Reviews

A highly individual player, thoughtful yet compelling, she has the gift of spontaneity in the recording studio, to carry the personal insights of her interpretations, as at a live performance. She is very well recorded.

[Crossland’s] overall approach to these works might be described as ‘classically inclined’, with clear definition of inner parts and exemplary articulation of melodic lines. Altogether, this is a recital that engages the listener’s attention and is played with evident and commendable integrity.

[Crossland] chooses a modern Steinway for this recording. Still she shows much of the thoughtful concern over details the learned school values so highly. I found myself praising the pianist’s sincerity and attention to detail.

Crossland’s clean fingerwork and her ability to play off the exchange of passagework between right and left hands with exceptional clarity serve Mozart well. [In the Tempest Sonata] Crossland may actually closer to the mark in adopting a significantly slower tempo than we’ve grown accustomed to. [In Sonata No. 31] Crossland delivers some very lyrical expressive playing.

One especially important collection, Night Songs of the Bards… embraces a wide range of rhythmic complexity and lyric introspection. [Murray McLachlan’s] technical armoury and ear for colour are both impeccable and he brings these pieces to life with tremendous intensity and panache. With a good recording and booklet notes, those who have been following this series will eagerly wish to acquaint themselves with this release.

The tunes are handled with imagination but most of all, affection. McLachlan triumphs wonderfully. Worthy of more exposure in the concert hall… another stimulating volume from McLachlan

I was impressed with the sheer magical quality of this music. The playing is superb… the programme notes are extensive and excellent. This is, and will remain, the definitive edition of Erik Chisholm’s piano music for many years to come. A magnificent effort. It is a monument to Scottish, European and World music by any standards of judgement.

The piano great, McLachlan, strays from his romance with Russian piano masters to tackle the sounds of other spaces… One of our great musical sherpas, McLachlan is always worth checking out once he gets a new journey going

A musician worth hearing… an album of high-grade easy listening

Beautiful jazz ballad playing… all of the arrangements are well done. Astonishingly beautiful playing of beautiful melodies … impeccable pitch and perfectly placed articulations … beautiful sound and phrasing. Everything about her trombone playing and her life is truly remarkable, You will thoroughly enjoy this musically mature performance.

Beautifully played… a wonderful testimony to the talent and spirit of a very remarkable musician

All well worth hearing. With idiomatic performances and good recording, this is well worth seeking out by lovers of English song looking for something unusual.

Warlock’s songs are the best of the lot… particularly delicious. Martyn-West’s voice is a classic English choir tenor… a sweet gentle voice… truly lovely,,, that is well suited to these songs. Foster is an able and responsive collaborator.

The instruments used by Concert Royal are authentic. Excellent liner notes…all of the music on the disc has been carefully researched… and is wholly appropriate for its purpose. The selection is full of fine and indeed memorable melodies. Margarette Ashton sings tunefully with a clear soprano voice with a very nice lilt to it and her instrumentalist colleagues provide elegant support

Authenticity seems to be the commandment of the hour and this authenticity influences all aspects of this performance. John Treherne.. delivers a very solid performance both as soloist and accompanist. Peter Harrison… and Rachel Gray… are just as good as he is. The instrumentalists deliver something ‘home-made’ but in the best sense phrased out and played freshly musically. Margarette Ashton always delivers traditional songs unpretentious, simple, home-baked. But even this home-bakedness contributes to the ideal.

This is a perfectly pleasant recording of attractive music sung very prettily by Margarette Ashton and played nicely by the instrumentalists. The only slight problem with it – for the thoroughbred Geordie at least – is that the songs really need broader north-eastern pronunciation, as they sound somewhat tamer and less meaningful, when sung in […]

Ashton and her trio of historical instrument aficionados will put you right back in the bonny folk music boom of the early 60s, in a good way

Your eyebrows may well disappear into your scalp as you discover what the composer is capable of. I found McLachlan’s playing to be effervescent and sensitive in equal measure, always clear in its delineation of the more sinewy strands and yet capable of explosive force where asked… inexorable artistry. The sound on the recording suits the idiom splendidly

The best of it is unlike anything else in music… McLachlan [gives] full-blooded accounts of the more extrovert pieces and fleshes out the thinner ones.

Chisholm is never content to just take a tune and set it simply; his… classification-resistant… voice is always there. The music is hauntingly evocative and exquisitely delivered by McLachlan. Booklet notes are exemplary. The fine recording captures every nuance of McLachlan’s excellent pianism. Recommended.