Reviews

Finnissy’s command of the ebb and flow of both a dramatic narrative and musical argument incorporates a vast range of perspectives that ensure the piece is first and foremost a dialogue with the listener. Ian Pace’s commitment to bringing this work to life in this landmark recording – surely one of the most significant contemporary music releases of recent times – is simply awe-inspiring: pick a superlative, any superlative, and it might go some way to living up to this almost unbelievable achievement.

[Invisible Places] is a work that takes the listener on a tremendous journey, packing so much in its sixteen minutes. All three performers are quite superb in this hauntingly intense work (Trio II). [Mandala 3] is a remarkable, tantalising piece full of wonderful ideas. All of the performances are superb; the recording is excellent as are the notes from the composers that include full English texts within a nicely illustrated booklet all of which makes this new release highly recommendable.

Nicola LeFanu’s Invisible Places is a magical work. The language is modernistic, but hardly off-putting. There is much in the pages of this score that is quite lovely. David Lumsdaine’s ‘fire in leaf and grass’ is beautiful. [Song for Peter] explores the words with great effect. It is haunting and quite unforgettable in its impact. There is a powerful enchantment [in Mandala 3]… I feel that it is an important work. The performance of all four works is excellent. This is a fascinating release from Métier… this album is exceptional in the presentation of interesting, moving and often downright gorgeous music.

Well performed by the chamber ensemble Gemini. [Mandala 3] is an eerie, masterful work both with Bach both inside it as it were, and outside of it looking in… it is a joy to hear. Mandala 3 makes this program very desirable; the other works give much contrasting interest. In all the album provides much pleasure and a good taste of what Lumsdaine and LeFanu have been doing. I am glad to have it to repeat the experience, probably many times. Very recommended.

An album featuring the piccolo — known as the screaming twig or Ak47 for its ability to cut through the loudest orchestra — might be something that you never think you’d need, but this is a decent, if idiosyncratic, album. The pieces featured range from the ethereal to the almost-jazz and … there is little to suggest a screaming twig.

“Elizabeth Hilliard has a wonderfully full voice, a great range and the musical imagination to bring life to contemporary ambient soundscapes. This is introspective music that puts the listener in a ravishing but ultimately spare and rarified zone.The composers and Elizabeth’s wonderful voice make it all work… this is a captivating change of pace.”

“Both this and Preludes And Fugues [dda 25139] are superb as far as the playing goes. We prefer the gentler Preludes for its Goldberg Variations feel, while this CD is more formal. But they are both outstanding.”

“Absolutely superb collection of piano pieces. The order of the tracks is effective; the CD leaves the Shostakovich until last, its harsher (but still beautiful) sound a contrast to the more soulful Bach. Wikipedia reports that the first edition of the Goldberg Variations had a title plate that included the phrase: “Composed for connoisseurs, for the refreshment of their spirits,” and that’s true for this CD.”

“With Currentzis the [Symphony] is interpreted by a conductor who sees Artyomov as the 21st century’s Bruckner. Correspondingly he develops the piece with intensity and effectiveness for its whole duration. The emphasis of this composition {Tristia II] however, is on the piano part, which blends naturally in the orchestral movement. The Russian national orchestra is an established, successful body which devotes itself expertly to Artyomov’s work. With Ponkin and even more so with Currentzis they found conductors, who are able to shape the large forms and create tension which persists. Pianist Kopachevsky mastered the piano part with excellence.”

“This is a magical listening experience. [Ms Boyle] does not attempt to deprive Gould of his speed record (neither did Gould himself make an assault on it when he re-recorded the work in 1981) but brings something quite different though equally exciting to the set. Her sound world is a different one from Gould’s: richer, warmer, more nuanced and full of emotional as well as intellectual depth and resonance. Hats off to Diana Boyle.”

“Surprise! This is a fully developed voice in new music, someone who has carried over the mysterious cosmos of late Scriabin and Messiaen and made something new out of the unrealized potentials that lurked behind those composers’s most prescient creations. Artyomov speaks to me, in elegant and vivid eloquence. The Russian National Orchestra under conductors Teodor Currentzis and Vladimir Ponkin bring this complex and very personal music into vivid relief against the seeming silence of the universe. Artyomov travels in the wake of those before and manages to say something new and different. That is a remarkable achievement and he most certainly deserves a hearing.”

“This is on a macro [scale] , making the listener think of the vastness of space. Both[symphonies] are monumental in ambition, and in sound, making any review a little trite. Both CDs certainly make an impression. The sleeve notes explain some of what’s going on but Vyacheslav Artyomov demands (in all senses of the word) the listener to make an effort. It’s compulsive listening. They’re both out on Divine Art, which lives up to its mission statement (“Innovative, Eclectic, Fascinating, Inspirational”) with these CDs.”

By definition, the pieces are quirky… rather angular pieces, sometimes harsh though sometimes playful. It’s all very modern. if you like modern music and want to be challenged give it a go

This recording is actually the premiere full version of the K.375 Serenade, as Santiago Mantas restored the trio in the second Menuet, writen by Mozart but omitted from the published score, and corrected errors that appeared in the published score. The octet of wind instruments of the European Union Chamber Orchestra, directed by Mantas, are very convincing, with instruments that really sing in Mozart’s magic writing. The artistic excellence of the CD is further enhanced by the sound engineering by Tony Faulkner, who has given the sound of the wind instruments, both dynamically and tonally, a more than adequate and high standard recording.

“Finnissy’s omnipresent engagement with existing musical materials could hardly be more overwhelmingly obvious in Metier’s 2013 CD featuring two works for piano quintet… a remarkably large-scale testament not merely to an empathetic response to Grieg’s material but to a wholesale assimilation by Finnissy of Grieg’s entire soundworld and musical thinking. The performances, given by the Kreutzer Quartet and pianist Roderick Chadwick, are splendid in the way they reinforce the contrasts and connections both between these old and new soundworlds as well as the two works on the disc, which as a whole comes across as a stimulating mixture of traditional familiarity and disarming oddity.”

“Disorientation is a recurring trait in Michael Finnissy’s output generally, not only due to collisions of style and aesthetic but in the way different parts or materials relate to one another, a quality particularly audible in the works on Metier’s most recent Finnissy disc, Mississippi Hornpipes, exploring various works for violin and piano. The title work is a highly engaging, rapid progression through a huge number of episodes, so rapid that the joins are often difficult to discern. The connectivity between the instruments to an extent moves in and out of phase but behaviourally they’re clearly united. [Molly House] is easily one of the composer’s most engagingly entertaining pieces, Morgan, Dullea and Finnissy are all clearly having a whale of a time in this delirious performance.”

“Seven of Finnissy’s works for string quartet. All of them are enigmatic, and in almost all of them he actively seeks to undermine in different ways the conventional quartet dynamic. The First String Quartet … continually feels poised to do something completely different, filling the music and the listener with nervous excitement. There’s something profoundly unsettling about this restrained little piece Sehnsucht. In ways difficult to fathom or articulate, there’s something almost unbearably moving about it.”

“The oboe, performed here by Christopher Redgate, is in the spotlight most of the time. Title work Lost Lands, for E-flat clarinet, soprano sax, guitar, violin and piano is by far the longest work on the disc. From the outset the work’s scope is evidently broad, the ensemble moving without haste, conveying that there’s much ground to cover: there’s nothing tentative about this, the music feels ambitious, even potentially visionary. The soundworld of Lost Lands is simply gorgeous: intimate, emotive, even sensuous at times. Redgate’s performances are blindingly exhilarating, particularly in the duets with Julian Warburton’s percussion, and the rendition of Lost Lands by Topologies is genuinely amazing. This disc is absolutely essential.”

“Nothing beats the sound of a pipe organ displaying its “quiet” side. One or two single stops per manual always reveal the beautiful tone, the soul, of a well built instrument. Most of the pieces were written in memory of various individuals and are therefore mostly serene and contemplative, and make full use of the… organ’s beautiful registration. Simmons instinctively knows which combination of stops is best suited to each individual piece based on its style, solemnity or character, and therefore brings together the organ’s tonal qualities and the music’s anima to create an image of lasting impression.”

“l’ve listened to this program twice through now and gone back to sample individual pieces, and l’ve come away feeling that if prejudices are left at the door and Bortkiewicz is given half a chance, his music will evoke strong emotions and cast a magic spell over you that will last long after it ends. Alfonso Soldano, who is new to this Divine Art series of Russian piano music, is a young, prize-winning Italian pianist blessed with Mediterranean good looks and a phenomenal technique. This is absolutely a fantastic disc. If you’re not already acquainted with Bortkiewicz… prepare to be transported to a place of spell-binding splendor. If I could, l’d buy up every copy of this album and send it to every Fanfare subscriber; that’s how much I love it. If you’re as susceptible to this music as I am, you will love it too; I promise.”