Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Huddersfield Choral Society has an international reputation as the UK's leading choral society, producing a unique and thrilling full-bodied 'Huddersfield Sound'. This disc features some of our most loved hymns and no better expression may be found than in the grand forces of the Huddersfield Choral Society. Their previous two hymns and carols albums, released in 1985, both received gold discs for achieving over 100,000 in sales. Joseph Cullen was appointed Chorus Master of The Huddersfield Choral Society in 1999. He will conduct the 2006 Christmas Concerts in the Town Hall, and a concert of British choral music during the Society's tour to Brno in April 2007. Cullen is also Director of the London Symphony Chorus and his own group, London Chamber Players.

Classical Music

Most organists intent on recording the darkly glittering organ symphonies of Louis Vierne head for the Gothic Abbaye de St Ouen in Rouen - Jeremy Filsell no exception. The attraction is to play the music on the last great organ masterpiece of the iconic and innovatory French builder, Aristide Cavaille-Coll, inaugurated in 1890 by Vierne's teacher Charlies-Marie Widor; whether in Rouen, Paris or elsewhere, the heart of late 19th/early 20th-century French organ music beats to the pulse of Cavaille-Coll.

Vierne (1870-1937) was the prodigiously gifted titular organist of Notre Dame de Paris for over 40 years; beset by blindness and a string of personal tragedies, Vierne's complex personality found vivid expression in the symphonies; composed in a rising scale of minor keys, they build on orchestral technique by elaborating a few main themes symphonically; the two post-World War I symphonies (5 & 6) reflect contemporary trends by pushing the bounds of conventional tonality.

Listeners already engaged by concert organists' cherry-picking from the many thrilling movements in these symphonies will find exposure to the full cyclical structures of the complete works immensely rewarding. Filsell, famously untroubled by technical demands, concentrates on wringing every last drop of sonority in deeply felt, idiomatic performances. His detailed notes on Vierne's life and the music are exemplary - the booklet further enhanced by his personal insights into the recording process, and the organ's idiosyncracies. Some might hanker for a closer microphone experience of the organ, but otherwise, in the face of stiff competition from Ben van Oosten's four-CD set on MDG, Filsell's three-CD package registers as complete in every way.

Graeme Kay, BBC Music

Classical Music

With a stunning selection of choral music that is truly fit for a King, Andrew Gant leads the Choir of the Chapel Royal & The Musicians Extra-Ordinary to re-create the music that accompanied the coronation of James II and Queen Mary in 1685.

REVIEWS:

The performances are very good, as is the 24-bit recording...The instrumental parts are no mere accompaniments: the ‘twenty-four violins’ of the royal orchestra were apparently used for some of these anthems and they often have the field to themselves, hence the title ‘symphony anthems’, but I would have liked a slightly more even balance.

That’s a small price to pay for hearing such fine music in such sympathetic performances. The notes in the booklet, too, are very informative, even making a case against the usual assumption that Blow was acting altruistically in yielding the post of organist to Purcell, perhaps more an act of convenience for a busy musician.

-- MusicWeb International

Also available on Blu-ray

Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Philharmonia Orchestra in a unique performance of Holst's The Planets Suite, captured in High Definition by 37 cameras. This immersive experience takes the viewer to the heart of the Philharmonia as they perform this well-loved piece, using cameras placed in a multitude of positions and angles to create an extraordinary glimpse of the orchestra at work from within. As well as Holst's The Planets, the filmed performance also includes a new commission by UK composer Joby Talbot, Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity.

Additional features include a 'Making of' documentary feature, listening guide films for each planet, audio commentaries from conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and principal players of the Philharmonia, and (for Blu-ray only) a bonus view option that allows a simultaneous view of the conductor and orchestra in action.

The Philharmonia Orchestra is committed to bringing classical music to new audiences in creative and exciting ways, and to this end has become a technological trailblazer in its adoption and adaptation of new technology. In 2010 the Re-Rite project allowed members of the public to experience Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for the first time from within the orchestra through audio/visual projections. Their 'Universe of Sound' project from which this release stems debuted at the Science Museum in London last year, and is set to tour the country in new installations during 2013.

This excellently engineered recital showcases an immensely talented pianist with something to say, and I look forward to hearing more.

The title, the photos, and the booklet notes aim to position 34-year-old James Rhodes as classical music's answer to Sid Vicious or Iggy Pop, an impression fueled by this pianist's past struggles with drug abuse and self-mutilation, together with his determinedly "unclassical" platform manner. But listen without looking and you'll discover a sensitive and imaginative artist with a lyrical gift and a bell-like keyboard touch. The Bach G major French Suite's quicker movements evoke a fuller-bodied manifestation of Glenn Gould's hair-trigger articulation, while the opening Allemande boasts inventive ornamentation in the repeats, and the slow-moving Sarabande oozes concentration and sustaining power. The Bach/Busoni Chaconne stands out for Rhodes' steady deliberation and an insidious cumulative arc.

Conversely Rhodes' flexible pulse throughout the Beethoven E minor sonata underscores the first movement's points of tension and the second movement's almost Schubertian melodic trajectory. Also note Rhodes' uncommonly clear articulation of the first movement's difficult, rapid rotary figurations.

The Moszkowski and Bach/Siloti encores exude old-school charm and mastery. My only quibble concerns Chopin's Fourth Ballade, where Rhodes' broad tempos and slightly discursive rubatos cause the music to ramble, in contrast to similarly subjective yet more cogently structured interpretations by Ivan Moravec and Claudio Arrau. All in all, this excellently engineered recital showcases an immensely talented pianist with something to say, and I look forward to hearing more.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

VOCES8 and Les Inventions shine a light on a hidden musical treasure in these world-premiere recordings of Charles Avison’s 1757 adaptation of Benedetto Marcello’s 1724-26 magnum opus Estro-poetico armonico, settings of the first fifty Psalms of David as paraphrased by the poet Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani. In addition to the subtle deployment of vocal resources, and his imaginative use of musical techniques to illustrate the texts, Marcello brought to these psalms a peculiar quality of freshness and originality that unquestionably contributed to their becoming a major international success, so demonstrated by the work’s rapid translation into many other languages, as well as by the enthusiasm with which these settings were embraced by performers of a variety of religious traditions including Anglican, Lutheran and Jewish.

Described by the London music publisher as 'Very Improveing and Delightful to all lovers of that instrument' The first Part of the Division Flute was originally issued for the Baroque treble recorder in 1705. Murphy's love of the recorder inspired her to record some of the best known recorder music, as well as some of the most neglected, from a collection that has never been fully recorded before. A fantastic disc of musicians at the forefront of early music today.

The title of this CD, Lux et Veritas (light and truth), draws together the sentiments of the 14 pieces so beautifully recorded by Nigel Short with Tenebrae and the English Chamber Orchestra in St Augustine’s Church, London in April 2014. The release includes seven new pieces composed by Will Todd that are inspired by his deeply personal journey with his daughter Rowan’s illness. All of the new pieces flow from grappling with difficult things and working towards a restful, inner solution. The calming and spiritual nature of the pieces could not have better interpreters than Nigel Short conducting Tenebrae.

Following in their series of Gramophone Award and BBC Music Magazine Award winning recordings, Gabrieli's first Handel recording in over a decade is particularly special - recreating in painstaking detail the very first performance of L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, given in 1740, with additional instrumental repertoire including a Handel organ concerto and two concerti grossi. With a reputation as peerless Handelians, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & players bring meticulous research to every performance and recording project, and are joined on this disc by a stunning selection of soloists.