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London Cello Connection

Marvin Lamb composer
John Robertson composer
Katherine Price composer
Joanna Estelle composer
Diane Jones composer
L Peter Deutsch composer
Keith Kramer composer
Arthur Gottschalk composer

London Symphony Orchestra
Ovidiu Marinescu cello
Miran Vaupotić conductor

Release Date: March 10, 2023
Catalog #: NV6514
Format: Digital
21st Century
Orchestral
Cello
Orchestra

Eight exceptional composers, eight premiere recordings with a legendary orchestra, and one spectacular soloist: LONDON CELLO CONNECTION is a captivating compendium of contemporary compositions by celebrated cellist Ovidiu Marinescu and the London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Miran Vaupotić.

Marinescu’s emotive, lush sound and superb technical command provides the continuous thread throughout the program, from the elegant “Sarabande” by Marvin Lamb to Arthur Gottschalk’s regal “Brunetti Meditations” to the shimmering, pulsing “Soul Dance” of Diane Jones, connecting and contrasting each of these works and others by John Robertson, Katherine Price, Joanna Estelle, L Peter Deutsch, and Keith Kramer.

Recorded in June 2022 at the LSO’s St. Luke’s Church, the historic site on London’s Old Street which dates to 1733 and was restored to become home to the orchestra’s recording, community, and music education programs.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Sarabande for Cello and Orchestra Marvin Lamb Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 5:50
02 Celebratory Music John Robertson Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 5:46
03 The Two-Headed Calf Katherine Price Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 3:58
04 I Am My Home Joanna Estelle Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 5:35
05 Soul Dance Diane Jones Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 5:32
06 The Forest Stream L Peter Deutsch Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 5:48
07 Luce del Sole Keith Kramer Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 6:20
08 Brunetti Meditations Arthur Gottschalk Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor 8:40

Recorded July 6-7 2022 at LSO St Lukes in London, United Kingdom

Session Producer Jan Košulič
Session Engineers Jonathan Stokes, Neil Hutchinson
Production Manager Jean Noël Attard

Editing, Mixing (All tracks) Jan Košulič
Additional Editing (tracks 1, 4, 6) Melanie Montgomery
Additional Editing (tracks 2, 3, 5, 8) Lucas Paquette
Additional Editing (Track 7) Melanie Montgomery, Lucas Paquette

Mastering Brad Michel

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Danielle Sullivan, Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Production Director Levi Brown
Production Assistant Martina Watzková
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Brett Iannucci, Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Marvin Lamb

Composer

Marvin Lamb (b. 1946) is Professor of Music & Head of the Music Composition Program at the University of Oklahoma, where he served as Dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts from 1998-2005. His music has been performed widely in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America & Japan. In addition, his orchestral works have been performed by the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Colorado, Nashville, Syracuse, the Cabrillo Festival, featured on chamber music series sponsored by the St Louis & Honolulu symphonies & recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Symphony.

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John Robertson

John Robertson

Composer

(Ernest) John Robertson (b. 1943) was born in New Zealand but is a longtime resident of Canada. His secondary school offered music as a full time subject, allowing Robertson to find his footing. Upon leaving school, he went into the insurance business where he spent his working life. Having emigrated to Canada in 1967, he continued to compose on the side.

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Katherine Price

Composer

Katherine Price (b. 1992, Indiana) is an American composer of choral music, orchestral music, and chamber music native to Indiana. Price began composing as a child, writing down her compositions at age 13. Drawing influences from the Anglican Choral Tradition, European early music, American folk music, Orthodox hymnody, and holy minimalism, her compositions reflect the styles of such composers as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Knut Nystedt.

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Joanna Estelle

Composer

Joanna Estelle (Storoschuk) is a Canadian composer, lyricist, and arranger whose music has won critical acclaim from Parliament Hill, Ottawa to London (UK), Barcelona (Spain), and elsewhere around the world. Estelle studied classical piano and theory with the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) as a young person, but her parents deterred her from pursuing music as a career. Instead, she graduated in Psychology and English (Brock, 1972), then went on to study management accounting. However, her enthusiasm for music never waned.

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Diane Jones

Composer

Diane Jones’ music has been performed by The Relâche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, Trio Casals, and Flautet. She has been commissioned by Mélomanie, the Society for New Music, and the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and she recently completed a commission from the Syracuse International Film Festival to score the 1919 silent film, “The Doll,” screened during the 2019 festival with a live ensemble.

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L Peter Deutsch

Composer

L Peter Deutsch is a native of Massachusetts, now living in Sonoma County CA and British Columbia, Canada. His early music education included performance and composition for voice, piano, and recorder. He received his M.A. degree in composition in 2011, studying with Frank La Rocca.

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Keith Kramer

Composer

Keith Kramer is a composer of over 40 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and electronic media. Keith Kramer's music is at times subtle and restrained, and other times ferocious and demanding. Always searching for new modes of expression, each piece that Keith composes represents another facet of a continuous journey of discovery. Keith’s music has also been performed and recorded by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, David Taylor, Leonard Garrison and many others.

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Arthur Gottschalk

Composer

A man whose music has been described as “infectious , loud, and fun” (Gramophone Magazine), and “fascinatingly strange” (BBC Music Magazine), award-winning composer Arthur Gottschalk is Professor of Music Composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. His music is regularly performed domestically and overseas, and his works are recorded and distributed on Navona Recordings, New Ariel, Crystal Records, Summit, Capstone, Beauport Classical, ERMMedia, AURecordings, Golden Crest, MSR Classics, Ablaze Records, Naxos, Amirani (Italy), and Delage (France).

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London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

Orchestra

Widely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, The London Symphony Orchestra was named by Gramophone as one of the top five orchestras in the world. A world-leader in recording music for film, television, and events, it was the official orchestra of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games ceremonies, memorably performing Chariots of Fire on stage in the opening ceremony, conducted by Simon Rattle and with Rowan Atkinson.

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Ovidiu Marinescu

Cellist, Composer

Ovidiu Marinescu, a native of Romania, is active as a cellist, conductor, composer, and educator. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninov Hall, Holywell Room in Oxford, Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, and many other venues around the world. He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Helena and Newark Symphonies, Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Philharmonic, Limeira Symphony in Brazil, Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain, and most orchestras in Romania.

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Miran Vaupotić

Conductor

Acclaimed as “dynamic and knowledgeable” by the Buenos Aires Herald, Croatian conductor Miran Vaupotić has worked with eminent orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Russian National Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Argentina, and others, performing in major halls around the globe such as Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Berliner Philharmonie, Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall, Victoria Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Dubai Opera, Tchaikovsky Hall, International House of Music, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, and more.

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Notes

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The London Symphony Orchestra during a recording session at St Lukes in London | photo by Nick Rutter

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Ovidiu Marinescu during a recording session at St Lukes in London | photo by Nick Rutter

The name of this piece refers to a clean bill of health given to the composer after completion of his chemotherapy regimen for lymphoma. Its composition having been suggested by PARMA Recordings for inclusion in the present recording, a first draft was made to produce a solo part which was then submitted to Marinescu for his comments, and after making a few small technical changes which he suggested, the work was completed and orchestrated. Marinescu asked for a piano reduction of the orchestral score and then played the piece at a couple of concerts in Pennsylvania to get the music “under his fingers” in preparation for the recording. Bearing in mind the cello’s oft-employed talent for rich lyricism, the composer decided to show off the instrument’s ability to negotiate fast passagework instead, although not neglecting its ability to “sing.”

In my interpretation, The Two-Headed Calf is an exhortation to look beyond a living being’s monetary value or physicality as an expression of their inherent worth. To the farm boys, the calf’s only conceivable use is as an object of morbid ogling. However, in his short life, the calf experiences love, joy, and a preternatural wonder at the doubled starscape, a viewpoint unique to him.

— Katherine Price

I Am My Home was originally written as a choral piece 20 years ago. It was dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Michael Sharik, who was a Ukrainian poet, author, and freedom fighter who fought the Bolsheviks 100 years ago and fled to Canada in the early 1920s as a refugee. The first verse of the choral piece was borrowed from a poem that he had written to thank Canada for becoming his new homeland, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1952. I added the remaining verses to it to describe my personal spiritual journey as a child of refugees. Given the recent invasion of Ukraine and the resulting displacement of millions of people, I have rededicated this piece to all refugees and victims of this war, and all wars around the world.

— Joanna Estelle

When Marinescu approached me about writing a short work for cello and orchestra, we had a long conversation about what the piece might be. One of the challenges of writing a work like this is balance — keeping the cello front and center in the midst of an orchestra. I also wanted the music to be a dance, something to inspire physical movement. Once the opening notes emerged, the rest of the piece began to unfold. I decided to keep the orchestral forces small — strings only — and the work seemed to flow from the depths of my heart. Once in the recording session, I could hear the soul flowing from the cello and filling the space. It is truly a “Soul Dance.”

— Diane Jones

The Forest Stream was inspired by two natural areas that I know and love: a brook running through the woods at our family’s former vacation property in New Hampshire, where I spent summers as a child, and a mountain stream feeding a lake in the hiking area on the west side of Lake Tahoe.

The piece is in ritornello form. For the first verse, I visualized an actual marshy area of the brook, created by a beaver dam; for the third, I was thinking of an actual rocky cascade at Tahoe. The image for the second verse was a deep pool, shaded by overhanging trees, which somewhat resembles the small lake in the mountains. The verses are unified by the initial cello theme, which is used in inversion in the second verse and in the related major key in the third.

My compositional style is based on my long and deep experience as a choral singer, and its development in chamber music. The verses of The Forest Stream are a series of three small-ensemble works with the string section as background and occasional decoration by the other instruments. In the first and third verses, the instruments complementing the cello are the winds; in the second, primarily the harp. I am drawn strongly to imitative counterpoint, and was unable to resist the temptation to write the “rocky cascade” verse as a fugato for the cello and three winds.

— L Peter Deutsch

Luce del Sole for violoncello and orchestra, composed by Keith Kramer, was written for cellist Ovidiu Marinescu and the London Symphony Orchestra. The title is Italian for “sunlight,” and explores the various colors of the orchestra. While it is a work for solo instrument with orchestra, I focus on the intertwining of the two entities rather than pitting the two opposites against each other, forming a subtle tapestry for the soloist to explore. Also featured in the piece is the process of temporal dilation, where events are presented in diminished or expended form with the use of silence. The challenge to the composer is to fully express an idea such as this in such a short amount of time.

— Keith Kramer

This short work is dedicated to the wonderful soloist on this recording, Ovidiu Marinescu. But it was written in memory of the man who introduced me to the music of the all-but-forgotten early Classical Italian composer Gaetano Brunetti. That man was the brilliant violinist and famed pedagogue Kenneth Goldsmith, who I was fortunate enough to call a friend. He passed away in 2020 after a long struggle with cancer, and the COVID pandemic prevented a more conventional memorial. Therefore, I used the opportunity of this recording to write my own, personal memorial to my cherished and deeply missed friend. Whenever I write for violin, it is Ken’s sound that I hear in my mind.

— Art Gottschalk

Videos

Recording Joanna Estelle’s “I am my Home” with the LSO and cellist, Ovidiu Marinescu

L Peter Deutsch: The Forest Stream Featuring Ovidiu Marinescu and the London Symphony Orchestra

An Inside Look: The London Cello Connection from Ovidiu Marinescu and the London Symphony Orchestra