John Pickard is best known for his powerful orchestral and instrumental works, and his music has been widely praised for its large-scale sense of architecture and bold handling of an extended tonal idiom.

Antoni Gaudí’s monumental temple La Sagrada Familia is a universe within a building. Its mass of stone and metal is bathed in coloured light diffused from dazzling stained glass windows. The colossal structure is supported by great pillars inspired by the shapes of tree trunks that re-inforce the impression of a spiritual forest. Around the main access points to the basilica are three great facades; Nativity, Passion and Glory. Each is a visual world unto itself, stylistically apart yet united by Gaudí’s grandiose vision. These three facades are the inspiration of my three-movement La Sagrada Familia Symphony.

Portuguese virtuoso Artur Pizarro makes a welcome return with works by two brilliant pianist-composers. The Brazilian Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão were born in the same year, less than three months apart. Both were child prodigies who became concert pianists, pedagogues and composers. Oswald's Piano Concerto dates from about 1886. Although influences of Faure can be detected, its overall character owes more to the late Romantic German style. Napoleao's Piano Concerto No.2 is undated but was probably composed around the same time as Oswald's. Pizarro is only the third pianist to champion this spectacular work.

"In conversations about Franz Schmidt the recurring theme emerging for many is that listening to a performance of his music at a young age became the turning point in their lives –the realization of how powerful music can be," says Jonathan Berman, whose longtime love of Franz Schmidt's work has its origins in a performance preparation for his Fourth Symphony.

Lyrita releases British Piano Concertos Volume 2 with Simon Callaghan and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (SRCD.416) on 1 September 2023, with three world première recordings of works by John Addison, Gordon Jacob and Edmund Rubbra. The album is conducted by Stephen Bell and George Vass.

Arwel Hughes (1909-1988) was the tenth son of a Welsh coal miner, and his progress through life was a remarkable one.  Along the way, he studied composition at the Royal College of Music, where his tutors were Gordon Jacob, Gustav Holst and, importantly, Vaughan Williams.

Orchestral works by Daryl Runswick performed by the mighty BBC National Orchestra of Wales with an opening track performed by the internationally renowned vocal ensemble, The King's Singers.

10 stars out of 10 - "This is one hell of a performance of Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto. Emmanuelle Bertrand and conductor Pascal Amoyel team up to produce one of the most intense and neurotic versions yet of this intense and neurotic piece". – Classics Today

The unjustly neglected and often dissident music of Ruth Gipps is with this album finding all the resonance it deserves by Rumon Gamba and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, having already championed many British composers from the twentieth century with their series devoted to British Tone Poems and Overtures from the British Isles. While, not surprisingly, there are echoes of the most popular composers of the time – Sibelius, Walton, and Vaughan Williams – the music is notable for its personal voice, confident conception, and vivid writing for the orchestra.