Angela Hewitt LOVE SONGS

 

LOVE SONGS

 

The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park FADING

 

FADING

 

Alina Ibragimova PAGANINI 24 Caprices

 

24 CAPRICES

 

Stephen Hough VIDA BREVE

 

VIDA BREVE

Nicolas Namoradze YORK BOWEN Fragments from Hans Andersen Op. 58 & 61

 

FRAGMENTS FROM HANS ANDERSEN Op. 58 & 61

 

Goldner String Quartet / Piers Lane D'ERLANGER - DUNHILL Piano Quintets

 

PIANO QUINTETS

 

Alban Gerhardt, WDR Sinfonieorchester / Jukka-Pekka Saraste SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos

 

CELLO CONCERTOS

 

Marc-André Hamelin LISZT - THALBERG Opera Transcriptions & Fantasies

OPERA TRANSCRIPTIONS & FANTASIES

Lawrence Power / BBC Philharmonic / Martyn Brabbins JAMES MacMILLAN Symphony No. 4 - Viola Concerto

SYMPHONY No, 4 - VIOLA CONCERTO

Stephen Hough / Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu BEETHOVEN The Piano Concertos

THE PIANO CONCERTOS

Takács Quartet / Garrick Ohlsson ELGAR & BEACH Piano Quintets

PIANO QUINTETS

Alina Ibragimova / Vladimir Jurowski / State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concertos

VIOLIN CONCERTOS

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 3 "Pastoral" - Symphony No. 4

SYMPHONY No. 3 - SYMPHONY No. 4

The New London Orchestra / Ronald Corp PROKOFIEV'S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

PROKOFIEV'S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

Nicolas Altstaedt / Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen C.P.E. BACH Cello Concertos

                                                            CELLO CONCERTOS

The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park FADING

                                                                          FADING

Angela Hewitt BACH The Six Partitas

                                                                 THE SIX PARTITAS

Marc-André Hamelin IN A STATE OF JAZZ

                                                               IN A STATE OF JAZZ

The Orlando Consort GUILLAUME DUFAY

This isn’t the first recording of Dufay’s chansons to appear since the Medieval Ensemble of London’s complete survey nearly 40 years ago (L’Oiseau-Lyre, 12/81), but it’s the most rounded and satisfying view of him to be had from a single anthology (in that Cantica Symphonia’s 2006 Glossa survey focused on the early songs). I was happy to be reacquainted with a few personal favourites (the early ballade Mon chier amy, the late virelai Malheureux cueur and rondeau Vostre bruit and the cheeky drinking-song Puisque vous estez campieur), but having listened several times through I’m struck by several that had not quite done so before, which now speak very eloquently: Pouray je avoir, Belle, que vous ay je mesfait? and the understatedly perfect Par le regard. Like so many of the individual songs, the recital grows in stature with repeated listening.

The reason is that the Orlandos are so experienced in this repertory that, nearly always, the choice of tempo and tone is spot-on (and tempo is perhaps the most important decision, given that absolute tempos are never indicated), which maximises the music’s communicative potential and more than compensates for the occasional vocal blemish (that this is fiendishly exposed singing cannot be overstated). The programme takes a while to get going: the choice of O tres piteulx as an opener is curiously muted and downbeat, and thereafter En triumphant de Cruel Dueil, which seems to me a touch slow given the voices involved. I imagine some may find the Orlandos’ overall approach corseted and overly cautious, as though hearing Dufay through the prism of their recent Machaut recordings. I can understand this, but in singing of such insight there is so much to learn. And as to the music – did I mention it earlier? – Dufay is simply astonishing. (Fabrice Fitch / Gramophone)

Winchester Cathedral Choir / Andrew Lumsden JOHN TAVENER Angels

I am finishing this review precisely on what would have been John Tavener’s 75th birthday. Such an anniversary causes one to reflect anew upon what was by any standards a remarkable career, and this outstanding new recording is a very good way of so doing. Tavener had a long and close association with Winchester (and still does, in fact, in the form of the Tavener Centre), so it was a particularly inspired idea to commission booklet notes from Martin Neary, the former Organist and Master of the Music, who was the commissioner and first performer of so many of the composer’s works.

One such example is God is with us, commissioned for the 1987 carol service. I have to say that I had never found this to be one of Tavener’s most successful works, but this performance has won me over, for two reasons. The first is that tenor William Kendall makes such a fine job of the solo part, and the second is that the unexpected and dramatic entry of the organ here sounds utterly convincing, which has everything to do with the way Andrew Lumsden paces the work. This is followed by two works written two years earlier, the first Hymn to the Mother of God and Love bade me welcome, both outstanding pieces born of a unique imagination. Only Tavener would have extracted so much from a simple device as the double-choir canon in the Hymn, or thought of setting Herbert in a way that suggests Bulgarian chant.

Other Tavener classics appear too, most notably Song for Athene, but much attention is also paid to later works, including five anthems from The Veil of the Temple (2002) and They are all gone into the world of light, a setting of Henry Vaughan from 2011. There is a lushness about these works, harmonically speaking, that is generally absent from the earlier pieces, but Tavener’s own voice is nevertheless always apparent: indeed, I have been at pains to point out on more than one occasion that his voice is clearly audible in his music from whatever period – the compositional voice of Últimos Ritos is absolutely the same as that of Mary of Egypt, for example. One piece I am particularly pleased to hear again is Annunciation from 1992. Such is the immediacy of this work that you would swear that Tavener had actually been present when the Archangel brought the news to Mary. It is followed by a superb rendition of As one who has slept, once again brought alive by the impeccable pacing and by the fantastic blend of the choir (do they ever breathe?). This is a showroom demonstration of just what boy and girl choristers singing together can achieve. A truly magnificent birthday present. (Ivan Moody / Gramophone)