Sleevenotes from Prima Facie Records PFCD289, Sonatas by Andrew Downes: Volume II
PROGRAMME NOTES BY CYNTHIA DOWNES
Meditations for Solo Trumpet, Op. 38 (1986)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, December 16th/17th, 2024.
Sasha Canter – trumpet
This work in three short movements for solo trumpet was commissioned from Andrew Downes by Richard Adams, a fine British trumpeter who led the Cambrian Brass Quintet. He first performed the work in a recital on June 17th, 1986, at St Paul’s Church Hockley, Birmingham. The first movement, marked Andante, is a plaintive solitary but song-like tune. The player has to aim for a very smooth singing tone. The second movement, Allegro ma non troppo, develops the first movement. It is characterised by triplet phrases which flow in a scherzo-like manner. The last movement is marked Adagio: desolate. It has similar note progressions to the other movements but is mournful and reflective. It forms a short but very poignant ending to the work.
Sonata for Flute & Piano, Op. 67 (1998)
Recorded in the Michael Tippett Centre, Bath Spa University, April 5th, 2024.
Emily Andrews – flute
Helen Reid – piano
In order to show his appreciation to American flutist, Carol Kniebusch Noe, for all the wonderful performances of his flute choir works which she directed, Andrew offered to write a Flute Sonata for her. Carol readily accepted and decided to organise the world premiere in the American Cathedral in Paris! Andrew and I were delighted! Carol and her accompanist, Vicki Berneking, gave a stunning first performance of the Sonata to a large and appreciative audience on Tuesday 9th November, 1999.
The first movement of this Sonata, Andante espressivo, starts on unaccompanied flute, with a simple, folk-like tune with a Native American flavour. The piano enters with a sympathetic chordal accompaniment. Flowing semiquavers in the piano then accompany a soaring melody in the flute, which leads into a rhythmic and groovy dance-like section, eventually giving way to a high passage on flute over piano trills. The whole of the opening is then repeated. All the opening ideas return in an embellished development and recapitulation. The movement ends with a gentle coda which echoes the simplicity of the beginning.
The second movement, Allegro vivace, begins in the piano, with a rumbustious accompaniment in 6/8 time. The flute is then carried along over the top and then skips along as the piano becomes a little less boisterous. The flute and piano then play the opening theme in canon and the music gradually becomes more energetic to usher in a repeat of the opening. The next section is based on flowing quavers in both instruments. The piano then keeps up the momentum while the flute plays a “cowboy”-like tune. A lengthy reflective passage, Adagio molto e espressivo in both instruments follows, before the energetic mood of the opening gradually takes over, to finally lead into a majestic ending with rising demisemiquavers and then grandiose chords accompanying the very high flute.
The beginning of the third movement, marked Andante semplice, opens with a beautiful soulful melody, reminiscent of the opening mood of the first movement, but this final movement is predominantly rhythmical, jazzy, dance-like and full of fun. The melody of the opening comes back briefly, but the energetic dance takes over and becomes frenetic. The Andante returns in a heartfelt passage, before the return of the vitality, which leads into a final exuberant coda.
Sonata for Piccolo & Piano, Op. 74 (1999)
Recorded in Wyastone Concert Hall near Monmouth, August 8th, 2024.
Lindsey Ellis – piccolo
Catherine Milledge – piano
At the 1999 Stratford-upon-Avon International Flute Festival, when Jenny Brooks directed two superb performances of Andrew’s Sonata for 8 Flutes, she introduced Andrew to Keith Bragg, Piccolo player and Chairman of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Andrew offered to write him a Sonata for Piccolo and Piano. Keith thought it a good opportunity to give a piccolo recital at the next Stratford Flute Festival. With his accompanist, Judith Keaney, he gave a fabulous first performance of Andrew’s Piccolo Sonata in Stratford Town Hall on August 2nd, 2000.
A four bar phrase on the high unaccompanied piccolo, playing in triplets, predominantly in 5/4 time, opens the first movement, which is marked “gently and smoothly”. The piano takes over the triplets, while the piccolo plays semiquavers lower in its range. The piano follows suit with the semiquavers, while the piccolo opens out into a soaring expansive tune with flourishes, and a molto espresso e tenderoso melody over flowing triplets against duplets in the piano. After a developed repeat of the opening, the piccolo continues with its flowing melody over a rhythmic accompaniment, which further becomes expressive and tender. The themes are repeated and developed. The coda is a jubilant, euphoric tune over passionate arpeggios in the piano.
The second movement, Andante spirituale, is a folk-like lament over a sympathetic accompaniment which moves through single notes, chords, semiquaver passages, triplet arpeggios, broken chords, or no ornament. The piccolo only embellishes the tune with semiquaver arpeggios towards the end, before three simple phrases and three long high notes which end the movement.
The last movement opens Allegro vivace, in 6/8 time, with a jubilant, robust, dance-like tune introduced on the solo piccolo. The piano joins in with an echoing accompaniment and leads into an equally joyous second subject, where the piccolo skips along with flourishes, which the piano imitates in its own section. After a short slow section, the piccolo returns to its vivace and then a meditative passage in 4/2 time over a mainly flowing accompaniment. A final return to the dance is brought to a close by the lone piccolo in reflective mood.
Sonata for Clarinet & Piano, Op. 100 (2009)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, February 17th, 2025.
Angus Meryon – clarinet
Duncan Honeybourne – piano
This Sonata was specially composed for Angus Meryon, clarinet, and Duncan Honeybourne, piano, who gave the first performance in the United Reformed Church, Salisbury UK, as part of the Salisbury Chamber Music Club series, on 2nd January 2010.
Andrew first heard Angus Meryon’s playing in July 2008, in a concert by the Blackmore Ensemble, in which both Angus and Duncan played. Andrew had gone to the concert to hear Duncan perform his solo piano work In Memoriam Herbert Howells, and was inspired by the fine playing of both of these young artists to compose a Sonata for Clarinet and Piano and dedicate it to them.
The Sonata begins with a profound, meditative theme on solo clarinet, joined later by a chordal piano accompaniment. A lyrical second subject follows, where the piano imitates the clarinet. A chordal bridge passage leads to a lively, flowing third subject and more imitation. After a return to a chordal version of theme 1, and a development of the lyrical music, a new theme is taken up by the clarinet while the piano provides an ostinato accompaniment. This melody and accompaniment are then exchanged between the two instruments by turns as the music develops. Theme 1 is superimposed, and the music moves gradually back to the serious mood of the beginning. The movement ends with a brighter version of theme 1, and a warm accompaniment on the piano.
The second movement is a scherzo, which is characterised by a staccato motif, and by a contrasting lyrical melody with flowing accompaniment and imitation. After a slow middle section, which echoes the opening theme of the first movement, the energetic staccato subject returns to be extensively developed.
The third movement is meditative, plaintive and cantabile, in both clarinet and piano, building twice to short, passionate climaxes.
The final movement is bubbly and vibrant, with slower passages intervening to hark back to the more reflective moments of the whole work. The energetic mood dominates, however, and leads ultimately to a climactic ending, where an intricate and playful dialogue between the two instruments brings the work to an exciting conclusion, with bursts of energy interrupted by triumphant chords.
Sonata No 2 for Violin & Piano, Op. 117 (2021)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, February 17th, 2025.
Paul Galluzzo – violin
David Trippett – piano
This Sonata was specially composed by Andrew for our daughter Anna. Andrew’s dedication at the top of the copy reads: “For our wonderful daughter, Anna, superb violinist and musician, with a heart of gold.” Anna’s first performance, with accompanist Tony Bridgewater, took place in St Alphège Church, Solihull, on November 24th 2021.
The first movement of Violin Sonata No 2, marked ‘groovy’, begins with a rhythmic dance-like accompaniment, over which, at bar 8, the violin enters with excited scale passages culminating in leaps of joy. The violin then joins in with the piano’s theme to develop the material, culminating in descending semiquaver arpeggios in both instruments alongside a soaring melody. The second subject is a deeply felt emotional tune which reaches high in the violin and descends to give way to the dance theme of the opening and further exuberant semiquaver passages in both instruments. The violin returns to heartfelt music, accompanied by chords in the piano. Marked ‘with great tenderness’, the music becomes an unaccompanied violin solo incorporating double stopping. The entrance of the piano further enhances the warmth and emotion with crotchet chords, then flowing quavers and finally punctuating rising chords. The opening dance returns to end the movement with a jubilant coda.
Movement 2, Andante, echoes the ‘groovy’ feel of the opening of the first movement with short jazz-like chords in the piano, becoming more full and flowing, partnering a soulful lament from the violin, which is repeated and embellished, rising to the top of the instrument and responding with yearning lower notes. The opening motif returns and becomes more passionate, to usher in a developed, Indian raga inspired version of the opening, paving the way for sublime chords. A development and recapitulation follow, increasing in intensity. The lone violin ends the movement.
The final movement again starts with a rhythmic piano motif, this time incorporating the feel of a Scottish snap, but again with an Indian flavour. The violin tune takes on the Scottish/Indian inspiration, with flowing phrases interspersed with percussive bows. The exhilaration builds up. The piano leads into a reflective 2nd subject with a passionate violin theme leading into a Tudor-inspired passage of great poignancy, before the development of all the themes which have gone before, climaxing in frenzied violin semiquavers over punctuating piano chords. The Tudor-inspired music closes the movement.
Sonata for Trumpet & Piano, Op. 120 (2022)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, December 16th/17th, 2024.
Sasha Canter – trumpet
Rustam Khanmurzin – piano
This Sonata begins with a spirited melody on the trumpet. The piano takes over while the trumpet adds interjections and flourishes. Over a flowing semiquaver accompaniment, the trumpet then evokes hunting calls and fanfares with its quasi-dotted rhythms, triplets and rising 4ths. The slower 2nd subject, marked ‘gentle’, is a pensive tune over a lilting accompaniment. The piano introduces a return to the opening subject and a development, with both flowing and rhythmical semiquavers and demisemiquavers in both instruments, playing together or fugally. The return of meditative music is in the form of beautiful, chorale-like, vertical chords, followed by shimmering semiquavers in the piano, and the trumpet singing over the top, briefly quoting from Andrew’s Songs from Spoon River, song 4. After a developed recapitulation, a coda, featuring flourishing demisemiquavers, brings the movement to a close.
A soulful Adagio, enhanced by consoling piano chords moving in tandem, opens the second movement. As the music becomes more intense, the trumpet phrases draw inspiration from Andrew’s Song of the Prairies, and his opera, Far from the Madding Crowd, over semiquavers in the piano, which carry the momentum forward. The opening theme returns on muted trumpet with vertical chords; and a sublime passage, further based on Andrew’s Song of the Prairies, follows. After a short bridge passage, the opening music returns to provide a heartfelt chorale-like ending.
The 3rd movement starts as a vigorous ‘hunting gallop’, which breaks out into energetic semiquavers. Four strident piano chords herald excited lofty phrases, with both instruments moving together. The whole of the opening is recalled and culminates in a soaring second subject, where the trumpet plays 4 dotted quavers per bar against a flowing 6/8 quaver piano accompaniment, comprising ever wider and more angular intervals, until it finally falls in a more stepwise motion. The music continues in this multi-time vein, but gives a sense of suspending time by halving the speed in the piano, which now plays crotchets in 3/4 instead of quavers in 6/8, accompanying a more alto-ranged trumpet melody in dotted crotchets. This passage lands on some meditative, scrunchy chords before an energetic recapitulation with further development.
A short lone passage on the trumpet leads to a coda based on the theme from the end of the second subject, which aptly calms the mood to end the movement.
Sonata for Bassoon & Piano, Op. 121 (2022)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, December 17th, 2024.
Alison Brierley – bassoon
David Trippett – piano
Andrew was working on this Sonata when he fell ill (on Christmas Day 2022), and was taken into Worcestershire Royal hospital, where he died on 2nd January 2023. Fortunately, he had almost finished Movement 3 of the Sonata. Our daughter, Paula, took on the task of completing Movement 3. She added a Coda, which is a transcription of the ending of Andrew’s cantata, Song of the Prairies.
This Sonata is Andrew’s last work. Its third movement remained unfinished at his death. To speak of a late style or of the reminiscence which Andrew’s final creation evokes is to say more about the ear of the listener than the music perhaps, but I hear in it great nostalgia. The first movement, Andante, is inflected by the modality of Tudor music. The bassoon and piano begin, in vertical moving triads, with a noble chorale. The piano leads into an offbeat rhythmical allegro, developing earlier themes, still based on vertical harmonies, ultimately moving towards a more aggressive and intense climax. The opening chorale returns, followed by a Renaissance-style dance section, which becomes infused with jazz elements, all still using vertical harmonies. A new section in 6/16 ensues, where the bassoon soars in a passionate melody over semiquavers in the piano. The chorale returns for a final time to lead into a coda in 4/2 time where the sentiment becomes contemplative and mysterious.
The second movement is a nest of intertextuality, where Andrew draws his inspiration from his own music, as though knitting together sonic memories. The opening is a fugue development of a tune from his opera Far from the Madding Crowd (which introduces the entrance of the farm worker Joseph Poorgrass). The music is humorous and bucolic, evoking a folk-like dance. The second subject is a heartfelt hymn, reminiscent of a moment of the Resurrection in Andrew’s A St Luke Passion. The fugue returns and is further developed, before settling in a reflective, doleful close.
The third movement brings to mind a theme from Andrew’s Sonata for 8 Horns. Over a groovy piano accompaniment, the bassoon plays a joyful tune, embellished by semiquaver passages. In a contrasting second subject, the accompaniment becomes chordal, and the movement progresses into religioso chorale-like music. Finally, the opening music returns, with alternations of contemplative and dance-like feeling, before fizzing out of energy and slowing down. At this point, Andrew passed away; our daughter Paula added a short, but intensely poignant coda, quoting principally from the ending of Andrew’s Song of the Prairies, which laments the loss of ancient peoples of rural America.
The Last Trumpet, Op. 46 (1990)
Recorded in West Road Concert Hall, University of Cambridge, December 16th/17th, 2024.
Sasha Canter – trumpet
Andrew’s second solo trumpet work, The Last Trumpet, was commissioned for the Radio 3 programme The Offering of Life by the Reverend Canon Denis Claringbull. It was recorded by Garry Page of ‘Brass Pages’ in St Paul’s Hockley and broadcast on 3rd February 1991. The Last Trumpet begins with a mystical 2-note phrase rising a minor 3rd from G to Bb, which develops simply into a 3-note phrase, adding the next note of the pentatonic scale on which this piece is based. The next phrase leaps a minor 7th, leading into a rousing development, and culminating in descending arpeggios, which come to a reflective halt. The opening 2-note phrase returns to usher in a recapitulation and extension of the opening ideas, which become more emotional and mysterious.
Biographies
Composer Andrew Downes was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1950, into a well-known Midlands family of musicians. He won a choral scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, where he specialised in composition, and in 1974 went on to study at the Royal College of Music with Herbert Howells, who wrote of him as ‘one of the most effective composers coming to me these days. I have very considerable hopes for him’. His emergence as a leading international composer was combined with a strong academic profile as an innovative and inspired educator: he created and was Head of the School of Composition and Creative Studies at the Birmingham School of Music (now Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) for 30 years, and following his retirement, devoted himself solely to composition. His output included an opera, six symphonies, numerous concerti and chamber works, song cycles, piano music and a large body of choral and sacred music. Downes’s music has been performed in many leading concert halls, cathedrals and festivals worldwide, and has been broadcast on BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4, BBC TV, Czech Radio, France Musique, Italian TV, Austrian Radio, Dutch Radio and Central Peking Radio. Over 30 CDs of his music have been issued on a range of labels, plus a DVD of his opera Far from the Madding Crowd. His numerous commissions included The Marshes of Glynn, for the Royal Opening of Birmingham’s Adrian Boult Hall in 1986; the overture In the Cotswolds for the opening concert of the Three Choirs Festival; song cycles for Sarah Walker and John Mitchinson, both premièred on BBC Radio 3; anthems for the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service; and the overture Towards a New Age, premièred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Downes’s Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra was commissioned for and premièred by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in the Dvorak Hall, Prague, in 2002, and recorded by Czech Radio the following year. His Sonata for Violin, Horn and Piano was premièred by the Brahms Trio Prague at the Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, in 2008, and subsequently released internationally on the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Artesmon label. Downes’s Piano and Horn Concertos were premièred at Birmingham UK Town Hall in 2009 and 2012 respectively. Downes’s lyrical gift, with the inflections of the human voice ever discernible, places him squarely in the Late Romantic English tradition and renders him a worthy successor to Howells. So too does his contrapuntal ingenuity and textural athleticism, with the church music of the great Tudor masters frequently recalled. But the indigenous musics of other cultures, and jazz and rock music, are also treasured influences and reflect the depth of responsibility Downes felt as an educator to instruct and enthuse in a broad range of traditions, and not purely in western art music. The Violin Sonatas, for instance, are influenced by Indian ragas and incorporate striking rhythmic displacements and syncopations to brilliant effect. Downes died on 2 January 2023, leaving a legacy of over 120 works. A prolific composer, he wrote every day until the last week of his life.
Biography by Duncan Honeybourne
Emily Andrews is a British flautist and mezzo soprano, known for her versatility, creativity, musicianship and powerful stage presence. While she has performed with many of the UK’s top orchestras (BBCNOW, WNO, Scottish Opera, Philharmonia and RPO to name a few), her speciality is in chamber music, and her busy concert schedule sees her performing a wide range of repertoire in different contexts all over the UK. Equally at home with classical as with folk or world music, and combining her effortless flute playing with her rich mezzo voice, Emily’s recitals are supremely varied and colourful. Her flute and guitar duo The Andrews Massey Duo has won various prizes, and has released 3 CDs of their own arrangements of music from Mozart and Schubert to world music arrangements of Christmas Carols – this CD was hailed by British Flute Society as “a true masterpiece of world music arrangement… delivered with flair, technical brilliance and beautiful sound by both players”.
Her trio CarmenCo developed the hugely successful show “A Pocket Opera” which continually tours all over the UK, bringing opera and classical chamber music to new audiences through their humorous, irreverent and fresh approach to performing.
“The most astonishing performance we have ever staged… She had us completely in her hands” – Aberdeen Chamber Music Concerts
“Emily was mesmeric; what talent, singing, playing and the timing of her accented, mischievous humour” – audience feedback, Arts in Gloucestershire
In addition to her work as a performer, Emily set up and runs Ham Farm Festival, a charity which holds an annual music festival just outside Bristol, as well as working with the town council and many local schools to bring high-quality professional music to everyone in the community. www.emilyandrewsmusician.com
Alison Brierley is a bassoonist who has spent more than 25 years working as a freelance musician across the Midlands, performing with ensembles such as Orchestra of the Swan, the English Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Alongside her performing career, she has built up extensive teaching experience and takes real pleasure in sharing her passion for the bassoon with the next generation of players.
During her time at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the early 1990s, Alison was supervised by Andrew Downes for her thesis on the Northumbrian Smallpipes. Inspired by her work, Andrew later ensured that the Conservatoire acquired its own set of pipes.
Sasha Canter won the Brass Category Final of the 2022 BBC Young Musician competition. He went on to secure a place in the Grand Final at Bridgewater Hall, where he performed Alexander Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, televised by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recently, Sasha was a semi-finalist in both the prestigious Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments in Düsseldorf and the Charlier International Trumpet Competition in Belgium. In 2022 he was also a finalist in the “Rizzardo Bino” International Competition for young soloists in Italy. Sasha is in demand as a recitalist and soloist, having played the Haydn Concerto with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and baroque concertos with the Taunton Sinfonietta. His recitals with his accompanist, Rustam Khanmurzin, at Proms at St Jude’s, St Martin in the Fields, Charlton House Friday concerts series, St Bride’s church, Fleet Street and other venues, have been warmly received. Sasha has appeared with the Isis Chamber Orchestra and Oxford Sinfonia playing the Hummel Trumpet Concerto, and has also performed the Arutunian Concerto and Haydn Concerto in venues around the UK. In 2024, Sasha performed solos in Zurich with Michael Barenboim and students from the prestigious Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.
Sasha was taught by Simon Munday until winning a full scholarship to study with Mark David at the Royal Academy of Music. He is also studying the baroque trumpet with Robert Farley.
Sasha also enjoys composing, arranging and performing with his trumpet ensemble, Five By 5. As an ensemble, they won the Royal Academy of Music Musicians Company Brass Prize 2025. They have given many recitals in London, Sweden and France.
In 2025 Sasha was named one of Classic FM’s Rising Stars.
Lindsey Ellis was born in Cumbria, England and began playing the flute at the age of 7. Her musical studies started at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she studied with Richard Blake and Janet Richardson, and gained a Bachelor of Music with First Class honours. Subsequently Lindsey moved to Bordeaux to take lessons with Samuel Coles before finally doing a Masters Degree at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, where she studied with Jacques Zoon and Jane Maillard, Principal Piccolo of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
After her studies, Lindsey moved to London to become a member of Southbank Sinfonia and went on to work there as a freelance musician. She regularly appeared with many of the UK’s top orchestras such as the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. Lindsey has been a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra, performing annually at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan.
Having been on trial with various orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Lindsey won her job as Principal Piccolo in the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Lindsey is also a very active chamber musician. She is currently a member of Ensemble Perpetuo, an innovative London based group and often performs with contemporary music specialists, the Riot Ensemble, and the renowned Berkeley Ensemble.
Paul Galluzzo is today best known as a commercial leader in technology development through his work at TTP plc. Before his technical career, however, Galluzzo was known first as a violinist. He began studying the Suzuki method at the age of three in Kansas City before moving to England, growing up in a musical family. As a Kansas City violinist Galluzzo was a “big fish in a small sea,” appearing in newspapers and on local television. He has performed fifteen violin concertos with orchestras across a wide stylistic range, led several ensembles including the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra, and soloed in venues such as Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He also toured the Czech Republic performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Cambridge University Musical Society’s first orchestra. At the heart of his musical life, however, has always been chamber music and violin sonatas, especially small intimate performances with friends.
In 1996 he faced a defining choice between pursuing violin or engineering professionally. He chose the latter, building his career in engineering while maintaining a private musical life. Early in his career he was recognised academically, graduating at the top of his engineering class at Cambridge University, and completing a PhD on the physics of the violin: work that bridged science and music.
This recording of Andrew Downes’ sonata marks a personal return both to violin in a public context and to the Downes family. Downes’ daughter Paula and Galluzzo knew each other from playing together in the Academy of St Philip’s orchestra, a connection that later led Galluzzo to perform a number of Andrew Downes’s works, including the oratorio New Dawn in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The same relationship brought Galluzzo into contact with Paula’s husband, the pianist David Trippett, and into their long-time chamber music partnership.
Pianist Duncan Honeybourne enjoys a colourful and diverse career as a pianist and in music education. Commended for his “gripping performances” (The Times), “glittering performances” (International Piano), “refulgent warmth” (The Strad) and “great technical facility and unfailing imagination” (Musical Opinion), he is best known for his interpretations of 20th and 21st century British piano music.
He made concerto debuts at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in 1998, and gave debut recitals in London, Paris, and at international festivals in Belgium and Switzerland. Since then he has toured extensively in the UK, Ireland and Europe as soloist and chamber musician, appearing at major venues and leading festivals and broadcasting frequently on BBC Radio 3 and radio networks worldwide. He has premiered more than 70 new piano works written for him by composers including John Joubert, John Casken, Sadie Harrison and Cecilia McDowall, plus the Andrew Downes Piano Concerto at Birmingham Town Hall in 2009. He has also revived many forgotten scores by composers of earlier generations and has made premiere recordings of piano music by Baines, Bainton, Gurney, Armstrong Gibbs, Walford Davies and others. Duncan enjoyed a long association with Andrew Downes and his music, premiering many of Downes’ piano and chamber works.
Duncan Honeybourne teaches at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Academy, the University of Southampton and Sherborne School, and gives frequent masterclasses, adjudications and lecture recitals. www.duncanhoneybourne.com
Rustam Khanmurzin is a rising pianist who is gaining recognition as both a soloist and collaborative artist across Eurasia. He was previously a Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music, and a Young Artist of The Musicians’ Company of the City of London. Rustam has performed at major international festivals, including the El Lied Festival Victoria de los Ángeles, MusicFest Perugia, Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise, Rheingau Musik Festival, Oxford Song Festival, St Endellion Festival in Cornwall. He has appeared on Radio France Musique and released two CDs with the Melodiya label. As a soloist, he has worked with several orchestras, such as The Elgar Sinfonia of London, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea, and the Karaganda Philharmonic Orchestra in Kazakhstan. He won 1st Prize at the Royal College of Music Concerto Competition, and also received prizes at the Paul Badura-Skoda International Piano Competition in Vienna, the CLAMO International Piano Competition in Murcia and Asia-Pacific F. Chopin Piano Competition in Daegu.
Angus Meryon studied the clarinet with Colin Bradbury and Richard Hosford at the Royal College of Music and has since forged a career as a soloist and chamber musician. He made his solo London debut at the Purcell Room in 2002 and performs regularly with the pianist Richard Saxel; their duo has been Making Music Selected Artists on several occasions. Amongst other partnerships, he is a frequent collaborator with the Prague-based Martinů Quartet during their UK and European tours, appearing with the Quartet on BBC Radio 3 as part of the “In Tune” series of lecture recitals. Angus is delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate once again with Duncan Honeybourne to record the Clarinet Sonata; together, they are honoured to be the dedicatees of this work, having given its first performance in Salisbury in 2009. Angus is currently Director of Music at Chesham Grammar School in Buckinghamshire and a Trustee of the St Endellion Festival. In addition to his work as an examiner and a recording artist for the ABRSM, he is active as an orchestrator and arranger, with his work having been performed on BBC television and radio and at the Proms.
Catherine Milledge comes from South Wales. After graduating with a first in Classics and English from Jesus College, Oxford she went on to study piano accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently won the Birmingham Accompanist of the Year award as well as prizes for accompaniment in the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and at the Royal Overseas League annual music competition. Recitals in venues including Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room followed, in association with the Countess of Munster Trust, the Royal Overseas League, the Tillett Trust, Kirckman Concert Society, Park Lane Group, Making Music, Live Music Now and the Songmakers’ Almanac Young Songmakers programme.
Since then Catherine has enjoyed a busy career as an accompanist and a member of various chamber groups. In addition to performances at the major London venues she has given concerts at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, St George’s Brandon Hill in Bristol and Latitude festival, as well as other music festivals and societies around the country and outside the UK. Recordings include the critically acclaimed discs Smile and Glass with saxophonist Amy Dickson.
Now living in Cardiff, Catherine works as an accompanist and collaborative piano tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has performed frequently in the college’s concert series. She has also welcomed the opportunity to give more recitals elsewhere in Wales at the Presteigne, Aberystwyth, Gregynog and Vale of Glamorgan festivals and at St David’s Hall in Cardiff. In addition, Catherine enjoys freelance work at Cardiff University School of Music, Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Pianist Helen Reid first came to public attention when she appeared on BBC2 in the National Keyboard Finals of the BBC Young Musician competition. In 2000 she won first prize in the Karic International Piano Competition. Helen has given solo and chamber recitals all around England, at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Fairfield Halls and Blackheath Halls, London, St. George’s, Bristol, the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and the Aldeburgh and Buxton Festivals. She has performed in Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Performances have included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the world premiere of David Matthews’ Piano Concerto at Dartington International Summer Festival, a work written for Helen. Helen is currently course leader of Professional Studies at the Guildhall School, Senior Associate Lecturer at Bristol University and Teaching Fellow in Music Performance at Bath Spa University. She holds a foundation certificate in Coaching and Mentoring from the Guildhall School, as well as a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education from the Institute of Education.
“It was clear we were in not only capable but rather a special pair of hands…Reid’s beautifully poised, tenderly imagined and finely focused playing re-educated and refined the ear.” Hilary Finch, The Times
David Trippett is a pianist and cultural historian at the University of Cambridge, where he is Professor of Music and a Fellow of Christ’s College. He has performed widely in Germany, the UK, and the USA, in venues ranging from the Britten-Pears Festival in Aldeburgh and the Liszt Academy in Budapest to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Most recently, he has begun directing the Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Voices in a new recording project of music by British composer Andrew Downes.
His research into Franz Liszt’s manuscripts led to the rediscovery of Liszt’s Italian opera Sardanapalo (c. 1851). He published the critical edition for the Neue Liszt-Ausgabe and created a performing edition for Schott. The world premiere recording—conducted by Kirill Karabits with the Staatskapelle Weimar—topped the UK classical charts in 2019 and was included in The Guardian’s “Top 10 Classical CDs of 2019.” The opera has now been performed in seven countries, and will receive its premiere staging at the Hungarian State Opera in 2027. As a scholar, his work focuses on nineteenth-century intellectual history, Richard Wagner, and the philosophy of technology. Publications include Wagner’s Melodies (Cambridge, 2013) and edited volumes such as Music in Digital Culture (Cambridge, 2019), Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination (Cambridge, 2019), and Wagner in Context (Cambridge, 2024). His work has received several major international awards, including the Alfred Einstein and Lewis Lockwood Prizes (AMS), the Bruno Nettl Prize (SEM), the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, and a Philip Leverhulme Prize. His latest book, Sound in Mind and Body (2026) is forthcoming, and follows a five-year European Research Council project on sound and materialism in the nineteenth century.
Credits
Sonata for Flute & Piano: Producer, engineer – Francisco Correa
Sonata for Piccolo & Piano: Producer – Myles Eastwood, Engineer – Deborah Spanton
Works for solo Trumpet, Bassoon, Violin & Piano: Producer, engineer – Myles Eastwood