Featured Album April 2026: Flutes & Frets Duo "Heir of All the Ages"

Intimate, instrumental duo performances of British music from across the centuries take centre stage on this month's Featured Album, the long-awaited debut from the acclaimed Flutes & Frets Duo (Beth Stone and Daniel Murphy) on EM Records. Followers of The Early Music Shop may remember the duo's performance at our Snape Maltings shop two years ago, or Daniel's brilliant demonstrations of our lutes and guitars, which are still available to watch on our YouTube channel. We were delighted to see the pair bring out their first duo album and with Daniel's solo performance at Snape coming up on 23rd April, this is a fitting month for it to be our Featured Album. Read on to find out more...

Heir of All the Ages
Flutes & Frets Duo

OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR APRIL 2026

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From the artists' press release:

Heir of All the Ages spans four centuries of elegiac English music, brought to life by Beth Stone on flutes and Daniel Murphy on lutes and guitars. Ranging from the timeless works of Henry Purcell to music by influential figures such as Sir Malcolm Arnold, the disc reflects EM Records’s dedication to highlighting British composers throughout history.

The disc opens with the meditative “Christe qui lux es et dies III” by Robert White, featuring the deeply contemplative sacrum chant presented on solo flute. White’s Renaissance counterpoint finds a natural successor in the pavanes and galliards of Anthony Holborne, whose works lend a sense of continuity between sacred and secular forms. This sentiment continues in Holborne’s dances and later in Henry Purcell’s otherworldly evocation of a magical landscape in “The Fairy Queen”. Arranged by Daniel Murphy, Purcell’s work assumes a revitalised and nuanced character through the lute, while maintaining its playful yet lyrical idiom.

A highlight is the World Première recording of Henry Eccles’s Sonata Settima from his Second Livre de Sonates à Violon Seul et la Basse. Eccles, celebrated for his expressive and melancholic style, stands out as a remarkable example of musical diversity, blending elements from Italian, French and English traditions.

The second half of the disc showcases the flute’s lyrical versatility. Works such as Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy for Flute introduce a captivating contrast between melodious and virtuosic writing; while the disc concludes with the World Première recording of Seth Bye’s “Bridge 12”, fusing urban and folk idioms and offering a contemporary reflection on place and identity.

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Why The Early Music Shop loves "Heir of All the Ages":

In a similar vein to last month’s Featured Album (Ruby Hughes’ splendid Amidst The Shades), this month we travel down another musical timeline in the company of the Flutes & Frets Duo. Flautist Beth Stone (Lumas Winds) and lutenist/guitarist Daniel Murphy (Bellot Ensemble) present a chronological evolution of their instruments told through a series of short pieces by British composers across the generations.

Working together since their days studying at London’s Royal College of Music, Stone and Murphy display a deep understanding of their instruments, and a delicacy and musical intimacy which makes the album a compelling listening experience. Beginning with renaissance flute and lute, they move through several iterations of their instruments, illustrating the changes in sound palette as music has evolved, eventually arriving at the contemporary metal flute and classical guitar. This is a rare opportunity to hear these two instruments outside of larger ensemble works; here, they really do work as a duo, where interplay and connection rank higher than traditional melody and accompaniment roles.

For an album where the repertoire spans some five centuries, there is a surprising sense of continuity. Perhaps this is down to the duo’s careful choice of music with thematic and melodic similarities, together with Daniel Murphy’s intuitive duo arrangements of extracts from works such as Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and John Eccles’ The Mad Lover. Highlights from the programme include a world premiere recording of Henry Eccles’ Sonata Settima, where a stately Aria contrasts with an animated Fugue. Elsewhere, Scottish traditional influences abound in tunes from Niel Gow’s Second Collection of Strathspey Reels which, while clearly classicised, are performed with a stylistic flair and a warmth of sound, with Niel Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Brother offering a heart-wrenching melancholy.

The final piece is a sensitively performed new commission by fiddler and composer Seth Bye, Bridge 12. Known for his work in duo Filkin’s Drift, Bye takes inspiration from London’s River Lea for a contemporary folk piece based on the traditional 3/2 hornpipe. While one might expect this to be somewhat of a wildcard, the preceding folk-based suites on the album (the aforementioned Gow, along with John William Duarte’s English Suite No. 4) offer a natural link, while Murphy’s stylish arrangement of John Henry Maunder’s Espagnola introduces harmonic ideas developed further in Bye’s new piece. The wildcard actually turns out to be Stone’s solo rendition of Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy for Flute Op. 89 which, while performed with real elegance and control, is a little jarring in context of the surrounding works.

Accompanying the CD format of the album is a 40-page booklet bursting with information, so much so that it’s nearly impossible to remove it from the CD case! Written largely by Stone, the focus is on biographies of the composers, history, and analysis of the music. The notes are fluent and interesting, if slightly impersonal; it would have been nice to read more about the performers’ connections with the works and why they have been selected. This is evidently a project where the music has been prioritised over the musicians. While often the mark of a humble performer, in this case the label has omitted to include the artists’ name on the front cover, and one feels they probably deserved this credit.

The success for the Flutes & Frets Duo here is their versatility across the wide spanning programme. From the elegance of their renaissance counterpoint to the subtle, lyrical lilt of the contemporary works, this disc exhibits the skill of two instrumentalists with long and varied careers ahead. It will be interesting to see how the thematic threads of future duo albums develop, but for now, this is a thoughtful and engaging calling card from a special musical partnership.

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Heir of All the Ages is available from The Early Music Shop online or in-store at our Snape Maltings showroom!

Click here to order now!

Click below to watch a video of Beth and Daniel performing two of Nicholas Lanier's songs from Select Ayres and Dialogues Book 2: The Marigold and Loves Constancy, as featured on Heir of All the Ages.

See Daniel Murphy performing a solo recital at The Early Music Shop, Snape Maltings on Thursday 23 April at 12pm as the latest in our monthly series of informal recital – free entry, no booking required. Find out more about our recital series by clicking here.