Reviews

This is a great CD… this album of modern lieder is irresistible. A large part of its success must fall to the remarkable vocal talent of soprano Clare Lesser. Goodly credit must also go to David Lesser for his remarkable piano playing in these involved songs. This all complements an ideal recording.

Absolutely entrancing. These new additions to the repertoire are superb… so many additional palettes of tone colour and capabilities. As a disc this is a totally engaging experience for the listener. The extraordinary performances also help to make it a valuable addition to anyone’s CD collection.

The Fitzwilliam Quartet give faithful accounts of these Haydn quartets, full of character and expression, enhanced by the zip of spontaneity and tang of period instrument tone and style. The recording has great immediacy yet is suitably intimate.

Hakim’s organ works traverse the full range of what the instrument can offer. Leach gets some remarkable sounds from his William Hill.

There is a Ravelian lushness (and expertise) to [Schwartz’s] scoring. The performance is magnificent… and supporting that, the recording is demonstration standard, with great perspective. There is also, it should be noted, a lot of fun to be had here.

It’s neither completely jazz nor classical, but a very pleasing synthesis of the two worlds, and is absolutely gorgeous to my ears. All of [the works] could hardly be better and more idiomatically performed.

These works all afford considerable pleasure. Carson Cooman is an able exponent for his colleagues’ compositions and is well recorded. Unashamedly recommended.

Composers working in electronic media must up the game, which Grainne Mulvey and Christopher Fox accomplish with fluency, in¬trigue, and, above all, a winning intensity. Both Mulvey and Fox throw all matters of structure and form open to question and debate, and this is what makes the music so successful. Neither is concerned with effect or intrigue for their own sakes, and that certainty drew me into each world with interest and alacrity.

The harmony is loosely modal … often with a focus on the creation of evocative atmosphere. Excellent performers. The CD’s booklet is very attractive

I strongly recommend this disc for both the Camilleri, which is very much worth getting to know, and for the lovely performance and recording of the Bartók.

The idea of coupling Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Camilleri’s concerto for that combination is nothing less than inspired. The performance itself is magnificently concentrated and impactful. Playing and programming are fantastic, and the playing time is more than generous.

McLachlan and Page are superb throughout… brilliantly atmospheric… An invaluable release for the Camilleri; the Stravinsky and the Bartók are perfect bedfellows.

Delightful… heavenly music of flute and harp providing an aural feel of contentment.

All of the music is attractive and tuneful, some of it could be categorised as ‘easy listening’ but there are one or two fascinating ‘off the beaten track’ pieces too. Sensitively played… delightful performance.

This double CD of solo piano (the ever-reliable Mary Dullea) reminded us of Bach’s Goldberg Variations — not because of the variations (there aren’t any) but because of the way it wends in and out of your consciousness. Neither unstructured or formless, it’s never strident or intrusive.

The Kreutzer Quartet’s strong performances reveals [the three works’ powerful individuality. Casken’s quartet certainly adds up to an impressive whole, as does, in a very different way, Judith Weir’s. Robert Saxton’s quartet is perhaps a slightly tougher nut… at its heart is a darkly meditative slow movement. It has taken a long time for this release to reach the market, but it was worth the wait.

Recorded at the turn of the millennium, the Kreutzers respond brilliantly to all their music’s mercurial demands (Four stars awarded)

John Casken’s quartet stands out on an excellent disc…touch and timbre beautifully captured by the Kreutzer Quartet.

There are some good helpful notes and the sound quality is first class. Well done to Metier for giving [these recordings] the oxygen of publicity.

The range of worthwhile issues on the Divine Art label continues to expand with this outstanding release of three relatively recent string quartets by British composers. The performances, in the absence of scores, seem very fine and totally committed, and the recording quality is excellent. Very strongly recommended.