“another distinguished issue, with warm, natural sound” - Musical America (January 2021)
City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) is thrilled to announce the international release of Concertos for Mallets Instruments (No. 8.574218) on the NAXOS label featuring triple GRAMMY Award-winning Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong conducted by Jean Thorel. This CD is a compilation of three concertos for mallet percussion including two world premiere recordings by American composers Alexis Alrich and Ned Rorem, and a recording of La Folia, a Marimba concerto dedicated to Dame Evelyn Glennie by Sir Karl Jenkins.
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in musical history to create and sustain a career as a percussion soloist. Hearing impaired, she has taught herself to hear music with parts of her body other than her ears and through vibrations. Throughout her outstanding career, she has commissioned over two hundred new works for solo percussion from eminent composers, establishing a whole new genre of music for the instrument. She performs different mediums and took a lead role in the opening ceremony to mark the 2012 Olympics in London.
Described by music critic David Denton as “an unusual and attractive release”, Concertos for Mallets Instruments was recorded at Shaw Studios in Hong Kong and features three modern concertos. Each concerto comes from a unique musical background, yet “shares the soaring lyrical aspect of mallet playing” as described by Glennie. Alexis Alrich’s Marimba Concerto is a rich amalgam of bold rhythms and exuberance. It also explores sounds from Mexican and Asian-inspired worlds. Sir Karl Jenkins traces the fifteenth-century tune La Folia, furnishing it with refinement and strongly characterized intensity. Ned Rorem’s Mallet Concerto is music of drama and dynamism, and highlights the contrasting resonances of the marimba, the xylophone, the vibraphone and the glockenspiel. In the recordings, Dame Evelyn Glennie “sparkles throughout.” (The Financial Times)
Concertos for Mallets Instruments is available for purchase on most of the major online music platforms including Arkiv Music, Amazon Music, Presto Classical, JPE, Europadisc, Spotify and more. For more details visit https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.574218
Click here to watch the CD trailer!
For photos please click here.
Further MEDIA ENQUIRIES please contact Ms. Leanne Nicholls at 2864 2154 or via email: [email protected].
City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) occupies a unique position as one of Asia’s leading chamber orchestras and as one of Hong Kong’s most dynamic cultural entities. The orchestra produces a yearly subscription season of concerts collaborating with world class artists including Sir James Galway, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sarah Chang and Sir Neville Marriner. On tour CCOHK has performed in Italy, Taipei, Beijing, Chengdu and at the 20th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. CCOHK’s mission to cultivate young audiences for classical music in Hong Kong has led to the creation of several original and staged productions incorporating actors. These include Magnificent Mozart, The Star Bach, Vivaldi Unmasked and Bug Symphony which won the Public Choice Award at the YAMawards in Portugal 2017. At the helm of CCOHK’s artistic and executive planning is CCOHK’s founder Leanne Nicholls, herself a prize-winning performer who was awarded a commendation certificate from the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2009. French conductor Jean Thorel served as chief conductor from 2008 to 2016. Armenian conductor and virtuoso pianist Vahan Mardirossian was appointed chief conductor in September 2019.
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