Beamish / Irvine - Gala Water / Bridging the Day - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

As Jacob Kellermann points out in the commentary to this album, there is an unbroken tradition of performing arrangements of Franz Schubert's music on the guitar. Already in his lifetime some of his most popular songs appeared with simplified guitar accompaniment, marketed by music publishers wanting to exploit the growing market for domestic music-making. Schubert himself composed very little for the instrument, and there are doubts regarding Schubert's own skills on the instrument. Nevertheless it is well known that the guitar was in fashion with the middle-class Viennese among which Schubert and his circle of friends moved. In his notes, Kellermann argues that elements of the light, melody-driven and carefree musical style favoured in that environment and present in stylized form in much of Schubert's music is the very aspect that makes it so inviting to play on the guitar. DuoKeMi was formed by Kellermann and Daniel Migdal in 2006, and the two are constantly aiming to expand the repertoire for their combination of instruments. This has resulted in a number of commissions as well as new transcriptions, often by Kellermann himself as in the case of the much-loved Arpeggione Sonata recorded here.

The inspiration for this album came about from Ruby Hughes' first collaboration with the Manchester Collective in the spring of 2020. During the first Covid lockdown, they built the programme of this recital for the purpose of touring the UK and uplifting their audiences at a time when we were all being confronted by challenging notions of mortality and isolation. As artists, they asked themselves what music might attend to the prevailing concerns of this time. Their answers came in the form of this offering. The title of this album, End of My Days, comes from Errollyn Wallen's song; a resounding celebration of life that embraces death without regret or sadness but with great verve and acceptance. The other songs, each in it's own way, evoke silence and separation, but also love and hope and even the reassurance that we will return whence we came and light shall lift us into eternity. The concluding song, Deborah Pritchard's Peace, is a message of hope, willingly received as the world emerged out of lockdown in 2021. Luminous tranquillity moves us into the light, towards eternity. Details 1. 5 Songs to Poems By John Clare No. 1. Meet Me in the Greenglen [04 08] 2. Valencia [05 25] 3. Along the Field No. 2. Along the Field [04 13] 4. No. 1. Dante [02 44] 5. No 3. Boris Pasternak [02 14] 6. No. 4. Couplet [02 06] 4. No. 1. Dante [02 44] 5. No. 3. Boris Pasternak [02 14 6. No. 4. Couplet [02 06 7. Book of Songs, Book 1 Go, Crystal Tears (Arr. D. Bruce for Voice and String Quartet) [03 49] 8. Book of Songs, Book 2 Flow My Tears (Arr. D. Bruce for Voice and String Quartet) [06 57] 9. Da Day Dawn (Arr. D. Grant for String Quartet) [03 54] 10. 2 Mélodies Hébraïques No. 1. Kaddisch (Arr. S. Parkin for Voice and String Quartet) [05 39] 11. Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Funerals? No. 5. End of My Days [05 18] 12. No. 1. La Flûte de P

Album Tracks 1. Histoire Du Tango 2. Sonatina Op. 205 3. Entr'acte 4. Variations Sur Un Thème de Rossini, B. 9 5. Grand Duo Concertant Op. 85 6. Fantaisie Brillante Sur L'opéra InchCarmenInch de Bizet