Category: Classical
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Sebastian Weigle: Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
There’s no point pretending otherwise, but we’ve heard more than the famous bit in Also sprach Zarathustra: the fanfare at the start (Sunrise). It was most effectively used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, although equally effectively played by Flaming Lips as a fanfare to their set at Jodrell Bank’s Bluedot earlier this year. Kubrick (and…
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Carson Cooman / Carlotta Ferrari: Women Of History
Albums from organist Cooman are the opposite of buses: you wait no time at all, and another two turn up. The man never sits still. This new one is an album of music by the Italian composer Carlotta Ferrari, professor of music composition at the European School of Economics in Florence. Ferrari has written many…
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Joshua Fineberg: Sonic Fictions
This is not an easy work and is for those who like their music atmospheric and challenging. It’s music that’s meant to be played live, the physical placing of musicians and mics in relation to audiences being key. The sleeve notes say works are not built around narrative or realism but are indebted to modernist…
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Solem String Quartet: Rawsthorne and Other Rarities
This is billed as a sequel to A Garland for John McCabe (DDA 25166), an affectionate tribute to McCabe that doubled as a sampler for various composers’ work. Apparently intended as the second disc in that set, this project grew to be a full album and is also dedicated to McCabe. It features recordings of…
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Military Wives Choir: Remember
It’s probably an act of sedition to criticise this, not that we want to. It’s a commemoration of the end of WWI, and opens with The Poppy Red, inspired by the poem We Shall Keep The Faith (“Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields / Sleep sweet — to rise anew! / We caught the…
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Anton Eberl: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
We imagine this is the sort of CD that Classic FM loves, classical-sounding classical music that’s uplifting but not too fearsome; it makes for nice background music while you’re working. Not that Eberl is bland: he was a contemporary of Beethoven and knew Mozart, who may even have taught him. He later toured with Mozart’s…
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Murray McLachlan: Innovations, Music for Two Pianos and Percussion
Other critics have called it “excellent” and “hugely impressive” but we found this is a little intimidating for its early plays: The Rite of Spring but on steroids. The playing is technically impressive, and the sound is bracing and enervating, but it’s a programme that’s challenging and powerful, if not harsh. Obviously, another pair of…
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Alan Hovhaness: Wind Music
This album has reportedly been in the British classical album chart, so some of you already like this. We never look at the charts: they’re either bands only three students have ever listened to (indie charts), remixes of mediocre tunes featuring Someone Famous (pop) or various guitar works from John Williams and Four Seasons from…
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Panayiotis Demopoulos: Nina’s Clock
A Greek pianist playing improv jazz with a classical bent and a local connection? This doesn’t happen too often. This suite has 11 movements and is a reflection of moods, external stimuli and events as felt by the composer one night after recording sessions. He tells the story that links the tracks in the sleeve…
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Basil Athanasiadis: Soft Light
This is mood music: if you’re in the right mood, it’s truly beautiful in places and leaves your mind relaxed and in the present. In the wrong mood, it scratches down your spinal cord like a horde of angry kittens with genetically engineered super-claws. In a word: it won’t calm you in moments of stress,…
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