Reviews

Music is just notes – intent and understanding are transient… A photograph purports to be a fixed moment in time whereas … performed music spans time. Upon reflection, one realizes how strange it is that we routinely accept something written days, months or years ago as timely. In other words, attend to Finnissy’s gigantic opus with an open mind. Pace’s insight and devotion serve to make the work as much his as Finnissy’s.

Der 1946 geborene Michael Finnissy ist ein Komponist, der sich als Vertreter der ‚new complexity‘ bewusst gegen einfache Einordnungen sperrt, der durch die stark intellektuelle Ausprägung seiner Musik andererseits auch nicht selten der schriftlichen Erläuterung bedarf. So fällt bei der hier vorliegenden Produktion zuallererst in sehr umfangreiches Booklet (100 Seiten!, alle auf Englisch) auf, in […]

Occupying a single disc, Kapitalistisch Realisme would be an incredible statement in its own right, let alone just one part of an entire cycle. With excellent sound and Ian Pace’s remarkable playing, this work is something which demands our attention and admiration.

Cleverly conceived release…a beautifully prepared program

Collins, West and the Lyric Quartet give thoroughly professional and profoundly moving performances that simmer with romantic angst, succumb completely to moments of intense contemplation, and have lively rhythmic episodes and the occasional tangy dissonance. The Quartet is a superb team and West has unrivalled touch and color. Collins achieves a British timbre that is unusually rich and clear… making the closing measures of the Clarinet Quintet poignant and unforgettable.

It’s all wonderfully handled… individual players eloquently cut through the textures just as the score requires. An air of warm pastoral spirituality lovingly conveyed

Masterful and intense performances recorded in vividly immediate sound… could hardly make a more powerful impression. The Medea Quartet… both brilliant technically and deeply expressive. The Metier sound is first rate too with superb presence and atmosphere

Music that quickly grabs its audience, offers both old-fashioned and newer-sounding pleasures, and repays repeated listening with subtleties of harmony, architecture and feeling. The Medea Quartet plays very well, with spirit and sensitivity.

These recordings were made in the presence of the composers so there is the implication of authenticity to add to the evidence of what we hear. Crosse plays tribute to recorder player par excellence John Turner. [His works] sing to the ear. The Manchester Sinfonia manage some fairly testing string writing in great style. The Manduell disc offers up two beefy works. A substantial collection of concertante works … much to stimulate among this temperate, argumentative and atmospheric music.

The three works [by Crosse] are thoughtful and expertly crafted. Michael Cox expertly negotiates the flourishes, harmonics, pitch bends and what not [in Manduell’s Flutes Concerto] … in the Double Concerto Richard Simpson and Alison Teale do the westernized solo parts proud.

[The Crosse pieces] combine lyricism with an individual voice and successfully manage to avoid pastiche. [The works by Manduell] are also individual, interesting and confidently composer works. All works are performed with flair and conviction.

Sometimes down­right funny, [the recorder] can also move us with unexpected pathos. The performance standard here is remarkably high. Judicious balancing on the side of the recording team means the recorder line comes through perfectly at all times. A stimulating release.

It is with Burgess’s musical activities that this CD is concerned. His musical achievements are considerable. Each CD contains two compositions by Burgess as well as a wide-ranging selection of pieces by contemporary composers. {lists works with much praise in detail}. This is a major success. From the playing of both the soloists that is perfect, through the liner-notes, the design of the CD and the selection of the programme, I am totally impressed.

[Burgess wears] a pretty impressive composer’s hat in addition to his literary one…as a programme [the set] makes for an intriguing byway.

Turner and Davies hold the listener’s attention through it all, giving thoroughly committed performances. This recording might make an enlightening gift for an avid reader or fan of the notorious Kubrick film.

An intriguing Cocteau-esque opera that resists reaching for easy harmonic comforts… there is no gainsaying the vocal skills of the persuasive soloists, notably the mezzo-soprano Lucy Williams, who characterises her role with conviction.

This is a different kind of operatic proposition. Concise, it nevertheless manages to pack considerable punch. Hughes’s music fizzes with invention … there is a Stravinskian sparkle to the writing. The performance is very well realised, well cast, performed with commitment, and accurately recorded.

Lucy Williams, haughty and beautiful, expressing much through her exquisite singing… an absorbing piece and an exciting introduction to Ed Hughes’ music.

Morris’s libretto is extensive and often intricate in content, thereby placing a premium on the composer’s ability to convey dramatic meaning at the same time as sustaining a convincing theatrical continuity. This Hughes achieves admirably, whether in terms of maintaining a satisfactory balance between voices and instruments or of enriching the vocal lines with writing which sustains an intrinsic musical interest. The cast here is a persuasive one – dominated by Edward Grint’s emotive and increasingly self-regarding Poet, and the sensuous yet calculating appeal of Lucy Williams’s Princess. Hopefully Hughes’s piece will soon secure a full staging: in the meantime, this release enables one to get to grips with one of the more arresting and distinctive chamber operas to have emerged in the UK over recent years.

Edward Grint as the Poet and Lucy Williams as the Princess bring a sense of dramatic engagement to their conversational lines… the looks that Grint flashes between the two competing demands on his attention are quite gripping. In fact the video [of the concert performance] adds a whole new dimension to the work…engages not only the listener’s intellect but sympathy and compassion as well. Carlos del Cueto gets superlatively assured playing from the small chamber orchestra. It would be hard to imagine the performance being bettered. The recording is well balanced. I certainly didn’t have any objection to sitting through the work twice, once on CD and once n DVD. That is surely a sign of a piece that has real depth.