Category: Classical
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Ensemble MidtVest: Niels Gade Chamber Works, Vol 4
In his lifetime he was more popular than Brahms or Dvorák, but is today more neglected. This CD, performed by the Ensemble MidtVest (“completely committed to Gade’s cause” say the Press notes), is a something of a joy. He’s not top rank but he writes with a lightness of touch and joi de vivre. The…
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Alexandra Stréliski: Inscape + Chilly Gonzales: Solo Piano III
Classical piano albums aimed at the masses are like buses: you wait ages (after Chilly Gonzales’ last one and James Rhodes’s Bullets and Lullabies) and then two come in the same week. Without being gender-biased, we’d say Stréliski goes for the emotion, Gonzales for the brain: Stréliski’s is for those who wish all piano was…
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Johann Rosenmüller: Laudate Dominum / Sacred Concertos
This came out in February but once we missed its release we’ve sat on it (not literally) until the season of goodwill approaches: some of you will be wanting church music that sounds devotional and provides atmosphere, without mentioning a jingling bell or even a passing gloria. Rosenmüller (1619-1684) was German and studied theology at…
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The Juniper Project: Fragments
Some flute-based releases we’ve reviewed have included the words “challenging” or “for lovers of technical flute playing”, euphemistically used for “verging on unlistenable”. Now comes this delightful album. It’s the music from a heavily costumed romance drama, the scene where the lovers float down the river on a sunny day (in a boat, obviously), the…
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Mike Batt / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Holst, The Planets
Amazingly, it’s The Wombles’ 50th anniversary this year — the furry rodents first appeared in 1968 — and to celebrate, Mike Batt has released this special edition of Holst’s The Planets. OK, so that’s only partly true: this new recording actually marks the centenary of the first performance of The Planets (29th September 1918, since…
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Vyacheslav Artyomov: The Way to Olympus
Artyomov is a modern composer from Russia writing with the ambition and scope of a man who knows his work is important. From what we read, his life in Russia has been hard, so perhaps a belief in your own standing in the history of music is crucial. He writes big, ambitious tunes; listening to…
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Eric Craven: Entangled States
This double CD of solo piano (with the ever-reliable Mary Dullea) reminded us of Bach’s Goldberg Variations — not because of the variations (there aren’t any) but because of the way it wends in and out of your consciousness, and because there’s a lot of silence. (We also like Mr Craven: he emailed and thanked…
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Wolfgang Rübsam Bach: Goldberg Variations
This not just a different version of Variations; it is, the sleeve notes imply, the one Bach wanted you to hear, played as it is on a lute harpsichord (one of only a few in existence, built by Keith Hill) at a sensible tempo. The “so-called” (as the sleeve notes put it) Goldberg Variations were…
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Hanzhi Wang: On The Path to HC Andersen
We’re not often taken aback in the Review Corner (at least not in a good way) but such an event has occurred with this new programme of accordion music. We usually associates the accordion with Last Of The Summer Wine tweeness, or of pirates with one parrot and fewer legs, or Cajun or, in more…
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Tami Nodaira, Ichiro Nodaira, Toru Takemitsu: Japanese Guitar Music Vol 4
Despite the title, this is actually a guitar and flute recital; works for flute accompanied by guitar. It’s also not particularly “Japanese” in feel; it’s mostly a gentle and almost ambient sound, with little in the way of metre. “A unique sensibility and an imaginative flair for its colours and expressiveness,” say the sleeve notes…
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