⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ BBC Magazine Review “Janet Sung shines in the lyrical episodes of Vaughan Williams’s Violin Concerto, most especially in the beautiful Adagio – Tranquillo central movement. … Kenneth Hesketh’s richly colourful and evocative orchestral soundscapes… complement Sung’s by turns gleaming harmonics, bird-like song and yearning lyricism. … Sung and the Britten Sinfonia play Ravel’s lush […]
“A treat for fans of English music: two piano concertos by two ladies, Dora Bright (1862-1951) and Ruth Gipps (1921-1999). Bright’s writing in the concerto is highly Romantic, gesturing towards Schumann and Brahms, but the material is undeniably English. … [Samantha] Ward is a fine player… finding just the right flow for the appealing melodies. […]
“Mr Karpeyev has chosen a fine programme of works demonstrating great variety of style and tempo, some energetic from the start, others introspective, others showing brilliant scalar passages, some with folk-song character, others with a simple melody above a homophonic accompaniment. An unexpected delight on this disc is Roy Douglas’s piano-solo arrangement of the ‘Popular Song’ […]
“This double CD is the World Première recording of the last of Charles Villiers Stanford’s nine operas. It contains a narrative element strikingly similar to Puccini’s Turandot. … With the attractive tonal colours of Stanford’s music, in particular his orchestral and choral writing, it provides a fascinating and enjoyable experience. … Performances are excellent, especially […]
“Nathan Williamson’s Colour and Light is a memorably enterprising programme of British piano music performed with unwavering commitment and intensity, including a first recording of Anthony Herschel Hill’s Litany and Toccata. … [which] contrasts a ‘spiritual, trnascendent world’ with trailblazing brilliance… No praise could be high enough of Williamson’s performances, where, as in his previous […]
“[Mozart’s Piano Sontatas] contain much great music, works of genius in many ways, and they demand an experienced artist of no little musical insight and technique to demonstrate their quality. Thankfully, in Peter Donohoe, SOMM has found an ideal interpreter, on whose structural command and expressive insight, combined with a superlative technique and innate mastery […]
“Nathan Williamson’s earlier SOMM CD of Great American Sonatas made a considerable impression and he follows that success with another disc of distinction in choice of music and performance. … Williamson raises the stakes of musical appreciation with little-known but superb music.…Williamson’s notes are excellent, a perfect complement to his admirable playing and SOMM’s fine […]
“[Carwithen’s Quartet No. 1]’s technical fluidity suggest a much more mature composer…Quartet No. 2 dates from five years later, and the emotional intensity has heightened. … It’s a compelling piece of musical argument, played with bold incisiveness by the Tippett Quartet. Alwyn’s Quartet No. 3…It’s tautly argumentative opening gives way to an Adagio whose generous, […]
“…the lava tumbles out with astonishing force from Mark Bebbington, who plays with tremendous authority, supported by a vivid recording with an appropriately wide dynamic range. In its orchestrated symphonic form…the music writhes with a tumult of colours; but Bebbington proves that Bax’s first thoughts, testing piano and pianist to the limit, have their own […]
“once upon a time the songs of Eric Coates were sung and recorded by the world’s most prominent artists…which is one reason why this interesting new anthology is welcome. Another is the warm, empathetic advocacy of…Kathryn Rudge. Her creamy, generous mezzo-soprano affectionately cossets the languorous melody of ‘In a Sleepy Lagoon’ and caresses the delicate […]