Reviews

[Dinescu] knows how to formulate her musical ideas with sharpness, and her inventiveness seems to unfold almost without limit. She always opens up broad emotional possibilities, which also manifest themselves in technical playing requirements as well as creative freedom. In Irina Muresanu, Violeta Dinescu has found an ideal and devoted interpreter. Muresanu succeeds admirably, intensively and effectively presenting all the possibilities of the works and the violin playing.
[“Supersonic” recording award]

This fascinating recital explores a wide range of music set against the background of Classical mythology. Zoe Samsarelou plays enthusiastically, and reveals considerable depth of interpretation and technical expertise. The recording is clear and bright. It is a recital to savour slowly.

All [the pieces] are witty and expertly crafted… Superb playing by pianist Matthew Mills, for whom Hughes composed many of the pieces.

The performances by Roderick Chadwick, a gifted pianist, are lucid, wildly colorful, and a bit understated when need be. One couldn’t ask for a more compelling, authoritative performance… the realistic recording captures every nuance.

Quite a few pieces grabbed me. All works are played with skill and feeling by pianist Antony Gray.

A recording of immense scope and abundant musical richness. Samsarelou’s assured command of the material is readily apparent. She deserves credit also for fashioning a set-list whose range reflects scholarship and imagination in equal measure.

The set organises itself with great naturalness… all of it sung with perfectly balanced reverence and delight by Alban Voices., to whom there is no cliché more applicable than ‘national treasures’.

The [Beck] pieces are haunting, perhaps resonant with echoes of disembodied fragments of Romantic works. Passionate, urgent dynamism, and muscular energy are characteristic of [Martino’s] music: varied and fantastical in mood, richly ‘orchestrated’ in piano texture. [Debussy’s] own very free, quasi-improvisatory approach to performing his music, and an in-depth study of the unconventional vocabulary of the Images, inform Iman’s performance of [Images].

[Iman] displays a remarkable appreciation of Debussy’s music which I really enjoyed, allowing me to hear these well-known pieces afresh. Jenny Beck’s ‘Stand Still Here’ provides an extraordinary contrast. Iman is able to achieve a wonderful sense of spontaneity and improvisation: notes linger, vibrate, shimmer and fade. It’s a deeply absorbing interlude.  Iman gives a masterful performance of this collection of pieces [by Martino] which combine virtuosity and expression, improvisation and structure, making them the perfect complement to Debussy.

A fascinating and stimulating recital.

Murray McLachlan is a wizard of technical piano prowess. More importantly, he reveals an amazing depth of understanding regarding music which though thoroughly attractive, poses multiple questions regarding its formal structures. Geoffrey Allen could not have found a better evangelist of the piano than Murray McLachlan.

Fluent and inventive. The CD is altogether an ingratiating portrait of a composer well worth attention.

Premiere recordings of a remarkable set of compositions. Those interested in solo piano music of the post-war era will be rewarded if they seek out these fine performances of Geoffrey Allen’s sonatas. Having heard the discs I believe that he is a significant, if unfamiliar, contributor to the solo piano literature. His music has been exceptionally well served here. There’s plenty of depth in the music, which is consistently of genuine worth. Métier have done Allen proud in terms of presentation. The sound is very satisfactory. The documentation is excellent: Murray McLachlan’s notes are invaluable.

All the items are very well played in a way which makes you forget that you are listening to modern grand piano; one is simply conscious of Bach’s music, which is as it should be. The effect is very pleasing and in the best possible way, tranquillising. It did make me want to hear more of Jonathan Phillips’ Bach-playing.

This is an impressive cycle of Spanish-inspired works, performed with fervent devotion by Sheppard Skærved and Chadwick. Gregory Fritze writes in an unabashedly tonal idiom, but somehow it appears fresh as a daisy.

Blake cites the strong influence of African musical techniques, melodic patterns, and rhythms in shaping these pieces. Australian pianist Antony Gray plays every piece with conviction and skill. The recorded sound is excellent. I can recommend this release to curious listeners interested in exploring new keyboard repertoire, but in a style still tethered to tradition.

This is a superb release, thought-provoking and utterly involving. Roderick Chadwick is a name to remember; his command and understanding of Messiaen’s use of gesture is complete. This is a commanding performance… one of the most perfectly programmed twofers I have ever heard.

Antony Gray’s achievement is not merely technical. He is able to sustain the attention throughout via what feels like deep saturation in Blake’s score. Structurally the set seems perfectly considered. This is one heck of a ride into a host of Africanisms, something truly different, truly engaging. It is probably heresy to say that I prefer Blake’s Afrikosmos to Bartók’s Mikrokosmos; but there we are, it is true.

Many things recommend this collection of American choral works… American Choral Classics earns its recommendation and then some, not only for solid performances by the choir but for working [Copland’s] In the Beginning into its varied programme.

She does bring much to these songs. At times there is a great depth of beauty, and an overall sense of understanding of her repertoire. I expect that many listeners will be impressed by Aylish Kerrigan’s sympathetic performances.