Métier Records announces new album for composer Gwyn Pritchard

2023 will see the release by Métier Records of an album of music by long established British composer Gwyn Pritchard.

The album Formations will include five of Gwyn Pritchard’s ensemble works (a quintet, two quartets and a trio) and three for solo piano, all performed by the distinguished Swiss contemporary music group Ensemble ö! conducted by Francesc Prat and their pianist Asia Ahmetjanova. All the ensemble works were composed between 2011 and 2018, and the piano pieces between 1999 and 2022. The recording is to be released to coincide with Pritchard’s 75^th birthday in 2023.

All the ensemble pieces are all based around strings, with flute, clarinet and piano in differing combinations. Two of the pieces explore the role of a soloist in a chamber music context: a violin in Features and Formations, and clarinet in Realms Apart. The choice of pieces reflects the international focus of Pritchard’s career, having been originally composed for and premiered by performers in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK; most of the pieces have received several performances in many European counties and beyond.

In character, the music ranges between the energetic and rhythmic complex writing of Realms Apart, and the transparent, darkly suppressed quality of the piano trio Res (a title taken from photographer Antonio Biassiucci’s work). In essence, however, all the music on this album reflects Pritchard’s persistent engagement with the relationship between instability and ambiguity on the one hand, and definition and gestural clarity on the other.

Gwyn Pritchard (b.1948) studied cello and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. His compositions include works for orchestra, ensembles, solo instruments, vocal works and pieces employing electronics. Much of his compositional activity has been based outside the UK, in particular in Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Italy. Other performances have been given in America, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, S Korea and New Zealand. They have been performed and broadcast on many radio and television networks, often by major orchestras, ensembles and soloists, and at international festivals. In 1982 Pritchard founded Uroboros Ensemble which includes some of Britain‘s leading instrumentalists. He is Professor of Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London, and has given lectures and masterclasses in Europe, America and Asia.