Reviews

Honeybourne is both gripping and stylish in his playing throughout these testing compositions. Divine Art have brought this composer out of obscurity, hopefully to reach a bigger audience. Excellent and very helpful notes and texts are supplied by the artists, together with clear and warm sound. This is certainly recommended.

Carefully calculated to be within the reach of amateur performers – none of it unduly challenging. There’s a pleasing succinctness in the way the story unfolds a competently constructed tunefulness that will please many a chorus.

Allen’s music feels international in tone, upon an English base. The music is tonally based, although fairly freely. There are no weak pieces here: consistency is one of Allen’s strong suits. There is no denying Murray McLachlan’s winning advocacy, each sonata persuasively presented with commendable limpidity, alive to the many nuances of Allen’s unorthodox, not unchallenging pianistic manner. Métier’s recordings are beautifully clear, providing the music with the finest possible platform.

Tchaikovsky could not have found a more sympathetic exponent than this pianist. We cannot fail to capitulate to the ravishing sensuality of the playing. My guess is that you will embrace her ravishing execution with the same enthusiasm as I did.

Serious and complex works… kudos to director David Hoose for holding the challenging instrumental parts in balance.

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.