Seaford Music Distribution is pleased to announce that it is now the distributor in the UK for the Atoll label from New Zealand.

Atoll ACD400:
OSCAR NATZKA: THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION - Volume One

Arias and songs by Tchaikovsky, Apolloni, Petrie, Sanderson, Lehmann, Weiss, Elliott, Mozart, Handel, Rossini, Elgar, Charles, German, Adams, Sullivan, Kern, Ketelby, Mussorgsky, Hahn, Coward, Philips, Schumann, Warlock, Murray, Moss, Rasbach and Trad. (recorded 1938 - 1940)

Oscar Natzka bass with various accompaniments

Total time: 126.00

(2 discs - GB pounds 19.99)

Atoll ACD500:
OSCAR NATZKA: THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION - Volume Two

Arias and songs by Handel, Boughton, Benjamin, Hewitt, Semon, Quinn, Bellini, Mozart, Nicolai, Malashkin, Beethoven, Massenet, Bantock, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Evans, Rodgers and Trad. (recorded 1942 - 1950)

Oscar Natzka bass with various accompaniments

Total time: 124,47

(2 discs - GB pounds 19.99)

Produced in partnership with the National Library of New Zealand, these four discs issue for the first time, the complete recordings of the great New Zealand bass, Oscar Natzka.

Tully Potter in Summer 2001 Classic Record Collector - New Zealand was lucky to produce two such strong basses as Oscar Natzka (1912 - 1951) and Inia Te Wiata (1915 - 1971) within three years of each other. Natzka's collapse during a performance and subsequent death was a terrible loss. These two double-CD sets have been lovingly assembled to include all his commercial discs, plus unpublished tests and radio recordings."

Winter 2001 Classic Record Collector Awards - "His great voice has been given a new lease of life by this lovingly compiled and presented set from New Zealand - a second volume is almost as good". (Volume One - runner up in the Vocal category).

Atoll ACD399:
DEBUSSY & RAVEL STRING QUARTETS

Debussy - String Quartet;
Ravel - String Quartet

New Zealand String Quartet
(Helene Pohl & Douglas Beilman violin, Gillian Ansell viola, Rolf Gjelsten cello)

Total time: 54.22

(GB pounds 14.50)

We could not describe this disc better than ClassicsToday.com - "The quartets by Debussy and Ravel are as much about color as they are about style, technical precision, and the awesomely intricate details of phrasing. The catalog is full of every important (and not-so-important) ensemble's attempt to realize these elements in the most musically sensible and satisfying way they know. The New Zealand Quartet proves here that it knows a lot - a lot more in fact than most quartets about how to make these oft-played and oft-underestimated repertoire standards sound fresh and original. The result is some of the most intense and emotionally involving Debussy and Ravel on disc."

"All is enhanced by engineering that offers a close, intimate, but never intimidating sound. We hear everything in the music and yet the balance holds true throughout, and so does the naturalness of the string timbres, even at high volume. This is an excellent first choice or worthy alternate to your current favorite version."

Atoll ACD600:
BONBONS FOR ORGAN

Renaud - Toccata in D min.; Handel - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba; Mozart - Elvira Madigan; Arndt - Nola; Dubois - Fiat Lux; Setchell - Three Piece Suite; Nalle - Alles was du bist; Sousa - Washington Post; Faure - Berceuse, Sicilienne; Verdi - Grand March from Aida; Daquin - The Cuckoo; Saint-Saens - The Swan; Bovet - Fugue on the Pink Panther; Hamburger Totentanz; Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee; Mouret - Rondeau; Campra - Rigaudon; Gounod - Funeral March of a Marionette

Martin Setchell (Rieger organ of Christchurch Town Hall)

Total time: 68.23

(GB pounds 14.50)

Listen to an extract

Virtuoso organist Martin Setchell, on the magnificent Christchurch Town Hall Rieger organ, reminds us that the concert organ is both grand, and fun, in this highly entertaining collection of shorter pieces.

David Sell in The Christchurch Press - "About as catholic a collection of organ music as you are likely to find... with more than a sprinkling of fun and humour."

Paul Hale in May 2001 Organists' Review - "Popular? Organ-music? Well yes and no! What a variety of wonders are here paraded under that banner. Let me say first of all the playing is of the highest rank - rhythmical, accurate, musical, colourfully and imaginatively registered - all that one could desire. The organ, too, is of both interest and supreme quality. ...we have an already famous 1997 Rieger - blessed with more warmth and breadth than one might expect - in a large New Zealand concert hall...I would say that Blackpool-born Setchell's early influence (Reginald Dixon - who else?) plus his later diligence in acquiring a state-of-the-art technique and an impressive breadth of true keyboard musicianship stand him - and the listener - in good stead here. He shows us how this new Rieger sounds altogether warmer than many of their organs, less 'tight' in the reeds, more relaxed in the flutes and broader in the principal choruses. His own arrangements and compositions are worthy of a Lemare and his fingerwork (listen to that ever-busy bumble-bee) as neat and fleet as Bach's feet are supposed to have been. And that's saying something. Bon-bons? C'est vraiment bon. Yum-yum!"

Atoll ACD100:
FANFARES FOR A NEW MILLENIUM

Christopher Blake - Auckland!; Eve de Castro-Robinson - Other Echoes;
John Rimmer - Vulcan; Juliet Palmer - Secret Arnold;
John Psathas - Luminous; Lisa Meridan-Skipp - Firecracker;
John Elmsly - Resound!; Dorothy Buchanan - Peace;
Chris Cree Brown - Y2K Pacemaker; Philip Dadson - Maya;
David Hamilton - Zarya

Auckland Philharmonia conducted by James Sedares, Nicholas Braithwaite, Kazufumi Yamashita, Samuel Wong, Edvard Tchivzhel, Vladimir Verbitsky, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Yip Wing-sie and Anthony Halstead

Total time: 56.07

(GB pounds 14.50)

The Auckland Sinfonia present scintillating performances of 11 specially commissioned fanfares for the 21st Century. They are conducted by many international conductors associated with the orchestra in recent years.

Tall Poppies TP141:
THE OCKEGHEM LEGACY

Josquin des Prez - Nimphes des bois; Ave Maria; O Domine Jesu Christe;
Veni, Sancte Spiritus; Antoine Brumel - Sicut lilium;
Jehan Ockeghem - Alma redemptoris mater; Salve regina;
Loyset Compere - Omnium bonorum plena; Pierre de la Rue - O salutaris hostia

Sydney Chamber Choir, Nicholas Routley

Total time: 62.46

(GB pounds 14.50)

Here is a celebration of the life and work of Ockeghem. His death occasioned many elegies, of which the most famous is Nimphes des bois, and all of the composers appearing on this CD were at Ockeghem's funeral in 1497. The Sydney Chamber Choir is acclaimed for its stylish performances of this repertoire and the recording was made in the sumptuous acoustic of the St Scholastica Chapel in Sydney.

Tall Poppies TP144:
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - CELLO SUITES

Bach - Suite No.1, BWV1007; Suite No.2, BWV1008; Suite No.3, BWV1009
Suite No.4, BWV1010; Suite No.5, BWV1011; Suite No.6, BWV1012

David Pereira solo cello

Total time: 154.45

(2 discs - GB pounds 27.00)

David Pereira gives a personal view of these works which have remained the cornerstone of the cellist's repertoire and he is only the second Australian to have recorded these works. His interpretations are full of the romanticism one has come to expect from Pereira, but tempered by a thorough understanding of the historical requirements of these seminal masterpieces. This 2 disc set forms part of Tall Poppies' tribute to the Bach year, along with the set of organ works, Clavierübung III, played by John O'Donnell on TP140.

Tall Poppies TP150:
ANDREW FORD - ICARUS

Ford - Hymn to the Sun; Icarus drowning (Komung Music Festival Ensemble, Andrew Ford); Like Icarus ascending (Rohan Smith violin);
Chamber Concerto No.3: In constant flight (Rohan Smith violin, Terra Austrlis Incognita, Andrew Ford);
Parabola (Annette Tesoriero & Richard Moore voices, Bronwen Jones bass clarinet, Lisa Moore piano, Daryl Pratt percussion)

Total time: 67.57

(GB pounds 14.50)

The Icarus mythology has fascinated Andrew Ford for many years, and here are all the pieces thus inspired. The Kowmung Music Festival Players are featured, along with Terra Australis recorded at the Aspen Festival in the USA. Barbara Blackman wrote the text for Parabola and "Like Icarus Ascending" features New York-based violinist Rohan Smith.

Michael Oliver in August 2002 Gramophone: "With the exception of the Hymn to the Sun, a brightly euphonius, chant-like and bell-like miniature, the works on this disc form a cycle about the myth of Icarus...All three have contributed to Icarus drowning and are in a sense used up by it: it and the Hymn are the pieces I want to hear again...The performances are good throughout, the recordings also...Characterful ruminations on the Icarus myth."

Tall Poppies TP152:
TERRAINS

Peter Sculthorpe - Landscape; Koto Music I; Koto Music II;
Michael Hannan - Piano Collage I; Desert Dance; Cicadas; Cageian Loops;
Circle Journey; Valley of the Winds; Piano Collage II; Piano Chant

Michael Hannan piano interior

Total time: 69.15

(GB pounds 14.50)

Michael Hannan performs the Peter Sculthorpe classics, "Landscape" and "Koto Music I and II", as well as eight of his own works, all involving layers of atmospheric improvised textures of sounds from the interior of the piano. Several of these works include additional material from tape and tape 'loops'.