Meridian Records is proud to announce this exciting new release from Leon Bosch (double bass) and Sung-Suk Kang (piano): The Music of Pedro Valls, which includes the world premiere recordings of The Second Fantasy, ‘Homenaje a Bottesini’ and the Four Juguetes.

Leon Bosch has an honoured place among the select group of virtuoso double bass players worldwide. Concerto engagements in many parts of the world with the likes of conductors Pinchas Zukerman, Nicolas Kraemer, Nicolae Moldoveanu and Guido Johannes Rumstadt have been matched by collaborations with a long line of leading chamber music groups - among them the Lindsay, Belcea and Brodsky string quartets, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, the Moscow Virtuosi and the Zukerman Chamber Players. Partnerships with solo performers have embraced such pianists as Peter Donohoe, Vladimir Ovchinikov, Mikhail Rudy and Maria João Pires.

Leon Bosch has a growing discography of concerto and recital recordings. This will shortly include two albums devoted to the music of the great Giovanni Bottesini and two featuring music by British composers. Then will follow everything from a disc of Russian music and another of compositions by Domenico Dragonetti, to the complete works for solo double bass by Dittersdorf, Menotti’s concerto and recordings of a string of neglected concertos for the instrument.

Sung-Suk Kang enjoys an international career that takes her across Europe, to the Far East and to both North and South America. Her many recordings and broadcasts for leading international radio and television networks include the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy and Berg.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Sung-Suk Kang received her first piano lesson at age 5 and went on to study at the prestigious Seoul Institute of the Arts. Further training in Singapore was followed by intensive studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK (with Derrick Wyndham) and the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna (with the legendary Paul Badura-Skoda). As a student, Kang participated in master classes given by the likes of Vlado Perlemuter, Joseph Kalichstein and Pascal Rogé.

In 1990, Kang received the accolade of winning a coveted place at the world-renowned Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, among just a handful of other musicians. Here she performed with a string of leading international performers, such as Luis Claret and Zoltan Szekely.

Kang has gone on to develop a distinguished and varied career in concertos, recitals and chamber music. Engagements have taken her as far afield as the UK and Singapore, Canada and Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy and Peru. A particular honour was the invitation to perform in duet repertoire with Paul Badura-Skoda at a major Mozart event in the Carinthischer Sommer festival in Austria.
Sung-Suk Kang is a professor at the Vienna Conservatoire.

After expertly portraying the music of one of the most influential and innovative double bass composers of the romantic period, Bottesini, it was a natural journey for Leon to discover Spaniard Pedro Valls’ colourful and virtuosic instrumental writing for the Salon. After all, Bottesini had left an impact with his legacy after a stay in Barcelona: the main city of Valls’ home district, Catalunya. Leon Bosch’s personal search to explore and unearth these surprisingly overlooked works from a hundred years ago, led him to uncover the fact that a few of the pieces, namely The Second Fantasy, ‘Homenaje a Bottesini’ and the Four Juguetes had never been recorded before. This spurred him on a fruitful quest with his long-time musical accompanist, Sung-Suk Kang, to give a new lease of life to these wonderful, yet almost forgotten, compositions featured on this CD.

Valls pays homage to Bottesini in these works, but that is not to say that he has not created original and musically intriguing pieces himself: In Leon’s own words “The distinctive and invigorating challenge in Valls’ music, is the instinctive and uniquely Spanish ingredient”.

This Meridian release features:

•  A ‘must-have’ double bass recording of Spanish music by Pedro Valls, including the world premieres of The Second Fantasy, ‘Homenaje a Bottesini’ and the Four Juguetes. A lovingly affectionate performance by Leon Bosch and the ever present Sung-Suk Kang on piano.

• The accompanying booklet contains an insightful look into the composer and his works, as well as interview questions with Leon Bosch on his mission to obtain, learn and record the pieces featured.

This CD can be ordered from Meridian Records on http://www.meridian-records.co.uk/acatalog/index.html