Reviews

Christopher Langdown’s immense musicality and unimpeachable musicianship places him in the mind of this listener as one of the finest pianists of Great Britain. Langdown’s programming is both delightfully ironic and brilliant, and it keeps the listener interested during nearly two hour’s worth of lovely music making. Beyond that reading his insightful program notes further enhances the experience.

I’ve yet to find a work that was anything less than first-rate, nor deficient in any way in Simmons’s performance. This recital is eminently of interest to fans of Cooman, Simmons, or organ music in general, and is warmly recommended by this admirer of all three.

A recital that is thoroughly engaging. [Terashi’s] touch seems entirely appropriate for the music, neither too percussive nor too delicate, neither too detaché nor too legato. The sound of the recording is spacious and clear, with well-defined piano tone. The sound of the recording is spacious and clear, with well-defined piano tone. Overall, this release offers the listener much pleasure.

This is a most fascinating, and beautifully recorded, disc. Textures can shine and lines resound with utmost clarity. Finnissy’s writing … is miraculous. Clarinet-Liederkreis is a remarkable, fascinating piece. [The program] culminates on an Andante malinconico of late-Beethovenian intensity, stunningly sustained by the Kreutzer Quartet. A highly intense, but always rewarding, experience,

Metier Records presents vibrant proof that the art form of the Lied is alive and well. [We] could hardly ask for a finer interpreter than Clare Lesser (who is, to all intents and purposes, a latter-day Cathy Berberian). The combination of Clare Lesser’s pinpoint accuracy and understanding, plus David Lesser’s fine pianism and a splendid, truthful recording, is a powerful combination.

Fully engaging and beautifully realised. The more I hear of Hakim’s organ music, the more it casts a spell.

Many magical and sometimes even quite beautiful moments.

The music is intense… at times, challenging. The recordings are vivid. Superb booklet that has colour photographs and extremely informative essays in English and Russian.

This is a well-constructed ‘entertainment’, with lots of lovely musical clichés, technical wizardry and many subtle nods to the composer’s genius. The clever bit is the interlocking of themes. It seems to happen as if by magic. Remarkable. The presentation of this CD is outstanding.

The playing of the British pianist Diana Boyle is quite a discovery. Her playing has magical freshness and clarity; a precision that is cool, yet full of feeling, perfectly attuned to the elusiveness of this music. Her phrasing, like her use of dynamics, is endlessly bold and fascinating. No player or lover of the piano should overlook this disc.

Two very well-filled discs in excellent acoustic… this is impressive music, persuasively performed. (Four stars)

This disc acts as a reminder of McCabe’s greatness as a pianist.

Deep, spiritual and brilliantly crafted music… six works for varying chamber ensembles, and while embodying the composer’s overall wide ranging compositional style, spirituality and mysticism, the music expresses this in a more intimate, lyrical style than his massive symphonic works.

Artyomov undoubtedly had some daring to present a mass “for the martyrs of Long-suffering Russia”. His Requiem is a vast cry that alternates revolt and elegy, vehemence and lamentation. The mass of the choruses is combined with a powerful orchestra that is further strengthened by the organ and the bells. (four stars)

This new CD is a cause for celebrating a life as Goldstone plays (with his wife Caroline Clemmow) some tunes that will bring a smile if not some tapping of toes.

The marvellously colourful piano settings often illustrate the texts with graphic emotional power, as of course does Rowlinson’s smooth expressive vocal delivery.

Compelling listening. This music is slow and sombre, the lightness achieved through transparent scoring. These pieces are worth hearing, and a useful introduction to a figure who deserves wider recognition. The performances are authoritative and well-engineered.

[This] CD is cause for celebration. Terrific playing, of course, paired to smart program notes by Iain Sneddon, impeccable engineering by Oli Whitworth, Stephen Sutton’s album design. The sheer delight that Porgy, Preludes & Paris produces after not one but many hearings comes from a very idiomatic, very American, very cool, very laid-back, very down-to-earth, very unpretentious, very…Gershwin way of playing Gershwin. The Stoodleys have it all and Divine Art has a winning ticket with these two artists. More please!

As I listened to the CD I was once again intrigued by the versatility of the Russian composer’s genre-defying music. As usual with anything divine art issues, Star Wind is nicely packaged and provided with Robert Matthew Walker’s excellent commentary. The engineering by various teams is uniformly good.

Artyomov (b 1940) has become one of Russia’s most celebrated living composers. Every so often, thank goodness, the cause of aesthetic justice is served. By the time this thing ends, you’ll know you’ve been somewhere. This issue is “definitive” in musi¬cal terms… A blockbuster of a work.