Review Corner

Tag: Metier

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    State Choir Latvija: Sempiterna, Choral music by Rhona Clarke

    The works on this album range over 30 years of composing for Clarke. The sleeve notes say that Clarke was 15 when she joined the Lindsay Singers, a female-voice choir in Dublin and sang during her time as student in University College Dublin and her PhD studies at Queen’s University Belfast. “This long engagement with…

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    Camden Reeves: Blue Sounds

    This is not a classical pianist’s take on the blues but a study on the colour, from its abstractness as an electromagnetic wave to blues as a scale, a genre and a harmonic structure. Blue is clearly an inspiring colour: artist Yves Klein famously went through a blue phase, selecting blue after audiences failed to…

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    Hafliði Hallgrímsson: Offerto

    Hafliði Hallgrímsson is regarded as Iceland’s pre-eminent composer, as well as a highly accomplished cellist. You prog rockers might have heard him, too: in 1970, he played the (uncredited) cello solo on Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd. This new album follows a request in 2005 from violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved, who asked Hallgrímsson to…

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    Chris Gekker: Moon Marked

    Chris Gekker is one of America’s most acclaimed trumpet players, and currently professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland. This is his second album for Metier, recordings of works by six composers. Given his academic role, this programme of music could come over as dryly technical it does not, thanks to the warmth of…

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    Sarah Rodgers: The Roaring Whirl

    The story of this delightful and quirky CDis as interesting as the music. It was originally a piece of musical theatre based on Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, a musical journey across the North Indian Punjab. The work was commissioned by clarinettist Geraldine Allen and after touring it, a final version was played — and recorded —…

  • Mahir Cetiz, Panayiotis Demopoulos: Anairesis

    This is one for lovers of modern, harsh music, though it’s mostly not as harsh as it could be; less aural barbed wire than, well something not as barbed or as wiry. It’s written for small chamber ensembles and when one instrument is being harsh, another is more soothing. Much of the music is like…

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    Natalie Schwaabe: Piccolo Works

    A bit like the Opera Jazz Blues album, an album featuring the piccolo — known as the screaming twig or Ak47 for its ability to cut through the loudest orchestra — might be something that you never think you’d need, but this is a decent, if idiosyncratic, album. You wouldn’t want a collection of piccolo…

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    Aylish Kerrigan, Dearbhla Collins: I Am Wind on Sea

    This is a selection contemporary vocal music from Ireland, six composers’ work presented by mezzo-soprano Aylish Kerrigan and pianist Dearbhla Collins. By contemporary we mean the last century or so and by Irish we don’t mean songs about whisky in jars: while some parts of this CD are charming, others are more challenging. The opening…

  • Karin De Fleyt: Hohler Fels, New Music For Flute

    This experimental flute music is for those who like the flute and want to hear some technical playing but care little for melody (or pleasure, if we’re being harsh). The opening song is Rolf Gehlhaar’s Grand Unified Theory of Everything, which stems from a lecture Gehlhaar attended. It opens with a lone piano key and…

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    Ian Mitchell: Isn’t This A Time? American Music For Clarinet

    This avant garde CD features Ian Mitchell, who (so our notes tell us) is one of the leading exponents of contemporary music for clarinet. As its name suggests, the album features work by American composers. These include jazz legend William “Bill” Smith, co-founder of the Dave Brubeck Octet, and Merle Travis, whose Sixteen Tons, recorded…