The new CD Pearls is now available, be one of the first to listen to it.
Full details of the repertoire are in the discography section of this site.
Click here for a sound file with excerpts from the CD.
After the overwhelming success of my previous album with the Central Band of the RAF I knew it would be a good idea to follow up the Diamonds CD with another project. The main factor for me would be how to equal the quality of the repertoire of the first disc. As ideas for ‘Pearls' materialised, I realised that this mix of music, some of it more in a jazz idiom than previously, would be very strong. The major works on this new album demonstrate the huge possibilities that exist with the euphonium as a solo instrument, accompanied by an outstanding wind orchestra such as we have here. The title track Pearls II by my good friend Roland Szentpali is really a breath of fresh air, and mixes modern styles so perfectly. It's exhilarating and challenging to play, as is the new composition by the Austrian composer Franz Cibulka, Euphonic, that I premiered in Germany about six months ago. For some years I have been enjoying performing Sir Eu by another Austrian, Thomas Doss, and I felt it was definitely time to record this in its version with wind orchestra. A chance meeting with the American arranger Stephen Bulla last summer, led to the inclusion of three of his arrangements, and the most challenging of these of course is the violin composition by Saint Saens, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. So the music on this Pearls album encompasses possibly the widest range of styles and genres that I have ever recorded. We have romance, folkloristic music, big-band, traditional, classical,
funky... and probably a few others! I hope you enjoy the mix. Once again it has been absolutely wonderful to work with the Central Band of the RAF, whose skill and dedication makes any musical collaboration with them such a pleasure.
