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International Piano

This eminently worthwhile release from the Australian Trio Anima Mundi opens the window on a neglected corpus of English chamber music, the coal-smoke nostalgia of Muriel Draper’s Music at Midnight a rustle away.

Boughton’s Celtic Prelude (1921) wends a thoughtful journey, bearing repetition. Climaxing in a ruddy setting ‘Twankydillo; from a 1719 text, Pills to Purge Melancholy, Forrester’s Folk Song Fantasy (Cobbett Competition, 1917), evokes lanes and yarrowed Sussex hedgerows.

Warner’s Trio (Coolidge Prize, 1921) is crafted and transparently spicy/impish, with a deft central scherzo. Primarily a violist, he could turn an efficient set-piece. Going too often through the motions, Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s early effort (1893) catches the attention less. Contrastingly, Rosalind Ellicott’s First (1889), the discovery of this album, is a full-blown vision with a comely central Adagio. Weaving notes, casting spells, generating tension, structure building was her strength. No Victorian drapes here.

If there’s a message that comes across from these period-specific works on either side of the First World War, it’s that the Stanford/Elgar/Bantock/VW example wasn’t the only English one; that the folksong revival was to take many forms; and that the Mendelssohn/ Brahms/Leipzig school wasn’t the Holy Grail for all. Escape was possible.

—Ateş Orga

@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