Reviews

This disc is a true meeting of poetry and music. Poems are read out, beautifully, by the four readers listed in the headnote; four composers add their reactions to some of those poems in the most breathtakingly beautiful settings. The concept of alternations of poetry and music works on the profoundest level. Unforgettable.

This is a wonderful recital, loaded with colour, imagination and pianistic delight. Soldano has enriched the repertoire with these idiomatic transcriptions. Adept and warmly romantic transcriptions … in the monumental richness of Soldano’s Steinway in this big, bold and adventurous playing.

Anything played by ambassador for the violin Peter Sheppard Skærved has to be worth a listen. Music that intrigues but doesn’t really transport – it impresses and fascinates. Living with this recording I have come to value its unsentimental view on nature. It doesn’t lack in moments of beauty and lyricism or even, for want of a cliché, poetic expression and there is always depth and substance in each treatment.

This is a disc to enjoy for sheer pleasure. It can be looked upon as a somewhat higher-class pops concert. A highly entertaining disc that displays fine clarinet playing and colorful arrangements of some tuneful Russian music. Warm, well-balanced recorded sound and brief but informative program notes round out the production.

Lupu is remarkable here—nay, inspired. Every single piece is of great caliber, and Lupu gives each piece its all. His advocacy is never once in doubt. This is an unmissable. Without doubt, a most important recording.

Romanian violinist Sherban Lupu possesses both the technique and the musicality to make this disc a success. It is an important addition to the discography of the famous Belgian violin virtuoso and composer.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of this release. Sherban Lupu has gotten rave reviews on these pages, and the same technical skill, interpretive sensitivity, and exploratory commitment are on display here, with knowing support from Henri Bonamy. Paul Mann gets solid playing from the Liepaja Symphony; and Divine Art’s engineering leaves no grounds for complaint. All in all, a significant release.

This is a most valuable and welcome release. Sherban Lupu’s committed and musical performances are more than sufficient to allow enjoyment and appreciation of these welcome Ysaÿe discoveries. Lupu is ably partnered by pianist Henri Bonamy and, in the concerto, by the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and conductor Paul Mann.

This is an important release which all fans of the Franco-Belgian violin school should hear. Everything I’ve heard convinces me that Ysaÿe is a composer of stature. The concerto in particular is a startling discovery which will be of interest to violinists everywhere.

Edward Cowie’s Bird Portraits is virtually unique. Cowie strives to depict the birdsongs as they really are, and they do often stand out with remarkable clarity. Pianist Roderick Chadwick is often there to provide atmospheric colour… Peter Sheppard Skærved creates astonishingly detailed renditions of the bird calls. These come across like dazzling cadenzas and include some real eye-popping violin virtuosity.

This warrants an absolutely wholehearted recommendation without hesitation. The sound vista created by Mulvey is vast. The sheer washes of sound Mulvey creates make an enormous effect purely on sonic grounds, especially when Hilliard’s silvery soprano floats ethereally above them. 26 fabulously realised minutes of music by a composer whose music absolutely demands hearing.

A rich feast to get your teeth into. Gemini’s latest release is one to indulge in. There is a lot going on, and stimulatingly so. This is a beast of an album… gloriously rich process… expertly spearheaded by Gemini’s director and clarinettist, Ian Mitchell. There even seems to be a glowing, molten quality in Mitchell’s playing here, reflected in the fullness and momentum of Gemini’s playing throughout.

A number of first recordings of Saint-Saëns music, introducing a large body of keyboard gems to a new audience. These albums [vols 1 & 2] are a fitting tribute to a composer whose music remains unfashionable, underrated and long overdue for reappraisal.

Fine playing and sound make this unhackneyed tuneful 17-track selection a worthy addition to the Joplin discography.

This stylistically uniform and yet versatile presentation of Schliessmann’s pianistic work succeeds, which, through the pianist’s highly personal views, brings us closer to masterpieces from different eras in a very human way and invites us to explore them. In the recordings he shows himself to be a pianist with a strong character who knows how to shape the works according to his ideas. These older recordings shine with new mastering in fresh splendor, so that they are now given the soundworld they deserve.

Successive hearings could reveal [Sonata Romantica] to be one of the great Romantic cello sonatas in English music. Cellist Nicholas Trygstad and pianist David Jones are sympathetic to Stevens’s complex, technically demanding and often wide-ranging music. The recital is helped by a vibrant and clear recording. An absorbing and satisfying combination.

As always, with Cooman, very musical. An interesting CD.

White’s latest opera is a dazzling tour-de-force. Technically complex, dazzling in its confidence at writing for just soprano and saxophone, philosophically deep this is a work that eludes definition. Poukens and Vanderheiden impress with their performances, both the technical grasp of the music and their sense of White’s idiom Stand back and simply enjoy the sheer variety on offer here.

Gráinne Mulvey produces a captivating vocal piece handling with finesse the sculpturing of musique concrète. The composer handles electronics with a highly masterful inventiveness to create a universe of psychic compression presenting these vocal expressions in a grand sonority.

Extraordinarily imaginative and diverse sequence of pieces depicted with the same precision and strength of emotional response as in the composer’s beautiful illustrated graphic sketched notes. A fantastically vivid musical illuminated bestiary, or aviary.