Prima Facie Records

Kenneth Hamilton plays Liszt – Volume 2: Salon and Stage (PFCD210/211) Double CD £15.00

Kenneth Hamilton piano
An Official Specialist Classical Chart Top 3 recording
An Official Classical Artists Album Chart Top 20 Recording
A Guardian Classical CD Pick of the Week
An AllMusic "Classical Highlight"

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'Salon and Stage' is the second volume of Kenneth Hamilton’s internationally acclaimed Liszt series. In contrast to the first album, 'Death and Transfiguration', this recording offers a life-enhancing selection of virtuoso transcriptions from song and opera. But it happily shares with its predecessor Hamilton’s passion for these pieces. He has sought out Liszt’s oft-ignored recommendations on their interpretation and studied the reminiscences and recordings of his students. He has, in effect, tried to think like a Liszt pupil, and to immerse himself in a performance tradition that goes well beyond the printed text.

His rendition of Schubert’s haunting “Leise flehen meine Lieder”, for example, includes a captivating cadenza composed by the elderly Liszt forty years after first arranging the song. His 'Soirée de Vienne no.6' features piquant revisions written for Sophie Menter, Liszt’s favourite female student; while his touchingly unsentimental performance of the famous third 'Liebestraum' adopts authentic variants passed down by Frederick Lamond, one of Liszt’s very last pupils, and is played with an attentive ear to the composer’s own advice on interpretation.

“Hamilton is an unusual virtuoso, offering penetrating insights into Liszt’s music not just with his playing but also with his scholarship. You emerge from the notes as well as the music with your appreciation of Liszt’s extraordinary musicianship significantly enhanced.” Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3 Record Review, 15.07.23

"Pianistic flair and technical brilliance are the hallmarks of this winning record… Hamilton’s ability to combine pianistic flair and technical brilliance with an acute understanding of how this music came into existence makes these performances very special indeed. 5 Stars" Andrew Clements, The Guardian

“My reaction to Hamilton’s superb playing is an appreciation of the hugely diverse emotional effect of these pieces, and a sense of the numinous which should always be present in Liszt’s music. One must not overlook the sheer technical wizardry: Kenneth Hamilton fully satisfies my expectations.” John France, Music Web International

“Kenneth Hamilton is a specialist in Liszt’s music, and it is good to see not only that he has embarked on a major series of Liszt recordings, but that this one, the second in the series, landed on Classical best seller lists…Liszt lovers will have a feast here.” James Manheim, AllMusic

“A glorious triumph… a wonderful voyage of discovery, with a splendid tour guide.” Ralph P. Locke, Arts Fuse

For more details of this recording, please see the CD web page

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The War of Wrath (PFCD208/209) Double CD £15.00

Composed by Paul Corfield Godfrey
Performed by Volante Opera

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The cycle of “epic scenes from The Silmarillion” by Paul Corfield Godfrey, drawn from the posthumous writings of J R R Tolkien, was the largest-scale work of classical music written in Wales in the twentieth century, and has been recorded by Prima Facie over the course of the last five years. We are now pleased to release the concluding section of this work, written as recently as 2019-20, to bring to an end Tolkien’s description of the history of Middle-Earth in the First Age. The text, as before, employs a wide variety of posthumously published texts by the author with the permission of the Tolkien Estate. It not only features the return of roles and singers familiar from earlier parts of the cycle, but also introduces new characters such as Elrond, Galadriel and the great mariner Eärendil who will be familiar to readers of The Lord of the Rings. All the singers are professional artists from Welsh National Opera.

For more details of this recording, please see the CD web page

Inventions: Contemporary Music for Harpsichord Vol 2 (PFCD195) £12.50

Compositions by Stephen Dodgson and Elizabeth Maconchy
Performed by Katarzyna Kowalik

Stephen Dodgson’s Sonata-Divisions date from 1982, and the fifth (and final) set of six Inventions from 1993. These two works, of which these are the first recordings, are played by Katarzyna Kowalik on her own harpsichord after Goujon, made by Andrew Garlick in 2012 – an ideal instrument for these works.

Elizabeth Maconchy composed only two works for solo harpsichord, which are recorded here for the first time. As Katarzyna began to work on the Maconchy pieces, she found that these sounded well when played on her Goujon. Dodgson’s and Maconchy’s own musical languages, though distinctly different, do have features in common, which becomes apparent when played on the same harpsichord. The decision was therefore made to record the entire programme on Katarzyna’s Garlick / Goujon.

The harpsichord’s contemporary repertoire has grown steadily, and in the third decade of the 21st century, composers are continuing to find inspiration from the instrument and its players. Having a contemporary repertoire has indeed enabled the harpsichord to achieve a maturity in which it is heard and appreciated in a way that enhances its long history and heritage, of which the music on the CD is especially representative.

For more details of this recording, please see the CD web page

Richard Pantcheff: Music for Organ and other Instruments (PFCD205) £12.50/£17.50

Neil Fulton flugelhorn, Benedict Holland violin, Simon Passmore organ

Following on from the successful release of Passacaglia on a Theme of Benjamin Britten and Other Organ Works (PFCD174-5), organist Simon Passmore returns to the organ of St. Ann’s Church, Manchester, for this second volume of organ music by British composer Richard Pantcheff. This new disc comprises works for organ solo, as well as works written for organ with other instruments: Violin (Benedict Holland), and Flugelhorn (Neil Fulton). The programme contains highly melodic modal works, including the Sonata for Violin and Organ (Opus 74) and its forerunner ‘Agnus Dei’ (Opus 41). The more contemporary Nocturnus I (Opus 90, No.1) for Flugelhorn and Organ is complemented here by the solo organ work which completes the Nocturnus series of compositions, Nocturnus VI (Opus 90, No.6). Both works were completed while the composer was living in South Africa. Lastly, the six Chorale Preludes (2021/No.2) for solo organ are here recorded in full for the first time. Written during the depths of the pandemic, these sparse, elevated, works are like icons in music: where time seems to stand still, and the listener is immersed in the intense spiritual dialogue presented in the music.

For more details of this recording, please see the CD web page

Metamorphosis (PFCD191) £12.50/£17.50

Contemporary Music for Harpsichord Volume 1 – performed by Duncan Honeybourne

The 20th-century revival of the harpsichord initially enabled the playing of 17th and 18th century keyboard music on the instrument for which it was originally composed. But its sound gradually began to inspire 20th-century composers, and a contemporary repertoire of original harpsichord music developed.

The harpsichord’s contemporary repertoire has grown steadily, and in the third decade of the 21st century, composers are continuing to find inspiration from the instrument and its players. Having a contemporary repertoire has indeed enabled the harpsichord to achieve a maturity in which it is heard and appreciated in a way that enhances its long history and heritage, of which the music on the CD is especially representative.

Features compositions by Malcolm Lipkin, Kenneth Leighton, John McCabe and Ronald Stevenson.

For more details of Metamorphosis, please see the CD web page

Pasture and Storm (PFCD193) £12.50/£17.50

New Music for Left Hand Piano and Ensembles
Composed by Sadie Harrison

The Pasture & Storm Project brings together the composer Sadie Harrison, three pianists in Nicholas McCarthy, Sophia Benton and Tomáš Klement, the singer Peyee Chen, flautist Stephanie Gilbert, violinist Roger Huckle, and the Bristol Ensemble, conducted by John Pickard. The CD includes 8 new works written to celebrate the unique talents of the left-hand-only pianist.

The project came about initially through Sadie’s teaching the young pianist Sophia Benton. At school Sophia suffered a netball injury which eventually left her unable to play the piano with her right hand. Extraordinarily, a few weeks after meeting Sophia, Sadie met two people at her local gym, both rehabilitating after having strokes affecting their right sides and both amateur pianists. After inviting the internationally renowned virtuoso, left-hand-only pianist Nicholas McCarthy, to be part of the project, Sadie embarked on the composition of several new works – solo pieces, a chamber concerto, a piano quartet with percussion, piano duets, duos, and an extended song cycle. All these works, written during 2020-21, are presented on the CD.

For more details of Pasture and Storm, please see the CD web page

Penllyn (PFCD188) £12.50/£17.50

The collected solo piano music of Peter Reynolds
Pianist Duncan Honeybourne

"This disc is dedicated to the memory of a very fine composer and good friend, Peter Reynolds. His unexpected death in 2016 was felt far and wide amongst his friends and colleagues, and has left a gap not only in the world of contemporary classical music, and in the academic realms of music education, but also in many peoples’ lives too. This exceptionally unassuming man was a very fine composer and an avid supporter of other musicians, both as a teacher and as a champion of performances and recordings of new and neglected works. Penllyn is the culmination and premiere recording of not only all of Peter’s found works for solo piano, which needed tracking down at The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and at Tŷ Cerdd in Cardiff, but is also an outpouring of love from many of those who knew Peter best. So many of his friends and past students have come together to enable this recording project to come to fruition. Wherever you are now Peter, we hope that you’re happy with this disc. You are sorely missed!"
Luke Whitlock

For more details of Penllyn, please see the CD web page

Magna Carta (PFCD184) £12.50/£17.50

The Complete Works for Guitar of John Brunning
Performed by Xuefei Yang with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Clark Rundell
A Classic FM Album of the Week
A Spotify Pick
A UK Official Specialist Classical Chart Top 5 Recording

This album features John Brunning’s complete works for guitar. At its heart is the world premiere recording of his Concerto Magna Carta, written for Xuefei Yang, and performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Clark Rundell.

Xuefei is again joined by the RLPO for the Five Romances in new arrangements for guitar and orchestra; and by cellist Johannes Moser for Lacrimosa in a duet for guitar and cello - also premiere recordings for these settings of the material.

With her previous album, ‘Sketches of China’, Xuefei brought the traditional music of her homeland to a wider international audience, and this latest release finds her highlighting the musical traditions of the British Isles.

Xuefei Yang: "I first met John many years ago when he interviewed me for a music magazine. It was one of my very first interviews in the UK and I remember it vividly because he asked in-depth questions that demonstrated that he knew the guitar well. In our conversation I discovered that as well as being a radio presenter, he was also a guitarist and composer. I asked him to send me some scores, and discovered that John has a talent for writing beautiful melodies in the great tradition of English pastoral music, and being a guitarist himself, his music feels very natural to play. Over the years I have recorded and performed some of John’s music, and find audiences across the globe, and other musicians, enjoy his music. When he suggested writing a concerto for me, I thought it would create an opportunity to bring together all his works for guitar."

For more details of Magna Carta, please see the CD web page