Reviews

Carson Cooman is a composer with a fine technique and something important to say; I’m particularly impressed by the depth of feeling in the music and the absolutely convincing sense of formal unfolding and proportion. The performances and sound are excellent. I hope to hear more of Cooman’s music.

Carson Cooman is a composer of great output and special sensibilities. [TheSymphony] is a work of great strength, deserving a hearing as a pinpoint symphonic work of our time. The music is most definitely an experience not to miss. Highly recommended.

A very enticing mini-album… [The Symphony] is a very fine work indeed, beautifully played by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra under Kirk Trevor. This is an impressive line-up of works that receive excellent recordings. There are useful booklet notes from the composer.

Both of these works [Shoreline Rune and Symphony no. 4] are quite different from anything I’ve heard from this composer (and by now, I have a good half dozen discs of his music), and make a very strong impression. Indeed, these are the most original (if you will) pieces I’ve heard from his pen…this disc is well worth picking up. The three works offered here are three of my favorites among Cooman’s compositions.

Considerable interest and inspirational provenance… strongly recommended.

After living with [the Symphony] now over the last four weeks or so, I cannot shake its grip on me. I’ve listened to it so many times now that I can literally replay most of it in my head while at work. That’s quite the feat when you take into consideration the fact that it doesn’t really contain much in the way of cyclical melodies or motifs. Its nebulous atmosphere is what pulls you in. The musical process of this work is very organic, elemental and primitive, as nature slowly changing would be. The two other works on this recording certainly bookend the symphony very well, mak[ing] you ponder the contemplative state of mind, possibly liminal state, left behind by the symphony.

This CD is well-presented with an attractive inset. The programme notes are informative and well-written. The sound quality of the recording is notable, the playing superb. Carson Cooman’s music is beautiful, inspiring and seductive in equal measure. The three works on this CD are charged with wonder, mystery and a deep sense of engagement with the world of nature and society.

This is thoroughly modern music, and Cooman has created three atmospheric pieces that are both tranquil (mostly) but also thought-provoking.

These pieces are totally accessible, not avant-garde, but explore many modern techniques to produce such effective expression of ideas. The centrepiece of this triptych of related works is the significant and rich Fourth Symphony. Its mood fits the title, ‘Liminal’ meaning ‘on the edge of major change’, The excellent Slovak National Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Kirk Trevor.

A disc of unknown music for three and (mostly) four cellos may not seem among the most obvious proposals for inclusion on your must-buy list of CDs, but this one simply demands to be heard and enjoyed, in the same deep glow of warm contentment as comes from a glass of Laphroaig taken in a […]

this is a most attractive and unusual collection

I do not recommend that this interesting anthology be heard at one sitting. Nor should listeners expect 78 minutes of music that sounds Scottish. Only MacCunn’s Six Scotch Dances, which are hugely enjoyable, robust and extremely well written for the piano have a Scotch flavour. These are not anaemic transcriptions but original pieces which may […]

The short-lived Hamish McCunn offers perhaps the sweetest music here; his Six Scotch Dances are folk music as it was imagined in the Victorian drawing room, all idealized jollity and gather-we-round-the-fire stuff, but for his Valse the boots have been replaced by elegant evening wear. The music of Sir Alexander Mackenzie is indebted to some […]

[Bury’s Prelude and Fugue is] rhythmically audacious … the Elegy part-writing remains clear and smoothly lucid: the music gathers a quiet momentum, grave and even colossal at moments. [In The Planets] the quick splash and shift of keys and textures certainly argue for the gymnastic abilities of our keyboard duo. More than esoteric or pedantic value, serving as an insight into the composers’ vertical thinking.

absorbing recital… the keyboard duo do full justice to this mighty creation [The Planets]

If you were fans of Racwicz & Landauer or Rostal & Schaefer – you’ll love this. You would almost think it was one pianist playing twice, so secure is the understanding! And yet the piano that has the tune is always cleverly balanced sufficiently well for the second piano to be clearly playing an accompaniment.From […]

Through much of history, most people never heard orchestral works played by full orchestras. They heard small “salon” orchestras play “highlights” or they heard piano duo versions. The Planets is well-suited for two pianos, having been thoughtfully arranged that way by its composer, Gustav Holst. The beauty of the two-piano arrangement is that the musical […]

This is the authoritative edition of Erik Chisholm’s music. We are fortunate to have such an exemplary production… it is hardly possible to listen to [the 7 CDs] and not wonder how such an important contributor to the literature of the piano has gone virtually unnoticed by lovers of piano music… ought to have international status…. the liner–notes by John Purser are essential reading. The sound recording is superb. I repeat my assertion that this series of CDs showcases one of the most important musical discoveries and revelations of the 21st century.

[A] major series of recordings. Bravo to all involved over at that enterprising record company, Divine Art, and to McLachlan for his clear devotion to this music.

Includes the four Elegies, a concentrated and cohesive group of pieces which no-one…. will want to be without. McLachlan’s conviction, his effortless technique, his avoidance of exaggerated rubato and the clarity of his textures, aided by the enviable acoustics and excellent piano, and the intimate but not intrusively close microphone placement, all combine to make [this last CD of the series] more than a mere tying up of loose ends.