Recording premieres of two works feature on Andrew Downes' 'The God Marduck' for EM Records

A prolific composer with over 100 works to his credit and a career spanning over five decades, numerous recordings and commissions, Andrew Downes' latest recording, "The God Marduk: Works for Violin, Viola and Piano,"  will be released by EM Records on January 6, 2019. The English label is renowned for presenting previously unrecorded English repertoire "that is vital, vivid and powerful,"
 
Touching upon various themes, flavored with English, Indian and Middle-Eastern modalities, "The God Marduk" features the world premiere recordings of Poeme: "The God Marduk" for Violin and Piano, Opus 72, and Sonata for Viola and Piano, a transcription of Downes' Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 68, as well as two previously recorded works: Mass for Solo Violin and Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 52.
 
Performed by renowned English musicians violinist/violist Rupert Marshall-Luck, "an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic" (The Strad) and pianist Duncan Honeybourne, "a gifted pianist in whom a spirit of adventure meets high musicianship" (MusicWeb International) the recording comprises four unique, yet complementary works based on themes of friendship, legends and various religious aspects. The album will be launched January 6, 2019 with a special event including performances by Marshall-Luck and Honeybourne hosted by Lynwood Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Sunday, January 6, 2019 from 2 PM - 5 PM (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR Birmingham, United Kingdom).
 
Praised as "...a superb craftsman of appreciable integrity with a rigorous approach to his art who knows instinctively how to achieve the maximum potential from his material" (Musical Opinion Quarterly) and for having "an impressive command of his art" (Opera News) Andrew Downes' music has been performed throughout the world in leading concert halls and cathedrals and has been broadcast in many countries.
 
Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, UK, in 1950, between 1990 and 2005 Downes served as Head of the School of Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, and was awarded a Professorship in 1992. In 2014, he was made Emeritus Professor of Birmingham City University, for carrying out his work 'with distinction'. The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has presented the annual Andrew Downes Performance Prize competition since 2014, where musicians perform a programme of Downes' music along with that of other British composers born after 1949, with the winner receiving an impressive cash prize and recital. The 68 year-old's latest works include Concerto for Recorder and String Orchestra for blind recorder player James Risdon that will be conducted by Ondrej Vrabec (in the near future), and Symphony No. 6, for large chamber ensemble, that will receive its premiere by Central England Camerata under Anthony Bradbury in Hagley Hall (where the composer has lived with his family since 1981) in October 2020 at an announced special concert marking Downes' 70th birthday.
 
The launch event on January 6 will also feature a screening of the documentary on Mr. Downes' "Overtures and Symphonies" CD with the Czech Philharmonic under Ondrej Vrabec for the Artesmon Label, released in 2016. ("It is excellent that the Symphonies 1-4 of this most directly communicative creative artist have been set down in the recording studio by world-class musicians in first rate performances. Downes has a natural melodic gift and his tunes, for that is assuredly and unabashedly what they are, instantly lodge themselves in the listener's memory. ... However, the genuine appeal of his musical voice is international, as celebrated in the committed and life-affirming playing of the Czech Philharmonic on this splendid new CD set."-Musical Opinion Quarterly)

For more information on composer Andrew Downes, "The God Marduk" CD, and to read/download the CD booklet, photos and biographies on Downes, Marshall-Luck and Honeybourne, click here.

For more information on the CD launch, please contact Laura Grant.

Press Contact: Laura Grant, Grant Communications; 917.359.7319; Laura@grant-communications.com