The reputation of the Anglo-German composer Percy Sherwood (1866-1939) was a victim of the tumults of the 20th century. Born to an English father and a German mother in the cosmopolitan city of Dresden, he achieved an enviable reputation as a composer, pianist and teacher. During a visit to his family in the summer of 1914, he was stranded by the outbreak of the First World War. He chose to remain in England thereafter, but, dogged by poor health, he died shortly before the Second World War. Interest in Sherwood has grown in recent years with the recordings of his Second Piano Concerto by Hiroaki Takenouchi and of the complete surviving works for cello and piano by Joseph Spooner and David Owen Norris, both discs having received extremely warm reviews.
There can perhaps be no better way of marking the 150th anniversary of Sherwood's birth and cementing his reputation today than by recording the composer's Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra (1907–1908). This work – written at the height of Sherwood's career in Germany, not long before he was appointed a Royal Professor by the King of Saxony – will appear under the pioneering label EM Records, which in a few years has built an enviable reputation for bringing neglected masterpieces to music enthusiasts, with the world-class quality of its musicians and the polish of its production values attracting international acclaim. The soloists will be Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin) and Joseph Spooner (cello); both have garnered reputations for bringing unknown works to light, and Joseph is already fully immersed in Sherwood's idiom. The orchestra will be the BBC Concert Orchestra, itself famous for supporting rediscovered repertoire, conducted by John Andrews, with whom they have recently recorded a double CD of theatre music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.
There is currently a crowdfunding campaign in place to help raise the money needed to make this recording happen. If you would like to make a donation, please visit https://www.rockethub.com/projects/60297-premiere-recording-of-british-romantic-masterpieces.
There can perhaps be no better way of marking the 150th anniversary of Sherwood's birth and cementing his reputation today than by recording the composer's Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra (1907–1908). This work – written at the height of Sherwood's career in Germany, not long before he was appointed a Royal Professor by the King of Saxony – will appear under the pioneering label EM Records, which in a few years has built an enviable reputation for bringing neglected masterpieces to music enthusiasts, with the world-class quality of its musicians and the polish of its production values attracting international acclaim. The soloists will be Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin) and Joseph Spooner (cello); both have garnered reputations for bringing unknown works to light, and Joseph is already fully immersed in Sherwood's idiom. The orchestra will be the BBC Concert Orchestra, itself famous for supporting rediscovered repertoire, conducted by John Andrews, with whom they have recently recorded a double CD of theatre music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.
There is currently a crowdfunding campaign in place to help raise the money needed to make this recording happen. If you would like to make a donation, please visit https://www.rockethub.com/projects/60297-premiere-recording-of-british-romantic-masterpieces.