Classical Music

Classical Music

Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 1-3 March 1992 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 15-17 October 1989 Producer(s) Tim Oldham Sound Engineer(s) Anthony Howell Robert Menzies (Assistant)

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 22,23 September 1986 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Trygg Tryggvason Ralph Couzens [Assistant]

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London 8-9 January 1996 & 9-11 July 1996 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Jonathan Cooper (Assistant) Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Most classical music listeners tend to shy away from music that falls into the category of "atonal". This isn't surprising. Most atonal music is horrible. There's lots of horrible tonal music too, of course, but usually you can sleep through it undisturbed, and therein lies the difference between the two. So, as with all other types of music, there's good atonal and bad atonal. Roberto Gerhard is very, very good atonal. In the first place, the fact that he operates within a very high level of dissonance doesn't mean that his music lacks emotional expression, melody, contrast, or character. Best of all, he's a spectacular orchestrator, and regardless of how difficult his music may be, it always sounds meaningful, and it falls brilliantly on the ear. This is especially true of his Concerto for Orchestra, a stunner by any standard. The Second Symphony is a tougher nut; Gerhard was in the midst of revising the piece when he died, and this recording presents the original version. Matthias Bamert and the BBC Symphony deserve a huge amount of credit for taking the time to present this difficult music with such confidence and virtuosity. A stunning disc for the musically adventurous. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 15-17 February 1998 Producer(s) Martin Compton Sound Engineer(s) Anthony Howell

Recorded in: Santa Sofia Cathedral, Polotsk Producer(s) A. Akopian Sound Engineer(s) Elena Buneeva Igor Veprintsev

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis. Philips 416 430-2 [Overtures: Roman Carnival, Benvenuto Cellini, Le corsaire, Le roi Lear, Les francs-juges, Waverly] (recorded 1965).

Davis and the London Symphony get a strong nod for Berlioz’s overtures, which they perform with great panache and striking brilliance and beauty of tone. The recording, considering its age almost miraculously fresh sounding, is impeccably detailed and well balanced. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 18-19 May 1987 and 12 July 1988 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Janet Middlebrook (Assistant) Philip Couzens (Assistant)

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London 1-3 March 1994 Producer(s) Richard Lee Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee Andrew Lang (Assistant)

Classical Music

Recorded in: Oslo Philharmonic Hall 2,3 November 1984 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Dag Kristofferson

Recorded in: Goldsmith's College, New Cross, London 6-8 April 1993 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee

Classical Music

Recorded in: Church of Ste Madeleine, Outremont, Montreal 5,6 August 1985 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Philip Couzens [Assistant]

Recorded in: Orchestra Hall, Chicago 15, 16 18 & 20 February 1990 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Mitchell Heller

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 9-10 June 1992 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant)

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 11, 14 January 1993 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant)

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 8-9 June 1995 & 13 September 1995 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Peter Newble

Classical Music

Although the Fourth cannot be numbered among the best of the Bax symphonies (it is arguably the least concentrated and most hedonistic of the seven), Bryden Thomson's LP with the Ulster Orchestra must have already won it many friends and this CD will win it even more. It is quite simply one of the very best CDs I have heard so far, and has an altogether striking presence and vivid detail that does full justice to Bax's sumptuous orchestral textures and opulent sonorities.

Bryden Thomson and the Ulster Orchestra have earned much praise for their earlier Chandos recording of Bax tone poems—November Woods, The Garden of Fand, Summer Music and The Happy Forest—which in its CD form on CHAN8307 (1/84) collected golden opinions both in these columns and elsewhere. Discussing that Compact Disc, MEO wrote of the ''finely calculated and highly individual character of Bax's orchestration'' being ''more evident than I have ever heard it outside the concert hall''—though I must say opportunities of encountering it there are hardly legion! This CD of the Fourth Symphony and Tintagel deserves an enthusiastic welcome and is a demonstration disc, even by the high standards Chandos have established in this field.

-- Robert Layton, Gramophone [8/1984]

Classical Music