EM Records is thrilled to announce the releases of no fewer than five new recordings this summer. The first of these, “The Sound of Hidden Music” (EMR CD084), is a collection of songs by Hubert Parry and is Paula Fan’s final recording in a legacy of remarkable recordings from this remarkable Chinese-American pianist, whose unique intellect remained ever curious and inquisitive. It is complemented in our catalogue by EMR CD086, works for voice and piano by Sir Arnold Bax, who was both Master of the King’s Music (under King George VI) and Master of the Queen’s Music (under Queen Elizabeth II); the disc is especially notable for the World Première recording of Bax’s twenty-five-minute setting of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s celebrated poem “The Blessed Damozel”, which lends the recording its title.

Following their breathtaking debut at the 2024 English Music Festival, Excalibur Voices, under the direction of conductor Duncan Aspden, have collaborated with EM Records to produce a disc that is both an important and a stunningly beautiful addition to the choral repertoire. “And the Blackbird Sang” (EMR CD094) features a carefully curated selection of works that highlight the ensemble’s passion for English choral song, rhythmic suppleness, and musicianship rooted in poetry and storytelling. Among the highlights are several World Première recordings, including Herbert Howell’s “Creep Afore Ye Gang”, Robin Milford’s powerfully moving “Songs of Escape”, and Alan Rawsthorne’s evocatively resonant “A Rose for Lidice”.

“Beauty Veil’d” (EMR CD091), from the Berkeley Ensemble, features the first-ever recording of Dorothy Howell’s long-lost String Quartet in D minor, a remarkable rediscovery brought back to life through the meticulous work of the ensemble’s own viola player, Dan Shilladay. It forms the centrepiece of a disc that also features four other première recordings of works by Howell and her circle. By contrast, “Incandescent Incantations” (EMR CD095) consists entirely of World Première recordings of works for solo violin and for violin and reciter by three of Britain’s finest and most acclaimed contemporary composers. Joseph Phibbs’s effervescent, evocative and colourful Suite for Solo Violin is presented alongside Richard Pantcheff’s “To Autumn” ⁠— ⁠a celebration for reciter and and violin of poets including Elizabeth Barratt Browning, John Clare, John Keats and Robert Louis Stevenson ⁠— ⁠and Richard Blackford’s “Dreams and Spells”: an interpretation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.

EM Records is delighted and proud to announce the release of a new disc featuring World Première Recordings of important works by one of Britain’s finest composers, Gustav Holst. As well as composing, Holst held several significant teaching posts, the most important and longest-lasting of which was at St Paul’s Girls’ School. This Musical Directorship brought him joy and delight; it also provided solace in the form of his sound-proofed room in the Music Wing, into which he was able to retreat and gain the peace and quiet he required for composition. Holst — who threw himself wholeheartedly into the life of the school — gratefully composed a number of works specifically for the school and its pupils, including all the works presented on this disc.

These works perfectly demonstrate how uncompromising Holst was in his pursuit of quality — the pieces on this disc are no less carefully textured and well-crafted than his works for professional ensembles and they highlight Holst’s integrity as a composer, along with his love for and appreciation of St Paul’s Girls’ School.

As well as the much-loved St Paul’s Suite and Brook Green Suite (the latter performed at the last concert that Holst ever attended), this disc features the World Première Recordings of the Gavotte — originally part of the Brook Green Suite — the “Playground Song”; and the Seven Choruses from “Alcestis”, with its heart-felt words by Euripides.

We are also delighted to enable music-lovers to hear “The Vision of Dame Christian”, a deeply-engaging Masque composed for the four-hundredth anniversary of St Paul’s School to celebrate its founder, John Colet, and his mother, with words by the then-High Mistress of the Girls’ School, Frances Gray. This important and beautiful work here receives its first professional recording. Holst stipulated that the Masque should not be taken out of the school, so we are even more pleased to have been able to honour his wishes by recording it in the beautiful wooden-panelled Great Hall, with the choir formed by current pupils. Also featured are the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leigh O’Hara (Director of Music at the school at the time of recording) and the Director of EM Records, Em Marshall-Luck — herself an Old Paulina — as the reciter.

Full details of this recording, including a track listing, are available on this page.

EM Records is proud to announce a collaboration with the distinguished American composer Morten Lauridsen in a newly released disc of solo songs and duets, performed by the acclaimed soprano Caryl Hughes and the celebrated baritone Jeremy Huw Williams together with the remarkable and versatile pianist Paula Fan — who died suddenly last year whilst on a recital tour with Williams, the clarinetist John Reynolds and the cellist Peter Esswood.

Lauridsen is acclaimed worldwide for his many choral works which have been widely recorded and performed and his songs, although less well-known, beautifully complement his more extensively surveyed repertoire. The disc contains all three of Lauridsen’s vocal cycles: “A Backyard Universe” (three songs on poems by Harold Witt), “A Winter Come” (six songs on poems by Howard Moss) and “Cuatro Canciones” (poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca); the solo-voice versions of “O Magnum Mysterium” and the caberet song “Where Have the Actors Gone?” and the mixed-duet versions of “Ya Eras Mia” (“Now You Are Mine” — Pablo Neruda), “Dirait-on” (“So They Say” — Rainer Maria Rilke) and “Sure On This Shining Night” (James Agee), as well as the setting that lends its name to the disc’s title: “Prayer” (Dana Gioia). Lauridsen has a special fondness for composing for mixed duet and piano, being drawn as he is to the intimacy and expressiveness of the genre.

The disc was recorded in Wales, the artists being joined by Lauridsen for the entire sessions, and is a gorgeously performed recital of intensely heartfelt music by a remarkable composer.

For full details of this recording, including a track listing , please visit this page.

We are currently working on a new website for EM Records which we expect to be available later this year (2024). The site will have a responsive design — meaning that it will be easier to use on mobile devices — and will also feature a cleaner layout, improved typography, and a more streamlined purchasing process, including the facility to add a disc to the shopping cart directly from its ‘Details’ page. Naturally, a complete overhaul to the website such as this represents will take time to complete; but, in the meantime, please be assured that the current site will remain in service until the new one is ready.

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