Signum Classics
626 products
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Cello
$27.99CDSignum Classics
May 15, 2026SIGCD969 -
Sarah Fox - Mozart Concert Arias
$19.99CDSignum Classics
May 08, 2026SIGCD966 -
The Backyard of the Village – Orchestral works by Xiaogang Y
$24.99VinylSignum Classics
May 15, 2026SIGLP972
The Psalms / Nethsingha, Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge
The Choir of St John’s have received glowing praise for their previous releases, culminating in the choral prize at the 2017 BBC Music Magazine Awards for their debut release of works by Jonathan Harvey. 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. Alongside these musical characteristics, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere, which as of 2022 invites their first female scholars.
REVIEWS:
One of the consistent features of the St John’s recordings that have come my way has been the excellence of the documentation. This latest release is no exception. The booklet contains a general introductory essay about the Book of Psalms by Rev, Andrew Hammond, the College Chaplain. He also contributes short notes on each of the chose psalms while the organist John Challenger furnishes succinct details about the composer of the chants to which each psalm is sung. As usual, though, at the heart of the booklet is an absorbing essay by Andrew Nethsingha. On this occasion he discusses such matters as how psalm chants should be pointed and, of especial relevance, gives us insights into how the psalmody developed at St John’s.
The recorded sound is very good indeed. It’s also remarkably consistent given that producer Chris Hazell and engineer Simon Eadon recorded the choir in five different sessions over four years.
This is another fine addition to the distinguished discography of Andrew Nethsingha and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge.
-- MusicWeb International
The Crown: Heroic Arias for Senesino / Scotting, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The countertenor Randall Scotting’s debut album on Signum Records – with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Laurence Cummings – explores repertoire composed for the (in)famous countertenor Senesino, featuring works by composers including Ariosti, Oralandini, Giocomelli and Gaj.
A dramatically persuasive and intensely musical interpreter, Randall is recognized for winning over audiences with his stunning vocal beauty, stylish singing, and charismatic stage presence. He has become a sought-after artist by some of the world’s most esteemed opera houses. Recent performances include the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. A distinctive ensemble playing on period-specific instruments, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s values are to question, challenge and trailblaze. They have worked with conductors including Elder, Rattle, Jurowski, Iván Fischer and John Butt. There’s no orchestra quite like this one.
WATCH THIS LIVE Q+A WITH RANDALL SCOTTING, PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH ARKIVMUSIC!
The Library, Vol. 4 - Standards & Hits for Classical Choir / The King's Singers
This is the fourth volume in our The Library EP series. The idea behind it is to explore, maintain and grow our library of close-harmony repertoire. “Close-harmony” is arguably the part of our work for which we are best known, and our library of thousands of pop, jazz and folksong arrangements is one we’re always determined to nurture. The track-listing for each volume in the series is designed to celebrate old favorites alongside brand new arrangements created especially for these recordings, which we hope will become the ‘old favorites’ of the future. The King’s Singers were founded on 1 May 1968 by six choral scholars who had recently graduated from King’s College Cambridge. Their vocal line-up was (by chance) two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and the group has never wavered from this formation since.
Hildegard von Bingen: Sacred Chants / Grace Davidson
Grace Davidson presents her third release with Signum Classics, an intimate disc of Sacred Chants by Hildegard von Bingen, translations by Jeremy Summerly. Hildegard was an extremely accomplished composer, as well as a scientist, a diplomat, a poet, and the founder of a religious community. Her melodies rise out of Gregorian chant, with wide voice ranges that are suited to trained singers. The florid imagery of Hildegard’s texts is matched by suitably florid tunes, whose calculated intervals suggest both vocal improvisation and carefully controlled composition. Hildegard had the ability to write tunes whose very essence is simultaneously spontaneous yet structured. And such was Hildegard’s character – on the one hand she was intensely practical, and on the other she was a vessel for dreams and visions. Grace Davidson is a British soprano who specializes first and foremost in the performance and recording of Baroque music. she has worked as a soloist with leading Baroque ensembles, under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers.
REVIEWS:
There have been many recordings of Hildegard’s works but here Grace Davidson, singing alone, unfolds a tapestry of sounds filled with exceptional purity, mellifluous continuity and a focused sense of form. The vocal techniques of breath control (the long verses in Ave generosa), the command of the stunning leaps and dizzying meanderings of melody (O Ecclesia), and the subtle colouring of modal changes (O presule) are very impressive. An exceptional recording then, though occasionally a more differentiated approach might be possible – perhaps distinguishing slightly between narrative text and dialogue (O Ecclesia), or allowing some of the darker content (in O Jerusalem for example) to influence the grain of the voice and the articulation of consonants.
--
The Complete Songs of Duparc / Connolly, Spence, Thomas, Rendall, Martineau
Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers – Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas. An iconic figure in the world of French music – his songs described as being ‘imperfect...but works of genius’ by Ravel and ‘perfect’ by Debussy – Duparc only composed a handful of works during the first half of his life: following a nervous disorder in 1885 at age 37 he lived for a further 48 years, orchestrating and tinkering with his songs, but publishing nothing new.
Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau is recognized at the highest international level as one of the UK’s leading accompanists, performing worldwide alongside the world’s greatest singers and with a discography of over 100 albums, including a number of award-winning recordings.
REVIEW
With four singers in the line-up, there is plenty of vocal variety. The lion’s share of the songs is allotted to Sarah Connolly who still has her voice in fine fettle. She perhaps displays a wider vibrato than in past, but the tone is beautiful and her expressiveness is undiminished, and her high notes ring out gloriously. She is allotted seven songs, while her three male colleagues have three each. But we shouldn’t forget the fifth participant, Malcolm Martineau at the piano. His role is just as important as the singers’, since these songs are no mere melodies with accompaniments but rather dramatic or narrative scenes, where the piano sets the scene and propels the action forward. In that respect Duparc is Wagnerian in his approach. Obviously we focus on the singer, but the piano part mustn’t be suppressed. Malcolm Martineau shows that he is a born director and keeps the proceedings on a tight rein.
-- MusicWeb International
Lupo: Fantasia / Fretwork
Winner of a Gold award from Diapason Magazine!
Fretwork explores the somewhat overlooked English musical dynasty. The grandson of an Italian immigrant family brought to England under Henry VIII's reign, Thomas Lupo (1571-1627) was a talented composer, viol player and violinist who served in the Royal Court from the age of 16 until his death. His consort music for viols demonstrates a variety of moods and musical devices, with a clear parallel in places to some of the three-part music by his friend and colleague Orlando Gibbons.
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. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. The list of composers is like the roll call of the most prominent writers of our time: George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Fabrice Fitch, Peter Sculthorpe, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Andrew Keeling, Thea Musgrave, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, John Joubert, Duncan Druce and Nico Muhly. The group now frequently presents programmed consisting entirely of contemporary music.
REVIEW
Thomas Lupo was one of the earlier exponents of the viol consort as well as being a violinist. He came from a musical family which was first brought to England by Henry VIII to enhance his court music. The Lupo family, like others which came over at this time were Sephardic Jews, probably from Portugal.
This is a delightful collection of pieces. They are very varied in their moods. Some are playful and fast moving, such as 2, 8, 10 and 14. Some are slow and melancholy, such as 5, 13 and 15, and some show sudden changes in mood such as 13 and 17. The scoring also varies, from three to six instruments, and even when Lupo scores for only thee instruments, they can be any combination of treble, tenor and bass. He can rejoice in a rich texture with only three instruments, as in 5, or be lighthearted with five or six instruments, as in 8, 14 and 18. Curiously, the richest sound he likes comes from five rather than six instruments, so that 3, for example, sounds positively Brahmsian.
Fretwork, who play here, are one of the two leading viol consorts of our times, the other being Phantasm. I tend to find Fretwork rather plainer in their music-making, and possibly closer to how these pieces would have been played at the time. Phantasm tend to be more nuanced, even perfumed, and closer to the style of more recent chamber music. Both are valid. Fretwork here play with evident enjoyment and the recording is good.
Although Lupo turns up fairly frequently on mixed programmes, this is only the second disc dedicated to him that I am aware of. The other is a 1996 disc by The English Fantasy on ASV Gaudeamus. That offers a rather similar programme but it has been long deleted so Fretwork currently have the field to themselves. Fans of viol consorts need no encouragement; others would find this a good place to start.
--MusicWeb International (Stephen Barber)
Handel-Hasse: Caio Fabriccio / Cunningham, London Early Opera
The conductor and harpsichordist Bridget Cunningham brings back to life Handel’s pasticcio opera, Caio Fabbricio first performed in London in 1733 and based on an earlier opera by Johann Adolf Hasse (1732).
Caio Fabbricio is London Early Opera’s eighth album in the prestigious Handel Series with Signum Records and is a pasticcio opera, a brilliant and well-considered collection of some of the finest 18th-century Neapolitan arias by different composers, including Leonardo Vinci and Leonardo Leo, selected and arranged by Handel who composed his own dramatic recitatives. London Early Opera (LEO) is a vibrant, baroque group of instrumentalists, singers, music teachers, re- searchers, historians and musicologists on a voyage of rediscovery making glorious baroque music and op- era relevant today.
As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, Bridget Cunningham is a leading exponent of baroque music and continues to create these outstanding recordings with Signum Records exploring Handel’s colorful life, influences and experiences which inspired his magnificent musical legacy.
REVIEW
Bridget Cunningham directs Caio Fabbricio brilliantly, leading from the harpsichord to energise the other players, and to give them space to exploit juicy passages. The singers’ virtuosity and rich characterisations are delightful; particularly good are rising stars sopranos Miriam Allan and Anna Gorbachyova-Ogilvie and mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron. Each of the three has a vocal quality optimally suited to her character: Allan’s luminous core for the heroine Sestia, Gorbachyova-Ogilvie’s velvety textures for the lover Velusio, and Barron’s dark hues for the brutish ruler Pirro.
-- BBC Music Magazine
Schubert: The Fair Maid of the Mill / Glynn, Spence
Christopher Glynn continues his series of Schubert in English releases with a new recording of ‘The Fair Maid of the Mill’ (Die schöne Müllerin) with acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. Set to a new translation by writer and director Jeremy Sams, Willhelm Müller’s direct and emotionally-charged poetry became the basis of Schubert’s first cycle to tell a complete story over the course of its 20 songs. Nicky Spence is one of Scotland’s proudest sons and his unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty of his musicianship have earned him a place at the top of the classical music profession. Nicky won a record contract with Decca records while still studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then took a place as an inaugural Harewood Artist at the ENO. Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist, praised for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’ (Gramophone), ‘irrepressible energy, wit and finesse’ (The Guardian) and ‘perfect fusion of voice and piano’ (BBC Music Magazine). He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, where he has been praised as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’ (The Times).
REVIEWS
"The Fair Maid of the Mill [is] extraordinary: For the first time, as a native English speaker, I found myself understanding this song cycle on a more intimate and revelatory level...The meticulousness of word-for-word accuracy is traded for emotional accuracy. Playwright and director Jeremy Sams was commissioned to write this new translation, and his background in both opera and musical theater lends itself well to finding the right words to convey poetic, emotional, and dramatic honesty.
Tenor Nicky Spence’s own sense of crossover theatricality heightens the immediacy and intimacy of the cycle and Sams’s new texts with a verdant tenor that blooms and contracts in emotional fits and starts. (These beats are both offset and at times juxtaposed by pianist Christopher Glynn...) As the journeyman’s dream begins to collapse on itself...Spence spits out his pleas in a fit of jealousy and panic. The clarity with which he delivers the words makes it easy to slip into the language of Schubert’s work and tap into the small details that render the story so devastating at the end—try listening to him sing of how his love 'loves hunting green' without your throat catching a bit. It’s these small details that make this English Müllerin so rich and compulsively listenable.
--Van Magazine (Olivia Giovetti)
This is the third in the Signum label’s sequence of Schubert song cycles using an English version of the texts by Jeremy Sams. His is in no sense a literal translation and is never in the least archly “poetic”, but is instead couched in relatively, plain, direct English which captures the spirit and directness of the original German while jettisoning any faux-Romantic or medieval archaisms such as “fain would I”. The translation is vernacular and quotidian but not modish or vulgar – and Sams does a fine job of reproducing the rhyming, strophic form of some songs, finding workable rhymes which do not sound forced, so in “Mine” we hear “sound, round, resound” and “found”, and “shine, wine, intertwine, combine” and “mine” sequentially to reproduce the effect of the German. The freedom of the English into which some songs are rendered might initially take the listener aback but a moment’s reflection will confirm the aptness and fidelity of Sams’ rendering; hence, the opening song begins “A miller loves to sit and dream of somewhere” rather than “To wander is the miller’s delight, to wander” or some such precious transliteration – and I know which I prefer. Sometimes the translation is both felicitous and amusing, as when in “Impatience” (Ungeduld) Sams picks up on the German: “ich möcht es sän auf jedes frische Beet/ Mit Kressensamen” (I’d like to sow it in every fresh bed with cress seeds) and translates that colloquially as “I want to sow the words in watercress” so that it rhymes with “happiness” in the next line, and in “The Hunter” the miller girl’s cabbage patch (Kohlgarten) is transformed into a “strawberry bed” so that “fruit” rhymes conveniently with “shoot”. Certain lines impress themselves immediately upon the mind of the listener by their memorability, such as the alliterative “The sound of rushing water has mesmerised my mind” in the second song.
Nicky Spence’s diction is so pellucid as to render the provision of the English texts almost superfluous but such thoughtfulness on the part of the label remains a welcome gesture. [Spence's] beautiful, flexible, easily-produced sound...never falters; his tone encompasses both sweetness and power as required and his knack of placing just the right emphasis or applying a momentary pause in the words without unduly disrupting the vocal line is apparent throughout. I particularly like the way he can introduce a desperate sighing note into his timbre without it turning mawkish. Christopher Glynn supports him with some of the most subtle and sensitive pianism I have even heard applied to this work; his playing is by turns as fluid, sparkling and turbulent as rushing water. He and Spence make an ideally matched partnership – fresh and immediate, presenting it in a manner which could easily win new adherents to this miraculous song cycle but, in Glynn’s words, is also capable of 'offering a new perspective to those who know it well.'
--MusicWeb International (Ralph Moore)
Bach: Harpsichord Concertos / Arthur, The Hanover Band
“JS Bach’s seven concertos for solo harpsichord & strings, BWV 1052-1058, occupy a significant place in the history of music, marking as they do the origin of the keyboard concerto genre. Collectively, they encompass the gamut of Baroque rhetorical expression; indeed, leaving aside the six ground-breaking ‘Brandenburg’ Concerts avec plusieurs instruments, it is difficult to think of a more diverse, revolutionary and technically refined set of instrumental concertos from the Baroque period.” -Andrew Arthur
For their first recording on Signum Classics, The Hanover Band, directed by Andrew Arthur, present four of these revolutionary concertos, and dedicate this release to their Founder and Artistic Director, Caroline Brown (1953-2018). The Hanover Band’s players are amongst the finest in their field and the orchestra has built an international reputation for the excellence of its performances and recordings of eighteenth and nineteenth-century music. Andrew Arthur is best-known for his work in the field of historically informed performance, he is in great demand as a conductor, keyboard soloist and continuo player, working with many of the UK’s leading period-instrument orchestras and professional choirs.
REVIEW:
Arthur stresses how much these works owe to Bach’s early immersion in Vivaldi’s set of concertos L’estro armonico, several of which he transcribed, and that Italian influence does indeed permeate the performances on this recording. There’s a triumphal warmth in the Hanover Band’s delivery of the D minor work[.]
Arthur’s note on BWV 1054 indicates that he himself is aware of the danger that the harpsichord may be swamped, and in the Adagio e piano sempre of the D major work, the soloist is indeed allowed to breathe. In the joyous A major concerto the sonic balance is nicely resolved.
--BBC Music Magazine
Davis: Air / Bateman, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
When Sleep Comes - Meditations for Voices & Saxophone / Forshaw, Short, Tenebrae
Virtuoso saxophonist Christian Forshaw is joined by a consort of Tenebrae singers, in an ethereal sequence of penitential settings for Passiontide. Combining elements of ancient and modern to stunning effect, Forshaw and Tenebrae bring new colors and context to music by Gibbons, Tallis, and Hildegard von Bingen in a series of new arrangements and compositions.
Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision. Award-winning conductor Nigel Short has earned widespread acclaim for his recording and live performance work with leading orchestras and ensembles across the world.
REVIEW
The disc is divided between original music by Christian Forshaw and his arrangements of music by other composers. The original music is solid, direct, and very listenable-to: his setting of the In Paradisum from the service of committal sets the text with plainsong directness, while the soprano sounds like an additional member of chorus rather than an added spiritual presence. In fact, the delight of much of the disc is that it’s sometimes impossible to tell whether you’re listening to the saxophone or a soprano voice.
In the music by composers other than Mr. Forshaw, it’s difficult to ignore the ghost of Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble in their famous (and famously successful) Officium of 1994. But while there are undeniable echoes to and fro, Tenebrae and Forshaw put their own mark on what they do.
-- MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)
Howells, Taverner et al.: Eastertide Evensong / Nethsingha, Choir of St. John's College
Schubert: Music for Violin & Keyboard / Mullova, Beatson
Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson present their first release with Signum Classics. Performed on a period-style fortepiano and gut strings, the works presented on this recording span the final decade of Schubert’s life. Beginning with the Sonata in A of 1817, its lyrical, wistful opening giving way to a Viennese joy and exuberance. Closing with the Rondo in B minor of 1826, thrilling in its heroic journey through an abundance of themes, with twists and turns almost competitively athletic between the two instruments. At the heart of the recording, the Fantasie in C of 1827 – a music unutterably inspired, ravishingly beautiful, a tour de force of color and texture, an unpredictable and unparalleled dreamlike vision of another world.
Viktoria Mullova is known internationally as a violinist of exceptional versatility and musical integrity. Her curiosity spans the breadth of musical development from baroque and classical right up to the most contemporary influences from the world of fusion and experimental music. Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson works prolifically as a soloist and chamber musician. Renowned as a sincere musician and intrepid programmer, he champions wider repertoire with particular interest in Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert among others.
REVIEW:
Schubert’s three mature works for violin and piano make an ideal disc-length programme, the Duo Sonata (1817) expanding on the 18th-century models that informed the three ‘sonatinas’ of the previous year, before the full power of the tragic composer’s late music is distilled in the fearsome technical challenges of the B minor Rondo (1826) and C major Fantasy (1827). Viktoria Mullova lavishes her laser-like focus and intense musicality on these works, sometimes eschewing tonal beauty...in favor of fervent expressivity. Mullova remains faithful to her Guadagnini violin, gut-strung and played with a classical bow...blazing commitment and consummate musicianship on display from both players.
--Gramophone
Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances / Siem, Caetani, Philharmonia Orchestra
On his second album with Signum Records, internationally acclaimed violinist Charlie Siem is joined by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Oleg Caetani to perform works by Beethoven.
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, the Camerata Salzburg, the Czech National Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Philharmonia is a world-class symphony orchestra for the 21st century, based in London at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, resident in cities and at festivals across England, and streaming online.
Dall'Abaco, Sammartini, Vivaldi et al: Forza azzurri! / Chandler, La Serenissima
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.
Puccini: La bohème / Byrne, Bizic, Vitulskis, Devin, Molloy, McAteer, Alapont, Irish National Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Chopin: Piano Concertos / Despax, Chineke! Chamber Ensemble
Following the acclaimed Brahms recording in 2021, Emmanuel Despax presents his sixth album with Signum Classics: Chopin Piano Concertos (chamber versions) with Chineke! Chamber Ensemble. “Chopin’s Piano Concertos are among his first and most significant points of departure, a marked liberation from the constraints of an early but short-lived respect for custom and tradition... I would say that the exceptional nature of this Chopin recording lies in the combination of the chamber music, quintet slimmed-down version of the Piano Concertos complemented by a pianist who plays with an almost epic size and grandeur.” (Bryce Morrison)
Emmanuel Despax has gained worldwide recognition as a singular artist, whose interpretations bring a rare sincerity and imagination to the music. Chineke! was founded in 2015 by the double bass player, Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, to provide career opportunities for established and up-and-coming Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe. The Chineke! Chamber Ensemble comprises the principal players of the Chineke! Orchestra.
REVIEWS:
Chineke!'s accomplished and delightful playing forced at least this particular listener to pay greater than usual attention to music that can sometimes seem little more than a lengthy introduction to the piano-enriched score to come. This is, then, a quite delightful and distinguished release with an individual character of its own. It has been expertly recorded, moreover, in first-rate sound. While, as we’ve noted, the chamber versions of the Chopin concertos have done rather well on CD over the years, the new disc can hold its own with any of the others and will certainly not disappoint anyone who buys it.
--MusicWeb International
[The] brilliant young French pianist, Emmanuel Despax, already well known in Europe and according to Gramophone magazine, “A formidable talent, fleet of finger, elegant of phrase and a true keyboard colourist”...collected five string players (the Cheneke! Chamber Ensemble) to perform Chopin’s two piano concertos with the orchestra reduced to a string quintet, so what we have here is effectively a piano sextet.
Chopin’s orchestration has been much criticized over the last centuries...but since the piano plays almost continuously, this version with smaller forces is quite enjoyable.
--The WholeNote
Vivaldi's Women / Chandler, La Serenissima
La Serenissima explore the sacred works of Vivaldi, many of which were composed for the Ospedale della Pietài – a Venetian institution that cared for unwanted children, which included a talented group of performers (the figlie di coro). The album includes several firsts, including a new recording of a 'lost' Concerto that has recently been credited to Vivaldi, and performances on a newly built Violin in Tromba Marina - an instrument thought unique to the Ospedale which Vivaldi composed for. La Serenissima is recognized as the UK’s leading exponent of the music of 18th-century Venice and connected composers. Uniquely, the group’s entire repertoire is edited from source material, and it has been praised for its ‘glorious and all-too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race afresh with every new project’ (Gramophone). La Serenissima has become synonymous with virtuosity, dynamism and accessibility, uncovering a plethora of new repertoire and making it available to all through live performance, high calibre recording work, education and outreach initiatives.
REVIEW
During his time at the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian institution that cared for disadvantaged children, Vivaldi wrote vocal works for the local orchestra and choir, as well as many concertos. From this oeuvre, la Serenissima’s CD presents a mixed selection. It convinces with ambitious, historically informed interpretations. Appropriate tempi, good soloists, and a conductor who knows how to keep a wonderful balance between rhythmic conciseness and sung-out melodies leave a more than positive impression. The violin concertos captivate with their interpretive coherence and rousing drive. Particularly noteworthy is the rather rarely heard violin concerto with organ and strings RV 541. Just as in instrumental music, Chandler uses all the tonal possibilities in sacred music to support the soloists with the orchestra. Jess Dandy’s darkly glowing alto is particularly impressive. The recording technique is exceptionally brilliant, a plus not to be neglected.
-- Pizzicato (Remy Franck)
Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Cello
Sarah Fox - Mozart Concert Arias
The Backyard of the Village – Orchestral works by Xiaogang Y
TALLIS: Complete Works (The), Vol. 4 - Music for the Divine
TALLIS: Complete Works (The), Vol. 2
Messiaen, O.: Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps / Fantaisie / Le
