Reviews

The performance of these four Bach keyboard works is satisfying and commanding. All the stylish drama and virtuosity is captured in Jill Crossland’s thoughtful and exacting recital.

Trio de L’Île give a simply outstanding performance… I lost track of the number of times that a shiver went down my spine. The passion and energy in their performance is thrilling – simply rapturous. I craved another 20 minutes in the company of Trio de L’Île. This is my first review of the year, and it seems I have a Recording of the Year already in place.

This album testifies to a high level of musicality: passionate performers, high-level musicians, instrumentalists in full control of their means and individuals listening to each other. The result is an opulent overall sound, vibrant with emotion and color. Well done for this superb recording.

This recording bodes well for the Trio and represents yet another first-rate release from Divine Art.

This will entice you with unheard pieces, performed exceptionally well with dedication and conviction. The booklet essay is quite detailed and the recorded sound first class.

A well designed, enjoyable program. Ucbasaran and Gallo have an affinity for this repertoire. Their ensemble and balance are spot-on, as is Divine Art’s recorded piano sound. I will return to this often.

The best-known work here is Szymanowski’s. This is one of the very best performances of it that I have heard. Good sound.

The juxtaposition between clangorous bird song and lyrical moments is startling, especially in the probing performance here by pianist Roderick Chad¬wick. Chadwick ripples and splashes his way through with precision and color

Allen wraps attractive lyricism and witty virtuosity in a congenial extended tonality; and he aims to emphasize the best elements of each instrument. The renditions here have good energy.

I wish to enthusiastically recommend this superb disc of two exhilarating concertos. Cowie’s Concerto for Orchestra was easily the most vivid example in contemporary music I had encountered at that time. Nor have the passing years diluted its impact – quite the opposite. The spirit of the artist John Ruskin inhabits Cowie’s equally spellbinding Clarinet Concerto No 2. Both performances are outstanding; an enthusiastic RLPO are utterly alert to Howard Williams’ sensitive direction, while Hacker is characteristically magnificent in the Clarinet Concerto, thrilling and hypnotic by turn. Recommended.

How refreshing…West meets East, for despite Farhat’s mastery of Iranian traditional music, these ([Farhat’s works]) are effectively Western-style pieces with hints of Persian spice. Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour retains associations with ancient Iran in his music chiefly through the subject matter… affinities with Boulezian and Messiaenic modernism. Those interested in East-West encounters in the piano repertoire owe Dullea a sizeable debt for keeping this music alive.

Two powerful, concentrated works with the impact of the grandeur and energy of natural forces. Cowie’s forms, harmonic language and rhythmic processes are free and constantly in flux, yet highly organized and disciplined. Masterly.

A unique idiom that can’t usefully be described as tonal, atonal, sonorist, or anything else; it may be any of these things, or directly imitative of natural sounds in close succession, or simultaneously. Progress is determined organically, and the string writing is idiomatic and assured. Tense, edgy, brittle, but with sudden revelatory moments of incandescent beauty.

These pieces by are perfectly suited to the clavichord. Recordings dedicated to the French repertoire on this instrument remain rare. In this, Charlston offers us something new. Charlston completely masters the charm of this intimate tone, close to the lute. And his interpretation combines melancholy, spontaneity and elegance, according to the mood of the movements, with a quality of touch essential in such music. Something to delight lovers of historical instruments.

A marriage made in heaven. On the one hand, we have a violin of unusually small dimensions made by Stradivari (and dated 1685); on the other, we have the entire content for unaccompanied violin from a large volume of music from exactly the same period. [A] fascinating recording… it and the accompanying booklet have much to teach students of organology and violin-making, devotees of the South German-Austrian-Bohemian school of violinist-composers and anyone interested in the history of the partita or suite and its constituent movements.

The towering figure of Jacob Froberger needs no introduction. Terence Charlston is surely one of England’s most modest virtuosi, whose reputation among his fellow musicians is extremely high. Charlston’s approach is seldom neutral. He is an expressive player, keen to communicate more than the intellectual satisfaction of neat counterpoint. It is possible with the clavichord to hear this music in new and refreshing ways.

[Soldano] is very good. An engaging and enjoyable collection of atmospheric piano music… it’s powerful but simple, yet emotionally engaging… pieces that create an ambience rather than having killer tunes.

Ebonit Saxophone Quartet are superb. And a classical green protest album has got to be worth giving a go. Certainly an album for sax fans but also for people who like their music thoughtful.

We’re always glad to see Mary Dullea’s name on a CD; she’s usually tackling modern music, but she always interprets it well.

A good opportunity for listeners to explore 20th-century piano trios from Armenia; the Piazzolla has an especially strong flavor of the concert hall in this trio’s performance: the sort of “conversational” balance that sounds so good in classical chamber music.