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The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge’s advent service is a staple of the British choral world, and is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 almost every year. The service features much-loved favourites from the festive season alongside a variety of new works commissioned especially for the event. This disc of live recordings features performances by the choir from their four most recent services from 2014-17. ★★★★ This superbly programmed collection will take your Advent listening in unexpected, but entirely apposite, directions - BBC Music Magazine The choir has retained its renowned clarity, flamboyance and readiness to take risks - The Guardian This disc gives a very good flavour of the excellent Advent music one can hear at St John’s - MusicWeb International -
“This traditional Japanese song is about a young child watching a red dragonfly sitting on their older sister’s shoulder at sunset. This beautiful new arrangement by Bob Chilcott was written especially for tenor Julian Gregory and myself” - Grace Davidson -
Norwegian boy-soprano Aksel Rykkvin has quickly built a reputation as a rare talent, combining an intelligent musicality with a beautifully resonant treble voice. On his debut recording he is accompanied by The Orchestra of the Age on Enlightenment under Nigel Short (leader of award-winning chamber choir Tenebrae), in a selection of arias by Mozart, Handel and JS Bach. Many of the arias performed are considered too technically demanding for boy singers in the present day – in particular Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate which was composed for the castrato Venunzio Rauzzini, and several of Bach’s Cantatas which were written at a time when singers often maintained their treble voices until the ages of 16 or 17. Freakishly good, with a musical assurance and richness of tone that are almost superhuman - Financial Times Widely praised for his richness of tone and instinctive, innate musicality - BBC Music Magazine It's a remarkable performance - pure, technically perfect and hauntingly beautiful - Classic FM This is totally extraordinary. For the sheer joy in performing, this CD would be hard to beat - Cathedral Music Magazine -
This album features three works by distinguished composer Alec Roth, each setting poetry on themes of nature and human reflection. A Road Less Travelled is a cantata for tenor and guitar using poems by Edward Thomas, written before his death in 1917. The Garden Path is a cycle for mezzo-soprano and string quartet setting poems by Amy Lowell, many inspired by her garden. Other Earths and Skies sets Vikram Seth’s translations of Li Bai’s poems for tenor and oboe. “delicate, sincere, and made with great expressive awareness.” - Sonograma -
Alessio Bax returns to disc on Signum with two masterworks of Beethoven’s piano repertoire, as well as a new arrangement from Die Ruinen von Athen. Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” (Gramophone) with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions – and a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient – he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras. Editor's Choice: Finely recorded, Alessio Bax is clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public - Gramophone Highly recommended - Classical Ear -
Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” says Gramophone magazine, leading to what Dallas Morning News calls “an out-of-body experience.” For his latest solo recording with Signum, Alessio Bax returns with a programme of rich and evocative works for piano by Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Scriabin. ★★★★★ Brilliantly Delivered - New Zealand Herald An exemplary clarity and musicianship - Gramophone A massively enjoyable disc - Music Web International Bax guides us through the familiar catalogue with plenty of skill - Sinfini Music -
Anna Lapwood is a trailblazing musician. As a broadcaster she is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and hosts a live, weekly classical music show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. This year she makes her TV presenting debut, hosting BBC Four’s coverage of BBC Young Musician 2020. Alongside her work as a conductor, Director of Music and public speaker, she performs an extensive number of organ recitals on some of the greatest instruments across Europe each season. Directed by Anna Lapwood, The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College has one of the most exciting and varied ranges of choral endeavours among Oxbridge choirs. Alongside their primary responsibility of contributing to worship in the College’s Chapel, they engage in regular artistic collaborations, media appearances and outreach work. The Pembroke College Girls’ Choir was founded in October 2018 and has quickly gained a reputation as one of the UK’s leading girls’ choirs. Made up of 18 girls aged 11–18, the Choir sings twice a week in the College Chapel, as well as regularly singing alongside the Chapel Choir. This album is the first commercial release for these choirs and Anna Lapwood as a conductor. It is a recording of some of the Choirs’ favourite music, some of which happens to have been written by women and some by men. It is the hope of all involved that the music on the record becomes more well-known and is performed more throughout the UK and worldwide. All downloads include booklets. ★★★★★ "Anna Lapwood draws from her youthful forces well-judged readings that are characterised by evenness of tone and genuine beauty of sound" - Choir and Organ ''…There's real control evident in the blend (built upwards from some impressive low basses) and tuning… it showcases the choir brilliantly and smuggles a lot of contemporary music on to a recording with real mainstream appeal." - Gramophone “[Mathew Martin’s Iustorum Animae] The Chapel Choir sings it really well. They’re equally successful in Jonathan Dove’s lovely Into Thy Hands, giving a polished performance. Tavener’s Mother of God is a simple, rapt piece which here receives a dedicated performance...I enjoyed this disc very much. Anna Lapwood has clearly trained her choirs expertly and in these performances, they are very responsive to her direction. The choral sound is fresh, light and clear. The singing is accomplished and the diction clear...The production side of this disc was in the expert hands of Adrian Peacock (producer) and David Hinitt (engineer). They have captured the sound of the choirs very nicely” - Musicweb International “The singing is excellent throughout, by both the girls’ choir and the mixed chapel ensemble. Intonation, ensemble technique, and balances, especially bass/soprano in the mixed choir, are a joy to experience...Lapwood’s detailed liner notes complete this strongly recommended package” - Classics Today -
This new collection of my choral music features recent commissions from choirs near and far. The overall theme of the album is one of hope but also concern for our relationship with living things and the planet we inhabit. Thus, in Earthificat I have based a new secular, environmental text on the words and structure of The Magnificat and in Renew Me In The Sunlight the words ask for strength to move forward in balance with nature. There is a movement, Reverence from my secular mass m=pV, a work about our stewardship of nature and our place within the universe and a setting of some beautiful words by the great ‘nature poet’ William Wordsworth. Alongside this are Christmas settings and other choral songs. The timbres weave between my more classical ‘a cappella and strings’ texture, towards a more jazz inflected sound world in tracks such as On This Night and Let All The People Praise You. I have worked many times with the inspirational Newcastle-based choir Voices of Hope who won BBC Choir of The Year in 2016 and who have continued to grow in vocal magic and audience since that time. It’s been a joy to work with them and their choir director Mark Edwards alongside my own ensemble and string players from The Alina Orchestra. "A welcome addition for fans of Todd's music" - BBC Music Magazine -
Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and sombre Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons and Martin Peerson. With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs. In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition. ★★★★ "Tracks like Byrd's 'Out of the Orient Crystal Skies' and Weelkes's 'To shorten Winter's Sadnesse' show voice and instruments interweaving in seamless expressivity…All are played with Fretwork's typical attunement to the sensibilities of the Elizabethan period" - BBC Music Magazine "This is music embracing, tender and loving…This is the Christmas disc I'll be asking Santa for a hard copy of this December" - Gramophone's The Christmas List ★★★★ "Festive viol pieces and consort songs from Tudor and Stuart winter celebrations offer moments for both contemplation and rejoicing…The songs are beautifully delivered by the mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, who sings with firm yet confiding tone…There’s a feeling of consolation here that you can hunker down with, however you’re feeling about the festive season this year" - The Guardian -
The four coronations of the twentieth century were enormous and extravagant. Replete with festive pageantry, these ceremonies were joyful celebrations of British music, employing tremendous forces. Choirs from across London and beyond were marshalled to provide a chorus of over 400 voices; a full-size symphony orchestra was squeezed into Westminster Abbey, whilst bands of fanfare trumpeters led the pomp and celebration. In the imposing surroundings of Ely Cathedral, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli bring the history, ceremony and liturgy of these extraordinary events to life. With his renowned creative flair, McCreesh’s painstaking research provides the springboard for their latest ground-breaking recreation project. The result is a joyful celebration of five centuries of choral music, performed with the same vast forces as were heard at the coronation services. Alongside an orchestra of rare early-twentieth century instruments, an extended Gabrieli Consort is amplified by the energetic sound and fresh faces of several hundred young singers from Gabrieli’s choral training programme Gabrieli Roar. The music is interspersed by the coronation liturgy, with Simon Russell Beale speaking the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Performance ★★★★ Recording★★★★★ McCreesh at his considerable best - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★ Paul McCreesh has magnificently recreated this unique coronation rite... truly heart-warming - Choir & Organ ★★★★★ An astonishing recording - The Times ★★★★★ McCreesh has conceived and executed a magnificent project - Classical Source ★★★★★ Palpable enthusiasm and engagement - Planet Hugill One can imagine the virtuosity required by every contributor, at every turn, to make this a reality, let alone a dazzling triumph - Gramophone A most recommendable treat - MusicWeb International This is something very special - Cross Rhythms One of my favourite albums of the last few years - Scala Radio -
The latest release from renowned period ensemble La Serenissima celebrates the life and work of Nicola Matteis the Younger. Born in London to an Italian father and English mother, Matteis was immersed in the style of Henry Purcell before leaving England in 1700 for the Imperial Court in Vienna. All of the music on the album is – rather fortuitously – Carolean; either written for Charles II of England, or for (or in the realm of) Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It is all too easy to think that the English style and English musicians were unknown on the continent in the early C18, but this selection of music shows that this wasn’t (always) the case. There are some cracking dances and dance suites featured here as well as a ravishingly beautiful Vivaldi concerto and two superb Chaconnes, one by an Englishman, and one by an Italian. ★★★★★ ALBUM OF THE WEEK "Superb disc…La Serenissima's playing is perfection, at once courtly and refined" - The Times ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording "An entertaining programme…Chaconnes by Purcell and Brescianello frame a programme where the strings of La Serenissima are responsive to nuance and congruent in sound" - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★ "[An] intriguing programme" - Irish Times -
Signum Records presents an exciting new collaboration and debut recording with Leeds International Piano Competition Winner (2015), Anna Tsybuleva, of music by Johannes Brahms together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Ruth Reinhardt. Tsybuleva has been described by as embodying “superb pianism and intelligent musicianship” (Gramophone Magazine) and “A pianist of rare gifts: not since Murray Perahia’s triumph in 1972 has Leeds had a winner of this musical poise and calibre”(International Piano Magazine). Performance highlights have included performances with the Basel Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Alongside this, Tsybuleva has given recitals at such prestigious venues as Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Tonhalle Zürich, and the Wigmore Hall, London. "One is speechless. As far as their performance is concerned, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the soloist and the conductor Ruth Reinhardt are an extremely eloquent team that realizes their musical ideas together. You can hear a direct and gripping Brahms, without any airs, without frills - music that speaks to you directly" - Piano News -
Anne Warthmann, soprano is accompanied by Hyowon Chi, flute, Arthur Stockel, clarinet and Naji Hakim at the historic STAHLHUTH-JANN ORGAN at St Martin’s Church, Dudelange , Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, in a program including the following world premiere recordings of Naji Hakim’s works : Abana for soprano and organ (2019) - Assalamu for soprano and organ (2019) - Our Lady's Minstrel (Prelude for clarinet and organ, Three poems for soprano and organ, Dance for clarinet and organ) (2013) - Adoration for soprano, flute and organ (2015) - Römisches Triptychon for soprano and organ (2010). "There are many exquisite and exciting performances on this disk from a quartet of musicians who excel in their chosen fields. The balance between the different instruments and voice has been superbly captured by the sound engineers. The sounds that Hakim creates are magnificent and we get to hear the organ in all its glorious manifestations. Anne Warthmann's powerful range is outstanding. The performances are tremendous, and Hakim's organ performance is exhilirating." - Organists' Review -
Founded in 1836, the Huddersfield Choral Society has developed an international reputation as one of the UK’s leading choral societies. Their new recording features works that are central to the choirs musical heritage, inlcuding works by Handel, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst and many more. -
The orchestra is the brainchild of Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE, FRAM, who describes the project’s aim as being “... to create a space where BME musicians can walk on stage and know that they belong, in every sense of the word. If even one BME child feels that their colour is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.” In this first release in a new series, Chineke! orchestra perform two beguiling works – Sibelius’s Finlandia and Dvořák’s much loved Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’. Both pieces encompass different aspects of BME influences in Western Classical music: Sibelius’s Finlandia embodied a national sentiment in both the composer’s homeland of Finland as well as for other small nations seeking to free themselves from subjugation from other countries (becoming the national anthem of Biafra during the civil war of 1967-1970), and although underplayed by critics at the time, Dvorak’s work rings with melodies influenced by the folk music and spirituals sung to him by his African- American student and assistant, Harry Burleigh, and with rhythms and pentatonic sections inspired by the music of the Sioux Indians, all wrapped up in the format of a Western Classical symphony. Music Web International A remarkable testament to a remarkable orchestra. Norther Echo This live recording of the works at the Royal Festival Hall, under the baton of Kevin John Edusai, oozes dynamism with fine playing in the quieter passages. The Kansas City Star pickDrawn from exceptional musicians from across the continent, the orchestra is part of the Chineke! Foundation – a non-profit organisation that provides career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe. Their motto is ‘Championing Change and Celebrating Diversity in Classical Music.Signum are proud to present the debut recording from the Chineke! Orchestra, in a new live orchestral recording from The Royal Festival Hall, London. -
Following its successful full length opera, Artaxerxes, The Mozartists return with the first in an epic series of Mozart operas Apollo et Hyacinthus. Named in The Guardian as one of ‘The Best Classical albums of 2012’. The Mozartists have mounted two staged productions of Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus (1998 and 2006), with both receiving wide critical acclaim; The Independent stated, “Classical Opera’s polished debut in Apollo et Hyacinthus proved a pearl beyond price. Here was a work of staggering beauty riddled with sweet noises like Caliban’s enchanted isle.”