Reviews

It is impossible to find words to give this recording a higher recommendation. It has already earned a spot on my want list for the current year and I’ll continue to listen to it regularly. 

At the keyboard…is Duncan Honeybourne, a musician with an innate understanding of the melodic and structural strengths of Baines’ music. William Baines is an important voice in early twentieth-century British music and he has been well served by this impressive release. The ardent and noble rendering of Robin Walker’s heartfelt homage is a considerable bonus. Highly recommended.

This most recent release by German classical Burkard Schliessmann…offer[s] moments of poetic transport, brief islands of relief between fateful urgings of the grandly sweeping landscape that feels conversant… Expressively nuanced, the music accelerates and retreats in coy, salon gestures, both bemused and subtle in their tragic lilt.

Micheli really goes to town with this material, attacking the keyboard with abandon that is nevertheless carefully controlled – and handling the considerable technical challenges of the variations with tremendous skill and a certain panache. As a whole, this is a disc, characterized throughout by excellence of playing…

Phillips’ impeccable musicality is everywhere apparent throughout the recording, and his love for Chopin comes through clearly as he manages all this music almost caressingly, allowing the feelings it evokes to flow freely from the piano to the listener.

…if one hoped for some new and interesting sounds in listening to this, one gets them…the recording…is very vivid and displays the whole ensemble very well indeed…hopefully this disc will raise the profile of this kind of wind orchestra.

a…varied aural experience… intricate and insistently modern… attractively exploratory… particularly engaging

This disc is altogether successful in exposing listeners to new and interesting woodwind works that are played to excellent effect by the very fine musicians of the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble under Shea Lolin.

Their [Huberman Piano Trio] Rachmaninoff Trio is top notch. The Huberman Trio plays this rarely heard piece with all the passion and attention to detail one could ever want…it is the trio pieces that set this release apart and make it worth getting.

Composer Edward Cowie has found the alchemical formula for transmuting various bird cries into duets for clarinet and piano. Played mellifluously on E-flat and B-flat clarinet by Anna Hashimoto, with Roderick Chadwick at the keyboard, this group of four “songbooks” are a series of short explorations of various birds’ musical identities. I can’t decide whether it’s better to know which bird is singing as the disc plays or to simply enjoy the walk while trying to guess.

It is unusual for a project like this to arise with the poet, but here [Chinwe D.] John’s fine words are giving shape by two rather different but equally talented [Stuart MacRae, Bernard Hughes] composers. The result is a disc that is satisfying in many ways, from the composers’ imaginatively intelligent lyricism and ability to create songs both satisfying to sing and musically expressive, to the fine performances from all the artists involved.

This disc serves as a dual portrait of [John] Buckley and of [Emma] Coulthard, and provides an enjoyable introduction to their work, both individually and together. The repertoire is a significant collection which is deserves to be better known. For Emma Coulthard, this debut disc is an important step in her career development and it’s wonderful to hear contemporary music performed with such dedication, care and passion. Highly recommended.

We always like Östlund’s work but this one is really good, ranging from other-worldly ethereal sounds to more traditional chamber orchestral sections and lovely instrumentals. It’s almost true to say no two tracks are the same. Music is often used to take the listener to a different place, and Östlund does this better than most.

This is something of an avant-garde affair — it explores the Macedonian composer’s search for “chroma” (colour) in music (the title from the Greek, “poly” for many and “chroma” for colour, but you knew that) — but it’s never hard on the ear and is most interesting.

From the grand, rolled chords of the “Sinfonia” of Bach’s Second Partita, several things become clear: this is an interpretation of conviction and clarity, caught in ideal sound and performed on a phenomenally well-prepared piano. This is a dream of a performance: one revels both in the loveliness of the piano and in Schliessmann’s playing. Schliessmann’s questing mind and solid technique present us with interpretations that convince at every level. Recommended

Why have I put the lyricist above the composers? Firstly because Chinwe D. John, a Nigerian-American poet and lyricist, is responsible for all 10 songs while the two composers are not. Then because it was she who sought out the composers, not as is frequently the case, the other way round. She made sure to choose composers who would make her words paramount, creating music for piano and voice that would make her often challenging words shine. That is exactly what they have done so successfully.Here is music to enjoy but to make you think as well!

Is it recommended? Yes. The all-round excellence of these performances is matched by the focus and immediacy of the sound in each instance, together with detailed while not unduly abstruse notes from the composer. Those coming to his music afresh are not likely to remain emotionally uninvolved.

The exclamation point, part of the group’s name (Ensemble ö!), fits well with its handling of Pritchard’s music, which has an exclamatory feeling about it…that gives every work an underlying (if not overt) feeling of intensity. The audience…will find this collection of Pritchard’s piano and chamber works a worthwhile exploration.

His voice is pure…I enjoyed Shaw’s performances very much. The recordings are admirably clear, and the overall production standards are excellent.

Violinists will find Muresanu’s playing well worth contemplating, perhaps even emulating in comparable repertoire.