Ovation Press Publishes Arrangement Concurrently With Cellophony Debut Album
Our latest arrangement for cello ensemble has the unique fortune to also be featured on a new CD. In late August, Cellophony – a London-based cello octet – released their debut album Vibrez which features a varied tracklist of arrangements and adaptations for cello ensemble, including Franz Schubert's Three Songs from Schwanengesang.
We are excited to be able to offer Three Songs from Schwanengesang, arranged by Cellophony member Richard Birchall, for download exclusively at Ovation Press.
About Schubert's Three Songs from Schwanengesang for Cello Octet
The Three Songs from Schwanengesang for Cello Octet come from a collection by Franz Schubert, published posthumously a few months after the composer's death. The original work Schwanengesang contains 14 songs: 13 of them musical settings to poems by the German poets Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine, and the last based on a poem by the Austrian Johann Gabriel Seidl. This arrangement from Richard Birchall elegantly reworks three of these songs for the cello octet, fusing eight cellos into a unified sound while also allowing each instrument to shine through.
The three songs contained in this arrangement are:
- "Liebesbotschaft"
- "Staendchen"
- "Aufenthalt"
About the Editor – Richard Birchall of Cellophony
Richard Birchall pursues a varied and colourful career as cellist, composer, arranger, and lyricist. As a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra he performs regularly in the great concert halls of the world; he has also appeared as Guest Principal cello with the Northern Sinfonia and Irish Chamber Orchestra, and as concertmaster of the London Cello Orchestra.
Birchall is also highly active in chamber music, composition, and arrangement. He is a founding member of the Cellophony Cello Octet, an ensemble of eight cellists that have performed throughout the UK, in Europe, and as far afield as South Korea. Birchall has completed numerous transcriptions for Cellophony’s core repertoire, and also produced commissioned arrangements for the Doric, Barbirolli, and Tippett quartets (including Psycho Suite, subsequently released on the Signum label), the London Cello Orchestra and the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra. In recent years Richard has turned increasingly to original composition. His piece Mirrors was written for Cellophony and premiered in the Park Lane Group series at the Purcell Room in January 2011.
As a group, Cellophony recently signed to Edition Records and released their highly anticipated debut CD Vibrez to great critical acclaim.
Learn more about Richard Birchall and Cellophony