Category: Classical
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Hoffmeister/Beethoven: Duos for violin and cello
Franz Anton Hoffmeister worked as both a composer and a publisher. In 1778 he was appointed kapellmeister to Count Franz von Szecsenyi; in his publishing job he was friendly with Mozart, and published work by Mozart and Beethoven. He also composed himself. We’d guess he was workmanlike rather than a great composer so his publishing…
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Septura: Music For Brass Septet Music 4
This is volume four in a series of CDs in which Septura imagine that four composers had written for brass. Featured on this CD are Italian composer and organist Giovanni Gabrieli; composer, organist and singer Tomás Luis de Victoria; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Renaissance composer of sacred music, and Orlande de Lassus, a Franco-Flemish composer…
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Joseph Lanner: Viennese Dances
We’d heard of Mr Lanner — he invented formal Viennese waltz, taking a peasant dance and turning it to a refined art form enjoyed by high society — but we didn’t know that a “waltz” was the closed-hold dance position, which explains the sleeve notes (see below). We also didn’t know it was danced at…
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Qigang Chen: Enchantements Oubliés
This is a remarkable album, successfully combining the sound of English pastoral music with traditional Chinese — from Vaughan Williams to the music from an arty martial arts movie — and played in a way that sounds alternatively intimate and imposing, and cinematographic in places. The end result is highly palatable, though we’d guess some…
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Meilyr Jones: 2013
It takes some time to get into this adventurous, bold and frankly difficult pop album from former Race Horses frontman Meilyr Jones. It’s a mix of soul/dance music in the style of Dexy’s Midnight Runners and all manner of orchestral instruments: one comparison is early ELO — but far more the debut Electric Light Orchestra…
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Les Amis de Philippe, Ketil Haugs, Ludger Remy: Anonymous, Six Concertos
This lovely CD goes on the selling point that they’re anonymous works, but good for all that. The music is from the Schranck II, the music collection of the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden. This treasure trove includes many anonymous compositions produced “in creative ecstasy” but omitting the name of the author. Some…
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Michael Finnissy: Singular Voices
The Cathy Berberian CD (somewhere on this site) features a soprano, and this CD features a soprano, but that’s like saying Captain Beefheart and Stevie Wonder both play the harmonica. You can stick on the Berberian CD and enjoy it but this is not quite so easy. We were negative about a CD the other…
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Cathy Berberian: Music of the World
During her life mezzo-soprano Berberian sang everything — as the sleeve notes say — from Monteverdi to the Beatles (the “mushroom heads” as they were called in Germany). She interpreted contemporary avant-garde music composed by people such as John Cage and Igor Stravinsky, as well as works by Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Kurt Weill, as…
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Soyeon Lee: Scriabin, Piano Music
In contrast to a couple of recent couple of classical albums, this is an appealing and digestible album. It’s not only played well but it’s warm and flowing. Alexander Scriabin’s music was admired by Tolstoy as “a sincere expression of genius” while the composer once described himself as “all impulse, all desire”. He suffered from…
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