Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi, pianos
Following SOMM’s successful release, last year, of Volume I of arrangements for two pianos of Delius’s orchestral music (SOMMCD 0112, A Dance Rhapsody No. 1, On hearing the First Cuckoo in spring, Brigg Fair, Poem of Life and Love, A Song of Summer, La Calinda) SOMM has now released Volume II transcribed by largely the same composers and friends of Delius in the same enjoyable, interesting mix as before.
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choice/Paul Spicer
There has been renewed interest in the music of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford recently and with the kind support of the Stanford Society, SOMM now turns the spotlight on Stanford’s Partsongs in the second of a series of recordings with the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir who have become one of Britain’s best choral groups in recent years, under the direction of Paul Spicer.
Stanford’s church music as well as the orchestral and chamber music are well represented on disc. Some of his secular songs have, in the past, been performed and recorded yet his 60-or-so partsongs are far less well known.
This is the first CD fully devoted to Stanford’s partsongs. In addition, the beautifully crafted eight Partsongs Op. 119 set to poems by Mary Coleridge (The Witch, Farewell My Joy, The Bluebird, The Train, The inkbottle, The Swallow, Chillingham, My heart in thine), appear on CD as a complete set for the very first time. SOMM’s recording also contains 9 Songs, which are premiere recordings (Diaphenia, Corydon Arise, A Dirge , Peace Come Away, To Chloris, On a hill, Like Desert Woods, To his flocks, A lover’s ditty, Praised be Diana).
These two epic, late romantic romantic Piano Sonatas make a valuable contribution to the catalogue of English music on record: Piano Sonata in D minor by Benjamin Dale (1885 – 1943) and Piano Sonata in F minor by William Hurlstone (1876 – 1906) recorded by the remarkable Mark Bebbington who, in collaboration with SOMM, has carried out an unprecedented amount of work and research in the field of British music during the last 7 or 8 years, many of these making their first appearance on disc.
Dyson’s music is akin to Parry’s in vocal colour and texture with exciting, sonorous climaxes and a rich orchestral harmony indebted as much to Richard Strauss (Dyson’s idol), as to Delius. Dyson brings his choral work to life in music of rare charm and freshness.
“Gems abound on this third and final volume in what has been a most enterprising survey, and I’m happy to report that, as on previous instalments, Sarah Fox and Roderick Williams are at the top of their game throughout. … We are offered no fewer than nine settings of poems by Parry’s fellow student at […]
BBC Music Magazine‘s November 2019 issue features a five-star review for Alexander Karpeyev’s Composers at the Savile Club recording: “What do Elgar, Walton, Parry, Virgil Thomson, and Arnold have in common? Answer: they were all members of the Savile Club… Stylistically it ranges widely, from the sweepingly Brahmsian Prelude of Parry’s Hands Across the Centuries […]
“As a chorister in the 1960s I can still remember the lines of the British Legion who would parade up to the village church and the war memorial to hear the names of the dead read out. My memories of those chilly, solemn November Sunday mornings are still vivid. They were occasions charged with deep […]
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