“Every one of the seven choral composers on this CD is represented by their most fascinating and attractive music. Well-known names like Judith Weir whose opera background comes through in her piece ‘a blue true dream of sky’, or Cecilia McDowall’s instantly attractive ‘Standing as I do before God’, use soprano soloist Elizabeth Cragg soaring […]
“First recordings of two sets of piano pieces by Arnold Bax and Harriet Cohen (his charismatic muse and lover) adorn this latest helping of home-grown fare from the excellent Mark Bebbington. Cohen’s four Russian Impressions prove a charming find, the first two especially winning Bax’s approval. Bebbington lends them atmospheric and deftly affectionate advocacy, as he […]
“Emma Johnson is in fine form. The [Beethoven Septet’s] serenade-like slow movement is graceful and the alla marcia finale’s acceleration into a full-tilt presto is irresistible. Joseph Küffner’s Introduction, Theme and Variations (once attributed to Weber) is a jolly piece in which Johnson is joined by bassist Chris West and the Carducci Quartet. Clarinet and […]
“[Peter Donohoe] appears to take early Beethoven as his interpretative trajectory with a gloves-off spontaneity that imbues these magical scores with a compelling vitality and freshness. Donohoe’s radiant cantabile — captured to perfection by producer Siva Oke and engineer Paul Arden-Taylor — illuminates event the most workaday of sequential passage-work. It’s underpinned by an uninhibited […]
“this recording reappears on Somm 20 years later, tying in with José Serebrier’s 80th birthday. Its main points of interest concern the conductor’s splendid orchestrations of the three piano Preludes. The first stands out for Serebrier’s witty and unpredictable use of brass instruments and his ingenuously varied cymbal fills when the main theme recapitulates. … […]
“Plenty of charismatic playing here, in a programme clearly planned to entertain. … This sequence was taken live from a concert in 2017 and the audience’s delight in it is audible… [a] splendid time…is clearly being had by all. … Johnson’s reimaginings of the two closing Strauss numbers are as frothy as a glass of […]
Peter Donohoe joined the Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast for an hour-long discussion about his latest SOMM release of Mozart Piano Sonatas and much more! Listen now:
“this is a recording by a very versatile wind and string group, Emma Johnson directs, and they perform and record in formations ranging from little trios right up to octets as well. …what people particularly latch onto in these performances is the obvious pleasure that they take in working as a team. There is such an […]
“Peter Donohoe imagines the choice of Mozart’s solo piano works for his latest recording on SOMM will surprise many, although it is a project evolved over a lifetime, as well as being triggered by a snap decision. ‘I realise that I tend not to be associated with this repertoire, partly because I have tended to […]
I spent Tuesday evening thinking so much about John Joubert after learning of his passing; the times we spent together, what he said, his wonderful amused chuckle (I always used to make him laugh) and what he meant to me, to all of us, both as a composer of the most sublime music and also […]