Ave Maris Stella: Chamber Music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies Shop Now

Overgrown Path

To start the week two excellent reasons why this new release of Peter Maxwell Davies’ chamber music is good news. First, it’s great music passionately played by the chamber ensemble Gemini and vividly recorded in the slightly dry acoustics of Studio 1 at the Department of Sound & Recording at the University of Surrey. (The department is very highly rated and has offered a tonmeister course for many years). The main work on the CD is Ave Maris Stella from 1975 which lasts for almost 30 minutes. This is classic early Max, writing before he was seduced by the plush sounds of the symphony orchestra and string quartet. Strange isn’t it how composers like Maxwell Davies and Ralph Vaughan Williams produce some of their best works on religious themes yet are non-believers? Worth the purchase price alone is Dove, Star Folded from 2001 which, unusually for Max, is based on a Greek Byzantine hymn; John Tavener had better look out.

The second reason why this CD is good news is that it comes from the Metier label which has been acquired by the enterprising small Divine Art Record Company (who have nothing at all to do with Falun Gong). Metier have a back catalogue well worth exploring, Michael Finnissy Music for String Quartet, Roberto Gerhard String Quartets and Morton Feldman and Christopher Fox’s Clarinet and String Quartet are just some of the riches while Divine Art has a future release of piano sonatas from Elliott Carter, Miklos Rosza, Charles Ives and Edward MacDowell.

—Bob Shingleton

@divineartrecordingsgroup

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On 10 October, Métier is thrilled to present Michael Finnissy: Organ Works from acclaimed American organist Forrest Eimold! Don't miss Paul Hindmarsh's marvelous new piece in Classical Music Magazine on the importance of Britain's Brass Bands. A great primer for our new release, Discovering Wilfred Heaton! 3️⃣ Tracks from the 3 October release, Discovering Wilfred Heaton, are #nowplaying on Apple Music Classical and more! Don't miss both of our new Métier new releases on Deezer's New Classical Picks Playlist! ▶️ Listen now in our bio link. Today, Métier presents a “monumental” (The Wire) 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). On all platforms today at listn.fm/finnissypiano Métier Records is thrilled to release “Because They Have Songs” from composer Edward Cowie and featuring Gerard McChrystal and Richard Shaw! Out now on all platforms ▶️ listn.fm/becausetheyhavesongs “This monumental piano release features Michael Finnissy’s Verdi Transcriptions plus English Country-Tunes, and other compositions inspired by 19th century music. Soloist Ian Pace is a leading interpreter of Finnissy’s work, and has played his complete output for piano. Finnissy’s output is prolific, political and complex – he’s a leading late modernist.… luxuriant but challenging textures of the school often called new complexity.” —Andy Hamilton, The Wire Marvelous new MusicWeb International review for Edward Cowie: Because They Have Songs, before its release this Friday! “Buller is a composer who knows how to imbue feelings with ample warmth, colour and tension that keep the ear immersed in his sonic worlds. The musical language is largely tonal, with some roots in sacred choral traditions, yet with sufficient harmonic pungency to provide underpinnings of meaning to Leah Lax’s empathetic, urgent texts in the two extended works.… Conspirare, led by founding Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, respond to all of Buller’s emotional gestures with utmost cohesion and flexibility, and the soloists – basses Michael Hawes and Simon Barrad and soprano Emily Yocum Black – are first-rate.” —Donald Rosenberg, @gramophonemagazine “This performance will stay with me for a long time; it is both exquisitely beautiful and inherently melancholic.” —Edward Breen, Gramophone on Haitham Haidar's #Zaytoun