Toccata Classics to Release Four New Recordings This October
The label will spotlight orchestral, choral, organ, and chamber works spanning four composers and centuries.
Toccata Classics is set to release four albums in October, presenting orchestral, choral, organ, and chamber works by composers Cedric Thorpe Davie, Caspar Diethelm, Tony Hewitt-Jones, and Giuseppe Cambini. The releases include CEDRIC THORPE DAVIE: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, VOLUME ONE, CASPAR DIETHELM: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, VOLUME ONE: CONCERTOS, TONY HEWITT-JONES: CHORAL WORKS AND COMPLETE ORGAN MUSIC, and GIUSEPPE CAMBINI: CHAMBER MUSIC, VOLUME ONE: STRING QUINTETS I, several of which contain first recordings of the featured works.
Cedric Thorpe Davie: Orchestral Music, Volume One (TOCC 0593)
Releasing 2 October 2026.
For the middle decades of the twentieth century, Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913–83) was a mainstay of musical life in Britain—and in Scotland in particular—as an administrator, academic, choral director, and, especially, composer. His many film scores brought him a wide audience, but the orchestral works he wrote for the concert hall are virtually unknown. The five works heard here, all in their first recordings, reveal craftsmanship of a high order and a natural melodic gift, in a style anchored in the sound worlds of Sibelius and Vaughan Williams—both of whom he knew personally—combined with a Scottish accent that gives this music a unique and personal voice.
Caspar Diethelm: Orchestral Music, Volume One: Concertos (TOCC 0804)
Releasing 2 October 2026.
Caspar Diethelm (1926–97) was one of the leading Swiss composers of the twentieth century. His free-tonal style—angular yet accessible—drew on the inheritance of several of his predecessors, above all Hindemith, Honegger (both of whom were his teachers), Martin, and Schoeck, with Bartók adding rhythmic spice. These influences he combined with an awareness of modernism to form an individual and expressive musical language of his own. The three concertos recorded here are remarkable for the striking clarity of their orchestral textures; they also exhibit Diethelm's fondness for enlivening his musical narratives with surges of energy and touches of gleeful humor.
Tony Hewitt-Jones: Choral Works and Complete Organ Music (TOCC 0808)
Releasing 2 October 2026.
Many composers who wrote primarily for the English cathedral tradition have not received the recognition they deserve outside that cloistered world. Tony Hewitt-Jones (1926–89) is one such composer. Although the choral and organ works heard on this album naturally respond to the requirements of the performers for whom he was writing, they possess a freshness, energy, and individuality that transcend their origins, with a sound world overlapping that of some of his close contemporaries, including John Gardner, Kenneth Leighton, and William Mathias.
Giuseppe Cambini: Chamber Music, Volume One: String Quintets I (TOCC 0810)
Releasing 2 October 2026.
Giuseppe Cambini, born in Italy in 1746 and based for most of his life in Paris, left behind such a vast body of fine music—more than 600 compositions—that it is surprising the year and place of his death remain uncertain. Among that remarkable output are over 100 string quintets scored for two cellos rather than the more usual second viola, giving them an unusually rich sonority. Cambini's elegant melodic style and spontaneous contrapuntal writing help explain why his chamber music was so popular during his lifetime—but not why it has since been forgotten. Its refreshingly natural style combines something of Mozart's lyrical tunefulness with Haydn's bright craftsmanship, while its more thoughtful moments occasionally look ahead to Beethoven.
