Following their critically acclaimed ‘Psalms’ album, St John’s College, Cambridge and Andrew Nethsingha present a selection of Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis recordings from January and July 2022. Much of the third volume in their series of Evening Canticles focuses on music in a twenty-year period, from 1945 to 1965. Philip Moore’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were commissioned especially for St John’s College, Cambridge.

REVIEWS:

It’s sad that Nethsingha’s departure means that the next volume will be the last. I can’t think of a greater or more apt epitaph to the music director’s time at St John’s.

-- Gramophone (Editor's Choice, May 2023)

These contrasting works, embracing solo writing and full-bodied, lavish textures, give the choir the chance to display their warm sound and versatility. They do, wholeheartedly.

-- The Guardian (UK)

A celebration of the chamber works of US composer Stanley Silverman, with stellar performances by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and featuring guest vocals from the iconic singer and songwriter Sting.

Reveille (Trio No. 2) was written in 2011 for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. The work was commissioned by Ben Silverman and dedicated to Herman Sandler. The Trio with guest artist Sting gave the premiere on September 14, 2011 at the 92nd Street Y in New York in observance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

In Celebration (1989) was co-commissioned by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in honour of its 20th anniversary and by the Tisch Center for the Performing Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The composition is dedicated to the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio in response to their request to write something “jazzy.” The Trio gave its premiere on March 31, 1989 at the Krannert Center and its New York premiere at the 92nd Street Y on April 11, 1989.

For over four decades of success the world over, including many award-winning recordings and newly commissioned works, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike with its performances. Since making their debut at the White House for President Carter’s Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature. This album marks their first release on Signum Classics, and is dedicated to trio member Joseph Kalichstein who passed away on 31 March 2022.

In her third recital album for Signum Records, celebrated soprano Mary Bevan returns with a selection of French songs, featuring works by composers including Britten, Ravel, Debussy and Faure

“Over the years since the release of my debut album Voyages with Joseph Middleton in 2017, my passion for French mélodie has grown and deepened...The texts that composers of mélodie have set to music contain a depth and a mystery that I find fascinating and a source of repeated inspiration... My idea for the album began sim- ply with a desire to record Britten’s Les Illuminations, a work I feel closely connect- ed to, having performed it many times over the years and each time having found something new in it to interest me”

Charlie Siem returns with a new recording of Violin Sonatas, accompanied by his regular recital partner Itamar Golan – featuring Vaughan Williams' Violin Sonata in A Minor and Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13. Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century. Siem has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Czech National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with top conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Edward Gardner, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Libor Pešek and Yuri Simonov. International festival appearances to date include Spoleto, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Bergen, Tine@Munch, Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía, and the Windsor Festival.

His second album on Signum Records, countertenor Randall Scotting is joined by celebrated lutenist Stephen Stubbs for a collection of anti-Valentine’s songs focussing on heartbreak and loss from the 17th century. “Perhaps there is no cure for lovesickness; but we are confident that this album will be a comfort for all those who have loved, lost, and hope to love again”. – Wendy Heller, Chair, Dept. of Music, Princeton University.

REVIEW:

The program is skillfully planned and beautifully executed. It begins explosively – no preparatory bars from the lute – with William Lawes’s ‘I’m sick of life’, an early-ish attempt, one would guess, at recitative in English. It’s followed by two strophic songs: the traditional Scottish ‘There’s none to soothe my soul to rest’ and an air de cour, ‘Enfin la beauté que j’adore’ by Étienne Moulinié. There’s Italian opera, too, in the shape of arias from Cesti’s Orontea and Cleopatra by Daniele da Castrovillari, a name new to me.

Given the title of the album, it’s not surprising that there are no laughs to be had here. Monotony is averted by the inclusion of instrumental solos, none more beguiling than a Suite from Purcell’s King Arthur – presumably arranged by Stubbs – that comprises ‘Your hay it is mowed’, ‘Fairest Isle’ and ‘Come if you dare’. Scotting sings throughout with rich, even tone and clear diction.

-- Gramophone

The Calidore Quartet begin their new cycle of Beethoven's complete String Quartets with the Late Quartets, a 3-volume set of Opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 & 135. Performances of the Calidore String Quartet are renowned for their “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” (New York Times). Their unique “balance of intellect and expression” (Los Angeles Times) is complemented by the feeling that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one” (Washington Post). After over a decade of performances and residencies in the world’s most esteemed venues and festivals, the release of numerous critically acclaimed recordings and lauded with significant awards, the Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast repertory; from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like Grygory Kurtag, Jörg Widmann and Caroline Shaw.

400 years ago, in 1623, England lost two of its greatest composers: William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes. In a program marking this double anniversary, The King’s Singers and Fretwork turn their focus to the bold personalities of these two men, Will and Tom. Featuring well-known gems by the two composers, alongside works which had never been recorded before and which are rarely heard live, Tom and Will unlocks some of the humanity behind these two giants of Elizabethan music. Presented in The King’s Singers’ unique style, this program is filled with beauty, drama and storytelling. As part of this project, The King’s Singers and Fretwork have commissioned two new works for their joint forces, by two of Britain’s great living composers: Sir James MacMillan and Roderick Williams. These works only feature in the version performed by The King’s Singers and Fretwork, but represent a commitment to keeping the spirit of Byrd and Weelkes alive in today’s musical landscape.

REVIEW:

Hand it to the King’s Singers for having been in existence since 1968 and still keeping it fresh after 55 years. Performances of madrigals and other pieces by Byrd and Weelkes are not new, but this one is a standout. Start with the group’s trademark vocal blend, which has never been better, and there is top-notch instrumental backing from Fretwork. The King’s Singers may be entertainers first and foremost, but here, they have brought listeners deeply into the world of the madrigal in a beautifully executed effort that rightly landed on classical best-seller charts in early 2023.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

‘Darkness to light is a theme which continues to engage artists, musicians, philosophers and thinkers through time, and this theme, coupled with thoughts of remembrance, hope, redemption and acceptance is the thread that ties together all the music performed on this recording.’ - © Bob Chilcott ‘Canticles of Light’ is Bob Chilcott’s ninth album on Signum Records. Featuring celebrated composers including Cecilia McDowall, Francis Pott and James MacMillan each work has been carefully selected by conductor and professor Agnieszka Franków-Zelazny, with the final track written especially for the NFM Choir. Hailed by The Observer as ‘a contemporary hero of British choral music’, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong connection with singing and choirs. As a composer he has a large catalogue of music published by Oxford University Press that reflects his broad view of musical styles and genres.

The monumental third part of the Clavier-Übung (1739) is perhaps one of J S Bach’s greatest musical sequences with its explorations into both Lutheran hymnody and the ‘German Organ Mass’. As a didactic work, it also pursues virtually every contrapuntal device and structure. In giving voice to this immensely varied work, fascinating, inspiring and spiritual in equal measure, it seems particularly apt to make through it an ‘organ tour’ of Saint Thomas Church, with its rich and rewarding instrumental resources.

REVIEW:

Each piece is played with fastidious care, with its mood and scale perfectly matched to an appropriate organ. Jeremy Filsell provides yet another masterclass in manual and pedal dexterity, packed with interpretative insights and always mindful of a sense of flow and grace. Recorded by David Hinitt in the very best sound, this is a Clavier-Übung III to savor and revisit.

-- Gramophone

Looking at the variety of Italian baroque instrumental music on offer to today’s listener, one could be forgiven for thinking that Vivaldi had faced little competition during his lifetime. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Whilst the volume of music that flowed from Vivaldi’s pen was unusually plentiful, many other composers were needed to fulfil the needs of the regional courts and churches throughout Italy. Expert early-music ensemble La Serenissima perform works by Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri, Giuseppe Sammartini, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco and Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello alongside works by Vivaldi on this new album of Italian Baroque masterpieces.

In November 2022 Fretwork return for the second instalment of their cycle of works by Matthew Locke. Matthew Locke was born 400 years ago in 1622, and while he is often ranked as one of England’s finest composers, he is still unaccountably neglected: his music may not be as immediately appealing as his immediate successor, Henry Purcell, nor as wide-ranging as William Byrd, yet his forceful musical personality and luxuriant technique place him in the first echelon of English composers, with his works described by Richard Boothby of Fretwork as having a “quixotic, capricious restlessness that is constantly challenging the listener to follow his argument ... a thrilling musical ride”. Accompanying Fretwork on continuo for this recording are David Miller (archlute and theorbo) and Silas Wollston (harpsichord). The cover of the album bares an inscription in the walls by the choir stall of Exeter Cathedral, thought to have been carved by the composer during his time as a member of the choir there.

REVIEWS:

In most of the suites, Fretwork exploits the textural and percussive effects of the theorbo and harpsichord - both played with terrific flair - which articulate the all-pervasive dance rhythms. In the serene F major Suite No. 6, omitting the continuo highlights the sparse transparency of the three-part texture and Fretwork ‘play plain’ its interlaced melodies, weaving them into a sheer fabric of sound.

The players obviously relish these convivial musical conversations and the album makes for felicitous listening and, for the uninitiated, a perfect introduction to Locke’s viol consorts.

-- BBC Music Magazine

An intriguing recording: on first playing, I found this album difficult to get into, an experience. However, with repeated listenings it did it start to reveal its true – and beautiful – self. These ‘Pavans, Ayres, Corants and Sarabands’ by Matthew Locke are strange things indeed. It is the strangely shifting, uncanny edge to Locke’s music that is his trademark – and Fretwork here transform it into something beguiling.

Most intriguing are the fleeting moments when Fretwork do not sound like a viol consort. Locke’s designation of the book as ‘for viols or violins’ acknowledges that the viol was soon to be usurped by the violin; here, Fretwork embody this historical juncture through a flexibility and agility of stroke.

-- Gramophone

Following their successful Dvořák cycle with Signum Records, Albion String Quartet are back with a selection of string quartets by Walton and Shostakovich, recorded in 2021. The concept: to juxtapose two masterpieces written in the same year in the immediate aftermath of war (1946) by composers inhabiting two entirely different social and political worlds in the Soviet Union and Britain respectively.

Formed in 2016, the Albion Quartet brings together four of the UK’s exceptional young string players who are establishing themselves rapidly on the international stage. Recent engagements from the 2017-18 season included performances at the Louvre in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Robert Schumann Gesselschaft in Frankfurt, Båstad Festival in Sweden, Festival of Music in Franconia and Rhine Valley Music Festival in Germany, as well as the Hay Festival in the UK. The members of the quartet play on a fine collection of instruments, including a Stradivarius and Guarnerius.

REVIEW:

Founded in 2016 and led by Tamsin Waley-Cohen, the Albion Quartet pace, phrase, point and color Walton’s volatile textures and agile rhythms with all the sensitivity and energy they require. Yet they are equally successful in the fiercer, more unpredictable contrasts in the Shostakovich, all the way from the deadpan perkiness of the opening to the searing outburst in the middle of the finale that sounds like some hysterical lament for the fallen.

-- BBC Music Magazine

"Top-drawer Haydn." -- BBC Music Magazine

Acclaimed British pianist Peter Donohoe returns to Signum Records with vols. 1 and 2 of a new series of Haydn piano works – including the Variations on Gott erhalte den Kaiser, Hob. i, 430. Since his success as joint winner of the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Peter Donohoe has gained international renown as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique. "I cannot imagine a living pianist capable of improving upon Donohoe’s outstanding artistry," writes Robert Matthew-Walker of Musical Opinion.

REVIEWS:

Donohoe is having so much fun with these pieces that he keeps you engaged from start to finish, much like Michael Korstick’s recent set of Scarlatti sonatas (to which I gave a rave review). In fact, Donohoe’s sense of rhythm is even a bit “springier,” if you know what I mean, than Korstick’s; there is almost always a hint or a touch of syncopation in his playing, certainly not in a jazzy way but in a way that makes every note and phrase bounce. And interestingly, even when Donohoe suddenly introduces a moment of rubato or a ludtpausen into the music, one never feels that he is slowing things down because even these moments have an underlying bounce to them, thus it all holds together. This proves especially important in the slow movements, such as the first-movement “Andante con espressione” of the Sonata in C, Hob.XVI:48, where Donohoe also uses interesting volume shifts in the accented notes to hold one’s interest—and make the movement less soporific. And in the ensuing “Rondo: Presto,” Donohoe almost makes the music laugh as well as sing! There’s clearly a touch of Chico Marx in his approach, and believe it or not, it works.

One will also note that Haydn, like his colleague Mozart, had a talent for playing some serious moments against the lighter ones: chiaroscuro, they called it. And there are so many passages in these sonatas where Haydn suddenly indulges in harmonic shifts, either from major to minor or vice-versa, as well as those into neighboring keys or using chromatic passages and/or modal scales, that he continually holds your interest. You simply cannot predict exactly how he is going to develop a movement; he always has an element or two of surprise up his sleeve.

I would also like to praise the recorded sound on this album. Unlike Donohoe’s Bartók concerti, which had a somewhat dry sound, these Haydn sonatas have just enough natural reverb around the instrument to give it a nice ring without becoming too much like an echo chamber.

-- The Art Music Lounge

To mark their 30th Anniversary, Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès are releasing their acclaimed Beethoven and Barry cycle as a box set. The works were recorded between 2017 and 2019 at Barbican Hall, London and Theatre Royal, Brighton. Thomas Adès: “This collection is the fruit of two parallel passions. After twenty years of performing and often premiering Gerald Barry’s works, I was frantic to record as much of it as possible. I had also loved working on Beethoven Symphonies with Britten Sinfonia, and suddenly an idea was born: why not dare the two firebrands to join hands? As soon as this idea took hold, everything fell into place. I believe Ludwig van Beethoven must be treated as a living composer, and I find Gerald’s music to be entirely classic. So the two complement each other ideally.” Gerald Barry: “Tom Adès decided on this pairing. It startled me. The first record I bought when I was about 13 was Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. We didn’t have a record player so all I could do was study the cover and advertisements on the back. I could look and see but not hear. I would take the record out and smell it. I used my nose as a stylus going round and round.”

Ravel grew up in Paris during la belle epoque, the thirty-odd years prior to 1914 when Paris was the unquestioned artistic center of the world. The fin de siecle years saw him enter the Paris Conservatoire. He was an immensely gifted youth, and one by one his early compositions began to show a real mastery of conception and execution-before the 1800s were out, he had produced such assured works as Habenera, Menuet antique, several fine songs, and Pavane pour une infante defunte.