In a word I feel myself the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this ever makes things worse and worse instead of better... but I have tried my hand at several instrumental things... in fact, I intend to pave the way towards a grand symphony in this manner. These extracts from a letter of 1824 epitomize the paradox of Schubert, the manic-depressive composer. On the one hand his music has that world-weary element of profound grief - 'the most wretched creature in the world' - and on the other a life-affirming exuberance bordering on the manic that characterizes the Wanderer-Fantasie and parts of the D major sonata D.850. In this final volume Llyr Williams plays a selection of Franz Liszt's evocative Schubert song transcriptions, including works from Die sch�ne M�llerin, Wintereise and Schwanengesang.

Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), the BBC Music Magazine Award award-winning choir Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision return to disc on Signum with a sumptuous album of Carols, Hymns and other celebratory works for Christmas. Among the composers to feature on this disc are John Gardner, Peter Warlock, Philip Ledger and Arnold Bax, A singer of great acclaim, Nigel Short was a member of the world-renowned vocal ensemble The King’s Singers from 1994–2000. Upon leaving the group, he formed Tenebrae, a virtuosic choir that embraced his dedication to passion and precision.

REVIEW:

If you’re looking for a collection of Christmas music that includes a lot of pieces you don’t often hear, don’t overlook this outstanding release. Lovers of choral music will need no introduction to Tenebrae, a superb mixed chorus of around 16. This is their third album of Christmas music, and it is the most interesting of the three.

– American Record Guide

Guitarist Christoph Denoth returns with a new album of works inspired by South America, centered on the iconic tango. The continent of South America, with its diverse countries and various lines of historical development, has stimulated the creation of many musical traditions. But throughout the heterogeneous patterns of culture, the guitar has a central part to play as a national instrument in all South American countries. This selection (titled tanguero, describing one who sings or dances the tango) brings together many of the styles and genres of that vast continent in a colorful blend of melodies, rhythms, and harmonies. Christoph Denoth was born in Basel, Switzerland, and spent an important part of his early life in the Swiss mountains. His extraordinary musical talent became apparent early on, at which stage he already loved the guitar. He began his concert career at age 15. His studies of the classical guitar led him to the conservatories of Lucerne, Basel, and Zurich. He attended master classes with Pepe Romero and others and trained as a soloist with Oscar Ghiglia at the Basel Musikakademie. He regularly performs as a soloist with chamber orchestras and ensembles such as the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Peter Maxwell Davies) or the Offenburger Streichtrio, and at international music festivals such as that of Schleswig-Holstein. He has also performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Berlin Philharmonie, and at the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Released in conjunction with the his new book of the same name (published by Quercus), Fire On All Sides is the soundtrack to James Rhodes’ intimate exploration of what it’s like to be a celebrated pianist embarking on a world tour, when you have multiple voices jostling in your head, sabotaging your happiness and sapping your confidence. James Rhodes writes: “So in 2016 I did an extensive tour of around twenty cities in a few short weeks. I wrote a book about it called Fire On All Sides and this recording is the soundtrack to that book. Like every other area of my life, it’s heavily based on fantasy. A huge thank you both to those who came to the gigs and also to these immense composers for supplying the tools required to help put out the flames.”

Leading British soprano Sophie Bevan performs a sumptuous programme of concert arias by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Bevan is accompanied on this new recording by The Mozartists, recently launched by Ian Page's internationally renowned period ensemble Classical Opera as an expansion of its continuing exploration of Mozart and his contemporaries. Complementing Classical Opera's ongoing recording series of complete operas of Mozart, the creation of The Mozartists reflects the group's expanding repertoire and ambitious plans, and they can be heard in concert from September, 2017.

The real life marriage of two great concert pianists, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, has led to one of the leading piano duos of their generation. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts, "Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one." Stavinsky's Pétrouchka was originally arranged for four-hands by the composer as a rehearsal score for the Ballet Russes production of the same name, but in this stripped-down it brings Stravinsky's melodic, rhythmic and harmonic inventiveness to the fore. Brahms's 16 Waltzes Op.39 are an enchanting collection of Romantic miniatures that simultaneously nod to the musical lineage of the composer's home in Vienna whilst asserting his own flair and individuality. The final four tangos by Piazzolla are a full of Argentine flair and vigour, and were arranged especially for this recording by Bax & Chung.

The Rodolfus Choir return to Signum with a stunning new collection of choral works drawn from composers spanning over 500 years. Ralph Allwood MBE introduces the program and the personal inspiration behind it: The concept of time is so rich that it has inspired a large body of writing and musical setting. This collection is a tribute to my father, because I learnt so much about time from him. Mathematician and philosopher, theologian, musician and physicist, he was fascinated by our perception of time, and he and I had many discussions about it's nature. In a trivial sense, music traces the passage of time, but also, as with all events, manipulates it. A watch traces a different pattern of time during events. But who is to say that the watch is 'right'.

Gallicantus performs music surrounding the fascinating yet tragic story of Queen Mary Tudor's "phantom pregnancy". On April 30th, 1555 the city of London celebrated the birth of a health male heir, but abruptly ceased the next day after the news was revealed to be nothing but rumor. There was to be no heir, with gossip and speculation surrounding the tale of Mary's pregnancy from that day onwards. The music performed here resonates with the circumstances of the mid 1550's, including items composed outside of Mary's reign: from the royal ceremonies in which Mary participated as queen, and music directly tied to the specific events of 1554-1555. This includes a newly-reconstructed Litany which was performed during Mary's assumed pregnancy. The viewpoint shifts from the streets of London and its suburbs, through the ceremonial grandeur of the royal palaces and their chapels, to the intimacy of the Privy Chamber itself.

Harpsichordist Jane Chapman explores The Oriental Miscellany – William Hamilton Bird’s 1789 collection and arrangement of Hindustani airs for harpsichord. Bird’s collection, the first ever publication of Indian music notated for Western instruments, also features his own Sonata, incorporating original Indian tunes with flute accompaniment (here performed by baroque flautist Yu-Wei Hu). “… one of Britain's most distinguished classical harpsichordists, with a repertoire that stretches from early music to contemporary avant-garde…a rule breaker.” (WSJ)

Hertfordshire Chorus continues to build on their reputation for commissioning and performing some of the very best in contemporary choral music. In their first recording with Signum they are joined by the BBC Concert Orchestra for a 2-album set featuring James McCarthy’s Codebreaker (an exploration of the life of the pioneering computer scientist and mathematician Alan Turing) and Will Todd’s Ode to a Nightingale (setting the famous poem by John Keats). Hertfordshire Chorus is known for commissioning new music, high-quality yet passionate singing, tackling difficult, rarely performed music as well as much-loved and well-known pieces and is one of the UK’s finest symphonic choirs. Under the musical direction of David Temple our members give their all to singing, believing in the sheer joy and power of music to bring people closer together.

Orlande de Lassus, Europe's most famous musician during his lifetime, created nothing finer than the Lagrime di San Pietro, a collection of twenty spiritual madrigals and one motet for seven voices; A cycle of intense reflections on the sorrows of St Peter following his denial of Christ, it was assembled shortly before the composer's death in 1594 and dedicated to Pope Clement VIII. Into this collection Lassus pours every dramatic nuance and piece of harmonic invention he could possibly muster, hurling the listener through the stages of Peter's rage, remorse and resignation, and concluding with a motet which presents Christ's response to the world. Gallicantus (Latin for 'song of the rooster') add to their already impressive catalogue of works on Signum with this new recording. Their previous release The Word Unspoken: Sacred Music by William Byrd and Philippe de Monte was picked as one of the best discs 2012 by BBC Radio 3 CD Review.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Timelapse creates a space where sounds of the past and present collide to form a unique musical landscape. Although the pieces were written, in some cases, centuries apart and in culturally disparate eras, it is striking how much these contrasting works inhabit such similar emotional territory. Intriguing pairings of works by Rameau and Radiohead, Schubert and The Smiths, Adés and Grieg, Satie and Reich, compliment each other beautifully in the context of Timelapse. This recording by Orchestra of the Swan provides a place where notions of time and style have become irrelevant.

This record celebrates the music of Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds. One of the most sought-after composers of today, Ešenvalds studied both in Latvia and the UK. He has had works premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which have won him many awards.

The Choir of the West is the premier choral ensemble of the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, located in Tacoma, Washington. The choir was founded in 1926, and was the third Lutheran college choir to tour extensively throughout the United States. Choir of the West has toured to Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and China, and has been selected to appear at several regional and national conferences of the National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association. In November of 2015 the choir was a featured ensemble at the National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference, held in Portland, Oregon, performing with renowned conductor Simon Carrington. During the summer of 2011, Choir of the West competed among choirs from 47 nations at the prestigious Harmonie Festival in Lindenholzhausen, Germany, winning two gold certificates and one silver. In 2015 the choir competed in the Anton Bruckner Choir Competition, held in Linz, Austria.

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REVIEW:

Richard Nance has polished his Pacific Lutheran choristers to perfection. Balance and tuning are beyond reproach, with superb control of a full dynamic range. The soloists’ contributions are another great attraction.

– Gramophone

Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries tell us that he was good enough to become a concert pianist, if he had chosen to follow that path. But he preferred to focus on composition, and rarely performed in public concerts. His interest in the piano is mainly to be found in his many pieces for the instrument, and since most of these were suitable for amateurs with solid skills, they sold well and played an important role in building up his fame. Despite this, some view Tchaikovsky’s solo piano works are not performed as regularly as his orchestral works. Peter Donohoe disagrees with this take on Tchaikovsky’s solo piano works, insisting that all music requires performers to find the right approach, so he does not see Tchaikovsky as any kind of exception. He writes: “It is inexplicable to me that Tchaikovsky’s solo piano music should remain so infrequently performed, containing as it does all of the composer’s characteristic harmony, his wonderful melodic gift, his capacity for majestic gesture, magically beautiful moments, immense sadness, and passages of extreme excitement. His piano writing is often orchestral in texture, but also demonstrates the direct but very diverse pianistic influences of Liszt and Schumann, and incorporates in an almost naive way folk-style dance rhythms and melodies from Russia. This treasure trove is immensely rewarding to play, whether it be a small-scale salon piece such as the Humoresque Op. 10 No 2, or large in scale, such as is the gigantic Grand Sonata in G Major.”

REVIEW:

My instant reaction on pushing ‘play’ and hearing the first bars was ‘Ah – this is going to be good’. And so it proves, perhaps the most consistently enjoyable and satisfying recording of Tchaikovsky piano solos of recent years. There’s a lightness of touch, a crisp transparency and clarity of texture that sends the opening ‘Scherzo à la russe’ spinning off into the realms of sheer delight. A very fine issue indeed.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, February 2020)

Christopher Gunning has composed twelve symphonies, as well as concertos for the piano, violin, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and guitar; many of these have now been recorded. He has also composed many scores for films and television dramas, including Agatha Christie's 'Poirot', La Vie en Rose, Middlemarch, Cold Lazarus, Rebecca, Under Suspicion, Firelight, The Big Battalions, Wild Africa, When the Whales Came and Porterhouse Blue. With a career spanning 50 years, he has won 4 BAFTA and 3 Ivor Novello Awards, and BASCA's prestigious Gold Badge Award. Christopher studied composition with Edmund Rubbra and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a hugely successful career writing for the big and small screen he is now focused on his classical work and releases. Gunning's second symphony has been composed of a period of years, starting in 2003. Gunning struggled to finish the composition at first, but when the opportunity arose to record the symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, he uncovered the symphony in early 2018. He then worked towards the recording session, tightening the structure and rationalized the orchestration, preparing the composition for the final session, which can be heard on this record. Symphonies 10 and 12 were much simpler for Gunning. No. 10 was composed in a very natural way; the starting material of the symphony allowed Gunning to move from one section to the next with ease. Symphony 12 is the most tonal of the three symphonies. It begins with an uncertain feel, before rising to a climax, and then down to a feeling of mystery. The second movement was inspired for a friends funeral, beginning with a bell, calling people up to the chapel. It then takes influences from English music and countryside (both of which the friend enjoyed), before reverting back to the bell idea again at the end of the funeral.

Julian Bliss and James Baillieu present a recording Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet sonatas, Op. 120 and an arrangement of his 4 Ernste Gesänge, Op.121 arranged by Bliss. These late works were inspired by the great clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld, principal clarinet of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, without whom we would not have had this clarinet repertoire. Julian Bliss is one of the world’s finest clarinetists, excelling as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, jazz artist, masterclass leader and tireless musical explorer. He has inspired a generation of young players as creator of his Conn-Selmer range of affordable clarinets, and introduced a substantial new audience to his instrument. Julian started playing the clarinet aged four, going on to study at the University of Indiana and in Germany under Sabine Meyer, turning professional aged twelve. Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’ James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation. He has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the world and collaborates with a wide range of world-class singers and instrumentalists. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Ulster Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Wiener Kammersymphonie.

The Goossens Messiah, recorded for the first and only time by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Thomas Beecham, has stood as a landmark of the classical catalogue for sixty years. Goossens’ richly orchestrated version is set to reach a new audience thanks to Maestro Griffith and DCINY, New York City’s leading promoter of classical music. They gathered at Abbey Road Studios in London in July 2019, to record the work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a chorus comprising of sixty members of The Jonathan Griffith Singers, drawn from around the world and sixty members of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. The new recording has captured the score’s vibrant tone colors in thrilling high-definition sound.

An acclaimed conductor, educator and lecturer, Dr. Jonathan Griffith has led performances across North America, Europe, and Asia. Griffith is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), which has brought together, under Griffith’s artistic leadership, thousands of musicians and choral singers in concert at prestigious venues across the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Disney Hall. The founder and Music Director of the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra, Griffith also oversees DCINY’s mentoring program for conductors. Founded in 1983 as a single choir of 100 of the best singers in the nation, the National Youth Choir is now the flagship ensemble of an Arts Council England National Portfolio youth music organization and registered charity, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain (NYCGB), which runs five membership choirs, a nationwide outreach programme for schools and Music Hubs, and provides professional training for the next generation of choral singers, composers and leaders.

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REEVIEW:

Dishing up a rich, lusciously executed bowl of nostalgia, Jonathan Griffith conducts with evident relish and affection. And if Griffith’s choral forces don’t always have the penetrative heft to cut through the orchestral high jinks at their most excitable, they crown the final chorus with a resplendent ‘Amen’.

– BBC Music Magazine

Written after Mussorgsky had met Russian artist and designer Viktor Hartmann, Pictures at an Exhibition is by far Mussorgsky’s most played work. The piece was written when Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two ‘pictures.’ Hartmann very suddenly died aged 39; following his death, a memorial exhibition was put on in St. Petersburg. Mussorgsky donated the two ‘pictures’ which Hartmann had given him before he died. Mussorgsky is said to have based the piece on his experiences at this exhibition, which was in memory of Hartmann. The concerto version is performed here by Tamas Ungar in an arrangement by Lawrence Leonard. Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is resident in London and has appeared there with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. Internationally, he has appeared with the Adelaide, Atlanta, Bournemouth, Canberra, City of Birmingham, Fort Worth, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Queensland, Sapporo, Shanghai, St Louis, Sydney, Tasmanian, Vermont and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Israel, Moscow, Munich and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestras, the American Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Australian Opera.

This album marks the second release of the Carducci’s Shostakovich 15 project, which includes performances of the complete cycles of the Shostakovich Quartets in cities including Washington DC, London, Oxford, Cardiff, Bogota and concerts throughout the UK to mark the 40th anniversary of the composer’s death. Described by The Strad as presenting “a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose, in which severity could melt seamlessly into charm, and drama into geniality”, the Carducci Quartet is recognized as one of today’s most successful string quartets. This release contrasts Shostakovich’s first two string quartets with the seventh – composed in memory of his late wife Nina. In composing his quartets prior to No. 7, Shostakovich had scrupulously followed a predetermined sequence of keys: according to this, the work should have been in E flat major. However Shostakovich, significantly, chose to break this pattern by writing his new quartet in F sharp minor, the key associated with such anguished music as Peter’s remorse in Bach’s St John Passion, and – particularly close to Shostakovich’s heart – Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony.

The desire to explore the innate human drive for communication is the focus of Babel. For this recording the Calidore String Quartet gathered music which transmits ideas by imitating language; its rhythms, cadences and intentions. But it also explores what happens when music substitutes for language. When it fills the void of forbidden speech or even how it carries on when language has been exhausted. The result, a compilation of quartets by Schumann, Shostakovich, and Caroline Shaw, demonstrates the visceral forms of expression that exist at the intersection of music and language. The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by The New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” and the Los Angeles Times for its balance of “intellect and expression.” Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the inaugural $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

REVIEW:

The Schumann comes across beautifully, with plenty of tender, intimate inner dialogue and a fine feeling for Schumann’s left-field attitude to conventional form. Maybe there could be more subversive humour, but it’s still refreshing to hear this marvellous, still under-appreciated music treated with such understanding and obvious affection.

Like many contemporary pieces, Caroline Shaw’s Three Essays comes with a detailed programme, but it’s perfectly possible to enjoy it just as abstract music: playful, heartfelt, exuberant and always surprising enough to hold the attention. The playing is as strong and persuasive here as in the Schumann.

As for the Shostakovich, the overall conception is very impressive, each of the linked movements growing out of the previous one with a powerful sense of inevitability. The control of the two/three-in-a-bar rhythmic games in the finale is particularly well brought off. Where it’s slightly weaker – strange, given the disc’s declared intentions – is in that urgent, impassioned directness that characterises the finest Shostakovich quartet performances. Expressive and shapely as they are, the solo lines don’t sound as though they’re burning, aching to confide in you.

This is quality quartet playing, sympathetically recorded, but in the Shostakovich it just falls a couple of inches short of excellent.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The King’s Singers celebrate their 50th anniversary with a celebratory 3-album set, combining three complete programs of Close Harmony, Spiritual and Secular pieces. The King's Singers write: “The current incarnation of King’s Singers approached this 50th Anniversary release with great excitement – albeit with some trepidation! How could we possibly create an album (or, as it turned out, three albums!) that would reflect all the group’s work over five decades, honoring its history and the achievements of our predecessors? In the end, we decided to go back to basics. We spent months trawling through programs and recordings to finalize this selection of music: old favorites that the group has performed for decades jostle for position with more recent additions (both classical and pop), and compete with brand new works commissioned especially for this project. A long-list of well over a hundred pieces has been whittled down to a final track-list of around sixty that, we feel, represents all the styles and musical epochs that The King’s Singers have championed across five decades of performance and recording.”

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REVIEW:

Looking back over 50 years of performances and recordings by the King;s Singers, it's hard to think of a group whose music-making has aged so well. The joy, generosity, and the eclecticism of their earliest recordings are all still the defining qualities of their latest. Here's to 50 more years.
– Gramophone

Volume 2 in Thomas Adès and the Britten Sinfonia's collaborative performances of the works of Beethoven and Barry; specifically the Beethoven Symphony Cycle and a selection of Barry’s works. This CD features Beethoven’s 4th, 5th and 6th symphonies, interspersed with Barry’s 'Viola Concerto' (featuring Lawrence Power) and piece for orchestra and bass 'The Conquest of Ireland' (featuring Johsua Bloom).

Gerald Barry grew up in rural Ireland. His music shows us how his upbringing had an effect on his compositional style - giving a piece a title such as Beethoven would suggest an attempt at emulating his legacy nearly two centuries after his death. Do not be fooled by this however; his music shows his major influence from radio, moving from the sublime and the ridiculous with carefree abandon. "...the most striking orchestral contribution to this year’s anniversary celebrations that’s come my way." (Presto Classical) "This set cuts pristine interpretations of Beethoven’s early symphonies with Gerald Barry’s 21st-century zesty homage ... Adès and the Britten Sinfonia present tightly knit performances [of the Beethoven Symphonies], and dynamic subtleties are largely preserved in the concert recordings." (BBC Music Magazine)

REVIEW:

Volume two of Thomas Adès’s Beethoven symphony cycle with added Gerald Barry continues to illuminate both composers. Under Adès, the Britten Sinfonia provide lean, though certainly not mean, performances of Beethoven’s middle three symphonies. There are a few scrappy moments, the wind almost getting ahead of themselves in the Fourth’s slow movement, but generally this is stylishly incisive Beethoven. Barry’s pieces are no mere filler.

– BBC Music Magazine