Audio

Alec Frank-Gemmill horn
Swedish Chamber Orchestra · Nicholas McGegan conductor

Concerto No. 1 in D major for horn and orchestra
(Adagio arranged & orchestrated by Alec Frank-Gemmill & Stephen Roberts)
Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, K 417
Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, K 477
Concerto No. 4 in E flat major, K 495
Concerto ‘No. 0’ in E flat major, reconstructed & completed by by Stephen Roberts

BIS Records SACD BIS-2635 |  www.bis.se
Released on 8 November 2024 

Ten years on from his BBT Fellowship and four discs into his relationship with record company BIS, French horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill fulfils a long-held ambition to record Mozart’s Horn Concertos.

But his partnership with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Nicholas McGegan (with whom he collaborated on an earlier disc of horn concertos ‘Before Mozart‘) is different in that he not only plays a completed version of the First Horn Concerto (confusingly the last to be composed) but also includes an earlier, unfinished, concerto, here entitled ‘Concerto No 0’ as reconstructed and completed by Stephen Roberts and Frank-Gemmill himself.

This eagerly awaited recording was released on 8 November 2024.

Read Alec’s Blog

Lucie Horsch recorder

The Frans Brüggen Project
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Rachel Podger violin
Esther van der Eijk viola
Albert Brüggen cello
Tom Foster harpsichord

Music by Haydn, Corelli, A. Marcello, J.S. Bach, Telemann, Van Eyck, Hotteterre, Boismortier, F. Couperin, Chedeville, John Walsh and Handel

Decca Classics 487 0642 | www.deccaclassics.com
Released 8 November 2024

Ten years after his death, Lucie Horsch pays tribute to the celebrated pioneer of the early music revival and her greatest inspiration in The Frans Brüggen Project.  In what would also have been his 90th birthday year, Lucie was given access to Frans Brüggen’s private collection of precious historic recorders, which he started in the 1960s, and she has brought them to life again in repertoire specially chosen for each instrument’s distinctive sound.

Getting to know each of the 17 recorders in the collection was a fascinating journey; Lucie found that every one of them has its own character and unique response to being played.  Because they are fragile artefacts of the kind usually kept behind glass, they demand not only a delicate approach and careful articulation, but Lucie’s deep musical intuition of how to master their individual voices and personalities: ‘It wasn’t about me at all, it was about the instruments and making them sound as good as possible’.

On the Decca album she is joined by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, founded by Frans Brüggen, as well as soloists including Rachel Podger.

Here she plays the slow movement from Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, on an alto recorder in F by Jan Steenbergen, Amsterdam, c 1720.

SHIFTING GROUND
Alexi Kenney violin

J S Bach Violin Sonata No 1 in G minor, BWV 1001: I. Adagio
Schumann, arr. Alexi Kenney Widmung Op 25 No 1
Angélica Negrón The Violinist, featuring Ana Fabrega
Nicola Matteis Ayres for the Violin: Passagio roto
Ariana Grande, arr. Alexi Kenney thank u, next
J S Bach Violin Partita No 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: I. Allemande
Joni Mitchell, arr. Alexi Kenney Blue
J S Bach Violin Partita No 1 in B minor, BWV 1002: VII. Tempo di Borea & VIII. Tempo di Borea (Double)
Eve Beglarian Well-Spent
J S Bach Violin Sonata No 2 in A minor, BWV 1003: I. Grave
Nicola Matteis Jr. Alia Fantasia
Salina Fisher Hikari
Matthew Burtner Elegy (from Muir Glacier, 1889-2009)
J S Bach Violin Partita No 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: V. Chaconne

Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0205 | www.brightshiny.ninja
Release Date 7 June 2024

Recorded using part of Alexi Kenney’s BBT Award 2020 and including two BBT commissions, Shifting Ground – released on Bright Shiny Things on 7 June 2024 – is Alexi’s love letter to Bach, with solo Bach works cheek-by-jowl with modern works and new commissions.  Opening with Bach’s Violin Sonata No 1 in G minor BWV 1001, the first movement, Adagio  and coming full circle to end with the epic Chaconne that ends Bach’s Second Partita in D minor BWV 1004, Alexi’s eclectic choices also encompasses 20th and 21st century works including two BBT commissions, by Angélica Negrón and Salina Fisher, as seen at BBT’s 20th birthday anniversary celebrations at London’s Wigmore Hall in June 2023.

View selective tracks here

BRAHMS: THE PIANO TRIOS
Trio No 1 Op 8(revised 1889 version)
Trio No 2 Op 87
Trio No 3 Op 101
Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn Op 40 (in the version with cello transcribed by Brahms himself)

La Dolce Volta LDV132.3 (double disc set) | www.ladolcevolta.com
Album release 26 April 2024 

After an acclaimed set of Beethoven Piano Trios, Trio Sōra turns its attention to Brahms in a complete set of Piano Trios including Brahms’ own version of his Horn Trio. Released on La Dolce Volta label on 26 April, it marks the final project using the Trio’s 2020 Borletti-Buitoini Trust Fellowship, which also included the commissioning of a Triple Concerto from Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy, premiered in 2022.