Reviews

Bailey … writes with a deft precision giving you the feeling that she really considers each note before putting it to paper.  Bailey sonically paints her pictures with an emotional core that shows real heartbeats pumping along.

The Cornish composer Judith Bailey is succinct in her music. You would know that if she ever wrote a sixty minute symphony every note would count. Going by these works she is also of a serious bent yet with a light heart. The Davey Ensemble are accorded a powerful close-up sound. I am sure that Judith Bailey must be grateful to… the Davey Ensemble whose expertise and caring dedication has released this music to the listening world.

My congratulations go to all concerned. Everything with this release is very well presented: the composer’s own notes on each piece giving plenty of useful and relevant information. It is interesting to see that the works are programmed in chronological order, and so one has a sense of ongoing growth and development. this is a well-performed programme of some highly intriguing music.

[Judith Bailey’s] instrumental music occupies an important place in her musical output and is given the platform it deserves in this release. The performers are strong advocates for Bailey’s music and they’ve been recorded in quite a pleasingly up-front sort of way. This is a fine and stimulating conspectus of Judith Bailey’s chamber music.

Clare Lesser is blessed with a gorgeous voice and terrific technique. The programme is nicely varied… very entertaining. An exceptional disc.

RECORDING OF THE MONTH July 2011: Fox has demonstrated an interesting and imaginative approach to the setting of words,,, extremely impressive performance with a wonderful sense of interaction and energy. Enchantingly expressive… overall this is a highly engaging and fascinating work, which has enormous appeal. The performance by Exaudi is exemplary and standards of production are equally high. Not to be missed.

Fox is experimenting… with the distinction between song, speech and declamation and Exaudi serve these technique-stretching demands keenly. The surface might be disarmingly simple, sometimes serene even, but there’s a deeper wisdom at play that keeps these aphoristic statements rewinding in the imagination.

Christopher Fox’s Catalogue irraisoné, for solo voice or vocal ensemble, teeters on the edge of music. each piece seems little more than a precisely annotated index card for something of more weight, housed somewhere else. Their collection hints at an inscrutable culture, with its own rituals and strange art. This world hides itself behind a peculiar bureaucracy, but its threat still permeates even the most objective utterances. EXAUDI bring the disinterested commitment of the archivist or bibliographer, leaving the mystery and meaning of this music to us to uncover.

This is a remarkable document of a remarkable large-scale piece that, in all likelihood, won’t be performed again. this piece owes everything to the performers it was written for. The professionals sound like professionals, the amateurs sound like amateurs, and they are wonderful together. But it enjoys the additional virtues of a taut structure and some real passion and humanity. We’re lucky indeed they made this recording.

The courage of Finnissy’s This Church in challenging preconceived notions of new music stood out like a beacon. THE WIRE TOP CDS OF 2003

Composed from 2001-3 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of St Mary de Haura church in Shoreham-by-Sea, on the south coast of England, This Church is an hour-long work for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, two narrators, choir, organ, handbells and ensemble. It’s a challenging and affecting work that says big things about both the fragility and tenacity of faith, hope and community throughout the ages of an ever-changing world.

Texts of endless interest and fascination, the words … underpinned with evocative music which makes the whole greater than the sum of its disparate parts. an ambitious, but at the same time economical and unpretentious, oratorio for our times… utterly compelling

The textures are always spare and the manner ritualistic, but the journey from Kyng Edward the syxt to the first world war is epic.

There are new compositions worthy of note. One such is Finnissy’s This Church, a cycle of stirring, beautifully-sung music performed with great skill.

This music has grit and invention and documents a genuine situation: a cutting reproach to the glibness and ingratiation which seem to be the inevitable condiment to commerce.

A splendid release. Make no mistake: Honma is a superb player. The composer provides his imprimatur of her in the booklet, but hearing her one appreciates immediately how technically able and interpretatively alert she is. Very strongly recommended.

[Tenebrae] is an astounding work of breathtaking beauty. Fans of piano music will swoon at the sympathetic and responsive treatment that Honma gives to this magical piece by one of our foremost contemporary composers.

This is an arresting CD which compels listening. Psappha is an ensemble as innovative as is McPherson a composer. Excellent production, as is Metier’s way, and the cast list helpfully identifies who plays in what pieces. Strongly recommended for its originality and vitality.

McPherson explores an intriguing hinterland between banal sounding sources and complex multi-dimensional extrapolations of the material with strong hints of Charles Ives. Great titles for great pieces

I am delighted to report that I really enjoyed the music that is thankfully free of crossover. The music may at times allude to other musical genres, but it is never eclectic… McPherson’s seems, judging from these works, a calm gentle voice prone to nostalgia, which is reflected in his warmly melodic style…you will find much to enjoy here. Well worth investigating.