Review Corner

Category: Classical

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    Jill Crossland: JS Bach Keyboard Works

    This is one of those CDs we struggle to review: “Bach keyboard played well” is a little short, so we resorted to the biography and sleeve notes. The playing sounds difficult but Crossland is up to the task; for most of the CD the music flows around the listener like a fast river of notes,…

  • Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine

    There are reportedly many recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, but the unique thing about this new album is that it was produced following the performances of “a scenic interpretation” with the Spanish stage director Calixto Bieito.We’ve got no idea what “a scenic interpretation” is, mind, unless it involves dressing up the musicians…

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    Mirian Conti: Tangorama, An Anthology of 20th Century Tango, Vol.1

    Conti writes in the sleeve notes that when she studied at the conservatory in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, she did not analyse a tango let alone play one; she herself dismissed tango orchestras and singers as “those old tango guys”. It was only when she moved to the US that she discovered her home…

  • Chelys Consort of Viols: Amavi, Music for Viols and Voices

    We keep writing this is as Cheryl’s Consort, so apologies if we slip; the album was actually recorded jointly with Fieri Consort and is work by Michael East, who sounds modern but died in 1648, before the (20th century) name Cheryl was even invented. East (or Easte, Est, Este) was an English organist and composer,…

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    Ilya Gringolts: Pietro Locatelli, Il Labirinto Armonico: Three Violin Concertos

    Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764) was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist. Locatelli possibly studied under Arcangelo Corelli, the famous Baroque composer. He was apparently known as the “Paganini of the 18th century”. It’s a wonderful album, the playing fine and the sound warm and approachable. Gringolts, a Russian is marvellous, and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra…

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    Roderick Chadwick: La Mer Bleue

    This technical and slightly self-involved album revolves around Catalogue d’Oiseaux (“Catalogue of birds”), a work for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen. The full work is 13 pieces, devoted to birds and dedicated to his second wife Yvonne Lorio. The CD takes in the first three, the Alpine chough (chocard des Alpes), The Eurasian golden oriole…

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    Geoffrey Allen: Music For Woodwinds

    It’s entirely possible we’ve played this more than even the composer; it’s pleasant background music, and we kept just pressing play, and although nothing really sticks in the head, it’s always interesting. llen was born in 1927 and studied chemistry and geography at Oxford, going on to work in Australian libraries, latterly at the University…

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    Zeynep Ucbasaran and Sergio Gallo: Liszt to Milhaud, A journey With Piano Four hands

    This is one for those of you who like Last Night of the Proms, not to sing along to the traditional/jingoistic lyrics (delete as applicable) but because you like to turn the stereogram up loud and listen to cracking tunes to which you can hum along. The sleeve notes explain that before the invention of…

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    Murray McLachlan: Gregson: Complete Piano

    This is an appealing collection of piano pieces. It takes in different styles and sounds, and ranges from the intimate to the more extravagantly romantic, but it’s got a definite charm throughout. It gets off to a cheery start with An Album For My Friends, 11 pieces written for friends and showing a love of…

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    Pete Judge: Piano 2

    Kicking sand in the face of under-achievers everywhere is Pete Judge, a professional trumpet player with the jazz / rock quartet Get The Blessing, but who can play more than one instrument, in this case the piano; this is a collection of tunes he wrote for another band he’s in, Three Cane Whale. It’s a…