Emilie Capulet
Award-winning International Concert Pianist
Lecturer, Musicologist and Writer
Complete Solo Piano Works by Henri Tomasi
Emilie Capulet, piano
Emilie Capulet has just released on the Calliope label the first recording of the complete solo piano works by the French composer Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) to great critical acclaim. It was awarded the ‘Grand Frisson 2020’ by Audiophile Magazine and ffff on Pizzicato Magazine and has been broadcast on national radio stations in Europe including France Musique, Radio Télévision Suisse and Bayern Klassik.
Tomasi is well known for his symphonic and concerto repertoire. His solo piano works, neglected until now in performance, recordings and scholarship, are a revelation. Finding much of his early inspiration in his Mediterranean roots and in the lyrical essence of Corsican song, Tomasi began his career as a talented classical and jazz improviser with a flair for musical drama, having played the piano for the first silent films in the cinemas of Marseille and Paris. These qualities were to determine his unique place in the history of music. His subsequent career as one of France’s leading orchestral conductors and film music composers helped further shape his musical thought and style. Emilie Capulet shares her thoughts about this remarkable composer: “Rich in colour, drama and beautiful lyricism, Tomasi’s piano music is full of passion, tenderness, humour and virtuosity and offers a stunning kaleidoscope of emotions.”
'Through the Void', works by Richard Lambert
Emilie Capulet, solo piano, piano and voice and chamber music, with Claire Lees (soprano), Hollie-Anne Bangham (mezzo-soprano), Liv Watts (bassoon) and Rachel Smith (flute).
Organist and Pianist Richard Lambert, born in 1951, as a composer has worked with Elizabeth Poston, Malcolm Williamson and more recently Sebastian Forbes and Francis Pott. Lambert is not a British composer, he is equivocally an English one. “If Englishness in music can be encapsulated in words at all, those words would probably be ostensibly familiar and commonplace, yet deep and mystical as well as lyrical, melodic, melancholic, and nostalgic yet timeless” (Peter Ackroyd). “It is a common thread lurking somewhere in our musical psyche, as true of Elgar as it was of Britten, that emotional r epression in whatever form is an enormously creative force, and indeed articulating that rather than overcoming it is a key strand in musical “Englishness”’ (Nicholas Kenyon). Theodor Leschetizky’s perception of the quintessential English performer circa 1900 would not be out of place in such a gallery. “Good musicians … doing by work what the Slav does by instinct, their heads serving them better than their hearts.” “My catalogue,” Lambert says, “is shamelessly eclectic in its mixture of styles, and yet, despite cosmopolitan influences, I think of my compositional language as intrinsically English, yielding a kapellmeister repertory serving school, church and the wider community.”
Emilie Capulet plays Beethoven and Chopin
This recital recording features Beethoven's dramatic op. 31 no. 3 piano sonata alongside Chopin's fourth Ballade, waltzes and mazurkas.