Reviews

Ed Hughes is a contemporary British contrapuntalist of unique originality and instrumental flair. [His music] is all given with consummate security and audibility… I find the ensemble music irresistible.

Tide is a beguiling and impressively conceived and performed collection that testifies to the continuing vitality of the experimental project.

When performed together, as they are on disc one, Cageian controlled chance comes into play, with the points of entry being left to the chance decision of the musicians, but with the shape of the three discrete musical strands controlled by the score. If I was controller of BBC Radio 3 – one can but dream – I would order the thirty-one minute composite version of James Weeks’ Tide to be played in its entirety on the station’s Breakfast programme every day for a week as an antidote to the neurofissilty inducing dumb-downedness that currently prevails there.

Weeks’ own music clearly resonates in empathy with the composers he likes to programme. Tide is a composite composition – the gradually unfolding canonic energy fields of the clarinet piece anchors everything else … composed beginnings trigger a structural labyrinth.

There’s obviously something procedural going on in this music, probably more than two or three things at once … The piece is composed as series of waves, of dynamic, of pitch, of rhythm, of tessitura, of density, and so on. Waves of one sort or another overlap, producing cascading effects of beating patterns and interferences … for all its superficial simplicity this isn’t music that is easily summarised. The more one listens, the more one is impressed at how much variety Weeks has built in to what began as such simple inspiration.

Heard alone, Sky is a work of transcendental calm. Burnham Air, by contrast, is a plaintive work of curling scales and arpeggios. Tide sits in between. The gradual unfolding of these three planes in the composite work TIDE feels almost mystical in its inevitability, the whole becoming greater than the already substantial sum of its parts. The result is music that feels original but in some way also primeval.

Maltese-born composer Karl Fiorini has written two deeply impressive concertos for violin and orchestral forces.. Orchestral climaxes are cannily prepared, and powerfully delivered in this splendidly expert performance, equally well recorded. These complex and distinctive works, full of active dissonance, elements of birdsong, and powerful emotional states, are highly auspicious. [Fiorini] is clearly a composer to watch – adherent of no fads, strongly focused on compositional essence, and unafraid of emotional extremes in his music-making. This is a splendid disc in every respect. RECORDING OF THE MONTH

One senses the arrival of an important new talent in Karl Fiorini. These two violin concertos are works of extraordinary power and momentum. This gripping CD should mark a turning point in his career.

Both [soloists] are among the best violinists in their respective countries and both play the pyrotechnics of these demanding works with consummate grace. Both of Fiorini’s concertos are impressive, but they differ widely. Neither is traditional, but each has the power to move the listener with a beautifully interwoven tapestry of sound. A new and important talent on the classical music scene, he has written challenging dissonant music that may take a few hearings to fully appreciate, but connoisseurs of new works will want to hear his fascinating concertos.

This is a super disc of two very impressive violin concertos…. powerful and robust works full of interest with never a dull moment. The writing for the soloist is exemplary and the orchestra is bright and staggeringly good. The sound could not be better and the two violinists are remarkable with excellent intonation and a virtuosity that does not get in the way of the music. The conductor is amazing as he copes with difficult scores with apparent ease. To say more would be a list of superlatives, I cannot recommend this CD highly enough.

Karl Fiorini is the most important Maltese composer since Charles Camilleri… a genuine composer. Works both deserving recording and study. The performances appear excellent as are the recordings. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

With humility, eclecticism and a keen sense of harmony, Fiorini’s music retains the attention of the listener, often taking challenging and unexpected twists and turns, but retaining cogency and coherency. In these virtuosic pieces the two soloists have precise and apt intonation and courageous performing styles. These concertos require power and momentum as they alternate between dissonance and tonal progressions. The players embrace this coming together of different themes and musical ideas with endearing sass and electrifying pyrotechnics.

Both pieces are gripping, but I found the second one to be especially breathtaking. It is gigantic, wild and virile. Marta Lelek possesses the inordinate strength of a marvelous Amazon. In her hands the instrument moves forward with a masterful drive. What masterfully-wielded power! Staggering! [Fiorini’s] music is entrancing because it is tuned to the living, deliberately, in an overwhelmingly convincing manner. These are twenty-five minutes of some of the most intense music I have ever heard.

The two Violin Concertos are hallmark works in new music to my ears. In both cases the solo violin part has a genuine idiosyncratic, outgoing quality that in the hands of these two virtuosi utterly convinces. The orchestra responds to the soloist with the give-and-take dialog one would expect. Bartosz Zurakowski conducts the Sudecka Philharmonic Orchestra in a masterful way and they come through beautifully. Karl Fiorini gives us two excellent works that seem sure to enter the concerto repertoire. They are majestic, thrilling, ultra-modern and exciting to hear. Molto bravo!

Concerto [no.1 is] very much a successor to some of the great violin concertos of the 20th century from such figures as Bartok and Shostakovich. Fiorini’s soundworld is full of angst and mystery, quite spellbinding with some superb playing. Both soloists are exceptionally fine and Bartosz Zurakowski draws excellent playing from the orchestra. The recordings are first rate, Metier must be congratulated for bringing these two terrific works to our attention.

Fiorini, still very young, amazes us, first, by the extraordinary quality of his music, The Concerto for violin and chamber orchestra [no. 1] is a small masterpiece. What is surprising is the lyricism, the passion that this music conveys. The orchestra demonstrates a beautiful quality in tutti and reveals excellent soloists. An extremely good CD by any standards. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Interpreted at the highest level …Fiorini’s writing is extremely lyrical and intense, very effective for instrumental soloists, linearly and polyphonically well constructed. His greatest achievement is perhaps to finely balance very expressive melodies with bold complex atmospheres. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

These solo violin pieces.. bristle with harmonic and digital demands. Some of the bowing and articulation is deliberately vicious, but violence is often balanced by reflection… when [Pellay] bases a piece on a folk song … the results are rather lovely. These are not studies… but brief character pieces, utilizing the vast potential of the violin to mint the instrument’s technical and expressive resources. All praise to the recording engineers, and above all to the intrepid Sheppard Skærved who plays like a man possessed.

A very great deal more approachable than the title would suggest … the title is meant to be taken light-heartedly. We get a fair helping of modernistic techniques – glissandi, harmonics, left hand pizzicato – but there is nothing here that Paganini would not have recognized. The composer’s wryly humorous style of writing extends not only to his programme notes but delightfully to sections of the music itself. The music cannot fail to enchant an audience and hold their attention. The acoustic … enables us to hear every detail of Skærved’s superlatively skilful playing

John Ramsay is … on the basis of this CD, a highly talented composer. [The four quartets] are most accessible and deserving of attention… they are all such as to commend themselves to the intelligent music-lover. Strongly recommended. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️