CD · 1 disc
Their second Christmas album on Signum Records, Armonico Consort and Christopher Monks return with a new album featuring a collection of carols both old and new. They have created the perfect soundtrack for those who love an atmosphere at Christmas. Featuring world premiere recordings by Composer Toby Young and the first ever recording of ‘Star Song’ by Jonathan Dove on a Christmas album, there are also exquisitely sublime versions from ‘Silent Night’ to ‘Away in a Manger’.
"It is ten years since our last carols recording, and we have collected some incredible works we have been so keen to record, including several commissioned from our composer in residence. Christmas somehow manages to inspire composers to write the most imaginative, both in terms of creativity and melodiousness, and Toby is an expert at making Christmas music sound just as we want it to be!" -- Christopher Monks
“JS Bach’s seven concertos for solo harpsichord & strings, occupy a significant place in the history of music, marking as they do the origin of the keyboard concerto genre. Collectively, they encompass the gamut of Baroque rhetorical expression; indeed, leaving aside the six ground-breaking ‘Brandenburg’ Concerts avec plusieurs instruments, it is difficult to think of a more diverse, revolutionary and technically refined set of instrumental concertos from the Baroque period” - Andrew Arthur; Their second recording on Signum Classics, The Hanover Band play-directed by Andrew Arthur present four of these revolutionary concertos, following their successful first album “BMV 1052, 1054, 1055 & 1058 Harpsichord Concertos”. The Hanover Band’s players are amongst the finest in their field and the orchestra has built an international reputation for the excellence of its performances and recordings of eighteenth and nineteenth-century music. Andrew Arthur is best-known for his work in the field of historically informed performance, he is in great demand as a conductor, keyboard soloist and continuo player, working with many of the UK’s leading period-instrument orchestras and professional choirs.
2023 marks 25 years since the death of British composer Paul Reade. He is remembered for his delightful Victorian Kitchen Garden music (Ivor Novello Award) and television themes such as Antiques Road-show. However, he also wrote a huge range of equally wonderful but less well-known pieces, full of melodic invention, wit and fabulous energy. They are previously unpublished and unrecorded works that deserve to be heard.
These are premiere recordings (except for the Chants du Roussillon) and show Paul’s music at its best: tender, poignant, humorous and uplifting, full of wonderful melodic and dramatic invention. Philippa Davies has been hailed as a ‘first-rate virtuoso’, with ’winning charm’, ’exceptional eloquence’ and an ‘almost electrical response to technique’. Since her celebrated performance of Mozart’s Concerto in D major at the BBC Proms in 1988, she has gained an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing.
Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) continues a celebrated project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, with this tenth volume of the series. Together with renowned scholar-pianist Robert Levin, and directed by Laurence Cummings and Bojan Cicic, AAM presents the Church Sonata No. 17 alongside the Piano Concerto No. 5 – Mozart’s first original keyboard concerto – both for orchestra and organ. The three K107 concertos are joined by a concerto movement from the music book of Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, believed to have been drafted by Mozart as a young child, and completed here by Robert Levin. The hardback CD package is accompanied by comprehensive notes commissioned specially for the album.
Recorded during the 2020 lockdown, Richard Boothby explores the solo and duo Viol music of Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger. The lyra viol and its music is one of the last undiscovered gems of music, and Alfonso Ferrabosco is its greatest exponent. It is in the category of ‘hard to define, easy to recognise’: it is at once an instrument, a style of playing and a genre of instrumental music, and, while not exclusively English, by far the largest part of its repertory is from these isles. A composer favoured by Queen Elizabeth I and James I, Ferrabosco also wrote music for stage works by playwright Ben Jonson, some of which would by heard in performance at Shakespeare's Globe. Added to this he was a renowned player of the viol – a visiting court musician declaring that there was no player of ‘La lyre’ in Italy: “who was fit to be compared with the great ‘Farabosco d’Angleterre'."
Richard Boothby has been playing the viol ever since David Fallows handed him a tenor viol in 1977. After further study with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Salzburg, he helped to found The Purcell Quartet in 1984 and Fretwork in 1985. He has endeavoured to enrich the viol-consort repertory with new music from today’s finest composers, from Elvis Costello to George Benjamin, from Alexander Goehr to Nico Muhly. With the Purcell Quartet, he recorded nearly 50 albums for Hyperion and Chandos; and with Fretwork over 40 albums for Virgin Classics, Harmonia Mundi USA and most recently, Signum Classics.
REVIEW:
These are intimate performances of intimate music, yes; but the writing and the playing are such that chordal and contrapuntal textures, beefy bass lines and flute-like cantabiles just about do the job of an entire consort of viols.
-- BBC Music Magazine
Soprano Mary Bevan writes: In 1975, the original Bevan Family Choir released their debut album on vinyl, featuring an eclectic programme of sacred choral works, Welsh folk songs, and piano music. The Choir consisted of 11 of the 14 Bevan siblings and was conducted by their father, Roger. Later on the Choir was taken over by the second eldest son, David, who was to go on to become Assistant Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral. The musical tradition continued to flourish within the family until, in 2013, some of the second generation of cousins decided to create their own version of the family choir, naming themselves the Bevan Family Consort so as to distinguish them from their parents’ generation. The Consort has since ranged in size from 15-22 of the 53 first cousins. To honour David and the influence he had over us all as musicians, this disc consists of music that was introduced to us by him during his years at the Holy Redeemer Church and that have since become beloved by us as a choir.
The Bevan Family Consort are particularly good at strongly textured works such as Croce’s In spirito humilitatis, tinged with Venetian monumentalism, or Holst’s Nunc dimittis with its ecstatic ending. This last piece was not discovered until 1979, some 45 years after Holst’s death. Other rarities include the Dignare me by Fernando de las Infantas, apparently a Spanish nobleman working in Rome – so obscure as to be practically confidential. The works with intricate polyphony are pleasingly performed, though in the Kyrie and Gloria of Victoria’s Missa Vidi speciosam the upper voices are a little sharp and the overall acoustic seems rather distant. Breath control and phrasing is always musical and is apparent even in the plainsongs (Ave Maria). The most beautiful work here is Alonso Lobo’s Versus est in luctum. The voices of the Bevan Consort are slightly too disparately coloured to match the magical poise of this work achieved by the group Tenebrae (also on Signum) which shares an album with Victoria’s Requiem.
“Inspirations and imaginings, evolving, changing English usage, landscapes, friendships and passings lie behind this album... Loosely, the songs we’ve selected embrace multiple interpre- tations and nuances of ‘divine’. As well as, I could argue, that sentiment of English song and English speaking composers embodying the [Blake/Parry] ‘Jerusalem-Builded-Here’ trope. The world I came from (singing in choir stalls), along with how countertenors are perceived generally, has been hard to escape. So here perhaps I’m taking on the challenge. As well as an opportunity to include songs written for me that for some while I’ve been needing to put down on disc.” (Iestyn Davies) ‘Divine Music’ marks Iestyn Davies’ third recital album on Signum Classics. The ‘Four Songs’ (Purcell/ Adès), Spoons Aria (Adès), Four Traditional Songs and Old Bones (Muhly) are world premiere recordings. Muhly’s Four Traditional Songs were also written dedicated to Iestyn Davies.
It’s lovely to hear Butterworth’s Shropshire Lad songs in this pairing, a countertenor voice adding a wan fragility to ‘Is my team ploughing?’ and a wistful sense of perpetual youth and innocence to ‘The lads in their hundreds’.
-- Gramophone
CD · 2 discs
The latest release from renowned period ensemble La Serenissima celebrates the life and work of Nicola Matteis the Younger. Born in London to an Italian father and English mother, Matteis was immersed in the style of Henry Purcell before leaving England in 1700 for the Imperial Court in Vienna. All of the music on the album is – rather fortuitously – Carolean; either written for Charles II of England, or for (or in the realm of ) Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It is all too easy to think that the English style and English musicians were unknown on the continent in the early C18, but this selection of music shows that this wasn’t (always) the case. There are some jubilant dances and dance suites featured here as well as a ravishingly beautiful Vivaldi concerto and two superb Chaconnes, one by an Englishman, and one by an Italian.
The strings of La Serenissima – notably young in personnel here – show evident enthusiasm for Chandler’s direction throughout, and respond with precision and clarity...Listening to this Englishman and his ensemble is always refreshing.
Their tenth album with Signum Classics, the Armonico Consort directed by Christopher Monks return with two works by Francesco Scarlatti. This recording has been made using new editions of the works, (made especially for this recording) that were created from autograph scores. Armonico Consort began life in 2001, set up by Christopher Monks and a group of university colleagues with a shared passion for music from the Renaissance to Baroque, coupled with the imagination to find new and unusual ways to present concerts. Audiences seemed to love their engaging and imaginative approach, and most concerts in the first years sold out.
The founder and Artistic Director of Armonico Consort and its ground-breaking education program AC Academy, Christopher Monks has established himself as a versatile and prolific conductor and keyboard player. Specialising in the performance of music from the Baroque and late Renaissance, Christopher is equally at home with major and modern choral repertoire.
The performances are strong, superbly shaped by Monks, and played and sung, one voice to a part, with great precision.
Cecilia McDowall writes: "Da Vinci Requiem brings together my chosen Latin texts from the Missa pro Defunctis with extracts from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and is structured in seven movements in the shape of an arch … It has been a fascinating exploration, aligning Leonardo’s extraordinary insights, both artistic and philosophical, with such a profound and ancient text. Seventy degrees below zero is a three-movement work for chamber orchestra and tenor soloist. [Inspired by work carried out by the Scott Polar Research Institute], the phrase for the title was taken from Scott’s Letter to his wife: ‘Dear, it is not easy to write because of the cold – 70 degrees below zero’. The scientific exploration and data collected by Captain Scott’s team at the beginning of the 20th century still powerfully underlies the research which continues to this day. It was with a desire to join the past with the present that I asked the poet, Seán Street, to write two poems to accompany Scott’s words: words from ‘then’ and words from ‘now’.”
Wimbledon Choral has been described as “one of the most substantial and formidable choirs in London … a vigorous and sophisticated choral ensemble”. The choir is over 100 years old, re-founded in the early stages of the First World War, but its earliest recorded roots go back to 1870. Today we are a modern, dynamic group of singers, always ready to stretch ourselves and try new things, making sure we keep up our reputation as one of the finest amateur symphonic choirs in south-east England.
Santtu conducts Strauss is a 2-volume album featuring four works by Richard Strauss conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, two of which are live recordings of Santtu’s 2021/22 opening concert and first concert as Principal Conductor at Royal Festival Hall. Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra are live recordings of Santtu’s opening concert of the 2021/22 season, and his first concert with the Philharmonia as Principal Conductor. The concerts received great reviews. Tim Ashley (The Guardian) said “With the Philharmonia on tremendous form, Rouvali proved a fine Straussian, measured in his approach, and careful in his attention to detail and colour”. Rebecca Franks (The Times) awarded 5-star reviews: “There were “wow” moments aplenty as the Philharmonia laced up its hiking boots and happily hit every waymark in Strauss’s mountain journey: the glorious sunrise, the resplendent summit, the violent storm with wind machine, thunder sheet and organ.”
Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra creates thrilling performances for a global audience and has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Kaija Saariaho and many others. The Philharmonia has an extraordinary 77-year recording legacy, and has recorded around 150 soundtracks, with film credits stretching back to 1947. In the 2021/22 season the Orchestra performs in Romania, Spain, Finland, Greece and Germany. Santtu-Matias Rouvali is a Finnish conductor and percussionist, and is currently principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Rouvali continues his relationships with orchestras across Europe, including with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Phillharmonic and the the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
This is an Alpine Symphony where the thrills are just that much more thrilling, the sublime moments more sublime, the lyrical line more lyrical. I’d place this Alpine Symphony beside the Karajan, and it comes in much better sound. I consider every performance here nothing short of a triumph, so the strongest recommendation naturally follows.
-- Fanfare
When in 1913 Respighi settled in Rome where he would reside for the rest of his life, he would produce a large amount of highly varied music-some of it now well-known, much of it less so. Geoffrey Simon’s championship of the little-known works of celebrated composers has proved highly successful on both record and in the concert hall, and his exploration of Respighi’s catalogue has yielded a number of colourful compositions whose neglect hitherto remains something of a mystery. The works recorded on this Cala Signum reissue cover a wide range of moods, from the opulence and excitement for which Respighi was noted in his famous Roman Trilogy, to more reflective pieces inspired by nostalgia for the music of the past.
Following their critically acclaimed ‘Psalms’ album, St John’s College, Cambridge and Andrew Nethsingha present a selection of Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis recordings from January and July 2022. Much of the third volume in their series of Evening Canticles focuses on music in a twenty-year period, from 1945 to 1965. Philip Moore’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were commissioned especially for St John’s College, Cambridge.
REVIEWS:
It’s sad that Nethsingha’s departure means that the next volume will be the last. I can’t think of a greater or more apt epitaph to the music director’s time at St John’s.
-- Gramophone (Editor's Choice, May 2023)
These contrasting works, embracing solo writing and full-bodied, lavish textures, give the choir the chance to display their warm sound and versatility. They do, wholeheartedly.
-- The Guardian (UK)
Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) resumes a celebrated project to record Mozart’s complete Piano Concertos, with this ninth volume released after an extraordinary 20-year wait. Together with renowned scholar-pianist Robert Levin, AAM presents Mozart’s Piano Concertos No. 21 in C Major K467, perhaps one of Mozart’s most well-known Piano Concertos and featured in films The Spy Who Loved Me and Elvira Madigan, and No. 24 in C Minor K491, described by Mozart scholar Alexander Hyatt King as ‘not only the most sublime of the whole series but also one of the greatest pianoforte concertos ever composed’. AAM’s founder Christopher Hogwood and Robert Levin came together in 1993 to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra for the first time ever on period instruments. Only eight albums out of a total of 13 were recorded, with the most recent released in 2001. This release marks the renewal of this landmark project and will be followed by the four final albums of the series later in 2023 and 2024.
In her third recital album for Signum Records, celebrated soprano Mary Bevan returns with a selection of French songs, featuring works by composers including Britten, Ravel, Debussy and Faure
“Over the years since the release of my debut album Voyages with Joseph Middleton in 2017, my passion for French mélodie has grown and deepened...The texts that composers of mélodie have set to music contain a depth and a mystery that I find fascinating and a source of repeated inspiration... My idea for the album began sim- ply with a desire to record Britten’s Les Illuminations, a work I feel closely connect- ed to, having performed it many times over the years and each time having found something new in it to interest me”
Charlie Siem returns with a new recording of Violin Sonatas, accompanied by his regular recital partner Itamar Golan – featuring Vaughan Williams' Violin Sonata in A Minor and Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13. Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century. Siem has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Czech National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with top conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Edward Gardner, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Libor Pešek and Yuri Simonov. International festival appearances to date include Spoleto, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Bergen, Tine@Munch, Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía, and the Windsor Festival.
CD · 3 discs
The Calidore Quartet begin their new cycle of Beethoven's complete String Quartets with the Late Quartets, a 3-volume set of Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 & 135. Performances of the Calidore String Quartet are renowned for their “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times). Their unique “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times) is complemented by the feeling that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one” (Washington Post). After over a decade of performances and residencies in the world’s most esteemed venues and festivals, the release of numerous critically acclaimed recordings and lauded with significant awards, the Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast repertory; from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like Grygory Kurtag, Jörg Widmann and Caroline Shaw.
The monumental third part of the Clavier-Übung (1739) is perhaps one of J S Bach’s greatest musical sequences with its explorations into both Lutheran hymnody and the ‘German Organ Mass’. As a didactic work, it also pursues virtually every contrapuntal device and structure. In giving voice to this immensely varied work, fascinating, inspiring and spiritual in equal measure, it seems particularly apt to make through it an ‘organ tour’ of Saint Thomas Church, with its rich and rewarding instrumental resources.
Each piece is played with fastidious care, with its mood and scale perfectly matched to an appropriate organ. Jeremy Filsell provides yet another masterclass in manual and pedal dexterity, packed with interpretative insights and always mindful of a sense of flow and grace. Recorded by David Hinitt in the very best sound, this is a Clavier-Übung III to savor and revisit.
‘Darkness to light is a theme which continues to engage artists, musicians, philosophers and thinkers through time, and this theme, coupled with thoughts of remembrance, hope, redemption and acceptance is the thread that ties together all the music performed on this recording.’ - © Bob Chilcott ‘Canticles of Light’ is Bob Chilcott’s ninth album on Signum Records. Featuring celebrated composers including Cecilia McDowall, Francis Pott and James MacMillan each work has been carefully selected by conductor and professor Agnieszka Franków-Zelazny, with the final track written especially for the NFM Choir. Hailed by The Observer as ‘a contemporary hero of British choral music’, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong connection with singing and choirs. As a composer he has a large catalogue of music published by Oxford University Press that reflects his broad view of musical styles and genres.
Looking at the variety of Italian baroque instrumental music on offer to today’s listener, one could be forgiven for thinking that Vivaldi had faced little competition during his lifetime. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Whilst the volume of music that flowed from Vivaldi’s pen was unusually plentiful, many other composers were needed to fulfil the needs of the regional courts and churches throughout Italy. Expert early-music ensemble La Serenissima perform works by Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri, Giuseppe Sammartini, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco and Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello alongside works by Vivaldi on this new album of Italian Baroque masterpieces.
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