinity College of Music in London. His music is always attractive but carefully crafted and displays a fascinating mixture between English and German styles. The Sonata no. 2 for Violin and Piano is the only work here to have been recorded previously (only once). The CD was recorded in the excellent acoustic of the Carole Nash Room at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and features superb musical performances, the first of four CDs already recorded.

MPR is proud to announce the latest release in its pioneering series of chamber music by Arnold Cooke with the superb Pleyel Ensemble. Totalling a very generous 79 minutes and ten seconds, we have the world première recordings of Cooke’s Piano Trio (1941-44), his Piano Quartet (1948/49 and his mighty Piano Quintet (1969). Although Cooke studied for a while in Germany with Hindemith, his music has a very English feel, but it is very interesting in these three pieces to notice a gloriously romantic ‘Brahmsian’ influence. These are deeply satisfying compositions both to play and to hear and any lover of chamber music will undoubtedly enjoy the Pleyel Ensemble’s excellent and committed performances of these wonderful chamber works.