Recordings

To date, Camerata Wales l Cymru has featured in two orchestral CD recordings, both under the baton of Artistic Director Owain Arwel Hughes, with leading classical music label BIS Records.

Both of these recordings continue to amass a great deal of radio airtime both within Europe and the UK, including regular features on preeminent UK classical music station, Classic FM.

Playlists of both recordings are detailed below. Copies of the discs themselves are available direct from BIS records at www.bis.se or via www.selectmusic.co.uk

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Holmboe – Kairos

Kairos (Sinfonias I–IV) 
1.    I. Preludio (first movement of Sinfonia IV, Op.73d)    3'57 
2.    II. Sinfonia I, Op.73a    11'33 
3.    III. Interludio I (second movement of Sinfonia IV)    5'01 
4.    IV. Sinfonia II, Op.73b    20'20 
5.    V. Interludio II (third movement of Sinfonia IV)    2'55 
6.    VI. Sinfonia III, Op.73c    12'31
7.    VII. Postludio (fourth movement of Sinfonia IV)    2'36

Sinfonia IV, Op.73d 
8.       I. Preludio    3'57 
9.       II. Interludio I    5'01 
10.    III. Interludio II    2'55 
11.    IV. Postludio    2'36

Of all the different arts, music is the one most closely associated with the concepts of time and duration – concepts which every composer must consider carefully. The great Danish symphonist Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996) certainly did so, and in his explanation of the title of the present work touched upon a central point:

‘Kairos means time in a psychological sense; that is, that passing of time which we experience – as opposed to kronos, which signifies time that can be divided into seconds and minutes’.

The duration of a performance, or a specific passage, is easily measured, but how the passing of time is perceived by the listener is a different matter, and it is this qualitative difference that Holmboe wished to explore. The work is unusual, not to say unique, in that it in fact consists of four individual works.

The four Sinfonias for string orchestra may be performed separately but can also be combined into a single work, in which the four movements of Sinfonia IV are used to frame and separate the first three, single-movement sinfonias. (The present disc also includes the four movements of Sinfonia No. 4 in sequence – after the complete Kairos – and thus offers the possibility of hearing the works independently as well as combined.)

Holmboe’s symphonies are generally agreed to form an important chapter in 20th-century music, something that Owain Arwel Hughes has contributed to through his acclaimed cycle on BIS, recorded with the Danish Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. The present works for string orchestra he has chosen to record with Camerata Wales, the chamber orchestra that he himself founded in 2005. The team has previously released a disc of British favourites for chamber orchestra to great acclaim, for instance in BBC Music Magazine, whose reviewer praised ‘the high quality of the playing’ and described the performances as ‘warm, subtly nuanced’, ‘lively, characterful’ and ‘highly engaging’.

BIS-CD-1596
Total Time: 75'20
Release: Feb 2007
EAN 7318590015964

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Through Gold and Silver Clouds

Sir Edward Elgar
Serenade in E minor for Strings, Op.20 
1.    I. Allegro piacevole    3'36 
2.    II. Larghetto    6'43 
3.    III. Allegretto    2'55

Arwel Hughes
4.    Fantasia in A minor for string orchestra    11'20

Peter Warlock
Capriol Suite for string orchestra 
5.       I. Basse-Danse    1'31 
6.       II. Pavane    2'06 
7.       III. Tordion    1'03 
8.       IV. Bransles    2'03 
9.       V. Pieds-en-l’air    2'26 
10.    VI. Mattachins    0'58

Frederick Delius
11.    On hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring    7'06
12.    Summer Night on the River    6'17

Gustav Holst
St. Paul’s Suite for string orchestra, Op.29 No.2 
13.    I. Jig    3'02 
14.    II. Ostinato    1'51 
15.    III. Intermezzo    3'43 
16.    IV. Finale (The Dargason)    3'17

Sir Edward Elgar
17.Elegy, Op.58    4'57

"This collection of English chestnuts for chamber orchestra is designed to show off the talents of the newly formed Camerata Wales, and it succeeds admirably.

The ensemble plays with more than the necessary expertise and affection, and the interpretations under conductor and founder Owain Arwel Hughes are extremely fine. Only in the Elgar Serenade did I feel a slight sluggishness in the Larghetto, and in general missed the lush sonority produced by a larger ensemble. The other works–Warlock’s Capriol Suite, Holst’s Saint Paul’s Suite, and Elgar’s Elegy–are all played just about perfectly.

The two Delius items, Summer Night on the River and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, sound absolutely gorgeous–ethereal, atmospheric, and beautifully paced.

A work by Hughes’ father, the very attractive Fantasia in A minor, provides a welcome novelty in the tradition of Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia, and as usual with BIS the engineering is terrific".

- David Hurwitz, Classics Today

BIS-CD-1589
Total Time: 67'33
Release: Sept 2009
EAN 7318590015896

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Camerata Wales l Cymru Press...