Usk Recordings

Each album shows link to Tutti for CD purchase or Amazon for Download purchase

https://open.spotify.com/album/4cSs3PNkN3l12mPC173AaG

Piano Quintet • Elegy • Clarinet Quintet

Timothy Salter

Rhapsodic, dramatic works for chamber ensembles played by a line-up of outstanding international artists

USK 1235CD

 

The Muse Piano Quintet . The Usk Ensemble

 

    • Timothy Salter :  Piano Quintet
    •   I With steady, relentless motion
    •   Interlude i fleeting (sound-clip)
    •   II Calm
    •   Interlude ii subdued, but purposeful in rhythm
    •   III Assertive, brisk
    •   ********
    • Timothy Salter :  Elegy
    •   ********
    • Timothy Salter :  Clarinet Quintet
    •   I Flowing
    •   II Musing - exuberant
    •   III Peaceful (sound-clip)
    •   IV With insistent movement
    •  
    •   Piano Quintet
    •   The number of piano quintets in existence is not large, and many of the best-known ones date from the 19th century. The piano writing in the ensemble works of composers such as Schumann, Brahms and Franck tends to be substantial and even soloistic, in keeping with the grandeur that attached to that instrument in the Romantic period. The tendency towards a solo nature for the piano in the medium of the piano quintet is furthered by the fact that a string quartet presents a homogeneous sound and a piano a very individual one – the piano is likely to emerge as pitted against the quartet.
    •   I set out to write a work in which the five parts each played an equal rôle, whilst not, I hope, suppressing the richness available from the piano. It has three movements separated by two interludes; the movements are each built with musical ideas that interact, thus making possible a feeling of growth, and the short interludes each consist of a single texture worked through without interruption.
    •   The Piano Quintet was written between February and June 1990. In March 2000 I made an alternative arrangement of the piece so that it may be performed either by piano and two violins, viola and cello, or by piano and violin, viola, cello and double bass. The latter version is entitled Piano Quintet (variant 2000).
    •  
    •   Elegy
    •   Elegy is in origin the slow movement from Chameleon, a concerto for alto saxophone with an orchestra of strings and percussion that also exists as a duo for saxophone and piano, composed in 2007. In 2014 I transcribed the movement, under its title Elegy, for clarinet and string quartet. Towards the end of the piece there is reference to the opening phrase of the haunting melody of the English folk song Barbara Allen. The opening chord on the strings of Elegy is that which also opens my choral arrangement of the folk song.
    •  
    •   Clarinet Quintet
    •   The medium of one woodwind and four string instruments immediately suggests a duality of sound between the reed instrument (in this instance a clarinet) and the homogeneity of the strings. The compositional challenge is in part to widen the textural map of the music by at times incorporating the clarinet within the sound of the strings rather than leaving it to contrast with them. This is made more possible through the tonal range of the clarinet, which has, especially at softer dynamics, a blending quality that enables it to merge with surrounding instruments.
    •   The Clarinet Quintet is in four movements each of which maintains a single momentum throughout except for the second movement with its slow opening. It was written in 2009.
    •  
    •   Piano Quintet
    •   The Muse Piano Quintet:
    •   Yulia Kupriyanova – piano
    •   Ilya Movchan – violin 1
    •   Olivia Scheepers – violin 2
    •   Ilona Bondar – viola
    •   Jordan Gregoris – cello
    •   Recorded in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College,
    •   Oxford on 25 May 2012
    •  
    •   Elegy and Clarinet Quintet
    •   The Usk Ensemble:
    •   Rozenn Le Trionnaire – clarinet
    •   Francesca Barritt – violin 1
    •   Sophie Mather – violin 2
    •   Jessica Beeston – viola
    •   Rebecca Hepplewhite – cello
    •   Recorded in St John the Evangelist church, Oxford on 11 April 2015
    •   Recordings engineered and balanced by David Wright
    •  

    Piano Music by Arnold Bax

    Eloquent and virtuosic première recordings of Bax’s music for solo piano.

    USK 1236CD

    Natalia Williams-Wandoch, Piano

      • Arnold Bax :  Nympholept
      •   Poem for piano
      •  
      •   ********************************
      •  
      •   Sonata in B flat
      •  
      •   Allegro moderato
      •  
      •   Lento espressivo
      •  
      •   Tempo di menuetto
      •  
      •   Rondo: Allegro vivace
      •  
      •   *********************************
      •  
      •   Two Hungarian Dances
      •   (from Clavierstücke 1897 - 1898)
      •  
      •   No. 1 Ra’s Dance
      •  
      •   No. 2 On the Mountains
      •  
      •   **********************************
      •  
      •   Sonata in D minor (1900) (sound clip)
      •  
      •   **********************************
      •  
      •   The Happy Forest (sound clip)
      •  
      •  
      Faure-salter-ravel-cover

      Fauré Salter Ravel

      The distinguished Fournier Trio in performances of outstanding presence and vitality

      USK 1231CD

      • Fournier Trio
      • Gabriel Fauré :  Piano Trio in D minor Op. 120
      •   Allegro, ma non troppo
      •   Andantino
      •   Allegro vivo
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  Piano Trio
      •   Agitated
      •   Elegiac
      •   Graceful, playful
      •  
      • Maurice Ravel :  Piano Trio in A minor
      •   Modéré
      •   Pantoum: Assez vif
      •   Passacaille: Très large
      •   Final: Animé

      Spectrum 5

      15 contemporary pieces by distinguished international composers, recorded by the pianist who commissioned them for the latest volume in the celebrated Spectrum series, published by ABRSM.
      USK 1233DL

      • Thalia Myers, Piano
      • Gabriel Jackson :  Imaginary Birds
      • Graham Fitkin :  Code
      • Poul Ruders :  Schrödinger’s Kitten
      • Karen Tanaka :  Masquerade
      • Howard Skempton :  Aside
      • Harold Meltzer :  The Jig is Up
      • Huw Watkins :  Prelude
      • Victoria Borisova-Ollas :  Angelfield (soundclip)
      • Michael Finnissy :  Beethoven’s Robin Adair
      • Gavin Higgins :  Awika
      • Timothy Salter :  Shimmer
      • Cheryl Frances-Hoad :  Commuterland
      • Helen Grime :  The Silver Moon
      • Chen Yi :  Bamboo Dance II
      • Philip Cashian :  Swale
      •  
      •   Spectrum 5 is a unique collection of fifteen contemporary works for solo piano, specially commissioned from fifteen leading composers, published in 2016 by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. The highly successful Spectrum project, established by Thalia Myers and ABRSM in 1996, commissions some of the world’s finest composers to write pieces of modest length and difficulty whilst preserving the essential characteristics of their compositional style.
      •  
      •   Recorded August 2016 at St. John the Evangelist, Oxford
      •   Recording engineered and balanced by David Wright
      •   Produced by John Rowan and Rosie Cousins
      •   Digital editing and mastering by David Wright
      •   Release date: November 2016

      The Country of the Stars

      Contemporary music for chorus

      …lyrical, impassioned, ebullient… works by ten composers displaying the vitality and variety of contemporary choral music.

       

      USK 1224CD

      • The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor
      • Philip Cashian :  Music for an empty sky
      • John Casken :  The land of spices
      • Timothy Salter :  The white and the walk of the morning (I Moonrise II [Untitled]
      •   III The caged skylark IV Inversnaid)
      • Simon Bainbridge :  Herbsttag
      • Colin Matthews :  A rose at Christmas
      • Douglas Young :  Canticle
      • Stephen Oliver :  O fons amoris
      • Howard Skempton :  Two poems of Edward Thomas (I Two pewits 2 Sowing)
      • Gabriel Jackson :  Lux mortuorum
      • Elisabeth Lutyens :  The country of the stars

      Chimera

      Performances exploding with energy and imagination, of a richly varied collection from British composers of today.

       

      USK 1226CD

      • Alexandra Wood violin, Huw Watkins piano
      Chameleon booklet cover

      Chameleon

      Music with wind by Timothy Salter

      Chameleon, a concerto for alto saxophone, together with a wind quintet and duos with piano for flute, bassoon, and bass clarinet display the vitality and lyricism of this composer’s music, performed by an eminent line-up of players.

      USK 1232CD

      • Kyle Horch alto saxophone , Sacconi Quartet , Tim Gibbs double bass , Donna Maria Landowski percussion, Helen Duffy flute , Timothy Salter piano , Graham Sheen bassoon , Helen Paskins bass clarinet , Ivana Gavrić piano , Aurora Ensemble
      • Timothy Salter :  Chameleon - concerto for alto saxophone (2007)
      •   Agitated
      •   Fleeting
      •   Elegy - gently flowing
      •   Forceful
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  Three Pieces (1978)
      •   [untitled]
      •   Broadly
      •   Always flexible
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  Imprints (1997)
      •   Febrile
      •   Still and pensive
      •   Murmuring
      •   Languid
      •   Volatile
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  Abstractions II (1986)
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  Wind Quintet (2002)
      •   Agitated
      •   Peaceful
      •   Sustained, with underlying unease
      •   Exuberant

      Scandinavian Choral Music

      Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius, Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller, Selim Palmgren, Wilhelm Stenhammar

      Music from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden ranging from the haunting to the exuberant.

      USK 1218CD

      • Matthew Brook baritone, Marianne Cotterill soprano, The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor
      • Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller :  Tre Madonnasange Op. 65
      • Edvard Grieg :  Fire Salmer Op. 74
      • Edvard Grieg :  Ave maris stella
      • Wilhelm Stenhammar :  Tre a cappella korsange
      • Selim Palmgren :  Kesäilta
      • Selim Palmgren :  Drömvisa
      • Selim Palmgren :  Kevätperhot
      • Jean Sibelius :  Män från slätten och havet Op.65a
      • Jean Sibelius :  Rakastava Op.14
      •  

      After the Sun

      Words by Henry Vaughan, Rainer Maria Rilke and Edward Lowbury.

      The mystery of death expressed by three poets in words set to music by Timothy Salter that moves between the ecstatic and the introspective.

      USK 1225CDS

      • Matthew Brook baritone, Rebecca Kozam oboe/cor anglais, Timothy Salter piano

      Early One Morning

      20 Traditional English Folk Songs

      Poignant, lively, sad, witty – the richness of English folk song in Timothy Salter’s highly individual settings of musical distinction. Widely acclaimed and enjoyed by concert audiences in many countries.

      USK 1215CD

      • The Ionian Singers , Charles Metcalfe tenor, Thalia Myers piano, Alexander Neal percussion, Timothy Salter conductor
      •   Early One Morning
      •   O Waly, Waly
      •   The Seeds of Love
      •   A Frog he Would a-Wooing go
      •   The Tailor and the Mouse
      •   The Frog and the Mouse
      •   Bonny at Morn
      •   Blow the Wind Southerly
      •   Elsie Marley
      •   Dashing away with the Smoothing Iron
      •   Widdecombe Fair
      •   O No John!
      •   The Oak and the Ash
      •   The Miller of the Dee
      •   The Trees so High
      •   The Willow Tree
      •   Cold Blows the Wind
      •   O Soldier, Soldier
      •   The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies
      •   Strawberry Fair

      Spectrum 4

      66 newly-commissioned international miniatures. This release, produced in association with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, coincides with the publication of the fourth volume in the outstanding Spectrum series.

       

      USK 1227CDD

      • Thalia Myers piano
      • PerMagnus Lindborg :  Búgó Resonances
      • Eleanor Alberga :  For Whom?
      • Simon Bainbridge :  Bells
      • Gerald Barry :  Agnes von Hohenstaufen
      • Snorri Sigfús Birgisson :  Helios
      • Michael Blake :  iKos'tina
      • Victoria Borisova-Ollas :  A Midnight Bell
      • Diana Burrell :  Libra
      • Martin Butler :  Evening Bells
      • Philip Cashian :  Orbit
      • Chen Yi :  Singing in the Mountain
      • Barry Conyngham :  Veils 1
      • Laurence Crane :  Postlude
      • Lyell Cresswell :  The Leith at Stockbridge
      • Jeremy Dale Roberts :  Stone…Standing Stone
      • Janet Davey :  Recollection
      • Michael Finnissy :  Edward
      • Graham Fitkin :  Piano Piece Surprisingly Early 03
      • Beat Furrer :  Melodie - fallend
      • Daniel Giorgetti :  Icicles
      • Detlev Glanert :  Lied im Meer
      • Michael Zev Gordon :  Crystal Clear
      • David Gorton :  Prelude after d'Anglebert
      • Julian Grant :  …diamonds of a most praisèd water…
      • Alejandro Guarello :  S n d
      • Alun Hoddinott :  Leapfrog
      • Gabriel Jackson :  September Chorale
      • Faidros Kavallaris :  Nostalgia
      • Joyce Beetuan Koh :  Piano Peals
      • Giorgos Koumendakis :  The Silk Road
      • Elena Langer :  Utrecht Chimes
      • Ramon Lazkano :  Gentle Sway
      • Siaw Kin Lee :  Xi Yue
      • Alexandre Lunsqui :  …tornando-se…
      • Roderik De Man :  Wajang
      • Colin Matthews :  Cascade
      • Peter Maxwell Davies :  Snow Cloud, over Lochan
      • John McLeod :  The Temple by the Sea
      • Eric Moe :  Echo's Brief Lament
      • Stephen Montague :  Midnight Moon
      • Pavel Novák :  Marian Flowers
      • João Pedro Oliveira :  Looking into the mirror
      • Hilda Paredes :  Las estrellas
      • Peteris Plakidis :  Quiet Walk in the forest
      • Roger Redgate :  écart
      • Poul Ruders :  Swinging Bells
      • Aulis Sallinen :  The Sigh of Barabbas
      • Timothy Salter :  Ancient Footprints
      • David Sawer :  Moebius
      • Rodney Sharman :  Voyageur
      • Howard Skempton :  Lull
      • Ananda Sukarlan :  Gentle Darkness
      • Giles Swayne :  Whistling Tune
      • Tazul Izan Tajuddin :  Sebuah Pantun
      • Karen Tanaka :  Northern Lights
      • Jesús Torres :  Aurora
      • Andrew Toovey :  Red Bird
      • Erkki-Sven Tüür :  Short Meeting of Dark and Light
      • Sohrab Uduman :  Berceuse
      • Mindaugas Urbaitis :  Longing for time’s faraway, vanishing things
      • Joseph Vella :  Playing 6, 5, 4, 3, 2...
      • Alejandro Viñao :  Stumbling Star
      • Param Vir :  Ratri
      • John White :  Sonata No. 140
      • Adeline Wong :  Mind the Gap
      • Raymond Yiu :  podskok

      Parallax

      Music for Chamber Ensembles

      New music for chamber ensembles by Timothy Salter; a transparent sound-world of arresting sonority, febrile energy and sinuous, floated line.

      USK 1219CD

      • Helen Duffy flute, The Addison Trio , Thalia Myers piano, Richard Watkins horn, Gillian Tingay harp, The Auriol String Quartet , Brian Schiele viola, Timothy Salter piano, Alexander Neal percussion

      Love’s Tempest

      C Hubert H. Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Edward Elgar, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

      Rich, late Romantic choral music – these secular songs, some long neglected, are amongst their composers’ finest achievements.

      USK 1220CD

      • The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  WHAT VOICE OF GLADNESS
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  SORROW AND PAIN
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  SINCE THOU, O FONDEST
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  O LOVE, THEY WRONG THEE MUCH
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  THERE ROLLS THE DEEP
      • C Hubert H. Parry :  MY DELIGHT AND THY DELIGHT
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor :  THE EVENING STAR
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor :  THE SEA SHELL
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor :  ALL MY STARS FORSAKE ME from Op.67
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor :  THE LEE SHORE
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor :  SUMMER IS GONE
      • Edward Elgar :  LOVE'S TEMPEST Op.73 No.1
      • Edward Elgar :  THE PRINCE OF SLEEP
      • Edward Elgar :  THE FOUNTAIN Op.71 No.2
      • Edward Elgar :  GO, SONG OF MINE Op.57
      • Edward Elgar :  MY LOVE DWELT IN A NORTHERN LAND
      • Edward Elgar :  O WILD WEST WIND Op.53 No.3
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  GOD AND THE UNIVERSE from song Op.97
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  HERACLITUS Op.110 No.4
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  THE SWALLOW Op.119 No.6
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  ON TIME Op.142
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  THE BLUEBIRD Op.119 No.3
      • Charles Villiers Stanford :  THE ANGLERS' SONG

      Haydn: The Complete Authentic Keyboard Variations

      For the first time, a comprehensive collection of Haydn’s keyboard variations – sparkling performances of insight and sensitivity.

      USK 1217CD

      • Thalia Myers piano

      Chains of Gold

      Sacred Choral Music of the English Renaissance

      Thomas Morley, Thomas Tomkins, Thomas Weelkes, William Byrd

      The glory of the late English Renaissance, brilliantly displayed. Many of these works are unavailable in the current catalogue.

      USK 1222CD / 1222MC

      • The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor
      • William Byrd :  Psallite Domino
      • William Byrd :  Laetentur coeli
      • William Byrd :  Unam petii a Domino
      • William Byrd :  Haec dies
      • William Byrd :  Save me, O God
      • William Byrd :  O salutaris hostia
      • William Byrd :  Alleluia. Ascendit Deus
      • Thomas Morley :  Gaude Maria Virgo
      • Thomas Morley :  Domine fac mecum
      • Thomas Morley :  Laboravi in gemitu meo
      • Thomas Morley :  Agnus Dei
      • Thomas Tomkins :  O Israel, if thou return
      • Thomas Tomkins :  Holy, holy, holy
      • Thomas Tomkins :  Withdraw not thou thy mercy
      • Thomas Tomkins :  Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place
      • Thomas Weelkes :  Gloria in excelsis Deo
      • Thomas Weelkes :  O mortal man
      • Thomas Weelkes :  When David heard
      • Thomas Weelkes :  O Jonathan
      • Thomas Weelkes :  O Lord arise

      Perspectives 1-5 . A Greeting

      Music for solo piano by Timothy Salter

      A powerfully expressive kaleidoscope of six pieces played by the pianist for whom they were written

      USK 1234DL

      • Thalia Myers piano
      • Timothy Salter :  Perspectives 1-5
      •   1. fast (sound-clip)
      •   2. flowing
      •   3. quite free
      •   4. caressingly
      •   5. fleeting
      •  
      • Timothy Salter :  A greeting
      •  
      •   A Greeting recorded August 2016 at St. John the Evangelist, Oxford
      •   Perspectives 1-5 recorded June 2003 at Potton Hall, Suffolk
      •   Recording engineered and balanced by David Wright
      •   Produced by John Rowan
      •   Digital editing and mastering by David Wright
      •   Release date July 2017
      •  
      •   Perspectives 1-5
      •   The number five lends the symmetry of an arch to these short pieces for piano, written in 1980: they alternate in mood, 1 (fast) and 5 (fleeting) being febrile in nature and 2 (flowing) and 4 (caressingly) more reflective, whilst 3 (quite free), the centre of the ‘arch’, is more extreme in dynamics and almost aggressive.
      •   A Greeting
      •   Like Perspectives 1-5, A Greeting (2015) was written for Thalia Myers. It consists of a single idea, 38 bars long, an almost continuous flow of two fluid lines.
      •  

      A Poem of Dancing

      Timothy Salter’s paean to dancing, a setting of verses by the sixteenth century poet Sir John Davies. A richly dramatic performance conducted by the composer.

       

      USK 1229CDS

        • Jessica Townsend clarinet, The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor

        Perspectives

        Contemporary British Music for Solo Piano.

        World première recordings by five distinguished composers, showing the exciting diversity of style in recent British writing.

        USK 1221CD

          • Thalia Myers piano

          Aerial

          Three quartets from Timothy Salter showing the distinctive harmonic language, drama and structural elegance of his compositional style: Aerial – quartet for flute and strings (2008), is made available for the first time alongside his Piano Quartet (2006) and earlier String Quartet No. 2 (1983).

          USK 1230CD

          • Nephele Ensemble , Ensemble na Mara , Auriol String Quartet

          20th Century British Choral Music

          Alun Hoddinott, Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, Jonathan Harvey, Thea Musgrave, Timothy Salter

          The rich diversity of contemporary British choral music displayed in performances of great vitality and presence.

          USK 1216CD

          • The Ionian Singers , Eric Jacobsen percussion , Thalia Myers piano , Timothy Salter conductor
          • Thea Musgrave :  Rorate Coeli
          • Jonathan Harvey :  I love the Lord
          • Jonathan Harvey :  Come, Holy Ghost
          • Alun Hoddinott :  Lady and Unicorn
          • Elizabeth Maconchy :  Sirens' Song
          • Elisabeth Lutyens :  Verses of Love
          • Timothy Salter :  Katharsios
          • Timothy Salter :  Eternity

          Lacrimae rerum

          cello, organ & chorus – text from Virgil’s Aeneid

          A powerful and haunting work, concerning the transience of mortal things and the spiritual significance of the natural world.

          USK 1223CDS

          • Paul Marleyn cello , Thalia Myers organ , The Ionian Singers , Timothy Salter conductor

          Piano Quartet

          This recording is now incorporated into USK 1230CD (Aerial).

           

          USK 1228CDS

          • Ensemble na Mara