For the Record, Op. 344: Curtis Stewart; Stanley Grill

August 1, 2025, 5:55 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening! Click on the highlighted links to obtain each album or learn more about the artists.

Violinist Curtis Stewart. Photo by Elman Studio.

Coleridge-Taylor
Curtis Stewart, violin
National Philharmonic; Michael Repper conducting

Violinist Curtis Stewart celebrates 150th Anniversary of the birth of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with an album featuring world-premiere studio recordings of the composer’s tone poem Toussaint L’Ouverture and Ballade Op. 4 for Violin and Orchestra. It also includes a newly uncovered suite of five Negro Melodies arranged by Coleridge-Taylor, paired with modern recompositions of three Negro Melodies arranged by Curtis Stewart, Hamilton Berry, and Andrew Roitstein. Although the London-born composer was highly prolific and successful, much of his music remains unknown. Coleridge-Taylor authorities Lionel Harrison and the late Patrick Meadows recovered the original manuscripts for Ballade Op. 4 and the five Negro Melodies at the British Library and the Library of Congress. Modern performance editions were created using these original manuscripts, which you can download for free at this link, where you can also listen to the works and learn about upcoming performances. "With this project, we aim to preserve and promote the legacy of one of the greatest composers from the turn of the 20th century," said conductor Michael Repper. "Our mission in researching, performing, and recording this music is to share Coleridge-Taylor’s works as widely as possible. We hope the music finds listeners and performers who become interested in sharing and performing it themselves." BELOW: 3 Selections from “24 Negro Melodies”: I. Deep River (America) (Arr. for Violin and Orchestra by Curtis Stewart and Hamilton Berry)

Fantasy for Piano and String Orchestra
Viktor Cižic, piano
Zagreb Sinfonietta, Miran Vaupotic conducting
Stanley Grill, composer

Here is a piece of music by Violinist.com member Stanley Grill, who describes it as "music inspired by the great musical works with the same title by Mozart and Schubert... Composed in 2020, after four months of isolation at home in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I was sorely in need of fantasy. Reality had been too depressing. This music helped to lift my spirits. As music does, it arrived from and sings to another more hopeful place."

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.

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