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)

A 2020 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album!

On Clairières, Grammy Award-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang pay homage to Lili and Nadia Boulanger, two exceptional composers of the 20th century who have often been overlooked in favour of their male counterparts. At the heart of the album is Lili’s song cycle Clairières dans le ciel. Alongside are a selection of songs set to poetry by the sisters’ contemporaries Verlaine, Maeterlinck, Jammes and Samain. Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music. Acclaimed by Opera News as being “among the top accompanists of her generation,” pianist Myra Huang regularly performs in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world. In addition to many chamber music concerts and recitals at the Palau De Les Arts in Valencia, Spain, she recently performed recitals at Carnegie Halls Weill Hall, the University of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with tenor Nicholas Phan, and at Carnegie Halls Zankel Hall with soprano Susanna Phillips.

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REVIEWS:

Phan has deeply internalised this music – with highly detailed, personal, specific and often quite volatile responses to Lili Boulanger’s particular fusion of music and poetry in Clairières dans le ciel – though not through the lens of Debussy. Boulanger taken on her own terms. This less genteel approach to French art song has also been explored by François Le Roux; still, Phan is likely to be controversial. But to these American ears, Phan delivers a more emotionally comprehensive (and deeply welcome) vision of this worthy music.

– Gramophone

Lili Boulanger, who died during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic at the age of 24, is recognised as one of the 20th century’s great unfulfilled talents, while her elder sister Nadia, who died in 1979, went on to become one of its most influential teachers , espousing the doctrine of neoclassicism.

Lili’s songs dominate this disc – there are 16 by her against five by her sister. Even in the earliest numbers, the differences between the composers are clear. Nadia is the more conservative, stylistically cautious – her songs take middle-period Fauré as their starting point – while her sister’s pieces are melodically and harmonically much more chromatic. Some of the piano accompaniments in Lili’s song cycle could have been lifted from a Debussy prelude.

What they share, though, is meticulous concern for every musical and verbal detail, and Phan’s wonderfully poised and precise singing matches it perfectly. He is an outstanding interpreter of French song, and Huang is an equally attentive partner. It’s hard to imagine these Boulanger songs could have more convincing advocacy.

– Guardian (UK)

The Door to Paradise celebrates Stephen Darlington’s more than thirty year legacy as Director of the distinguished Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. This unprecedented contribution to the choral discography is the most comprehensive collection to date of music from the Eton Choirbook. The Door to Paradise brings together all five volumes of the Choir’s survey in a newly-packaged, beautifully presented deluxe box set with a newly-penned overview of the project by Darlington. This extraordinary collection of English sacred music from the early Renaissance reveals a striking diversity and range of stylistic structures, harmony, sonority, ornamentation and improvisation, and brings to light two world premiere recordings- Walter Lambe’s Gaude flore virginali and John Browne’s second setting of the Salve regina. The collection’s title derives from a dual meaning: the “door to paradise” is the English translation of a line from Browne’s O regina mundi clara, while the cover image features the “Alice Door” between the Deanery and Cathedral Gardens of Christ Church, Oxford, featured in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.



Excerpts of reviews from select, previously released volumes included in this set:

The Sun Most Radiant: Music from the Eton Choirbook, Vol. 4


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

– Early Music Review

Choirs of Angels - Music from the Eton Choirbook Vol 2

Intonation is exact, enunciation clear, the tonal balance distinct between parts yet carefully blended. Phrasing is expressive. Overall, fine performances in sacred music of remarkable eloquence.

– Fanfare

Following the release of the award-winning Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering, which was a Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover hit, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire present Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain. In this celebration of the American immigrant experience, fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, bagpipes and singers join with children’s voices to evoke the Celtic roots of an Appalachian Christmas. From Christmas Eve in medieval Scotland to folk carols and shape-note hymns at a toe-tapping Christmas gathering in Virginia, Apollo’s Fire follows the journeys of the Irish and Scottish settlers who bravely crossed the Atlantic, settled in the mountains and welcomed Christmas with love, singing, dancing and prayer. Acclaim for the premiere performances of this program was widespread: “The lightning strike of genius can happen, sometimes even repeatedly to those willing to earn it. Jeannette Sorrell is one such person. This show was intense, interesting, spectacularly performed, and deeply moving. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is.” (Seen & Heard International)

REVIEWS:

Apollo’s Fire is a celebrated baroque orchestra, but their ventures into folk music are just as celebrated. This is music of and by amateurs, here arranged and performed with professional skill, but without sacrificing its vibrant folk quality to the glitz of showbiz. This recording is a must have for anyone susceptible to the allure of this tradition.

– American Record Guide

There are other ways to reveal fresh musical truths in the context of Christmas, and the determination of another early music group to do so has produced my vote for festive disc of the year. Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain from Apollo’s Fire charts the passage of Scottish and Irish immigrants to the Appalachian Mountains in the 1830s. The Baroque music group gives us sounds we don’t often associate with Bethlehem but are probably far closer to what was heard there: zingy harps, reedy winds and plenteous modality.

– Gramophone

The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

Traditional folk music elevated to high art: that theme binds the unique coupling of Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s latest release of the Violin Concertos by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. The multi-faceted young American Teddy Abrams conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, making for a truly international collaboration. “There are few more interesting violinists on the worldwide scene than Rachel Barton Pine; she is continuously giving us interesting and well-researched and thought-out concept albums that stimulate the imagination, reinvigorate the ears, and put wrinkles in the brain with their intellectual depth.” (Audiophile Audition)

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REVIEW:

Barton Pine's fusion of rock-solid yet scintillating technique is allied to brilliant musicianship as well as intelligent and stimulating programming. The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

– MusicWeb International

Christopher Tyler Nickel’s contemporary classical compositions pack a bracing and emotional punch. His award-winning works for the concert hall, stage and screen have been heard in over 160 countries by audiences in the tens of thousands. His experience as an oboist instills a confidence to compose with an exhilarating freedom to explore the vast expressive range of the instrument, from lyrical and plaintive to acerbic and brittle. The world-premiere recordings of these three concertos for oboe and its lower-pitched siblings the oboe d’amore and bass oboe receive dazzling performances by Mary Lynch, principal oboe of the Seattle Symphony, and Harrison Linsey, oboist with the Washington D.C.-based National Symphony Orchestra. Grammy Award-winning David Sabee, a tireless advocate of contemporary classical music, conducts the Seattle-based Northwest Sinfonia.

This formidable release features Inbal Segev performing Elgar’s emotive Cello Concerto coupled with DANCE, an inspiring new work by Grammy-nominated English composer Anna Clyne that was commissioned by Inbal. On this powerful recording, Marin Alsop conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Marin introduced Inbal to Anna, sparking a special synergy between the three women. While Anna was composing DANCE, a five-movement concerto inspired by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, further connections ensued. Anna’s soulful and vibrant music combines cultures that include her Irish-English family, Polish-Jewish ancestry and Inbal’s Israeli-American heritage.

Inbal expounds, “Anna’s music has an old-soul sensibility but is fresh and modern at the same time. This juxtaposition of old and new has always appealed to me; it suits my playing, as well as the tone of my 1673 Ruggieri cello.” Inbal’s idea to record Anna Clyne’s DANCE alongside Elgar’s Cello Concerto is timely: the two works were composed exactly 100 years apart. Inbal enthuses, “It is so rewarding to record and perform the work of a contemporary female composer whose music withstands comparison with Elgar’s. The two pieces share a certain sensibility – a romanticism, warmth and humanity – that transcends any stylistic differences.” Elgar’s Cello Concerto, written in the wake of World War I, is deeply reflective. Anna Clyne’s DANCE is optimistic and forward-looking. Inbal’s recording of these two cello concertos is timeless.

Martin Luther had many students and disciples. One of them was named Praetorius, and that student had a son named Michael. Michael became – along with J.S. Bach – one of the two greatest composers in the history of Protestant church music. Michael Praetorius left us an enormous quantity of sacred music, for children’s choir, adult choir, strings, brass, lutes, and soloists. He was also acclaimed as an organist and theorist. His monumental music treatise, Syntagma musicum (1619), is considered the most important work of music theory in the early Baroque, and provides musicians with a wealth of practical information.

Living at the same time as Monteverdi, the great revolutionary composer of Italy, Praetorius was aware of the new and virtuosic elements of Monteverdi’s music; however, he firmly upheld Luther’s ideal that the common people should be able to participate in the music-making in some way. Therefore, while Monteverdi’s music requires an entirely professional ensemble of virtuoso singers, such as existed at St. Mark’s in Venice, Praetorius channeled his imaginative flair toward writing music that brought together professional singers,
humble village choirs, children’s voices, and even congregational singing.

Thus, Praetorius’ music combines the drama and virtuosity of something like the Monteverdi Vespers, with the simple and accessible traditions of Lutheran hymn-tunes that many Protestants know by heart.

Apollo’s Fire conjures early 19th-century rural Americana with an evocative journey through traditional folk songs, fiddle tunes, barn dances, and the indispensable Old Time revivalist meetings. This is music as old as the hills themselves, a melting pot of Irish, English, and Scottish tunes that permeated Appalachian culture and rural America, based on field recordings of old-time and Appalachian singers.

“Dazzling fiddle playing and delicious swing … all done with great spirit and brio.” — Fanfare

At first glance, the musical worlds of Frédéric Chopin and William Bolcom would seem strange bedfellows. But on his solo debut recording, Israeli American pianist Ran Dank makes a convincing case for pairing the two composers. The former, Poland’s national composer, is synonymous with pianistic panache. The latter, a leading American, possesses one of contemporary music’s most bold and inventive voices. Juxtaposing the works of these two pianist-composers reveals their common affinity for the keyboard and ear for sound and sense of structure. William Bolcom’s Twelve New Etudes won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Wonderfully eclectic, they move effortlessly between one musical idiom to another with endless ingenuity, exhibiting all the traits of Bolcom’s compositional craft. Chopin equally excelled with his Etudes, but Dank turns to his plentiful Polonaises, Mazurkas and Waltzes which range in style from heroic, to dark and brooding, haunting and beautiful. Ran Dank, a Van Cliburn International Competition finalist and winner of the New York-based Young Concert Artists auditions, has been significantly influenced by these two composers who have shaped his trajectory as a pianist and musician. As a child to two parents from Poland, Chopin played a meaningful part in his upbringing, and he became mesmerized by the composer’s music at an early age. Bolcom’s music was a much later discovery, but one that has become equally valuable and fitting, following Dank’s move to America.

A WQXR-FM Best Classical Recording for 2019

Twentieth-century African American composer Margaret Bonds receives long overdue recognition with the world premiere recording of her crowning achievement, The Ballad of the Brown King. With an expressly written libretto by Bonds’ friend Langston Hughes, this Christmas cantata which focuses on Balthazar, the dark-skinned king who journeyed to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus Christ, is beautifully interpreted by New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, outstanding soloists soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and tenor Noah Stewart, under the baton of their charismatic conductor, Malcolm J. Merriweather. Bonds authority Dr. Ashley Jackson contributes the inspired liner notes. This unique seasonal album also includes a selection of specially arranged songs, including a setting of Hughes’ seminal poem I, Too, Sing America, performed by baritone Merriweather and Jackson on solo harp.

REVIEW:

Nearly 60 years after its premiere, conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather and the phenomenal New York-based Dessoff Choirs have at last provided a way experience Margaret Bonds’ genius cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King. After luxuriating in this sumptuous setting of the Nativity story (with a libretto by Langston Hughes), be sure to listen to Bonds’ heart-rending Three Dream Portraits, sung forcefully by Merriweather himself.

–WQXR-FM (105.9 FM, NYC - Zev Kane)

Lauren Scott’s passion for the lever harp inspires her interpretations of atmospheric works by 20th century composers ranging from John Cage and Peter Maxwell Davies to Lennon & McCartney, as well as her own ambient compositions. Beyond the Horizon, Lauren’s debut solo album, casts a twilight glow on the unique qualities of the traditional lever harp –also known as the Celtic harp –and the kaleidoscopic colors it produces, sonorities that Lauren enhances with extended techniques including note bending and percussive effects in her own music. The result is a beautiful and distinctive album with broad appeal. Born in Australia, UK-based Lauren performs with many of the country’s leading orchestras, in West End shows, on commercial recordings, and for radio and TV. Active in the international harp community, Lauren avidly fosters the next generation of harp players, and has had her music published and performed world-wide.

REVIEWS:

At last, a harp album that isn't mostly the standard solo harp repertoire played on a plushy pedal harp by someone who doesn't clean the palette. Lauren Scott (b 1970), whose family moved from Australia to England when she was 6, has put together an album of works that sound better on a lever harp, which has more of an early-instrument tonality (what she calls "the open quality of folk origins, an earthier sound") produced by a thinner sounding board and strings with less tension, resulting in less resonance. By replacing gut strings with nylon and fiber ones, she can also create a wider array of colors.

Scott herself is an excellent composer of shorter works. The album opens with her 'Elegy', 'Free Running', and 'Blue Moon Rising', which have lovely fluid folk-like melodies with accompaniment that could be written only by someone with classical training. Just as important, they show off an instrument with a treble, slightly wiry sound and a mellow lutelike quality in the lower range, much like the best fortepianos can have distinctly different colors in their treble, midrange, and bass. In 'Gypsy Dance' she manages to produce solid bass resonance, using it as an alluring pedal point. In 'Beyond the Horizon', a sort of threenote bass passacaglia with treble variations, she takes advantage of her instrument's quicker decay and refuses to fill in the open spaces between the notes. 'Celestial Spirals' also is based on a swirling three-note motif that is the basis for the three-note largo that offers the work's pulse. 'Crepuscule' opens as a slow lament (a reflection on her father's dementia) before becoming more melodically hopeful.

In her lucid liner notes she says that John Cage's In a Landscape (the title of the album) is the piece that initiated this, her first solo album, because it didn't work on the pedal harp. It's a nine-minute meditative piece that slowly evolves around a pentatonic Japanese-like motif. I found it initially engaging, especially with Scott's subtle colors...The work here that has the strongest, most sustained character is Scott's arrangement of Peter Maxwell Davies's 9-minute Farewell to Stromness, written in response to efforts to establish uranium mining on his beloved Orkney Island. It combines two themes, one of persistent grit, the other more mellow, but both with an insistent beat of peaceful protest rather than violent raucousness. What a stunning display of colors Scott creates! She also does very well in her arrangement of Lennon-McCartney's 'Across the Universe' where she works out the tune through an array of ornamentation and tone colors without making it feel "pops".

-- American Record Guide

Legends of the period-performance community Sarah Cunningham and Richard Egarr need little introduction, with their contributions to recorded music garnering critical acclaim from early music afficionados across the decades. They join forces for their AVIE Records debut recording of J.S. Bach’s celebrated Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, together with Cunningham’s dazzling arrangements of the composer's Organ Trio Sonata and Flute Partita to conclude the programme. The Gamba Sonatas have long since established themselves as a staple in the cello and gamba repertoires, notably extending their fame into popular culture through film and television features.

This magnificent recording of J.S. Bach's groundbreaking masterpiece, the St. John Passion, is the resulto f Jeannette Sorrell's visionary concept of a dramatic production which was presented in seven acclaimed performances in Cleveland and New York City in March, 2016. Leading her Cleveland-based baroque orchestra, Apollo's Fire, the Apollo's Singers and a stellar cast of soloists including tenor Nicholas phan as the Evangelist, baritone Jesse Blumberg as Jesus and baritone Jeffrey Strauss as Pilate, Sorrell's vision brings immediacy and clarity to Bach's dramatic setting of the Passion story according to the gospel of St. John. "A resplendent performance...The production belonged entirely to Ms. Sorrell, who devised the concept, which she called 'a dramatic presentation'...Jesse Blumberg sang the role of Jesus handsomely and acted vividly. Nicholas Phan sang the Evangelist beautifully, with unusual animation and dramatic vehemence. Jeffrey Strauss turned Pilate into a living, breathing figure for a change. The chorus allowed Ms. Sorrell some exquisite moments...breathtaking." - The New York Times

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REVIEW:

Apollo Fire's St. John Passion has dramatic tautness tempered by musical finesse nurtured by conductor Jeanette Sorrell. The Apollonian music-making is characterized by instrumental playing of elegant refinement, polished choral singing, and communicative delivery of the text. Sorrell's attention to detail ensures that in many respects this recording hits the sweet spot time and again.

– Gramophone

San Francisco-native Henry Dehlinger, a prodigiously talented pianist and singer, turned his hand to full-time composition in 2015. The skill and splendour of his music belies the relatively brief number of years he has committed pen to paper to create a considerable oeuvre of orchestral, chamber and choral music. His natural affinity for vocal music has also led to a number of works for solo voice. At That Hour is a superlative showcase for Henry’s craftmanship as well as his close collaborators, husband-and-wife team soprano Danielle Talamantes and bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson. All of the songs on this original album of Henry’s art songs were written expressly for Danielle’s and Kerry’s impassioned voices. The title track opens Henry’s 10-part song cycle set to texts by James Joyce. Inspiration for other songs comes from poetry by T. S. Eliot, Dante, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, and Hebrew writings. Throughout, Henry’s modern yet tonal compositional voice shines through as he renders a diverse palette of musical styles to amplify the words he sets to music.