EMR CD056 | DETAILS
  EMR CD056
   
 

‘THE GOD MARDUK’
Works for violin, viola and piano by Andrew Downes

   
  Rupert Marshall-Luck (vn & va)
Duncan Honeybourne (pf)
   
  EAN 5 060263 500537

As a complement to EM Records’ disc of piano music by Andrew Downes, this release features the composer’s music for violin and viola, including World Première recordings of the Violin Sonata, the Viola Sonata, and the work from which the disc takes its title, ‘The God Marduk’.  Downes was a student of Herbert Howells and his work is characterised by influences absorbed from a wide variety of musical cultures, including Indian rāgas, African drum-rhythms and Carolingian plainchant, these being fused to form a language that is rich in colour and vivid in the immediacy of its portrayals.  This recording is a dramatic representation of Downes’s art, ranging from the gentle lyricism of the second movement of the Violin Sonata, through the playful whimsy and implacable sternness of ‘The God Marduk’, to the devotional stillness and joyful assurance of the ‘Sacred Mass’ for solo violin.

TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
     
Andrew Downes (b.1950)
SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, op.52 (1994)
(World Première recording)
1. I. Allegro appassionato  
2. II. Largo  
3. III. Allegro vivace – Adagio – Tempo primo  
       
4. POÈME: ‘THE GOD MARDUK’, op.72 (1999)
(World Première recording)
 
       
‘SACRED MASS’ FOR SOLO VIOLIN, op.75 (2000)
5. I. KYRIE ELEISON. Adagio spirituale  
6. II. GLORIA IN EXCLESIS DEO. Allegro vivace  
7. III. CREDO IN UNUM DEUM. Andante spirituale  
8. IV. SANCTUS, DOMINUS DEUS SABAOTH. Allegro vivace  
9. V. BENEDICTUS. Andante moderato – Allegro vivace  
10. VI. AGNUS DEI. Adagio misterioso  
       
SONATA FOR VIOLA AND PIANO, op.68
(World Première recording)
11. I. Allegro moderato e espressivo – Allegro vivace  
12. II. Allegro moderato  
13. III. Andante leggiero  

 

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