Champs Hill Records

Felicity Lott brings her delicacy and rich understanding to a collection of English song inspired by the idyllic Sussex countryside. Including songs by Quilter, Elgar, Parry, Ireland, Bax and Holst. Dame Felicity Lott lives in Sussex and was the very ﬁrst artist to perform in the Music Room at Champs Hill.Champs Hill Records will also be releasing new recordings of further Elgar songs with Dame Felicity in October 2011.

Paul Pattersonʼs ‘Phoenix Concerto’, gives solo oboist Emily Pailthorpe the character of the mythical Phoenix Firebird itself: mercurial, sensuous, mesmerising and captivating. Commissioned by David Bowerman and ﬁrst performed in 2009, this is the world premiere recording.Alongside this new work is Vaughan Williamsʼ beloved Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings, and the Howells Oboe Sonata is another world premiere, here in a new orchestration by Benjamin Wallﬁsch.

Ivana Gavrić made her debut on Champs Hill Records in 2010, when her playing was described as “altogether of an extraordinary calibre” by BBC Music Magazine who also made her Newcomer of the Year in their 2011 BBC Music Magazine Awards. Her second recording brings together works written by Janáček, Ravel and Prokofiev, between 1905 and 1912. Three composers separated by nationality; but linked together in possibly the most exciting period in modern European culture.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Over the last 10 years, The Music Room at Champs Hill, a private 160-seat concert hall in the West Sussex countryside, has become a venue of choice for recitals and chamber music, both live and for recordings. Autumn 2009 brings the launch of Champs Hill Records, an independent label dedicated to recordings made at the hall.Among the first releases on the label are ‘Call me Flott', a collection of light-hearted songs by, among others, Britten, Barber, Poulenc, Berlin, Coward and Porter; Dame Felicity Lott, joined here by Graham Johnson, enjoys a warm association with Champs Hill – in fact, she was the artist who, in 1999, gave the inaugural recital at the hall.The Music Room at Champs Hill, and Champs Hill Records are run as not-for-profit concerns. "It's not about making money, it's about giving people the chance to hear some of the finest musicians in the world, and about providing a platform for some of the marvellous young instrumentalists who are on their way up. With Champs Hill Records we're also keen to present relatively little-known music that is unlikely to stand a chance with the big labels."

Among artists who have performed or recorded at the hall are Sir Thomas Allen, Christine Brewer, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Viktoria Mullova, Stephen Isserlis, Raphael Wallfisch, Nikolai Demidenko, Judith Weir, Simon Callow, the Belcea Quartet, the Nash Ensemble and English Chamber Orchestra; and the diverse array of composers in the 2009 / 2010 release schedule are Bach, Dring, Elgar, Franck, Goetz, Howells, Ireland, Menotti, Messiaen, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Schnittke, Schubert and Shostakovich; with artists including Dame Felicity Lott, Daniel Hope, Julian Lloyd Webber, John McCabe, Daniel Pailthorpe, Ittai Shapira, Conchord, Pro Arte Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble.