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Welcome to our CD's page, where we provide information about the CDs that we have produced - or are about to release. This page will be regularly updated as projects are completed.
All our CDs are available for purchase in several ways...
- If you have one of the cards listed on the "Orders" page, you may use our secure online shop facility via this website.
- If you prefer to pay by cheque or PO you may send these to our office address..
- In addition, our CDs are available from some shops and independent retailers in the UK: please ask those local to you to see if they stock what you require.
To order direct via our online shop, please click on the ORDERS link, top left.
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CD 6 - "Adventures with Alkan"
Awaited with much interest by pianists and lovers of piano music, this, our sixth CD, is now available.
Private reviews have been glowing in their prasie, and we have now received a superb official review from the British Alkan Society. Please check our "reviews" pages - link top left - for reviews of all our CDs to date.
A recent, independent review by Lance Smith, Editor-in-Chief of classicalmusicguide.com. states the following:
"Based on a new CD issued by Amemptos of England, we have another spectacular pianist pursuing the music of Alkan: LLOYD BUCK. You may remember Buck, who has received rave reviews for his recording of piano music of Bortkiewicz (also on Amemptos)."
If you would like to purchase the CD, please follow the link (top left of this page) to the "ORDERS" page.
There's also a clip on Youtube, videoed at the recording session, of Lloyd playing the second - Alkan's favourite! - of the "Three Romantic Andantes", which we are sure you will enjoy and find of interest. To view this 5.32 minute clip, just click the "click" button at the top right of this paragraph.
A further clip, with excerpts from "Scherzo Focoso" and other works is also now available on YouTube.
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CD 1 - Words of Comfort, Music of Peace
With a combination of Bible readings from St. John's Gospel and sacred choral music related to each reading, this beautifully-produced and unique CD will give pleasure not only to Christians, who will value the comfort of the words of Christ, but to others who simply enjoy wonderful choral music.
The readings are by the Archdeacon of Chesterfield, Ven. David Garnett and the music is sung by the superb choir of Southwell Minster, in Nottinghamshire.
To find our more about "Words of Comfort, Music of Peace" and to hear an excerpt, please click here
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CD 2 - 350 Years of Organ Masterworks
For our second CD we again visited Southwell Minster to take advantage both of the superb organs recently rebuilt and modified by Paul Hale and of the brilliance and virtuosity of the assistant organist there, Simon Bell. Simon has now moved on to Winchester Cathedral where he hold the positioon of Assistant Director of Music.
Track Listing:
1 Sweelinck - Variations on "Onder een linde groen" (5:16)
2 Buxtehude - Praeludium in F# minor (BuxWV 146) (7:07)
3 Bach - Fantasie & Fugue in C minor (BWV 537) (8:22)
4 Krebs - Fantasia on "Wachet Auf" for Trumpet & Organ (2:33)
5 Krebs - Fantasia in F minor for Oboe & Organ (4:33)
6 Mendelssohn (arr. Best) - St. Paul Overture (7:44)
7 Franck - Fantaisie in A (13:09)
8 Whitlock - Fanfare (7:06)
9 Howells - Master Tallis’s Testament (7:15)
10 Vierne - Carillon de Westminster (6:41)
Total playing time: 69:46.
Organ CD cover from a photograph by Weldon Schloneger. (Agency: Dreamstime)
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Choice of repertoire was all-important - we did not want to produce "just another organ music CD" - and we are convinced that we have avoided this and that we have again managed to create something very special.
In addition to the purely historical and educational value of producing a programme of masterpieces that show how organ composition developed between 1600 and 1950, there are also a couple of real surprises in the rarely recorded and hardly ever heard Krebs works.
Futhermore, there is an optional CD of a 15 minute conversation between our project manager and Paul Hale in which are discussed the works, the composers and the organs in much more detail than can be accommodated within a CD liner booklet.
This extra CD will be offered by us free of charge to anyone who is blind or has a visual impairment. Others who may wish to receive it are invited, if they can, to make a donation of £1.00 towards the cost of its production.
Photo: Simon Bell, pictured at the entrance to the world-famous Chapter House in Southwell Minster.
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We are pleased to be able to offer a short extract from one of the tracks on this CD. Please click the button on the right to hear Simon playing W.T. Best's majectic arrangement of Mendelssohn's "St. Paul" Overture on Southwell's magnificent screen organ.
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CD 3 - "Excelsior"
This, our latest choral CD, is the result of a planning, collection, selection and production process that took nearly two years.
We knew that "out there somewhere" was much excellent music that, for various reasons, was not being heard. We wanted to do something positive about this, so we advertised, researched and talked to all our contacts and eventually got to look at hundreds of new pieces, from which we drew up a shortlist.
From this list, with help from others, we chose those we thought the most suitable for the project. We contacted several choirs with a view to recording, but unfortunately they were unable to fit in with our necessary timetable. So we decided to set up our very own - "Concordia".
Concordia was formed from professional singers in and around the Manchester area and we were delighted when our first choice as music director, Timothy Noon, formerly of Canterbury and St. David's Cathedrals and now at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, was able to find time in his schedule to accept the position. Mr Noon also brought with him, as treble soloist, his head chorister, James Orrell, whose superb voice features in four of the pieces on the CD.
The music was rehearsed and recorded in the lovely acoustic of All Saints' Church, Stand in Manchester - with its superb Nicholson organ - and the result is a stunning, 23 track CD of new or rarely before performed choral gems.
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For much more information on all the tracks and music on "Excelsior", please click on the button to the right.
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CD 4 - "The Forgotten Romantic"
Lloyd Buck plays Bortkiewicz on Rachmaninov's piano.
Our fourth CD brings together three factors which, we're sure, will make it a must for anyone who loves the piano.
Firstly, there's the most glorious, romantic music from a genius composer who has only recently been receiving the recognition he deserves (two of his piano concertos were recorded in the summer of 2008, for release at the beginning of December). Sergei Bortkiewicz was a contemporary of Rachmaninov and lived from 1877 until 1953.
Secondly, there's the virtuoso ability of one of the most talented young pianists of his generation. Lloyd Buck won great praise for his final concert at the Royal College of Music in 2006 and is now taking a postgraduate course at the RNCM in Manchester.
Thirdly, there's the piano. We were able to obtain permission form the Bath Holburne Museum to record this music on the very piano that the great Rachmaninov chose from Steinway's showrooms at the beginning of the 20th century and which he played on all his concert tours of the UK.
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For much more information about "The Forgotten Romantic" CD, please click the button on the right.
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CD 5 - "Folk on the Edge - a First Album" Our first venture into the wonderfully exciting world of traditional folk music has been something we have looked forward to for some time - and we were not disappointed on any step of the way during the preparation and recording of this superb CD - the fifth in our growing catalogue.
Chris, Jim and Marielyn - all technically "amateur" musicians - showed both professionalism and musicianship of which many who make a living playing music would be proud. Their technical skill was awesome, their timing and "togetherness" impeccable and the depth of emotion and feeling that they manage to put into their music - much of which they have arranged themselves - made the recording session a sheer delight for all involved.
We recorded on site at the Grouse Inn at Froggatt Edge/Longshaw in the Derbyshire Peak District and have avoided any studio dubbing, enhancement and all but the most necessary editing - so what you hear is exactly what they play, usually every other Wednesday, for their own enjoyment and the pleasure of the Inn's customers.
The repertoire was chosen between us to be approachable, varied and interesting - and to give as wide a demonstration as possible in just over 60 minutes of the heritage, both vocal and instrumental, that folk musicians and songwriters from Britain and Ireland have left for us over the past three hundred odd years.
Whether you are a long-time connoisseur of traditional song and ballad or a newcomer to the genre, we are certain that you will love this CD at first hearing and will want to play it over and over again!
Having now put together this CD of traditional fare, we are now actively searching for something new and different in the same "folk" genre, for 2012/2013. So please keep an eye on this space - we hope to bring you something else unique before long...
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The ARTISTS:
Jim Connolly - vocals, accordion, 12-string guitar, mandolin
Chris Cooper - main vocals, guitar, banjo
Marielyn Wright - bodhran, supporting vocals
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For more information about the music and a full track listing of Folk on the Edge - a First Album, please click the button on the right.
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