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King's Singers Christmas
The King’s Singers are world-renowned for their live performances, and this concert captures the charm and skill that you’d expect from a group of this calibre. It is a musical treat as well as a visual one, recorded in both CD quality stereo and in 5.1 surround sound.
The DVD also features a 10-minute bonus documentary feature, titled “Life as a King’s Singer”.
Invisible Stars: Choral Works of Ireland & Scotland / Choral Scholars of University College
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REVIEWS:
Blending ‘folk’ voices with choral precision tight harmony isn’t easy but Desmond Earley has a passionate stake in both and doesn’t put a foot wrong here.
– Choir & Organ
For sheer beauty of sound and contemplative luxuriousness, this debut by the mixed-voice Choral Scholars of University College, Dublin is an altogether captivating experience. Lovers of elegantly crafted singing will find much to enjoy here in a survey of Irish and Scottish songs that also reaches across the Atlantic in the Appalachian-accented Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair … Vocal solos are pristinely realised, the ensemble sound gilded and glowing.
– Classical Ear
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 - Piano Pieces / Tsybuleva, Reinhardt, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Signum Records presents an exciting new collaboration and debut recording with Leeds International Piano Competition Winner (2015), Anna Tsybuleva, of music by Johannes Brahms together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Ruth Reinhardt. Tsybuleva has been described by as embodying superb pianism and intelligent musicianship (Gramophone Magazine) and A pianist of rare gifts: not since Murray Perahias triumph in 1972 has Leeds had a winner of this musical poise and calibre (International Piano Magazine). Performance highlights have included performances with the Basel Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Alongside this, Tsybuleva has given recitals at such prestigious venues as Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Wigmore Hall, London.
Lullabies for Mila / Bax
Lullabies for Mila is dedicated to Alessio Bax’s daughter, Mila. The album begins with a moving dedication: “This album is not only a carefully curated playlist of soothing classics to calm a baby and perhaps make him or her fall asleep quicker. It is also a gift from parents to their children, with the hope that they will share music with their loved ones, not just to entertain them but also to enrich their lives.”; This disc compiles works from Bax’s past Signum albums, including performances with Southbank Sinfonia and Lucille Chung. It also contains a new recording of the Grieg’s Nocturne from his Lyric Pieces.; Alessio Bax is a celebrated and award-winning pianist. Gramophone says “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” and the Dallas Morning News calls it “an out of body experience.” He has performed as a soloist with over 100 orchestras.
A Schubert Journey / Llyr Williams
Welsh pianist Llyr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence and the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. The complete 8 album collection of Llyr Williams’ Schubert series – previously released as individual digital volumes over 2019 to 2020. These recordings were made following a critically-lauded recital series at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama by Williams. Together they showcase the detailed examination given by Williams to these pieces, which is “warm, yet detailed” (Piano International). The accompanying booklet includes background notes on each piece, as well as an essay by US composer William Bolcom on his completion of Schubert’s unfinished Sonata in C major, D. 840. “These precious five minutes alone are worth a whole string of concerts” (Le Devoir) “ease into melting loveliness” (Classical Source) “Remarkable artistry and authority” (The Guardian)
REVIEW
In live performances such as these, one would expect a certain amount of casualness and distraction, a tendency to slur over passages, rush an accelerando to impress the audience and miss the occasional staccato dot or complete grace note. That is not the case. Williams brings to each work, no matter how slight or monumental, the same integrity and an honoring of the composer’s voice. Technically, I can’t help but be impressed, even amazed, by the strength of his playing and the consistency of pressure on each finger. Yet, there is an overarching individual expressiveness that conveys, as few others can, the unique wistfulness of the Schubert “sound”, the composer’s yearning for recognition and, later, for health, and knowing full well what little time he had in which to accomplish so much. I have never before heard the essential Schubert discerned and revealed at this level of perfection.
–ConcertoNet.com (Linda Holt)
A Winter's Night / Winchester College Chapel Choir, Onyx Brass
The addition of a brass ensemble to Christmas concerts and carol services, combining with the more traditional sounds of choir and organ, has become increasingly popular in recent years. This recording brings together a number of works for the specific forces of choir, brass quintet, organ and percussion, some of which have been arranged specially for this release. Interspersed amongst these works are a selection of popular Christmas carols which have formed and integral part of Winchester College Chapel Choir’s core repertoire for many years. Winchester College was founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, in 1382, and Winchester College Quiristers have for over 625 years sung services in Winchester College Chapel. In modem times they have formed a choir renowned for its excellence. Having celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2017-18 season, Onyx Brass continues to be the leading light in establishing the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, inspired by the pioneering early years of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. To this end, the group has commissioned and performed the world premières of over 200 new works, with many more in the pipeline for performance and recording.
REVIEWS:
The heart of this grouping of Christmas songs is the cantata A Winter’s Night by Cecilia McDowall. That is not really new music; all the tunes are traditional ones, arranged by the composer. Some seem unnecessarily complex, but that’s what contemporary composers do. In the end, it’s all very English, but not unfamiliar, and if you like organ and brass along with a choir you might well go for this.
– American Record Guide
A Choral Christmas
Italian Inspirations / Alessio Bax
Alessio Bax plays an Italian inspired programme, picking his favourite pieces taken from a rich history of music from one of the most romantic countries in the world.
He opens the programme with a J.S. Bach transcription of a oboe concerto by Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, which reveals a deep insight into Bach’s mind. This is followed by Rachmaninov’s last ever work for solo piano, which is incredibly eloquent, introspective and personal. The Dallapiccola continues this eloquent theme, showing some beautifully crafted dodecaphonism. The recording is rounded off with two pieces of Liszt, which take the listener on a multi-legged journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, with beauty and drama along the way.
REVIEW:
This Italian’s salute to his home country is inspired indeed. The standout performance is a spellbinding account of the Dante Sonata in which Bax masterfully combines scrupulous observation of Liszt’s agogics and dynamics (trusting the composer here really does pay dividends) with quite thrilling bravura in which he throws caution to the wind. Few accounts of the first two pages are so filled with menace and mystery.
– Gramophone
A Ceremony of Carols / Rees, Choir of the Queen's College Oxford
A glorious collection of Christmas music spanning over 900 years, centered around Britten's A Ceremony of Carols – a work seen as both a signal of Britten’s turn back towards English musical and cultural traditions and as a distinctly modern composition. Owen Rees and the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford present this alongside works that alternate between the early 17th century – by that most prolific composer and arranger of Lutheran Christmas music, Michael Praetorius – and the present: music by Judith Weir (1984), David Blackwell (2011), Jonathan Dove (2000), Dobrinka Tabakova (2018), Toby Young (2017), and Cecilia McDowall (2007). At one point we interrupt the pattern of alternation to look back half a millennium further than Praetorius, with Hildegard of Bingen’s O virga ac diadema. ‘An undoubted jewel in Britain’s choral scene’ (BBC Music Magazine), the Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford is among the finest and most active university choirs in the UK. Previous releases with Signum A New Heaven (2017) and The House of the Mind (2018) both went straight to no. 1 in the Specialist Classical Chart in their first week of release.
Be All Merry / Earley, Choral Scholars of UCD, Irish Chamber Orchestra
The Choral Scholars is an internationally acclaimed chamber choir of gifted student singers led by founding Artistic Director, Dr. Desmond Earley, based at University College Dublin College of Arts & Humanities. Scholars come from various academic disciplines and commit to an intensive programme of choral study. Be all Merry is one of three new pieces especially composed for the Choral Scholars. This lively carol for choir, orchestra and violin by Irish composer Eoghan Desmond evokes the joyful play of Christmas in the lines ‘Be all merry in this house/Exultet celum laudibus!’. The recording contains a remarkable setting of the Advent plainsong hymn Christe Redemptor Omnium for tenor solo, chorus, violin and violoncello by Ivo Antognini, crafted for Choral Scholars with the kind support of the Swiss Embassy in Dublin. The Adoration of the Magi by American composer Timothy Stephens is a breathtaking setting of W. B. Yeats’ poetry. A beautiful Irish-language lullaby – Cró na Nollag – set by father and son, Adhamhnán and Uinseann Mac Domhnaill, and the much-loved Scottish tune simply titled Suantraí, are also included. The Irish Chamber Orchestra are also featured on a number of tracks including The Wexford Carol and Carol of the Bells. The choir closes the album with the song most associated with friendship, hope and the promise of a new year, Auld Lang Syne. The post-production phase of this recording project took place as the world grappled with the outbreak of COVID-19. American composer Linda Kachelmeier’s piece – We Toast the Days – serves as a reminder of the strength, love and hope that resonates throughout the world not simply at Christmastide but also during periods of hardship.
REVIEW:
Like the Winchester Quiristers, the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin are unique – a relatively new group of collegiate singers who trade a chapel for an intriguing commercial instinct. Be All Merry is a slick album of new, largely unrecognisable settings of old carols woven through with the sound of Gaelic folk song, much of it from the fiddle of the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster. It provides that one thing we badly need from Christmas albums – something different that’s still consistent and festive – and only occasionally edges into processed cheese despite every track being suitable for a TV chat show’s play-out. If you can take a degree of Gaelic mistiness there is plenty to enjoy. The jagged arrangement of the Carol of the Bells by conductor Desmond Earley caught my ear, sung by a choir very well trained with an idea of its own sound.
-- Gramophone
Journeys to the New World / The Queen's Six
REVIEW:
Much of the program has the dark hue and deliberate pace characteristic of the Spanish repertory, and there are some very powerful examples: try the stark, riveting motet In horrore visionis of Francisco López Capillas. There are also some brighter pieces, and although the musical universe of the Mexican cathedrals rivaled that of Spain, there is a trend toward a brighter New World simplicity evident in some of the music, and The Queen's Six makes effective use of the contrast...the singing is beautiful and expressive in an idiomatic way.
– All Music Guide (James Manheim)
Davis: Solace
Recorded at the height of the international Covid lockdown, Oliver Davis’s sixth album for Signum is a feat of both technological as well as artistic achievement. Following from draws together artists from across the globe for a selection of moving works for a variety of forces – recording a violinist in Los Angeles, a piano duo in The Netherlands, a guitarist in Argentina and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra conducted by Péter Illényi in Budapest. Davis’s previous albums with Signum have reached the top 10 on both iTunes Classical and UK Specialist Classical Charts multiple times, receiving numerous five-star reviews and well over a million streams on Apple Music. British composer Oliver Davis has parlayed a long record as a composer of film and television scores into a successful career as a composer of orchestral music that in performance have attracted top-notch London orchestras and soloists. He has also been active as a composer of ballet – most recently premiering Lineage with choreographer Edwaard Liang at New York City Ballet’s prestigious Fall Fashion Gala.
From Windsor with Love / The Queen's Six
The Queen's Six return to Signum with a new album of romantic pop song arrangements. Conceived with US producer TJ Armand, the album of new a cappalla arrangements sets traditional classics such as Bob Dylan’s "Make you feel my love," and Young and Heyman’s "When I fall in love," next to more unusual songs such as Huey Lewis and the News’ "The Power of Love," and Limahl’s "Never Ending Story." 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.
The Chapel Choir, which consists of boy trebles and twelve professional adult singers, performs some eight services a week, as well as at private and state occasions, often before the Royal Family. In 2018, their duties with the Chapel Choir included singing for the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In 2021, three members of the group’s voices were raised at the funeral for His Royal Highness Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh. Their repertoire extends far beyond the reach of the choir stalls: from austere early chant, florid Renaissance polyphony, lewd madrigals, and haunting folk songs, to upbeat jazz and pop arrangements.
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin / Davies, Middleton
Renowned countertenor Iestyn Davies and pianist Joseph Middleton perform Schubert's tragic song-cycle Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill). Adapting poetry by Wilhelm Müller, the song cycle, D. 795, marks the beginning of the end of Schubert's life.
Released under the house label of St John's College, Cambridge, this recording acts as a celebration of Iestyn Davies's formative period at the college; beginning there as a 7-year-old probationer in 1987, he progressed to become Head Chorister, ultimately returning to study as a choral scholar. Alongside full texts and translations, the booklet includes a background on the work by noted Lieder expert Susan Youens, as well as reflections on Iestyn's time at St John's from the College's past and present Directors of Music – Christopher Robinson and Andrew Nethsingha.
In Winter's House: Christmas with Tenebrae
Their fourth Christmas release, BBC Music Magazine Award winning choir Tenebrae return under the expert direction Nigel Short with a sumptuous album of Carols, Hymns and other celebratory works for Christmas.
Tenebrae is regularly engaged with the world’s finest orchestras – appearing regularly with the Academy of Ancient Music and Aurora Orchestra – and has performed at major festivals and venues including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Leipzig Gewandhaus (Germany) and Melbourne Festival (Australia). ‘Passion and Precision’ are Tenebrae’s core values. Through its continued dedication to performance of the highest quality, Tenebrae’s vision is to deliver dramatic programming, flawless performances and unforgettable experiences, allowing audiences around the world to be moved by the power and intimacy of the human voice.
REVIEWS:
The variety of carols is enchanting: Tenebrae includes pieces by authors from the twentieth century (such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Elizabeth Poston and Herbert Howells), from the nineteenth century (such as Edward W. Naylor) or contemporary (such as Owain Park , Joanna Marsh, Joseph Phibbs and Joanna Forbes l'Estrange), all well-contrasted samples of Christmas music. Short — who presents a new version of Britten's work, A Ceremony of Carols op. 28, a piece full of charm perhaps because of the mystery of the ancient texts—he has done an exceptional job with the musicians in his choir, accompanied by Camilla Pay's harp.
Highlights include the delicate That Yongë Childe ('That little boy'), with a solo of Joshua Davidson—former chorister of the St. John's College—as well as an exquisite duet of soloists Grace Davidson and Martha McLorinan in Spring Carol and the enchanting This Little Babe, in a lyrical and dynamic interpretation of the female voices to the rhythm of the harp. Pay's imaginative and personal interpretation of the interlude deserves a commendable mention. The voices of the choir have been very successful in performing Advent music, such as Marsh's In Winter's House, composed in 2019 for the tenors and basses of the Tenebrae Choir, and the beautiful Advent 'O' Carol by the composer Forbes l'Estrange. Likewise, the version of the traditional Christmas carol The Truth Sent from Above, arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams, has the splendid baritone Joseph Edwards as soloist.
With his plurality of perspectives, Nigel Short offers a very coherent proposal not only for his varied repertoire but also for the rigor with which he synthesizes the knowledge he has acquired at the head of the Tenebrae Choir.
-- Sonograma
Locke: The Flat Consort / Fretwork
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
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies; Barry: Orchestral Works / Adès, Britten Sinfonia
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.”
Gunning: Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra / Gunning, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Music from the Ghetto / Heled, Warren-Green, London Chamber Orchestra
The central thread linking all the works featured in this recording is their assimilation of various elements of Jewish music, whether directly stemming from Chassidic folk traditions, or relating to material directly associated with religious worship. Each composer responds to this music in different ways, attempting in varying degrees to integrate it within the structural conventions of a Western European musical mainstream. By doing so, the music projects a multitude of emotions and feelings.
“There is not enough music which highlights and celebrates the diverse background of composers and the fact that this album focuses on Jewish musical traditions makes it a hugely important progression in how the classical music industry is moving into a more culturally representative industry.” -- Jocelyn Lightfoot, Managing Director of the LCO
Supersize Polyphony – Striggio: Mass in 40 & 60 parts; Talli
Julie Cooper: Continuum / Andoh, Davidson, Cottis, The Oculus Ensemble
Respighi: Works for Orchestra / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
When in 1913 Respighi settled in Rome where he would reside for the rest of his life, he would produce a large amount of highly varied music-some of it now well-known, much of it less so. Geoffrey Simon’s championship of the little-known works of celebrated composers has proved highly successful on both record and in the concert hall, and his exploration of Respighi’s catalogue has yielded a number of colourful compositions whose neglect hitherto remains something of a mystery. The works recorded on this Cala Signum reissue cover a wide range of moods, from the opulence and excitement for which Respighi was noted in his famous Roman Trilogy, to more reflective pieces inspired by nostalgia for the music of the past.
Ravel - Five O'Clock Foxtrot and more works for orchestra / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
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.
Ravel: Valley Of The Bells and more works for orchestra / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
Ravel's status as one of the most popular composers of all time rests to a large extent on the phenomenal success of Bolero. Yet there is much more to this endlessly intriguing man's work than the "seventeen minutes of orchestral tissue without music": childhood fantasy, Spain, the Orient, American jazz, the theater, clockwork toys and all the things mechanical, preoccupied Maurice Ravel throughout his life, and echoes of each can be found in all corners of his music.
