Like many musicians, I have had many projects and performances cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have however been lucky enough to do some performing: I recorded a recital with Nicholas Bosworth for broadcast as part of the online English Music Festival 2020, which included music by E. J. Moeran, Michael Balfe, Eric Fogg and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. I was happy to revisit the ... View Post
At First Light
I have known composer Francis Pott for many years now, and 2019 saw the first musical fruits of our friendship. Francis writes music of great lyricism and complexity, and I had the extraordinary experience of giving two performances of Francis’s Cello Sonata, on consecutive days. The work is epic in its emotional scope and has been defined in the press as one of the finest British chamber works of ... View Post
Selected Performances 2018/19
Saturday 15 September 2018, 6.30pm Philharmonic Hall, Samara Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto no. 1, with the Samara State Philharmonic Orchestra Sunday 16 September 2018, 2pm Philharmonic Hall, Tolyatti Gabriel Fauré, Élégie, with the Tolyatti State Philharmonic Orchestra Monday 17 September 2018, 5pm Tolyatti Recital of English music for cello and piano, including Ralph Vaughan ... View Post
Sea-Croon – music from The 1920s
My quest for repertoire for cello and piano that needs a wider audience continues. I have recently been working on a CD for EM Records of works from the 1920s. All decades are arguably equally ripe for exploration, but the 1920s were a period of musical ferment. The Great War had inevitably left its mark, and in the cello repertoire we see engagement with the modernism prevalent on the Continent, ... View Post
Rawsthorne on CD
A number of years ago, I recorded two chamber works by Alan Rawsthorne: the Studies on a Theme by Bach for string trio, and the unpublished Oboe Quartet no. 1. The disc on which they appeared is sadly no longer available, but I am delighted to say that Steve Plews of Prima Facie Records has rereleased those works on a new Alan Rawsthorne portrait disc. I took the opportunity to record ... View Post
Hesketh Premiere Recording
This year also saw the release of a disc of works by Richard Causton and Kenneth Hesketh, which includes the premiere recording of Hesketh’s IMMH, written in memory of Michael Harrison, former director of the Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge. It has been described as an ‘imagined shamanic ritual’ and makes extraordinary demands on the performer, including a fair amount of vocalizing and drumming ... View Post
