Adrian Bradbury, Andrew West - The Pre-Raphaelite Cello (2024) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Variationen über ein Thema von K. Klimsch, Op. 4
02. Liebesleben, Op. 7: No. 5, Frage - No. 6, Antwort
03. The Arnold Book of Old Songs: No. 10, L'amour de moi (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Roger Quilter)
04. Amadis, LWV 63: Bois épais (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Roger Quilter)
05. To Julia, Op. 8 (Version for Cello & Piano): No. 4, To Daisies
06. To Julia, Op. 8 (Version for Cello & Piano): No. 6, Julia's Hair
07. Where the Rainbow Ends: No. 11, Slumber Song (Version for Cello & Piano)
08. 3 Songs of William Blake, Op. 20: No. 1, Dream Valley (Version for Cello & Piano)
09. Vesperale, Op. 40 No. 2 (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Boris Hambourg)
10. Lullaby, Op. 57 No. 2 (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Charles Warwick Evans)
11. Pierrot amoureux
12. Pastoral and Reel
13. Ballade
14. Youthful Rapture (Version for Cello & Piano)
15. Variations on Handel's "The Harmonious Blacksmith" (Version for Cello & Piano)
16. The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol (Version for Cello & Piano)

SOMM Recordings is proud to announce a recital disc from cellist Adrian Bradbury and pianist Andrew West titled The Pre-Raphaelite Cello – at once ground-breaking and celebratory, and rich with first recordings. The curiosity piqued by the album’s unusual name will be amply rewarded with the fascinating story of the artistic threads this programme weaves together and their relevance to important commemorations being observed this year.

The idea was conceived and devised by pianist Oliver Davies (1938–2020), and the recording is dedicated to his memory. It is a tribute to the renowned British cellist Beatrice Harrison and her association with the composers of The Frankfurt Gang whose music she championed. And the occasion of this tribute is the 100th anniversary of the Nightingale Broadcast, one of the earliest ever made by the BBC from a remote location: on 19 May 1924 Beatrice sat and played her cello in the garden of “Foyle Riding” (the family home at Oxted), duetting with the local nightingales before a microphone that carried them over the airwaves to more than a million listeners and enchanted a nation.

The composers in Beatrice’s circle included a multi-year cohort of anglophone composition students under Iwan Knorr at Frankfurt before the turn of the 20th century. Englishmen Roger Quilter and Cyril Scott and the Australian Percy Grainger belonged to this Frankfurt Gang, who remained close friends after their student days in Germany and who adopted the Pre-Raphaelite banner from the like-minded brotherhood of English painters and poets, distinguishing themselves musically from other British composers through a focus on emotion rather than musical architecture. They were among the composers inspired by Beatrice’s musicianship, and their works on this album were arranged for her or played and loved by her. These are prefaced on the programme by cello-piano pieces from Iwan Knorr (the composition professor who unites the Gang) and Hugo Becker (Beatrice’s cello teacher from the age of 15).

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