Reviews

Barbara Karaśkiewicz and Michał Rot play sublimely with a command of the grand Romantic style seldom heard these days. In the same manner, the superbly accomplished members of the Huberman Piano Trio bring to life [the trio works] in impeccably delivered readings.

Messiaen’s birds provide the linking thread through pieces from books 2 to 5 of Catalogue d’Oiseaux with other piano works. Chadwick’s playing is keenly focused.

Robin Stevens is one of many composers, [with an] impeccable ear for luminous sonorities, working outside the ‘new music’ mainstream who clearly deserve greater attention. As so often with this label performances and sound are exemplary.

Bearing in mind the positive effect that music can have on mental health and wellbeing, listening to this recording could well do us all good.

Performed splendidly by Honeybourne, who makes a convincing case for these pieces—and who also wrote the fine program notes. Pullin sings the five songs with fine expression and clear articulation of the words. This album is a bittersweet reminder of a composer whose early compositions showed such promise.

This piano writing is anything but stereotypically pianistic… It is easy to imagine the orchestra’s colors. Cook’s language is fairly tonal, but the harmonies and the progression of the music contribute to an alluring and effective atmosphere of meditation … I found this piece compelling.

What makes this recording unique isn’t the music or the performances (both fine). It’s the seamless textual garment that [Simon] Mold has woven from Scripture.

This is a lively and imaginative collection of works, which has much to offer. Cowie is clearly a skilled composer whose writing is both effective for the instruments and extremely evocative. This is a significant body of work.

A splendid new disc with inspiring music in glowing recorded sound. The performances are first class and the documentation is superb. This disc is especially interesting because it includes pieces which have never been commercially released before. I defy anyone to hear these new performances of William Baines’s solo piano pieces and not be swept away by the music, the performance and the recording.

Impeccable clarity, flawless articulation, and period perfect embellishments…both the impeccably noble performance of Gilbert Rowland and the first-class engineering of John Taylor have created an indispensable addition to the libraries of collectors of fine recordings of early music.

Carson Cooman chose the freshly renovated post-romantic Link/Gaida organ of the Pauluskirche in Ulm with its fantastic tonal possibilities. The music selection does the rest in creating an extraordinary listening experience—from smaller character pieces and meditations to several dramatic, large-scale works that show the entire range of contemporary organ music. His technical as well as tonal choices are sublime beyond any doubt. These recordings are certainly reference recordings of the respective pieces—but above all a real treat!

Overwhelming, for several reasons. First of all, the instrument’s sound is simply inspiring… the experienced organist Cooman plays according to all the rules of the art of registration. Above all, however, the works themselves are what the CD title promises: accessible contemporary organ music by international contemporary composers. Top form. Music 5 stars: Sound 4½ stars.

Companions is a remarkably coherent recital. Contrast aplenty in a satisfying, well-recorded disc.

This is fascinating, compelling music, brilliantly realized. Rarely has following a score [Weaxan] given me so much pleasure; to see such detailed realization is a joy indeed. I look forward to hearing more.

Cowie has a fine ear for color and texture, and he also gives shape to the music through a carefully designed rhythmic ebb and flow. Contrapuntal textures are important in his music. This is the kind of music usually only performed by artists who are deeply committed to it, which explains the excellence of the performances here. My own appreciation grew the more I listened, and in the end I found an almost hypnotic attraction had set in.

This delightful disc of suites from two of Sergei Prokofiev’s most successful ballet scores arranged for clarinet and piano is effective because of [the artists’] understanding of, and appreciation for, music written for the dance. Scott plays with rhythmic flair, sensitivity, and wit, all qualities that serve this music very well. This should appeal to all clarinet lovers, but also beyond that to anyone who would enjoy hearing this music in a different but effective guise.

The performance by Turner and Lawson is uniformly excellent, allowing for the blend of the two instruments to complement each other. About two hours of neatly entertaining works that show that the recorder has a future as a chamber instrument in modern times; i.e., not just an anachronistic pretty, if soft, sound. If you wish to know how an early instrument can fit into the sound world of contemporary music, this is the disc; entertaining, eclectic, and fully expressive of the possibilities of the recorder and piano. Highly recommended.

This collection reveals a composer of significant talent and an individual voice. Sensitively and colorfully played by Duncan Honeybourne, who also contributes the fine program notes. Excellent recorded sound rounds out the picture.

Violinist Skærved does a nice job of these works, running easily over his instrument, sounding at times like a folk fiddle and at others like a performer quite at home in the roulades that comprise the variations.

Listener-friendly performance, filled with warmth and color, on a superbly recorded Steinway & Sons Model D.