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 bears 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. In 2021, Fretwork celebrated its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. Their recent critically-praised releases with Signum include If and Lamento – both with countertenor Iestyn Davies – and In Nomine 2.

REVIEWS:

Fretwork captures the brooding quality of the minor-mode suites particularly well, and their sinewy playing points up Locke’s vigorous counterpoint and robust rhythms.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The delicious way in which Locke’s fantazias – unlike those of Jenkins or Lawes – present a cornucopia of switches in tempo or affect is matched by Fretwork’s agility in moving from one colour and affect to the next.

-- Gramophone

This important new recording revisits George Frideric Handel’s monumental Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin – subsequently known as the Eight Great Harpsichord Suites as well as his Chaconne in G major and some world première recordings of Handel’s superb arrangements of operatic arias and ouvertures which were specially reworked and ornamented by Handel for the harpsichord. The album celebrates the 300th anniversary of the first publication of these works on 14 November 1720. Bridget Cunningham is an international conductor, prizewinning harpsichordist and musicologist who trained at the Royal College of Music and was awarded a Junior Fellowship to work in the Centre for Performance History and coach singers in the baroque style. Cunningham is also Artistic Director of London Early Opera with a number of critically-acclaimed recordings out on Signum Classics.

REVIEW:

These pieces, inventive and full of vitality, are unashamedly intended to please the senses. In the hands of stylistically informed players they never fail to do so. Bridget Cunningham is just such a player. Her feeling for dance rhythms is infectious and her ability to entertain unassailable.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Fun, furious, frantic, and utterly fantastic! The surreal world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, is given an extra twist in Gerald Barry’s operatic treatment. At less than an hour for the whole opera, this short, sharp shot of mayhem is ideal as a family treat. Meet a kaleidoscope of colorful characters in this joyful, headlong rush into a world gone deliciously mad. This release is based on the original production of the same title, a co-production between Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Irish National Opera.

Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s, Cambridge present a tribute album to two former directors, Christopher Robinson and David Hill, who celebrate their 85th and 65th birthdays respectively. Taking the idea of new growth as a starting point, the album develops from the seed of a single treble line, gradually adding organ, then lower voices, a second choir (Yale Schola Cantorum), 150 additional singers, and eventually combining nearly 500 voices together (former members and friends of the college choir). The programme spans Hildegard of Bingen to a new commission by James Long (b.1987) and also includes works by three ex-St Johnians: Herbert Howells, Johnathan Harvey and Christopher Robinson. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire.

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Following the success of their last album, Timelapse, this new album from Orchestra of the Swan is a collection of extraordinary works connected by ideas of pilgrimage, contemplation, exploration and enlightenment through the works of composers such as Richter, Respighi, Britten, Piazzolla, Brian Eno, Nico Muhly, Joy Division and more. As with Timelapse, the joy is to be found in discovering the surprising and delightful connections between culturally disparate and musically contrasting time periods. Labyrinths have been an important part of humanity’s cultural landscape for thousands of years; from the Ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur to the intriguing stories of Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco. Our overwhelming desire to find patterns and ‘the hidden truth’ is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the subversive and complex vistas of music. Formed in 1995, Orchestra of the Swan is a British chamber orchestra which, under the artistic direction of David Le Page, is passionate about audience inclusivity and blurring the lines between genres, through its adventurous and accessible programming.

Alexander's music has become known for its striking beauty and originality. Described by Positive News as ‘not jazz, not classical, not improvised, but a glimpse of something new’, and by ClassicFM as ‘refreshingly original’, it isn’t easily described or placed into a genre. For the Love of Life sees the composer return to the piano accompanied by four string players from the Scottish ensemble, Mr McFall’s Chamber, alongside the powerfully expressive voice of Hannah Rarity. Chapman Campbell describes his new album as "a celebration of the essential beauty of the human spirit and its capacity to overcome adversity. We’re teetering upon the edge; while slowly recovering from a global pandemic we’re faced with the much broader sickness of our natural world. Rarely have humans experienced a challenge so global in its scale, one that demands such a collective response. Deep down in the human heart, I believe, is a light of immense beauty and strength. Now is the time to find that light, and to lift it up. As an offering of hope, this album is my personal contribution." Hannah Rarity’s has established herself as one of Scotland’s foremost vocalists. Former winner of BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award, her status as a rising talent has been further consolidated by her numerous nominations at the Scots Trad Music Awards, including her shortlisted nomination for Album of the Year 2019 and feature as ‘One to Watch’ in The Scotsman.

The Mozartists continue their MOZART 250 project of staging operas by Mozart and his contemporaries with their recording of the UK premiére of Niccolò Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, first performed over 250 years ago on 11 February 1766 for the Stuttgart court in Ludwigsburg. For this eagerly awaited performance The Mozartists assembled a superb young cast, headed by the Irish mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly, a graduate of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, tenor Stuart Jackson, a former Mozartists Associate Artist, and soprano Gemma Lois Summerfield, winner of the 2015 Kathleen Ferrier Award. Jommelli was born just north of Naples in 1714 (the same year as Gluck) and died there in 1774. Largely forgotten now, he was one of the most celebrated composers of his day, and during a career which spanned thirty-seven years he wrote some eighty operas as well as a great number of sacred works. He was seen as an important and progressive composer in combining the vocal melodiousness and lyricism of Italian opera with more elaborate and dramatically charged elements of French opera. Set in Ephesus, on the western extremes of the Parthian Empire, in c.164 AD, Il Vologeso centres on Berenice, a woman who becomes caught between two men – the victorious Roman general Lucio Vero, and Vologeso, King of the Parthians (thought dead, but recently returned after his defeat battle). The Mozartists, under the dynamic leadership of conductor and artistic director Ian Page, are leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. Originally called Classical Opera, the company was founded in 1997, and has received widespread international acclaim for its stylish and virtuosic period-instrument orchestra, its imaginative and innovative programming, and its ability to nurture and develop world-class young artists.

Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and sombre Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons and Martin Peerson. With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs.

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.

This brand new Christmas album from The King’s Singers features 25 tracks covering everything from contemporary choral gems and folk songs through to well-loved carols. Dotted throughout the album are several of the most famous English church carols, which take The King’s Singers right back to their earliest singing days, and which also reflect the group’s heritage at King’s College, Cambridge. In Christmas Carols with The King’s Singers, the group bottle that frosty, moonlit, fireside Christmas wonder and pour it into their sound.

The King’s Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group’s rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations.

REVIEWS:

If you love a capella men’s ensembles in Christmas music the King’s Singers are for you. This new album has some of the most beautiful ensemble singing I’ve heard in a long time. The arrangements are all tasteful and the singing, both in solos and ensemble, exquisite. These are not the same singers that recorded some truly ugly arrangements in some truly ugly albums several decades ago. Back them there seemed to be an attempt by their producers to make the King Singers more “withit” by recording them in arrangements that someone deemed funny or original. Since then someone brought the group back to what they do best. There are a number of familiar carols here (`Ding! Dong! Merrily on High!’, `Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day’, etc.), but also some newer carols that are really lovely (`The quiet heart’, `The little road to Bethlehem’, `O, do not move’). What a suitable disc for a wintry evening by the fire! Notes, texts, and translations.

-- American Record Guide

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and and the viol consort Fretwork present a new recording of works for viol consort and voice drawn from 17th-century Germany, following their critically-praised 2019 album of works by Michael Nyman and Henry Purcell. Featuring performances from organist Silas Wollston and counter-tenor Hugh Cutting, the recital ranges widely over the 17th century – from the early years with three curiously similar sounding friends: Schein, Scheidt and Schütz, to the most significant member of the Bach family before Johann Sebastian, Johann Christoph Bach. From their they travel down North Sea to the foothills of the Alps, including Buxtehude’s predecessor at the Marienkirche in Lübeck – Franz Tunder (whose daughter Buxtehude was to marry) and another north German composer who worked in Copenhagen, Christian Geist. Giovanni Felice Sances is an outlier here: he was born in Rome, but spent the second part of his life working for three successive Emperors in Vienna, where viol playing was still very much in vogue. In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. Iestyn Davies is a British countertenor widely recognised as one of the world’s finest singers celebrated for the beauty and technical dexterity of his voice and intelligent musicianship. Critical recognition of Iestyn’s work can be seen in two Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, a RPS Award for Young Singer of the Year, the Critics’ Circle Award and recently an Olivier Award Nomination. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2017 for services to music.

In a world of increasingly superficial connection between individuals and communities, humanity is yearning like never before to find a real sense of meaning in life. Chamber vocal ensemble Cantus’s release of fresh, intimate and relevant new vocal works is a journey of longing and self-discovery with trademark virtuosic delivery. Manifesto takes a nuanced look at identity and relationships – with our friends, lovers, family, and the divine. In keeping with Cantus’ commitment to the creation of new music for tenors, baritones, and basses, the preponderance of the works were written specifically for Cantus, and all tracks represent world premiere recordings.

The "engaging" (New Yorker) low-voice ensemble Cantus is widely known for its trademark warmth and blend, innovative programming and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both "exalting finesse" and "expressive power" and refers to the "spontaneous grace" of its music-making. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.” One of the nation’s few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus performs more than 75 concerts each year in national and international touring, and in its home of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Reviews

"This new album from the nine-member male vocal ensemble consists of world-premiere recordings, mostly pieces that were written for the group. Roger Treece’s Philia, an affirming, jazz-tinged homage to friendship, begins the set...The piece sets the tone for the whole album, which examines humankind’s yearning to find meaning through relationships with others. By far the most emotionally affecting track is Joseph Gregorio’s To My Brother, which sets a letter written by James Clementi to his younger brother Tyler after the latter’s suicide...[the] tender, harmonious setting lets the heartbreaking text speak for itself[.] It’s difficult not to get choked up as it unfolds...

"Entirely different in tone is Tango with God by Ysaÿe M. Barnwell. A setting of a text by the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton, the song addresses the dilemmas of faith but sets it to a catchy Latin beat (including some light hand-percussion) and ear-catching harmonies, making it an appealing mix of the sacred and secular. Haitian-American composer Sydney Guillaume’s Gagòt (the Haitian Creole word for “mess”) is a sprightly setting of a poem by his father, Gabriel...Elsewhere, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Psalm of the Soil,” a thoughtful setting of a poem by Nathaniel Bellows, hauntingly depicts a search for home, in a psychological more than a physical sense, with echoing canonic entrances and an effective use of the basses’ lower range...The members of Cantus consistently sing with an attractively smooth-edged sound and good intonation. This creatively programmed release provides a gratifying variety of expression as well as a welcome dose of spiritual uplift." —Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News

Following Tom Lehrer’s decision in 2020 to release almost 100 of his songs into the public domain (for anyone to perform and adapt without permission) The Queen’s Six take up the offer with relish in this album of a cappella renditions of his “catchy and savage musical satire”. Based at Windsor Castle, the members of The Queen’s Six make up half of the Lay Clerks of St George’s Chapel, whose homes lie within the Castle walls. This rare privilege demands the highest musical standards, as they sing regularly for the Royal family at both private and state occasions. In 2018 this included the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle, held in St George’s Chapel. Most significantly however, it is the familiarity of living and singing together in Chapel every day that lends this group its distinctive closeness and blend, as well as an irresistible informality and charm.

REVIEW:

Those who love the music of Thomas Lehrer cannot help but succumb to the charms of this disc, which is a thoroughly worthy successor to the recordings by these singers of more expected repertory. I note with pleasure that the disc acknowledges the assistance of (among others) the Trustees of Ascot Priory and the Dean and Canons of Windsor; and the cover illustration by Paul Taylor, depicting the composer in the guise of a pigeon poisoned with cyanide-laced peanuts before the façade of Windsor Castle, strikes just the right note.

-- MusicWeb International

The initial impetus of the ‘Australian Thais’ project came from David Howie’s Thai family connections and the shared interest to explore the connections between the music and people of both countries. This led to collaborations with some of Thailand and Australia’s premiere composers to commission, workshop and produce new music for a cross-cultural exchange aimed at enhancing and strengthening links between the two countries, greatly increasing cultural awareness and understanding through music. This project was made possible by a Sydney University, Conservatorium of Music internal research grant. First performing together in 2008, Michael Duke and David Howie have always put exciting and innovative chamber music at the heart of HD Duo’s repertoire – commissioning, recording and performing new works written by some of Australia’s most prominent and respected composers. These include Anne Boyd, Michael Smetanin, Matthew Hindson. Mark Zadro, Gerard Brophy, Tim Dargaville, Andrew Batterham, Brenton Broadstock, Miriama Young and Paul Sarcich. As well as performing regularly across the major cities of Australia, HD Duo has also appeared in concert throughout the world in countries such as Thailand, USA, Singapore, UK, France, Malta, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Canada, Croatia, Mexico and French Polynesian New Caledonia.