Edward Cowie has been described as the greatest living composer inspired by nature, and the recordings of his music issued by Métier over the last couple of years have drawn unstinted praise.  In this, his 80^th birthday year, a number of new recordings are in progress including the third volume in the Bird Portraits series, and music for string quartets and other chamber groupings.

Métier is also licensing a few particularly excellent recordings from the University of Hertfordshire which produced the UHR label some years ago and one of these is Rutherford’s Lights, a piano cycle by Cowie and played brilliantly by Richard Casey.

This epic cycle of 24 studies for solo piano explores the wonders of light in many states and forms from Simple Wave Motion to Dispersion and Radiation of Electromagnetic Waves. Himself an ex-student of physics, Cowie collaborated with Light Physicist Sir Michael Berry FRS in ‘an adventure in illuminations, colours and photons!’ The work was commissioned by The Institute of Physics in London, England and premiered and then recorded in 2010.

This is music inspired by science inspired by music! Pianist Richard Casey gives a stunning and richly virtuosic performance of this work, which after its premiere in The National Portrait Gallery in London, earned huge praise and plaudits for its originality and creative power. Cowie- renowned for music that challenges all the senses, has literally made a sonic reality of illumination in all its grandeur and kaleidoscopic possibilities. This is a re-release of the original 2010 recording, released at that time on the UHR label.  Scheduled for release in September, this will be the first issue of the recording in digital form, the UHR original having been a limited CD release only.

Rutherford’s Lights

Label: Métier

Catalogue number:  MEX 77116

Artist : Richard Casey (piano)

Works :

• Rutherford’s Lights
• Recorded in 2010 at Weston Auditorium, University of Hertfordshire

Edward Cowie on Métier

Edward Cowie is a composer of immense talent, as evidenced by the constant critical acclaim each of his recordings receives, and for his 80^th birthday year, Métier is preparing two new albums which are scheduled for release (subject to final confirmation) around June/July 2023.

The Kreutzer Effect

 ‘Considered by many to be the greatest living composer directly inspired by the Natural World’, Edward Cowie has turned his inspiration from the natural world in general to the human animal in particular! His collaborative relationship and friendship with the extraordinary Kreutzer String Quartet now stretches back almost a decade. It has seen the quartet record all of his first six quartets; works for violin duo (Particle Partita), and his astounding major solo violin work, GAD. Such has been the flowering of this relationship that Cowie has composed an entire CD devoted to the Kreutzer’s brilliant playing. His seventh string quartet was composed especially for this quartet and as a further symbol of the high esteem he has for the group, he has composed four solo portrait pieces – one for each member of the quartet. From Icarus ascending into incandescent heights on Clifton Harrison’s viola, to the learned and studies songs and habits of owls in his solo cello study for Neil Heyde; on to the almost surrealistic and ‘Beckett-like’ violin portrait of composer/violinist Mihailo Trandafilovski and finally to the incredible explosion of technique and song in his sonic libation to violinist and Leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, Peter Sheppard Skærved. This is literally high-powered music for a group on fire with creative talent!”

Where the Woodthrush Forever Sings (Bird Portraits No. 3)

Composer, visual artist, natural scientist and polymath, Edward Cowie offers us the third epic cycle of ‘bird portraits’ in a 24-movement work for clarinet(s) and piano. His first, Bird Portraits – composed for violin and piano, together with Where Song was Born for flute(s) and piano were recorded on this label and received universal and international acclaim. These are already set to become established as major duo chamber works on the world performance-platforms.

The first two cycles were dedicated to Birds of Britain and Australia in succession. Now, in his third cycle, the composer is inspired by 24 birds of the United States of America. In all three cases, it is not only the splendid and stunning songs of the birds themselves that emerge through and in the music. Habitat, atmosphere(s), seasons, times of day and night, flight-patterns and ritual displays are sonically stitched into an ever-unfolding tapestry of avian ‘dramas’. And just as the natural sounds and music(s) of Britain and Australia can be heard threaded into the first two cycles, this one resounds to the music of the aboriginal Indian cultures of the USA and to the music of and from jazz!The superb performers here are Anna Hashimoto (various clarinets), and the regular Bird Portrait series pianist, Roderick Chadwick.

Album Details

The Kreutzer Effect (MSV 28638)

Recording dates: during 2022 (in progress) in Yorkshire

• String Quartet No. 7 (Western Australia)
  • The Kreutzer Quartet
• Menurida Variants (Solo violin)
  • Peter Sheppard Skærved
• One Second Fiddle (solo violin)
  • Mihailo Trandafilovski
• Whatever Happened to Icarus? (solo viola)
  • Clifton Harrison
• Glaukopis (solo cello)
  • Neil Heyde

Where the Woodthrush Forever Sings (MSV 28639)

To be recorded in early 2023 in Hertfordshire

• Where the Woodthrush Forever Sings (cycle of 24 pieces devoted to birds of the USA)
  • Anna Hashimoto (clarinets)
  • Roderick Chadwick (piano)

Press for Edward Cowie

“His imaginative gift is unparalleled” (British Music Society)

“First-rate music… fascinating and creative” (The Art Music Lounge)

“Stunning, beautiful, revelatory” (MusicWeb International)

“Extraordinarily imaginative” (Records International)

“Simply outstanding” (Musical Opinion)

Edward Cowie Recordings