This collection of music from the Eton Choirbook, the vast collection of English sacred music from the Early Renaissance, is the fourth in an acclaimed seris. Stephen Darlington and The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford lead the series, receiving countless awards and acclaim. The music on this release was firmly rooted in the daily life of the college, appreciated by all who attending and worshiped there.

With this installment of music from the Eton Choirbook, the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral sets out to rival The Sixteen’s five-volume anthology. Already it seems to me that they surpass it technically – which is remarkable considering the inevitable changes of personnel that time imposes on a choir with boy trebles – and interpretatively.

–Gramophone

Stunningly effective singing, with insightful and precise direction by Stephen Darlington. A ground-breaking achievement.

– Early Music Review

Tilting at windmills. The long-suffering Sancho Panza. Sighs of love for Dulcinea. The familiar and fanciful themes of the Don Quixote legend are brought to life by Apollo’s Fire in Telemann’s imaginative portrayal. The Don Quixote Suite sits alongside other suites and concertos by the composer that reveal his cosmopolitan air and whimsical nature.



REVIEW:

Avie deserves credit for spotting this 2002 Koch International label disc and putting it back into circulation once again, as it remains a sterling release. The Cleveland-based Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell pick a program that shows exactly why Telemann was so popular in his own day. They apply just the right level of broad gesture to the two representational suites, which reflect their subjects but are in no way overdone. A wonderful release that holds up to repeated hearings.

– All Music Guide

The Cypress String Quartet completes their cycle of the genre’s greatest oeuvre with a two-album set of Beethoven’s six ground-breaking quartets, Op. 18, alongside a reissue of their previously self-released recording of the late quartets. For the past several seasons, the Cypresses have immersed themselves in performing Beethoven on tours throughout the United States and Europe as well as recording all 16 works plus the “Grande Fugue” (Große Fuge). The completion of their Beethoven cycle is a fitting celebration of the Bay Area-based ensemble’s 20th anniversary as well as their valedictory season.

It's an initially disorientating experience to hear Sea Pictures in a version with choir. The Rodolfus Choir are an elite SATB group and have a wonderfully smooth and often lulling sound; there's a lot of that mood in Sea Pictures. The choir's diction is a marvel although the sung words are in any event at the back of the booklet. The singers are attentive to dynamic contrast and register some superbly poetic effects. Open-minded Elgarians who can get over the heresy of unfamiliar forces will find much to enjoy here. Where Corals Lie is a delight and works exceptionally well with choir.

A lazy unobservant glance at the details of this disc had me assuming that the Piano Quintet had been re-engineered into a Piano Concerto to join the Elgar/Walker. No such thing. What we have here is something of symphonic proportions and character. While there are some dark and dramatic moments and even some hints of the Second Symphony this now comes across as reflective and in the same territory as Falstaff. The first movement has an air of halting even fearful uncertainty. It's all very smooth though, suave even. A Viennese lilt at 10.00 is one of several instances where things become quite Brahmsian. The second movement is almost Finzian as details entwine much as they do in the woodland Interludes in Falstaff. The finale has its exciting moments but is overall quite nostalgic, philosophical, and regretful.

These two works in new colors should give many more opportunities to hear this music although ironically each requires a greater number of performers than the originals. Of the two Sea Pictures strikes me as the more attractive.

– MusicWeb International (Rob Barnett)

1715: The famed Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari constructs what will become one of his most legendary violins. Among its first owners is Giuseppe Tartini, he of the "Devil's Trill" sonata.

c. 1817: The violin is bequeathed to Polish virtuoso violinist Karol Lipinski who inspired many works for the instrument.

2008: After passing through many countries and collections, the "Lipinski" Strad arrives in the hands of Frank Almond, through an anonymous donor.

2013: Frank Almond releases "A Violin's Life", an album that traces the provenance of the "Lipinski" Strad, with music by Schumann, Tartini, Julius Rontgen, and Lipinski himself.

January 2014: Following a concert, walking towards his car, Frank Almond is tasered by an assailant and the "Lipinski" Strad is stolen. An FBI pursuit results in the recovery of the "Lipinski" Strad a few weeks later. International media coverage goes viral, including international TV coverage, a feature in Vanity Fair, NPR, BBC, and much more.

May 2016: Frank Almond releases "A Violin's Life, Vol. 2", featuring more music associated with the "Lipinski" Strad, including works by Beethoven, Amanda Maier-Rontgen, and Eduard Tubin, poised to create another classic release.

The "Lipinski" Strad lives on.

Bringing to light another of Hans Gál’s gorgeously melodic and finely crafted scores, Avie presents the world premiere recording of the Austrian émigré’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with English pianist Sarah Beth Briggs supported by Gál aficionado Kenneth Woods conducting the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Written in 1948, Gál’s large-scale romantic concerto abounds with sweeping phrases and pyrotechnics, yet at the heart of the piece lies the composer’s signature clarity and precision, making the work an ideal coupling for his 18th century Viennese compatriot Mozart’s great E-flat major concerto of 1785.

The Cypress String Quartet completes their cycle of the genre’s greatest oeuvre with a two-album set of Beethoven’s six ground-breaking quartets, Op. 18, alongside a reissue of their previously self-released recording of the late quartets. For the past several seasons, the Cypresses have immersed themselves in performing Beethoven on tours throughout the U.S. and Europe as well as recording all 16 works plus the “Grande Fugue” (Große Fuge). The completion of their Beethoven cycle is a fitting celebration of the Bay Area-based ensemble’s 20th anniversary, as well as their valedictory season.

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REVIEW:

The Cypress Quartet’s Beethoven readings have numerous virtues. The interpretations are well thought through, and the group’s beauty of tone and unanimity of ensemble are unfailing.

– MusicWeb International

Rachel Barton Pine’s ‘Testament’ is one of the best of this set of peerless works to have been released since Isabelle Faust’s definitive volumes of 2010 and 2012.

There is in her interpretation a surprisingly striking contrast between its crystalline voicing, clear articulation, and warm tone that makes the listener feel that it is concerned with the plain and simple beauty of the music as much as with the genius of its counterpoint and relationships between movements. All this is further supported by the sensible combination of Baroque bow and metal strings on a period instrument in modern set-up – the tuning is unfailingly accurate and the strength of the bowing means there is never any interference with the musical line by a squeak or break.

These are thoughtful and generous performances amplified by great maturity and depth.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice; June 2016)

The Brook Street Band celebrates its 20th anniversary as a champion of the music of Handel with another imaginative album that completes the ensemble’s survey of Handel’s Trio Sonatas for violins and continuo. A bonus is an arrangement for two violins and basso continuo of the overture to Handel’s oratorio, Esther.

Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players turn to music of their namesake alongside works by his contemporaneous King Henry VIII, an exceptionally musical monarch, and two composers of the previous generation, William Cornysh and Hugh Ashton. With Taverner’s Western Wind mass as its corner-stone, this recording takes its lead from the unashamedly secular character of that work and ventures beyond the chapel door to explore the parallel world of courtly vernacular song and instrumental music.

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REVIEW:

Andrew Parrott’s past recordings of Taverner count among his finest achievements, and time has not dulled his affinity for the music of his ensemble’s namesake. For this recital, he turns his attention to the secular music of Taverner’s contemporaries, interspersed among the movements of the Renaissance composer's Western Wynde Mass.

From a discographic standpoint, the instrumental numbers are very valuable, and dispatched with real flair. Finally, the sound recording successively juggles a wide range of distributions, from harpsichord to choir, with no apparent discontinuity.

– Gramophone

Cast out of Jerusalem, cast out of Spain. The Spanish Jews in their travels absorbed the colorful musical accents of Italy, Turkey and North Africa, including exotic percussion. Apollo’s Fire’s musical journey interweaves Sephardic folk song with the Monteverdi-like Hebrew choral work of Salamone Rossi – the Songs of Solomon. The daily rhythms of life – love, rejection, feasting and celebration – culminate in the mystical prayers of Shabbat.

Grammy Award-nominated cellist Antonio Meneses’ dazzling virtuosity in on display in the Suite for Solo Cello by Gaspar Cassadó, and two works by Zoltán Kodály - the Duo for Violin and Cello with violinist Claudio Cruz, and the Sonata for Solo Cello that was written in 1915. It is released in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the work.

Following the success of Capriccioso, a solo spectacular of works written by cellists for cellists, Antonio Meneses' brilliance is demonstrated again, with the rarely recorded Suite for Solo Cello by the Spanish cellist-composer Gaspar Cassadó. Alongside two early works by his Hungarian contemporary Zoltán Kodály - the Duo for Violin and Cello, with violinist Claudio Cruz, who was the conductor on Antonio's Grammy-nominated recording of the Concertos by Elgar and Gál; and the Sonata for Solo Cello, which was written in 1915 and is released in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the work.

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REVIEWS:

In Cassado's dark, sensuous Suite, inspired by Kodaly but infused with Spanish undertones, he exudes a mesmerising, Zen-like calm: tenderly shaped curlicues, ornate arabesques, and complex harmonic accompanying figurations never disturb his long, arching lines or the sense of easy, improvisational charm. You can almost forget you're listening to a virtuoso display; in his refreshingly self-effacing, idiomatic approach musical substance is always to the fore.

– BBC Music Magazine

Meneses gives a performance that has been crafted down to the tiniest detail, the swirling finale in particular confident and polished, with every technical trick in the cellist's book pulled off with panache.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

One’s first impression of this CD, in an aria from Orlando comparing Love to the Wind, with its bouncy coloratura and light attitude, might mistakenly be that soprano Amanda Forsythe is “one of those coloratura songbirds,” albeit a very good one. This would be selling her short: yes, she’s most certainly a superb singer, with staggering agility and high notes perfect and free, but she uses every note in her well placed, many-hued voice. Sudden plunges into a not-quite chest voice on words like “dolor” (sadness) color and vary the experience of the aria.

And the next aria, “Geloso tormento” from Almira, with its obbligato oboe and aggressively unhappy strings, gives Forsythe even more emotional room: like any good “early music” soprano, she can sing without vibrato, but what she does with the first two words of the aria are special. The second syllable of “geloso” is attacked white and she sings a crescendo on it, adding vibrato; “tormento” finds a rolled “r” and a shudder on “men”. She embellishes freely and dramatically in the da capo section (here and in each other such aria).

It is a joy to hear a singer rethinking much of this familiar music without ever distorting it, such that the CD’s 55 minutes of singing (broken up with four expertly played orchestral excerpts from Terpsichore) truly impresses like a first hearing. And you never tire of Forsythe, as you might with other light-and-high-voiced singers. A bauble such as Atalanta’s flirtatious “Un cenno leggiadretto” from Serse has such character that it enchants anew. She has no fear of leaning on her voice but she never forces or makes an ugly sound; drama comes from inflection and diction.

Armida’s enraged recit “Dunque I lacci” and the anguished “Ah! crudel” that follows from Rinaldo are tragic in scope and sound, heavy with rage and sadness. The brief, insane B section that pops out of Armida’s deranged mind, “O infidel”, filled with tommy-gun coloratura, is a spectacular display, and Forsythe sadly lopes into the da capo with a voice filled with desolation. Morgana’s “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Alcina is sung for fireworks, and they light up the sky.

Jeanette Sorrell leads the period instruments of Apollo’s Fire devoid of any affectations, and the band plays smoothly and expertly. This is clearly Forsythe’s show and the orchestra and conductor offer great support. I could go on but find no need to; I hope you get my point. This is a knockout recital by a major American soprano.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Adrian Chandler, who founded the period-instrument ensemble La Serenissima 21 years ago, has produced a dozen enlightening, acclaimed, and award-winning albums for AVIE. After many years of anticipation, Ade turns his attention to the touchstone of Vivaldi’s concerto output, The Four Seasons. As one has come to expect, he brings something unique to an interpretation brimming with vitality and originality. Putting this most popular of classical works into context, Ade rounds out the recording with Vivaldi concertos for bassoon, including the famous La Notte, and world premiere recordings of two concertos for the violin in tromba marina, a hitherto obsolete instrument that was used during Vivaldi’s lifetime.