EMR CD001 | DETAILS
  EMR CD001
   
  Bliss, Walford Davies & York Bowen: VIOLIN SONATAS
  Rupert Luck (vn) | Matthew Rickard (pf)
   
  Released 20 March 2011 | EAN 5 060263 500001
EM Records’ first release contains two World Première recordings together with an unjustly-neglected work. The Violin Sonatas by Arthur Bliss and Henry Walford Davies have languished in manuscript form for over one hundred years, and were performed at the 2010 English Music Festival to an enthralled audience by regular EMF artists Rupert Luck and Matthew Rickard. These works are presented alongside the opulent and darkly turbulent Violin Sonata by York Bowen. EM Records is delighted to present these passionate and heartfelt Sonatas as its first release.
TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
     
Sir Arthur Bliss (1891–1975)
SONATA FOR PIANO AND VIOLIN (World Première recording)		    
1. Moderato e semplice – Più mosso – Tempo I – Più lento e molto
tranquillo		  
     
Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941)
SONATA IN A MAJOR FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO (World Première recording)		    
2. I. Poco agitato (quasi Allegro) – Allegro semplice – Meno allegro  
3. II. SCHERZO: Allegro giocoso  
4. III. THE MONK AND THE WARRIOR: Largo – Poco più mosso –
[Tempo I]		  
5. IV. Allegro – Tranquillo – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Allegro (tempo del movimento primo) – Presto – Prestissimo possibile  
       
York Bowen (1884–1961)
SONATA IN E MINOR FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, op. 112		    
6. I. Maestoso – Allegro commodo  
7. II. Lento ad libitum e languido – Tempo poco lento – Poco più andante –
Poco più mosso		  
8. III. Allegro con fuoco  
REVIEWS
Beautifully shaped by Benjamin Frith... Beguiling sounds, graced by the tawny richness and unexaggerated line of Richard Jenkinson’s cello playing... The sense of purpose and sureness of line of Ian Venables’ music is pure oxygen.
EMR CD31 | BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Exquisitely rewarding... Ravishing accounts.
EMR CD029 | CHOIR AND ORGAN
This is music of great beauty and integrity and the performances fully do it justice. It would be criminal to let it pass you by.

EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW

The Bridge Quartet approach these pieces with a sympathetic and insightful warmth, and confirm their ambassadorial credentials for British chamber music. A lovely, radiant disc.
EMR CD025 | Gramophone
Duncan Honeybourne’s playing is astonishingly affectionate, yet never saccharine... Honeybourne plays with suave confidence.
EMR CD024 | INTERNATIONAL PIANO
Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folk-song like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful, with a shimmering pastoral central section... Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholic strain.  Finely recorded and with comprehensive booklet notes, this is a must for fans of 20th-century English repertoire.
EMR CD023 | THE STRAD