The Choir of New College Oxford is one of the world’s foremost choral foundations. The music composed for it in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries thus provides a compelling historical tour of changing musical styles and liturgical practices. This album, which follows the choir’s Sheppard recording (Gramophone Editor’s Choice), surveys New College commissions and premieres from the 1920s to the 2020s, beginning with Sir William Harris’s evergreen Faire is the heaven, composed while he was Organist of New College, and ending with a trio of recent commissions from contemporary English composers Caitlin Harrison, Deborah Pritchard and Toby Young. For Kenneth Leighton’s heart-wrenching cantata Crucifixus pro nobis, written in 1961, the choir is joined by tenor Nick Pritchard, a former academical clerk at New College.

A famous French horn virtuoso in his days, the shadowy figure known only as ‘Mr Charles the Hungarian’ was an eccentric opportunist who travelled to Dublin in March 1742. A natural entrepreneur, he capitalized on the ‘Handelmania’ surrounding Handel’s residence in the city at the time, and produced a concert at the Smock Alley Theatre which consisted mainly of Handel’s music.

This album recreates the programme and the bohemian atmosphere of the event, showcasing solos for various instruments, some of which had never been heard in Ireland before. The highly resourceful Irish Baroque Orchestra and Peter Whelan have a proven record of curating enticing programmes inspired by Ireland’s musical heritage, and this is yet another fine example. Together with works by Hasse, Telemann and Bocchi, a performance of John Walsh’s early edition of Handel’s Water Music gives a perfect cross-section of this captivating moment in Dublin’s musical history.

Each new Handel release by The English Concert and Harry Bicket is a milestone in the composer’s discography, and the latest, Serse – ‘a spectacular treat for Handel lovers’ (The Times) – is no different. Created to astonish London audiences in 1728, Handel’s romantic and at times comic opera Serse is a spectacular drama of love, war, power and civil engineering set in ancient Persia, whose opening aria ‘Ombra mai fu’ remains an enduring favourite. Serse rules a vast empire, but the human heart is more difficult to command, and sometimes the beauty of a plane tree is the only constant in a dangerous world. The work is complemented by a world-class cast including the ‘barnstorming’ (The Daily Telegraph) Emily D’Angelo as the lovestruck king and Lucy Crowe as Romilda.

REVIEWS:

As David Vickers points out in his excellent commentary on this latest offering from master Handelians Harry Bicket and The English Concert, [Handel's Serse] ran for only five performances, in April 1738. Fast forward to the 1920s, when a modern performance tradition took root and gradually gained momentum, helped no doubt by what became one of the most famous opening arias of all time: Ombra mai fu.

The story focuses on the amorous predicaments of Serse and his brother Arsamene. Serse falls in love with Romilda, unaware that Romilda is already in love with Arsamene, and he with her. To complicate matters further, Romilda’s sister Atalanta also has feelings for Arsamene, and attempts to sabotage their relationship. Then there’s the small matter of Serse already being betrothed to Amastre, who disguises herself as a soldier the more easily to exact revenge for Serse’s fickleness. But fear not: it all ends well, with both couples ultimately reconciling. It’s all a bit daft. Thankfully, Handel’s music is sublime, with arias, duets, choruses and orchestral music negotiating the opera seria and buffa elements with imagination, lightness and panache.

And this is a sublime cast. Bicket and The English Concert’s credentials are self-recommending, the soloists’ nearly so. There are mezzos Emily D’Angelo, Paula Murrihy and Daniela Mack as Serse, Arsamene and Amastre respectively. Sopranos Lucy Crowe (Romilda) and Mary Bevan (Atalanta). Finally, bass-baritone Neal Davies (Ariodate) and baritone William Dazeley (the servant Elviro). This studio recording was made in All Saints’ East Finchley in May last year, following live concert performances in the UK and the US. D’Angelo’s ode to a plane tree is the curtain-raiser it should be: tonally rich, focused and playing it completely straight. There’s something grounding about it, too, despite its ethereal qualities (contrast these with her later Crude furie degl’orridi abissi), which really sets the tone for the quality of the performances to follow. Such as Crowe’s, in numbers such as O voi and the spectacular Va godendo vezzoso e bello; but also Chi cede al furore. Bevan’s Un cenno leggiandretto and Mack’s beautiful Cagion son io.

Here, and elsewhere, Bicket (who directs from the harpsichord) and The English Concert play with a technical and stylistic command that is above reproach, lithe strings, plangent winds and a punchy continuo section more than making up for the theatrical elements invisible to a home listener.

-- Limelight

One of the UK’s leading collegiate choirs, The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and its Precentor Matthew Martin make their debut on Linn. This new recording offers a fresh insight into the lives and works of two expatriate English Catholic composers exiled to Flanders at the time of the Reformation. Peter Philips and Richard Dering both travelled widely in Europe and their music displays a variety of religious and musical influences picked up along the way. The texts speak with a directness and intensity, deeply affected by this period of religious and artistic turbulence. As a celebrated choral composer in his own right, Matthew demonstrates a masterful grasp of these works, many of which receive their first recording here. The unique combination of instruments from the period instrument ensemble In Echo also serve to add intensity and colour to this most sophisticated music of the Late Renaissance.

Named Gramophone’s One to Watch and winner of the 2022 International Handel Singing Competition, Alexander Chance makes his recording debut on Linn. Drop not, mine eyes is a recital of English lute songs that soaks up the zeitgeist of the past couple of years to create a programme full of melancholic works by Dowland, Campion, Danyel, Purcell and others. If the ever-popular Dowland was readily prone to sadness, as exemplified by the pair I saw my lady weep and Flow, my tears, or indeed In darkness let me dwell, the polymath Thomas Campion favoured a more sober style, as shown in I care not for these ladies. Thomas Ford displays his more profane side here with Fair, sweet, cruel and What then is love. When it comes to melancholy, John Danyel’s Grief, keep within and Drop not, mine eyes are every bit as good as Dowland. The programme closes with Purcell, the other English Orpheus. Toby Carr provides sympathetic accompaniment on lute and theorbo.

Linn is absolutely thrilled to launch a new recording partnership with the Consone Quartet. The first period instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the ensemble will embark on a complete Felix Mendelssohn string quartets cycle. Playing on gut strings, thus creating a warm, grainy soundworld akin to analogue photography (as violinist Agata Daraškaite puts it), the four musicians have drawn inspiration from editions of the time, including Ferdinand David’s own scrupulously marked-up parts, to present fresh accounts of the E flat major quartet ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3. These two works paired together – the former is an early work, the latter is the composer’s penultimate achievement in the genre – allow for some revealing comparisons between styles at different points in Mendelssohn’s life.

The award-winning Greenwich Trio, comprising Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovšek, Canadian cellist Heather Tuach and Japanese pianist Yoko Misumi, makes its debut on Linn with a recording of Brahms Piano Trios. Pairing Op. 36 with Op. 87, this is the first instalment in a complete trios cycle. Although a string sextet in its original Brahmsian guise, Op. 36 was brilliantly arranged for piano trio by Theodor Kirchner, a contemporary and friend of Johannes. The second of Brahms’s three trios, Op. 87 is a mature work which sees the composer at the height of his compositional writing. Its highly Romantic leaning combined with its Classical structure calls for the sort of sharp skills the Greenwich Trio has in abundance. Having delighted audiences throughout Europe (Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Kings Place, Rheingau Musik Festival, among others) this debut is eagerly-awaited.

Following their first album for Linn (Dvorák: Legends Op. 59, Czech Suite Op. 39), the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Cristian Măcelaru pursue the same folk vein with two orchestral works by Béla Bartók. Based on a rather childish tale (prince, princess, fairies, and of course a happy ending!), the music of the ballet The Wooden Prince – recorded in full here – has all the ingredients of a masterpiece: masterful scoring for large forces, use of musical themes, an effortless amalgam of folk and late-Romantic elements.

Composed in 1923 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the merging of the towns of Buda and Pest – alongside commissions by Ernö Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály – the century-old Dance Suite is a six-movement work that has become one of Bartók’s best known compositions. Born in Timișoara, a short distance from Hungary, Măcelaru can boast an unparalleled understanding of Bartók, as evident here.

REVIEW:

For overall quality Măcelaru rivals Mälkki, and comparing the two readings episode by episode, one is as likely as the other to convey a little more mood and color. But neither really has the freshness of discovery and excitement heard in Boulez’s first account on Sony, and neither of the two orchestras, the WDR Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic, approaches Boulez’s spectacular results with the New York Philharmonic.

Măcelaru is up against it again in the Dance Suite, which has had outstanding recordings from Fricsay, Boulez, Solti, and Iván Fischer, among others. Less raw than Solti, Măcelaru shows himself a master of the score in a reading that crackles with aliveness and presence. He gets animated playing from the Cologne musicians, and you quickly forget that they are not on a par with eminent ensembles in this music.

I was captivated from start to finish, and more importantly, I got a bead on Măcelaru beyond my only other exposure to him, in the Shostakovich piano concertos. There’s no reason not to give this release the same enthusiastic praise that has become the norm for Măcelaru. The recorded sound is full, vivid, and lifelike.

-- Fanfare

This is the third and final installment of the Well-Tempered Consort series (5 Diapasons, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice). In this program devised by its director Laurence Dreyfus, the viol consort Phantasm continues to shine new light on the fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier interspersed with some of the composer’s most harmonically adventurous experiments from the Clavierübung III. This polyphonic feast also includes two works from the Inventions and Sinfonias as well as the Fantasia in G major BWV 572, or Pièce d’orgue as it is sometimes called, which boasts an extraordinary closing pedal point. A fitting end to a remarkable journey!

Following their superb Dussek album (5 stars in BBC Music Magazine), Duo Pleyel’s Richard Egarr and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya explore the seminal role a musical father figure can play in shaping another composer. From Mozart’s first meeting with Johann Christian Bach (the ‘London Bach’) as a young boy in England in 1764, an extraordinary musical bond and mutual respect was forged between the two great composers. The life-long influence of the older musician on Mozart is often seriously under-appreciated, yet Mozart quoted musical fragments and themes by Christian throughout his life, none more poignantly than in the slow movement of his A major piano concerto K. 414, written shortly after Christian’s death. The program on this recording brings their four-hands music together to show both the influence and individuality of these wonderful composers.

Following its Gramophone Editor’s Choice album Echoes of an Old Hall, Medieval expert Gothic Voices has recorded The Splendour of Florence, a collection of Franco-Flemish music that was found in or associated with Florence. Occupying pride of place, Dufay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores is widely thought to reflect the proportions of the newly completed dome of Florence cathedral, for which it was written at the cathedral’s consecration in 1436. The other works – by Franco-Flemish composers Ockeghem, Busnois, Tinctoris, van Ghizeghem and others – are taken from a couple of Florentine chansonniers, which in turn document the wide dissemination of their music in the thriving Tuscan city. This album thus showcases Florence in all its splendour and lavishness, a city that proved a creative magnet for the highly-skilled and inventive compositional work of the outstanding composers of the Burgundian tradition.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra teams up with its Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the twentieth century’s greatest African American voices. Released to coincide with Black History Month, the two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still proved to be fundamental in the utilization of Afro-American idioms within the symphonic form. Each composer focused on one of the two original staples of African American music: folk and jazz.

William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its inspiration from West African folk idioms, American Negro spirituals and early African American folk rhythms and songs from Gullah culture. William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 draws its influence from elements popular in jazz and pre-jazz popular genres. Although the latter is the more well-known figure in American music, Dawson was every bit as significant in the timeline of African American music, and his only published symphony is astonishingly mature for a composer’s earliest efforts at symphonic writing. This program also celebrates the centenary of George Walker’s birth with the inclusion of his Lyric for Strings.

The magnificent Orchestral Suites, known as Ouvertüren in German, form the final instalment in Dunedin Consort’s long-running Bach Masterworks series for Linn, a series lauded as ‘nothing short of sensational’ by Gramophone. The intricate counterpoint and extraordinary technical demands present an opportunity, throughout these four sets of stately French-style overtures and dances, to demonstrate the virtuosic skill present in an ensemble of Dunedin’s caliber. The first two suites are scored for modest forces, yet the lightness and simplicity of touch conceals a complex musical language built on intimately interweaving parts. The third and fourth suites calls for trumpets, timpani, oboes, and a full complement of strings, thus making for a grand finale to Dunedin’s unrivalled Bach series. An insight into the ambition of this recording is offered in the title of the fourth suite’s final movement: for what better way to end the series than to fill listeners with immense ‘réjouissance’!

Following its digital debut on Linn presenting a triptych of works by Josquin des Prez, Vicente Lusitano and Roderick Williams, The Marian Consort now focuses its attention on the central figure of this trio, Vicente 'the Portuguese’. In his own time an important music theorist, Lusitano’s reputation and music have both been neglected in ours. As so often with musical figures of the Renaissance, many of the details of his life remain unknown. We can, however, be reasonably confident that he was the first published composer of African heritage. Referred to as ‘pardo’ in one eighteenth-century source, his only surviving printed book of compositions, the Liber primus epigramatum, was issued in Rome in 1551. True to its pioneer spirit as ‘brilliant discoverers, and exponents, of rare repertoire’ (The Observer), The Marian Consort has recorded a carefully chosen program of these striking, impressive and unjustly forgotten works.

Linn is thrilled to commence a new collaboration with one of the most renowned orchestras in Germany, Cologne based WDR Sinfonieorchester, with the fast-rising star of the conducting world, Cristian Măcelaru, at the helm. In this first album, the all-Dvořák program includes the composer’s Legends Op. 59 and the Czech Suite in D major, Op. 39. Initially written for piano four-hands – a highly profitable market in those days – the rather contemplative Legends were shortly later orchestrated for relatively small forces by Dvorák. Though not carrying a specific story, the ten Legends have somewhat an epic character as if they fused in one continuous narrative. The dance based Czech Suite epitomizes Dvořák’s unrivaled folk suffused writing. The four-movement work ends with a superb Furiant, which brings the album to a close.