Much Ado, the solo debut album by Korean American violinist Danbi Um is as striking for the young musician’s choice of “old world” repertoire as her virtuoso interpretations and the sumptuous sound she draws from her 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin. Danbi conjures memories of a musical Golden Age, a sensibility instilled in her by a roster of internationally renowned tutors.

The title track, from Eric Korngold’s Shakespeare-inspired suite, sits alongside arrangements of works by fellow Austro-Germanic composers Fritz Kreisler and Richard Wagner. Hungarian Romani music infuses compositions by Johannes Brahms, Jeno Hubay and Erno Dohnányi, juxtaposed with music by Jewish composers Ernst Bloch, Joseph Achron and Leo Zeitlin.

A multiple award winner – Danbi has taken top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin and Naumberg International Violin Competitions, and Astral Artists’ Auditions – she has been praised by The Strad as an “utterly dazzling” artist with a “marvelous show of superb technique.” A resident of New York City, Danbi performs regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and further afield with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Washington D.C.'s Phillips Collection, and the Rockport, Moab, Saratoga Performing Arts and Santa Fe Music Festivals.

REVIEWS:

“Technically assured, passionate, involved playing…there’s always a good feeling for the shape and direction of the melodic lines.”

-- BBC Music Magazine

Cantata Collective, an ensemble “of San Francisco early music luminaries” (San Francisco Chronicle) inaugurates a major series of J. S. Bach’s choral works with a live recording of the composer’s St. John Passion. With celebrated conductor Nicholas McGegan, the toast of today’s new generation of vocal soloists and a three-to-a-part chamber choir, the Cantata Collective conveys the emotional intimacy and dramatic power of this monumental passion in a highly polished performance that led Early Music America to implore: “To the excellent musicians of Cantata Collective: More Bach Please!”

Frank Almond’s life is intertwined with that of his violin, the “Lipin´ski” Strad, an exceptional instrument named for the famed 19th-century Polish violinist Karol Lipin´ski and first owned by legendary 18th-century Italian composer-violinist Giuseppe Tartini, represented on A Violin’s Life, Volume 3 by his Sonata Prima in D, Op. 2, a trio sonata in all but name. The masterful Piano Trio in E flat by 19th-century Swedish virtuosa Amanda Meier connects with the instrument that had passed on to her future father-in-law Engelbert Ro¨ntgen. Another great Nordic composer, Edvard Grieg, opens the album with his great Sonata No. 3 in C minor.

The legend of the Lipin´ski Strad went viral in 2014 when, following a concert, walking towards his car, Frank Almond was tasered by an assailant and the prized instrument was stolen. An FBI pursuit resulted in the recovery of the instrument within weeks. International media ensued on the BBC, NPR, and a feature in Vanity Fair. An award-winning documentary film “Plucked” premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Frank Almond’s critically acclaimed and chart-topping recordings of A Violin’s Life are now a trilogy. The “Lipin´ski” Strad lives on.

Christoph Croisé channels his prowess as a cellist – “he’s got it all – technical chops, impeccable musicianship and imaginative daring” (Gramophone) – into compositional ingenuity on the first album devoted entirely to his own works. Christoph draws inspiration from a variety of musical role models, including contemporary and centuries past, paying homage to the time-honoured evolution of classical music that has melded current conventions with popular styles. Traditional forms, such as sonata and concerto, are imbued with jazz, blues, bossa nova and improv to create, as Christoph puts it, “a musical and cultural melting pot.”

Christoph’s compositional urge was spurred by the pandemic and lockdown. The four works on Voyage Exotique were written between 2020 and 2022. He also cites current world events as a motivating influence. His first cello concerto, imbued with high-wire virtuosity that makes full use of the cello’s – and Christoph’s – capabilities, opens a programme that also includes an imaginary intergalactic journey in the form of a clarinet trio, and a sonata for cello and piano that is by turns pensive, agitated and longing, yet ultimately hopeful. The title track, a “Grand duo” for two cellos is, in the truest sense of the word, an “exotic journey” through foreign sound cultures and myriad cello effects.

REVIEW:

It is a bit difficult to categorize this release by cellist Christoph Croisé. The music borrows heavily from popular traditions, bossa nova and other tropical sounds, lots of jazz, and, in the finale of the grim, Ukraine-inspired Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 9, Eastern European folk rhythms. Several pieces, most of all the Cello Concerto No. 1, are quite virtuosic, and this fits with the general concept; Croisé is adept at writing lines that show off his abilities on the cello, but he is also an alert chamber player who interacts well with the other musicians in the chamber pieces. A genuinely fresh album.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

love & light celebrates the 10th anniversary of the inspirational girls choir iSing Silicon Valley, and features a diverse range of sacred music from Hildegard of Bingen to James MacMillan, new works by South Korean Guggenheim Fellow Sungji Hong, multi-disciplinary composer Kenyon Duncan, and many more. iSing Silicon Valley, the inspirational Bay Area-based girls choir, emerged from the darkness of the pandemic to find love & light in this recording of sacred music both ancient and new, music that transcends and heals, with glorious sonorities by turns rapturous and haunting.

iSing’s spirit of diversity shines through on love & light. From O Sapientie, the ecstatic chant by Hildegard of Bingen to Sir James MacMillan’s gravity defying Os Mutorum, Lux Aeterna by South Korean Guggenheim Fellow Sungji Hong and chorea lucis (dance of light) by California-based multi-disciplinary composer Kenyon Duncan – and many more – every work on love & light recalls an emotion, instinct or value that came to feel significant, even urgent, during the separation imposed during the pandemic. iSing’s collaborators on love & light are virtuosa harpist Cheryl Fulton, and the versatile GRAMMYâ Award winning, soprano Estelí Gomez (Roomful of Teeth). love & light is released in celebration of iSing’s 10th anniversary.

REVIEWS:

This is impressive. A largely contemporary, contemplative and often complex programme is performed with exceptional poise by the girls’ choir and harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton. Sungji Hong’s mesmeric Lux Aeterna is the pick of several highlights

-- BBC Music Magazine (★★★★★)

Jennah Delp Somers has fashioned an impressive program with iSing…If more communities had this kind of program for young people, that fosters connections but cedes nothing of musical excellence, think of what America’s support for the arts would look like. Recommended!

-- Sequenza 21

 

Multi-award-winning Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel has created a truly unique magnum opus: The Gospel According to Mark, a seven-hour oratorio setting the disciple’s text from the King James bible in its entirety.

What originated as an idea to distill the text, as most passion music does, Chris quickly became more interested in setting the complete prose. He chose to compose a work employing an English Protestant text, rather than the more traditional Latin or German, envisioning The Gospel According to Mark as a seven-hour-long prayer. With the text as Chris’ starting point, the musical motifs and melodies followed, setting concepts including the themes of teaching, healing, miracles, forgiveness, death, and resurrection.

The scope of the text is illuminated by scaled-down forces – chamber-sized string orchestra plus two horns, oboe (doubling oboe d’amore) and cor anglais (doubling bass oboe), with soprano, alto, tenor and bass solo voices. Unlike other oratorios, the singers do not represent any particular person but rather act as a chorus of storytellers. Chris explains, “This nebulous use of the voices, which sidesteps role assignment, keeps the vocal parts more abstract and hence the listener focused on the text.” With Chris’ faith as his guide, The Gospel According to Mark takes the listener a journey through the contrasts of peacefulness and agitation, darkness and light.

Beethoven wrote in his diary that he wanted “to show the British what a treasure they have in God Save the King”, a reference to his set of variations on the national anthem, composed in 1803. Sarah Beth Briggs recorded the virtuoso set precisely one month before the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and the recording heralds the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023. The lesser-known Variations on an Original Theme in F major (1802) represent Beethoven the revolutionary. Uniquely, each variation was written in a different key which would have jarred the ears of the composer’s contemporaries. Sarah Beth Briggs’ collection of Variations underlines a lineage of the genre through the classical and Romantic eras. Opening the program is 9 Variations on a Minuet by Duport by Mozart, whom Beethoven greatly admired. The work takes a theme by cellist Jean-Pierre Duport, chamber music director of the court of the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm II, from whom the composer hoped to gain favor. Mendelssohn’s Variations Serieuses was written as a tribute to Beethoven, and was included in an album of works that raised funds for the now famous bronze statue of Beethoven in Bonn. Mendelssohn’s near contemporary Brahms paid tribute to his troubled friend Robert Schumann, using a melody from Bunte Blätter (“Colorful Leaves”) in his poignant Variations on a Theme by Schumann.

REVIEWS:

Briggs’ execution is fluidly graceful and well-modulated. She approaches this repertoire with a studied care that betrays a love for the period and composers.

-- Wild Mercury Rhythm

All nine of Mozart’s Variations on a Theme by Jean-Pierre Duport, K 573 are quite delicate, sounding here almost as if they were played on a toy piano. Only the finale includes authoritative sounds. Beethoven’s 7 Variations on `God Save the King’ is sturdier; I especially enjoy the lively, witty, chordal IV. Also included is Beethoven’s 6 Variations on an Original Theme. In Variations Serieuses, Mendelssohn managed to write 17 imaginative ones. That number only slightly outdoes Brahms, who came up with 16 Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann. Lovely music, elegant playing.

-- American Record Guide

Multi-award-winning violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins is the entrepreneurial spirit behind Music Kitchen, the pioneering project that brings top classical music and musicians into homeless shelters, sharing the inspirational, therapeutic, and uplifting power of music with those experiencing homelessness. Founded in New York City, Music Kitchen has presented over 100 concerts to more than 30,000 homeless shelter clients coast to coast, including in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Oakland, Rochester, and internationally in Paris, France. According to the New York Times, “The concerts have an air of authenticity and directness that sometimes does not exist in concert halls.”

Forgotten Voices is a song cycle commissioned by Music Kitchen – Food for the Soul, with support from Carnegie Hall, comprising works by 15 of today’s foremost composers featuring evocative and poignant texts by homeless shelter clients that have provided a profound source of inspiration and reverence. Forgotten Voices premiered to a sold-out Carnegie Hall audience in March 2022 and inspired a short film that has won multiple awards at festivals around the globe, including Winner: Best Cause-Driven Film and Finalist: Best Director and Best Documentary at the Cannes World Film Festival, Winner: Best Short Film at the Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival, and Winner: Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Indie Film Festival.

REVIEWS:

Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins is the entrepreneurial spirit behind Music Kitchen and the composer of one of the songs. She and 5 other string players, supply accompaniment to the 4 singers. I presume it is she who plays so nimbly in `Music Kitchen Interplay’ by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with a text from a client who is amazed at what a violin can do and who gives thanks for how Music Kitchen “was a blessing to my hungry body and soul”.

The longest song of the album, Jeffrey Scott’s `Für Mein Vater’, is a setting of the poet’s fond remembrance of his father’s love of Mozart and Brahms, which was rekindled by hearing Music Kitchen perform it. It is sung sensitively by Allison Charney. Each time I listen to these songs I hear something new to like.

The program ends sublimely with Paul Moravec’s `Music is Love’. The words offer a strong statement about the values of this project and of music itself: “Music is love. It’s freedom, awakening. Music is universal. Music unites us all. Music expands our horizons. Classical music enables you to discover yourself.” After about a 20-second pause the song is repeated in a longer version for all four singers in harmony. I suspect this was sung as an encore at the concert. These final two tracks are especially lovely.

Each of the songs brings a message of gratitude or hope even in the midst of personal struggle. Collectively the album conveys consolation and the healing power of love. The songs call for excellent string playing, and these folks produce it brilliantly. The two sopranos sing with great expression and are especially poignant in their softer singing...Blumberg...begins the program with a tender reading of Steve Sandberg’s `Thank You’. Songs texts are included, though they are hardly needed—the singers’ diction is very clear most of the time. I find the songs appealing. I find the mission of Music Kitchen even more appealing.

-- American Record Guide

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ imagination and ingenuity knows no bounds. Her idea to persuade leading living composer Morten Lauridsen to transform his choral masterpiece, O Magnum Mysterium, into a work for violin and choir is a masterstroke. Teaming up with conductor Grant Gershon – who first collaborated with Anne as chamber musicians over 40 years ago – and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, for whom Lauridsen was their first Composer in Residence, Anne rounds out this 4-track EP with three other arrangements for violin and chorus of ever-popular works by J.S. Bach.

Pianist-composer Bruce Wolosoff is a musical alchemist, organically mixing his multiple experiences in the worlds of jazz, rock, blues and classical music. His new solo album, Memento, melds the evolution of Wolosoff’s performance and compositional style into a genre that is all his own and true to himself. Wolosoff is a “formidable pianist” (Gramophone) who can tackle the great romantics like Busoni and Liszt. He can improvise like Bach and Beethoven as well as today’s jazz greats. His contemporary compositions are informed by his past whilst imbued with his current belief in “the primacy of lyricism and melody.” Memento takes the listener on a journey imbued by various genres. Throughout, Wolosoff opens his heart. His inner voice is his guide, and all his own.

GRAMMY Award winning American soprano Susan Narucki, "one of the great practitioners of contemporary vocal music" (Opera News) presents This Island, a specially curated, unique set of 21 art songs written in the first half of the 20th century, chiefly by women and some receiving their world premiere recordings. The catalyst for This Island was a line from a collection of letters by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke: " … If you could only be here with me so I could share with you the happiness of these great poems, they would let you realize what we all now need more urgently: that transience is not separation … " The poems Rilke cites are by Belgian Symbolist Emile Verhaeren, whose poetry – Susan discovered – has been set to music by composers both familiar and virtually unknown, including Nadia Boulanger and her Paris Conservatoire teacher Raoul Pugno, Belgian Irène Fuerison, Dutch Henriette Bosmans and the mysterious Parisian composer Elizabeth Claisse. Susan rounds out the album with songs by American composer and educator Marion Bauer, who studied in Paris and met Boulanger and Pugno, and Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans whose music Susan was familiar with, bringing the project full circle.

REVIEWS:

Soprano Susan Narucki has long been known as an advocate for contemporary music, as has collaborative pianist Donald Berman. On their latest recording, for Avie, the duo present a program of art songs by female composers active in the first half of the twentieth century. Three of the song sets are world premieres.

Narucki was inspired to begin collecting the songs for this recording by Rainer Maria Rilke. Specifically, in one of his letters he mentioned the Belgian Symbolist poet Émile Verhaeren, one of the most highly regarded poets of his country. After reading some of Verhaeren’s poetry, and finding it captivating, the soprano set about looking for songs that employed it.

The program Narucki assembles uses Verhaeren as a focal point, though other poets are also included. The liner notes discussing the program are well-curated. I wish they were more legible in the CD booklet, but looking at them online allows an easier time reading Narucki’s fine essay. Narucki and Berman are an excellent performing partnership. Both are fastidious in presenting detailed interpretations of art songs. At the same time, they are consummately expressive performers.

Belgian composer Irène Fuerison (1875-1931) created  an entire group of Verhaeren settings, Les heure claires, Les heures aprés-midi, Les Heures soire, Op. 50. The poet wrote dozens of love poems, and Fuerison selected from among these a half dozen that  celebrate long-lasting love. As with some of the other programmed composers, the influence of Debussy and Ravel looms large. Ô la splendeur de notre joie has a rhythmically intricate ostinato in the accompaniment and a juxtaposition of speech-like repeated notes and soaring melodies, rendered with considerable warmth by Narucki.

Nadia Boulanger collaborated with her teacher Raoul Pugno on Les Heures Claire (1909), settings of Verhaeren from which Narucki programs four selections. After the passing of her sister Lili, Nadia gave up composition for teaching. Dozens of prominent composers studied with her, including a number from the United States. Still, it is unfortunate that she didn’t afford herself the opportunity to compose more, as is made clear by Les Heures Claire. Le ciel en nuit s’est déplié is reminiscent of Gabriel Fauré’s songs, with a dash of Debussy. Vous m’avez dit has a simply constructed yet lustrous melody. Que te yeux claire, te yeux dété features a number of modal twists and turns and a soaring vocal melody. The final song, Ta bonté, is slow paced and elegant, a touching close to an appealing song set.

Three songs from 1947 composed by Henriëtte Bosmans are settings of twentieth century Dutch poets Adriaan Roland Holst and J.W.F Werumeus Buning. Dit eiland features plaintive, angular singing and similarly wide-ranging lines in the accompaniment. After a passionate beginning, it ends in a hush with enigmatic harmonies. In den regen has an emphatic vocal line buoyed by a spider web of arpeggiations in the piano. Once again, Bosmans relishes pulling back the dynamics and pacing partway through, with supple singing and figurations returning as an echo in the piece’s denouement. Narucki’s pianissimo declamation is exquisite. In Teeken den hemel in het zand der zee, Bosmans uses whole tone scales and pandiatonicism in a gradual unfurling of the words, sumptuously expressed, over carefully spaced chords.

Elizabeth Claisse is an enigmatic figure, only known to have written 4 Mélodies in 1922-23. Despite Narucki’s exertions, there doesn’t appear to be anything known about her biography. Could it be a pen name? One wonders. It is a pity there isn’t more of her work to sing, because this set of songs by various poets, while derivative, is quite well wrought. It begins with Issue, an Yves Arnaud setting that uses a few chromatic chord progressions that are proto Les Six. One hears Stravinsky’s influence in the stentorian bitonal tremolando chords that open the third song, Philosophe, a setting of Franz Toussaint’s troping of Keng-Tsin. The final song is the sole Verhaeren setting, Les Mendiants, of a piece with Poulenc. Berman’s voicing of its darkly hued harmonies is particularly beautiful, and Narucki counters with richly colored sound.

The last group of songs are by Marion Bauer (1882-1955), who taught contemporary music at NYU and wrote one of the first books in English that discussed the Second Viennese School and other twentieth century composers. Milton Babbitt was among her students. She also spent a great deal of time in France, and the influence of French composers on her work is clear. Four Poems, Op. 24 (1916) are settings of the American Symbolist John Gould Fletcher, whose evocative imagery is an excellent complement to Verhaeren’s work. These were Bauer’s first songs, yet they are artfully written. “Through the Upland Meadows” is a miniature drama that features several juxtaposed motives. Here as elsewhere, Berman’s sense of pedaling and phrasing is flawless. Narucki explores a variety of dynamic contrasts and vocal colors that embellish the word painting. Her high notes, well-displayed here, are glorious. “I Love the Night” has a boldness that resembles an aria and includes a thrilling piano postlude. “Midsummer Dreams” uses the lilting 6/8 feel, like a boat on water, to create another vivid scene. “In the Bosom of the Desert” completes the recording with a song that begins slowly, with a high-lying emphatic vocal line, and then moves to a lyrical mid-tempo with the voice sitting in the middle register, performing parlando. The beginning melody returns, this time with an embellished modal  accompaniment. Bass octaves emphatically build to the song’s climax, where Narucki performs the final high notes with glistening intensity.

This Island is extraordinarily well curated. One hopes it will engender further treasure hunts for forgotten female composers. Furthermore, the program eminently suits Narucki and Berman, both in terms of taste and temperament. It is one of the best recordings I have heard thus far in 2023.

-- Sequenza 21

The disc actually opens and closes with non-French works, starting with songs by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans (1895–1952) and concluding with ones by an American, Marion Bauer (1882–1955).

Bosmans’ three songs are introspective, alienated, and resigned. Bauer’s Four Poems, here in a world première recording, have a more pastoral feeling about them, and a somewhat more hopeful (perhaps naïvely hopeful) air.

The 4 Mélodies by Elisabeth Claisse include a wide range of feelings, from interpersonal difficulties to a genuinely moving exploration of what it feels like to be truly poor. Next is the world première recording of an extended work from 1918 by Irène Fuerison, focusing on love as a long-enduring emotion that feeds on and grows past youthful passion to become, at the end of life, a promise to “preserve so fiery a love for you/ that the other dead will feel its glow.” Narucki’s handling of this cycle is particularly compelling, and Donald Berman, a fine accompanist throughout the disc, here uses the piano part to especially telling effect.

The only composer on the CD with whom audiences will likely be familiar is Nadia Boulanger, who in 1909 created an eight-song cycle called Les Heures. Unfortunately, only four of the songs are presented here – the full cycle would have provided better balance to the disc, since these compositions are more transparent than the other works on the CD, more balanced and elegant. The contrast between this version of Vous m’avez dit and the one to the same poem by Fuerison is especially intriguing.

The expressiveness of all these songs, of all these composers, is communicated with considerable skill thanks to the creators’ decision to use a single voice to present the various texts – and thanks to the ability of Narucki and Berman to extract the full, deeply personal elements of both the words and the music.

-- Infodad.com

New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs, instrumental in re-establishing the music of 20th-century African American composer Margaret Bonds with the world-premiere recording of her Christmas oratorio, The Ballad of the Brown King, present two more Bonds premieres: new orchestrations of her cantata, Simon Bore the Cross, created with long-time collaborator and friend Langston Hughes, and the large-scale Credo set to prose by W.E.B. Du Bois. Akin to The Ballad of the Brown King, which centered around the dark-skinned king Balthazar who journeyed to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus Christ, Bonds' and Hughes' North African Simon carried Jesus's cross on the way to Calvary, giving African American audiences an opportunity to see themselves within the biblical canon. Credo bears Bonds' evocative vocal writing style infused with elements from various black musical genres. The first complete performance of the work was given in 1973, to rave reviews: "Credo verified her talent, her sensitivity, her proficiency as orchestrator and her concern for the Negro spiritual" (Los Angeles Times). Written during the last decade of Bonds' life, neither work was performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime. With this release – coinciding with Black History Month – conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather, The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra and soloists, soprano Janinah Burnett and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, bring Margaret Bonds' beautiful and spiritual music back to life, conveying a powerful message that remains poignant and relevant for music lovers today.

REVIEWS:

The Dessoff Choirs have been at the center of New York cultural life since 1924 and they have done us a service with this release. Bass Baritone Dashon Burton and soprano Janinah Burnett don’t so much sing this music as champion it, turning that noun into a verb with every note of every phrase. (Ms Burnett sounds like a young Leontyne Price.) Malcolm Merriweather, who also conducts the New York Philharmonic Choir, brings all the moving parts together nicely...I am envious of their experience and would have been proud to add my voice to theirs.

-- American Record Guide

The youthful sounding choir is actually very good indeed singing with good ensemble and attack but also sensitivity when required. The recording was made for/by the choir and licensed to Avie for distribution...

...I can imagine the second work – Simon Bore the Cross – being popular amongst choral societies of every country and continent. This is written for organ, strings and harp alongside the choir and is a substantial work in eight sections running just shy of 40 minutes. This tells the story of the crucifixion from Jesus’ trial through to his death and in a Postlude, the Resurrection. For the text Bonds turned to Langston Hughes who was the source and guiding influence for many of her works. In the fourth and fifth sections; Who is that man? And Don’t you know, Mary? Langston explicitly underlines the belief that Simon of Cyrene [a city in Northern Africa] was Black – the latter movement includes the text; “black men will share the pain of the cross, black men will share the pain, in a world… that’s filled with trials and troubles.” The following Walkin’ to Calvary has rather moving echoes of the meditative chorales in the great Bach settings of the Passions with Burnett joining the chorus to touchingly sing; “Thank you, brother Simon, Thank you for helping brother Jesus”. This culminates in penultimate movement The Cruxifixion a powerful setting of an existing Spiritual. Here and throughout the work the organ makes a rather thunderous but impressive contribution and the simpler instrumentation of strings and harp alone alongside the organ works rather well.

Whilst the influence of popular music in general and spirituals in particular is very evident there is something in the vocal writing; lyrical lush and grateful to sing that brought to mind John Rutter’s style of communicative composing. In essence this is not complex music but neither does it intend to be – it carries an extra-musical message that is best conveyed in direct, intelligible and engaging music. Again the committed singing of the Dessoff choirs adds to the overall impact of the work. The liner lists conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather as having edited and arranged Simon Bore the Cross but there is no further elaboration as to exactly what or how much he had to do to bring the work to the performance we hear here. But again it is a good indication of the level of engagement and belief in this music by the performers.

Full texts in English only are provided along with the usual artist biographies and performer lists of both choirs and orchestra. Overall this is an impressive presentation of two major scores by a composer who is gradually becoming recognised for her contribution to both the field of music and social equality – the liner quotes a letter from Bonds to Langston Hughes; “Together Simon Bore the Cross and Credo encourage all to embrace the true concept of Brotherhood toward people of color throughout the world”.

-- MusicWeb International

Daniel-Ben Pienaar continues his campaign of performing early music on a modern piano with an abundant selection of Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds by William Byrd. The 16th-century composer’s finest sets of dances and variations, featuring some of the Elizabethan era’s most popular tunes, set the standard for English keyboard music for generations to come. With astonishing virtuosity, Daniel-Ben elicits a wealth of color and textures from his Steinway model D. Two-and-a-half hours of music spread over two albums, this is most substantial survey of Byrd’s keyboard music ever recorded on a modern piano, and ranges from frequently-heard works such as the First Pavan and Sellinger's Round to little-known gems like Callino Casturame and the late, great Quadran Pavan and Galliard.

REVIEWS:

With Bach, pianists have ever determined his music too important to be left just to harpsichord or other period instruments. Not with Byrd. Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s 2-CD set of 28 keyboard pieces appearing in the quatercentenary year of Byrd’s death is its largest album presentation on piano, with 13 items, noted in the contents list at the end of this review, recorded on piano for the first time. Its title, ‘Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds’ shows Pienaar concentrates on the two categories in which Byrd was most prolific.

Pienaar’s Pavan & Galliard in C minor (CD1, tr. 1) begins with a Pavan of majestic beauty and breadth, the opening four chords spaciously arpeggiated...The Galliard (tr. 2) is livelier and more robust, with more bounce from Pienaar and clipped shorter notes.

The Pavan & Galliard in A minor is surprisingly gorgeous: the Pavan of underlying sadness with enough gleams of light to allow also a calmness, breadth and sublimity in Pienaar’s presentation...The Galliard is from Pienaar rampant verve, the repeats of all three strains with constant running quavers in either treble or bass.

The Pavan, Galliard & Second Galliard, The Earl of Salisbury is well-known, perhaps because short and straightforward. Pienaar plays the Pavan with an easy familiarity, like welcoming an old friend. It manages to be both dignified and convivial, its first phrase confidently shaped...In the Galliard the emphasis of its first phrase is on bold, rising motifs in constant interplay between treble and tenor voices.

Go from my window (CD2, tr. 10) is simple, cheery and folksy. Pienaar presents it with an attractive lilt and feel of cheekiness as the short theme gradually rises in sequences to climax and then quickly recover its opening position...Pienaar makes it enchantingly effective.

[In the Walsingham Variations] Pienaar conveys a new airiness and sense of fantasy extension of the dance...Pienaar breathtakingly conveys this work’s ever new discoveries and dimensions around the theme’s secure return as mantra in, as Pienaar has written, “its range of mood from sober exposition to ecstatic culmination.”

My Lady Nevell’s Ground (CD2, tr. 3) is another where the melody above is the chief feature...lengthy semiquaver flourishes [are] deliciously lightly realized by Pienaar, like chancing on a byway of imaginative fantasy. I love the sparkle of his fast arpeggiation of the final chord, the byway terminated.

-- MusicWeb International

Billboard chart-topping and Grammy-winning Jeannette Sorrell, baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, soprano Amanda Forsythe and the music of J. S. Bach create a divine musical partnership. Heavenly Bach pairs two of the composer’s most popular cantatas, interspersed with two sublime arias from the St. John Passion. In Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! (“Shout to joy for God in every land!), Forsythe’s dazzling virtuosity hits the high notes – she “sets arias on fire” according to BBC Music Magazine – whilst the secular “Wedding Cantata” exudes a joyous and evocative marriage in springtime, for a result that is heavenly indeed.

REVIEW:

Soprano Amanda Forsythe is among today’s most delightful vocalists and a fine, dedicated musician. Her sparkling Baroque performances with specialist groups and leading orchestras have brought contented smiles to many listeners. She has a bright, clean timbre that can execute rapid passagework and sustain long phrases with remarkable aplomb, and she never seems to stray from pitch. I have friends in Boston I can interest in attending a performance with the words, “Amanda Forsythe’s in it.” Here, she collaborates with another extraordinary artist, the conductor Jeannette Sorrell, who deployed the soprano in her 2021 New York Philharmonic debut, an arrestingly theatrical Messiah.

Sorrell’s Cleveland-based period instrument ensemble Apollo’s Fire, twenty-five in strength, here accompany Forsythe with delectable precision and tonal appeal in two of Bach’s most popular cantatas, plus two arias from the St. John Passion. The recordings, all technically first-rate, date from different sessions—the arias from 2016, the so-called Wedding Cantata from two years later and Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! from 2021. Forsythe’s fresh-timbred singing proves a joy throughout.

In the Johannes-Passion, the contemplative “Zerfliese, mein Herz” finds the lamenting vocalist encircled by oboe and flute, a contrast in tone to “Ich folge dir gleichfalls,” with its delightful pair of flutes following the resolute if challenging soprano line. Forsythe and Sorrell’s instrumental soloists limn well the shifting moods of the five-aria Weichet Nur, Betrübte Schatten, a secular cantata evoking spring as well as Classical deities (Amor, Flora and Phoebus). Steven Marquardt is the excellent trumpeter in the bravura BWV 51, the title aria and famous concluding Alleluja movement, which Sorrell and Forsythe take at an enjoyably bracing clip. René Schiffer’s cello continuo aptly receives major billing in Avie’s helpful booklet.

-- Opera News

The first time I heard soprano Amanda Forsythe was on a CD of Handel arias. Searching for virtuosity, I found it and much more: a creamy, clear, lyric soprano, pinpoint coloratura, and enough color in the voice to delineate character and take me through adventures. The voice, the artistry remain the same on this new Bach recital, but the program feels less fulfilling.

Opening with Cantata No. 51, everyone’s madcap duel between soprano and trumpet at breakneck speed, you almost feel concern for articulation, pitch, and, well, everything but speed. But it’s a razzle-dazzle run-through, and it’s great fun. The Chorale “Sei Lob und Preis” disappoints somewhat; Forsythe and conductor Jeanette Sorrell seem to miss the strutting rhythm, but Forsythe’s middle octave, featured here, is as smooth as silk. The “Alleluia” made me want to dance.

I suspect no one’s favorite Bach cantata is No. 202, the so-called Wedding Cantata. The sweet text revolves around nature, then more nature, then flowers, then the sun, then Cupid on the prowl, and finally, good wishes to a couple. No religion, no depth, no tension, just plenty of room for Forsythe’s gorgeous middle voice, so smooth, so easily produced. And a fine oboe obbligato early on; later a nice cello, and a solo violin.

The two arias from the St. John Passion present two moods. “Zerfliesse, mein Herze”, featuring a combination of oboe da caccia and flute, with the voice used, often, as a third woodwind, is an emotional reaction to the death of Jesus: heartfelt and moving, with repeated notes signifying weeping. “Ich folge dir gleichfalls” finds the soprano following Jesus, with two lovely flutes as backup.

Jeannette Sorrell accompanies handsomely, only once or twice covering the voice. This is a release that will enchant, but at 49 minutes will also leave you hungry. Amanda Forsythe remains a star.  

-- ClassicsToday.com

Cellist Inbal Segev’s inspirational commissioning project, 20 for 2020, originally released as four digital EPs, brings all 20 compositions together in a 2-album deluxe digipack, capped by the premiere of Inbal’s own work, Behold for cello quartet. The convergence of cataclysmic events of 2020 spurred cellist Inbal Segev to conceive an ambitious and inspirational commissioning project, 20 for 2020, for which she asked 20 composers to document in music their responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic and social unrest. The result is an utterly moving and immensely varied palette of strong and distinctive compositional voices spanning a range of ages, genders and cultures. Originally released over time as four digital EPs, all 20 compositions come together for the first time in a 2-album deluxe digipack, and are capped by the premiere of Inbal’s own work, Behold for cello quartet. When Inbal conceived 20 for 2020, she could not have foreseen the scope of musical imagination from the 20 composers she asked to write works for her. Further pronouncing her passion for promoting new works for her instrument: “Art needs to move forward, otherwise it will die.” Collectively these compositions celebrate a stunning array of music for the soulful sound of the cello in the 21st century.