SKU: FP.FBM04

ISBN 9790570504077.

The opening movement is a free fantasia, contrasting with the middle movement, a scherzetto, in homage to, and based on the letters of the name of, the composer Douglas Steele, an assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham and a founding father of Chethams School, and which quotes from Steele’s beautiful carol The Snow Falls.
Divertimento was first performed by John Turner and Janet Simpson at a concert in aid of the Peter Cunningham Memorial Fund at Mellor Church on 17th January 2005. It uses both treble and descant instruments. The second movement was originally composed for a concert in Manchester Cathedral in memory of Douglas Steele, one of the founding fathers of Chetham's School, and quotes (by kind permission of Forsyth Brothers Ltd.), from his well-known carol The Snow Falls. It has been separately recorded by John Turner and Stephen Hough on Autumn Sequence – the music of Douglas Steele and his Circle (Campion Cameo 2040/41).
Martin Bussey was born in London in 1958. He was a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, during which time he studied composition with Robin Holloway. Following postgraduate singing study at the RNCM he settled in Manchester and held a number of posts, including Head of Academic Music and Director of Choirs at Chetham’s School of Music until 2013. He continues as Musical Director of the Chester Bach Singers, a Vocal Tutor at Manchester University, Chairman of the Finzi Friends and a Director of the Ludlow Song Weekend. Compositions include the highly successful monodrama about Mary I, Mary’s Hand, premiered in 2018; a significant collection of solo songs which includes settings of Housman, Hardy, and Walt Whitman, many recorded on the disc Through a glass; and much choral music, recorded by Sonoro under Neil Ferris in 2019.

SKU: FP.FSR01

ISBN 9790570504152.

Robin Steven’s Balmoral Suite is an affectionate tribute to the Royal Family in the late reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Featuring musical sketches of imagined family life during summers at their Scottish home, the work is a pastiche of well known Scottish folk tunes, delivered with the occasional modernist twist and plenty of humour.

A version a version for string orchestra and harp accompaniment is also available and can be heard recorded by John Turner with the Manchester Sinfonia conducted by Richard Howarth, on the album Balmoral Suite and Other Recorder Favourites.