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“Après un rêve” is an ode to the French Belle Époque repertoire, depicting the beauty of dreams and the night. The album is an opportunity to hear and perhaps discover rarely played / rarely recorded wonderful works (Chaminade Nocturne, Duparc Aux étoiles, Poulenc Les soirées de Nazelles), alongside central pillars of the rep- ertoire, and includes a world premiere of Despax’s arrangement of Après un rêve. The album is attributed to his grandfather, Jacques Charpentreau, a French poet who adored this repertoire and frequently drew inspiration from the night in his works. Despax has curated some of his poetry, as well as works by other poets he admired to complement this music, taking the listener on an immersive poetic and musical journey through this nocturnal landscape. Classic FM ALBUM OF THE WEEK ★★★★ "Vividly recorded…dispatched with full-blooded power and melting tenderness by Emmanuel Despax…kaleidoscopic panache of Poulenc's Soirées de Nazelles, a particularly heart-tugging Clair de lune" - The Times ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording "Despax is a formidable pianist, thoughtful and imaginative. Like an expert painter at the canvas, he carefully layers and tones sound, expertly measuring touch and pedal. This is beautiful playing, on an elegant yet substantial album" - BBC Music Magazine "This is a delightful recital" - BBC Radio 3 Record Review -
A composer inextricably linked with London’s Covent Garden, Thomas Arne’s greatest opera, Artaxerxes, was premièred at the Theatre Royal, the predecessor of the Royal Opera House, on 2 February 1762 and remained in the Covent Garden repertory until the late 1830s, where it received a documented 111 performances before 1790. The young Mozart almost certainly attended a performance when he came to London in the mid1760s and Haydn was also acquainted with the work, enthusiastically exclaiming that he “had no idea we had such an opera in the English language.” The Mozartists, under the dynamic leadership of conductor and artistic director Ian Page, are leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. Originally called Classical Opera, the company was founded in 1997 and has received widespread international acclaim for its stylish and virtuosic period-instrument orchestra, its imaginative and innovative programming and its ability to nurture and develop world-class young artists. Renowned for their fresh and insightful interpretations of well-known masterpieces as well as for their ability to bring rare and neglected works to light, they have mounted staged productions of many of Mozart’s operas. In 2015 the company launched MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year project exploring the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Described by The Observer as “among the most audacious classical music scheduling ever,” this flagship project presents 250th Anniversary performances of most of Mozart’s important works, placing them in context alongside other significant works by Mozart’s contemporaries -
Matthew Barley adds to his reputation as one of the UK's most innovative and creative performers with the new programme and CD Around Britten – celebrating the centenary of Britten's birth with a selection of his works, including the Third Cello Suite and pieces by Sir John Tavener and Gavin Bryars. As always, Barley's playing is fearless. The disc is a voyage around the cello as well as around Britten, and one that never becomes relentless - Gramophone The performance of the Suite is a very fine one - International Record Review This engrossing recital is a defining statement in modern cello playing - Sinfini Music -
Simon Desbruslais returns to disc on Signum with an album that continues to expand the repertoire of the trumpet even further, with four new commissions for Trumpet, Piano and String Orchestra Toby Young’s The Art of Dancing is described by the composer as being ‘a modern homage to the baroque dance suite’, drawing inspiration from modern dance music styles including Acid House, Garage and Drum & Bass. Geoffrey Gordon’s Saint Blue is inspired by the visionary artist Wassily Kandinsky, creating a double concerto with a remarkable jazz-inspired cadenza between the trumpet, piano and double bass. Deborah Pritchard’s Seven Halts on the Somme responds to the series of oil paintings by artist Hughie O’Donoghue that mark seven stopping points for British troops during the Battle of the Somme – one of the most bloody conflicts of the First World War. Finally, Nimrod Borensteins’ Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra juxtaposes rhythms to create a multiplicity of different atmospheres in this highly effective and powerful work. For these premiere recordings Simon Desbruslais performs with pianist Clare Hammond, accompanied by the English String Orchestra under Kenneth Woods. ★★★★ Beautifully performed, highly original disc - BBC Music Magazine Simon Debruslais continues to expand the repertoire of his instrument with four new commissions… creating a double concerto with a remarkable jazz inspired cadenza - Northern Echo -
Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the forty-day period of fasting and penitence which precedes Easter. Ashes are placed on worshippers’ foreheads in the shape of a cross, as a sign of repentance. Evensong on this day has been an especially important service in the liturgical year at St John’s; the BBC started transmitting it live in 1972. For several decades the service was broadcast annually; more recently it has been biennial. 2019 was a live broadcast year, however the recording on this release uses our own microphones, permanently installed in St John’s College Chapel for webcasting, rather than those of the BBC. This recording will be released around the same time that the Dean of St John’s, Mark Oakley, releases a book on George Herbert’s poems, called My Sour Sweet Days. The book and the recording go well in tandem, as in the Deans first sermon at St. John’s, he said “I believe that when we walk here (The Chapel), we walk into a poem. The liturgy is poetry in motion, and we sometimes fail to understand its density of suggestion, the eavesdropping on the soul, the sensitive state of consciousness that its poetry can prompt.” All downloads include booklets. ★★★★ “This disc has a transportive quality. The choir moves as one, with stunning top tenor lines. Glistening and ethereal throughout” - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★ “An exceptionally satisfying item...[The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge] has a combination of fervency and clarity that is always impressive and is uniquely well suited to this particular project...the group really inhabits the sound environment and the space. Bravo. Bravissimo” - AllMusic.com ★★★★★ “This CD captures perfectly the special atmosphere of the occasion...A perfectly presented CD” - Choir and Organ -
The Bevan Family Consort return with a selection of choral works celebrating the season of lent and passiontide, including a world premiere recording of the six-voice Lamentations by Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder. The programme follows the liturgy from the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday to the darkness of Holy Saturday. For each day of Tenebrae, they've included a setting of a Lamentation. ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording - "The ensemble is consistently faultless: attention to blend and diction are strikingly precise" - BBC Music Magazine "Graham Ross gives the utmost importance to the interpretative warmth, expressiveness and stimulating reflections of the Easter texts." - Sonograma "They produce a marvellously blended sound, as much at home in complex Renaissance polyphony as in 20th- and 21st-century works" - Europadisc Classical -
Early-music pioneers Charivari Agreable perform an engaging collection of overtures from the Italian Baroque Opera, best described by Kah- Ming Ng as being “lucidly crafted for the purpose of turning heads”. In a decadent era when the antics of theatre-goers was often as intriguing as the performances taking place on stage, these works were composed with the express intention of thrilling, beguiling and engaging an often hard-to-impress audience.This disc is full of insight and revelation, and to be highly recommended - Early Music Review An inspired piece of programming ... a sense of sheer delight that brings these enticing scores resplendently to life - International Record Review [The disc] is very enjoyable and the music is brilliantly played... another gem [in an] already impressive discography - Music Web International -
A compilation of quartets by Schumann, Shostakovich and Caroline Shaw from the acclaimed American string quartet, Calidore String Quartet, exploring the visceral forms of expression that exist at the intersection of music and language. For this recording the Calidore String Quartet gathered music which transmits ideas by imitating language; its rhythms, cadences and intentions. But it also explores what happens when music substitutes for language. When it fills the void of forbidden speech or even how it carries on when language has been exhausted. The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by The New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” and the Los Angeles Times for its balance of “intellect and expression.” Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the inaugural $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). All downloads include booklets. "Exceptional…a universally expressive disc…recorded sound is vivid and warm" - The Strad "One thing is for sure, and that's the urgent communicative abilities of the Calidore Quartet, whose members seem to meld the impetuosity and freshness of youth with the capacity for meditation on music and its meaning at the most profound level…[Schumann] heard here in a performance of exemplary ardour by the young Calidore Quartet…A most stimulating release" - Classical Explorer "Taken together, it’s one of the year’s best albums. When live musical performances return in a few months, the CSQ shouldn’t be missed. Until then, at least we have this superb release" - Arts Fuse -
On this recording, the Choir of Men & Boys sings the Lutheran chorales preceding Bach’s organ settings. There are five organs in the church, three of which reside in the church space; the Miller-Scott Dobson Chancel organ [2018], the rear gallery Loening-Hancock mechanical action instrument, built by Taylor & Boody [1996], and the Martha J. Dodge continuo organ built by Taylor & Boody [2001]. The Tower carillon space houses a Peter Collins mechanical action organ [2008], and a 2-manual Aeolian-Skinner practice organ [1957] resides in the Choir Rehearsal Room. The Miller-Scott Dobson Organ is one of North America’s most significant pipe organs, supporting the parish’s internationally- renowned liturgical and musical life, while the rear gallery instrument, inspired by the tradition of organ building active in the Netherlands and North Germany in the 17th and 18th eighteenth centuries, provides foil to the Dobson’s eclecticism. ★★★★★ "Blending all of [the 5 organs] with acoustic seamlessness is a technical challenge triumphantly achieved in this recording which in ever way - from the chorales sung by the Choir of Men and Boys to Jeremy Filsell's magisterial playing - does full justice to Bach's monumental exploration…This is a compelling, definitive recording, affording boundless listening pleasure" - Choir & Organ ★★★★ Performance ★★★★ Recording "Beautifully balanced…an impressive 'tour'" - BBC Music Magazine "Each piece is played with fastidious care, with its mood and scale perfectly matched to an appropriate organ…Filsell provides yet another masterclass in manual and pedal dexterity, packed with interpretive insights and always mindful of a sense of flow and grace. Recorded by David Hinitt in the very best sound, this is a Clavier-Übung III to savour and revisit" - Gramophone “Another recording I can’t get enough of…Jeremy Filsell’s playing is awe-inspiring…I concluded that these performers and these organs have together produced the best recording of Clavier-Übung III I am ever likely to hear” - Choir & Organ -
David Goode continues his new series of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, played on the Metzler Söhne organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge. This fourteenth volume includes ‘Clavier Ubung III: Prelude (“St Anne”), BWV 552a’ and the ‘Clavier Ubung III: Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (Fughetta), BWV 677.’ This digital-only recording is available from all major download stores and streaming services in MP3, CD Quality and Studio Quality/24-bit audio, and includes an extensive note on the works by George Parsons. It is also available to buy as a disc on demand – made to order with a printed booklet and inlay. All downloads include booklets. -
Tenebrae bring their trademark passion and precision to this live performance of music by J. S. Bach and Sir James MacMillan, to be recorded live at Snape Maltings in May 2023. Renowned for their technical difficulty, Bach’s motets are pillars of the choral repertoire, requiring minute attention to detail as well as a full emotional range. Here, Tenebrae performs the three most well-known of the set, culminating in the joyful Singet dem Herrn. Like Bach, Sir James MacMillan has written much of his music for the church, and his settings of the Tenebrae responsories paint a vivid picture of the events of Holy Week. This album also features the premiere recording of I saw Eternity the other night, which MacMillan composed for Tenebrae in 2021 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the London Bach Society. "It’s a monumental programme - a huge sing in terms of both brain and body. Short's singers tackle it with all their signature precision. [MacMillan Responsories] explode in the ear: all translucent vertical clarity and balance. The flickering ornaments in "Tenebrae factae sunt" shoot like sparks around the choir, and the bladed purity of Short's upper voices comes into its own in the gleaming exchanges of "Tradiderunt me"… There's plenty to admire here" - Gramophone 10/10 "The vocal consort Tenebrae bring their trademark passion and precision to their performance recorded live at Snape Maltings…the sound quality is uniformly excellent…an illuminating and at times numinous listening experience" - Cross Rhythms "This is an intriguing and delightful disc of music composed almost three hundred centuries apart by the Lutheran Johann Sebastian Bach and Catholic Sir James MacMillan... an extremely moving listen." - RSCM -
Signum Classics is proud to announce a new label partnership and recording debut with Irish National Opera, presenting the world-premiere recording of Gerald Barry’s opera, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, based on the famous book by Lewis Carroll. Irish National Opera is Ireland’s newest and most enterprising opera company. It champions Irish creativity in its casting, its choice of creative teams and in its commitment to the presentation of new operas. André de Ridder’s stylistic versatility, projects and collaborations make him much in demand by the BBC Proms, the Holland, Sydney and Manchester International Festivals, and orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. “Barry’s artistic voice is shocking, enchanting and often downright weird. He revels in contrasting the hilariously absurd with the heart-wrenchingly beautiful to create a surreal musical language that is perfectly suited to the fantasy world of Lewis Carroll.” Toby Young, composer ★★★★★ Performance, ★★★★ Recording "[Such] musical references are so beautifully integrated they enhance the referential nature of Carroll's original narrative arc" - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★ "An explosive version of Alice in Wonderland…the album version of this memorable lyrical comedy is brilliantly conducted by André de Ridder at the head of an unleashed Irish Chamber Orchestra…Barry pulls off brilliant satire saturated with ferociously destructive nonsense with panache." - Classica ★★★★★ "I missed it on stage, but this recording does the work theatrical justice simply because it is a theatrical score, full of surprises delights the ear. André de Ridder conducts the Irish Chamber Orchestra with total control of the chaotic score" - Musical Opinion -
The Choral Scholars is an internationally acclaimed chamber choir of gifted student singers led by founding Artistic Director, Dr. Desmond Earley, based at University College Dublin College of Arts & Humanities. Scholars come from various academic disciplines and commit to an intensive programme of choral study. Be all Merry is one of three new pieces especially composed for the Choral Scholars. This lively carol for choir, orchestra and violin by Irish composer Eoghan Desmond evokes the joyful play of Christmas in the lines ‘Be all merry in this house/Exultet celum laudibus!’. The recording contains a remarkable setting of the Advent plainsong hymn Christe Redemptor Omnium for tenor solo, chorus, violin and violoncello by Ivo Antognini, crafted for Choral Scholars with the kind support of the Swiss Embassy in Dublin. The Adoration of the Magi by American composer Timothy Stephens is a breathtaking setting of W. B. Yeats’ poetry. A beautiful Irish-language lullaby – Cró na Nollag – set by father and son, Adhamhnán and Uinseann Mac Domhnaill, and the much-loved Scottish tune simply titled Suantraí, are also included. The Irish Chamber Orchestra are also featured on a number of tracks including The Wexford Carol and Carol of the Bells. The choir closes the album with the song most associated with friendship, hope and the promise of a new year, Auld Lang Syne. The post-production phase of this recording project took place as the world grappled with the outbreak of COVID-19. American composer Linda Kachelmeier’s piece – We Toast the Days – serves as a reminder of the strength, love and hope that resonates throughout the world not simply at Christmastide but also during periods of hardship. All downloads include booklets. ★★★★★ "No fewer than half the choir’s two-dozen members step out for solos, revealing the in-depth quality of Earley’s singers. The glowing tonal blend that he elicits is a constant pleasure, and there’s a real emotional connection in the performances." - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★½ "Listeners in search of something different from the usual output of British collegiate and cathedral choirs will find it here…The sound is fresh in numerous ways, and so is the program…This is a heartening and satisfying holiday release" - All Music "Be All Merry is a slick album of new, largely unrecognisable settings of old carols woven through with the sound of Gaelic folk song…It provides that one thing we desperately need from Christmas albums - something different that is still consistent and festive" - Gramophone "A disc full of things you might hear nowhere else, all sensitively performed". - Planet Hugill "A contemporary, and unmistakeably Irish, take on the Christmas tradition...the Scholars, and soloists Kiri O’Neill and Emily Doyle, achieve a beautifully delicate, almost vulnerable sound in Elaine Agnew’s Curoo Curoo, Fionntán Ó Cearbhaill’s Scots lullaby Suantraí and Adhamhnán Mac Domhnaill’s evocative Cró na Nollag" - Presto -
‘Beauty for Ashes’ is a unique collection of unrecorded music from some of the UK’s foremost choral composers. Whilst the programme includes well-established names from classical music such as Bob Chilcott and Judith Weir, it also includes newer voices such as Alison Willis, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Judith Bingham, Sarah Macdonald and Roxanna Panufnik. Six of the contemporary composers featured on the recording are women, and their work exemplifies the enormous contribution female composers are making to the English choral tradition, in a genre where they have been historically under-represented and under-recorded. The principal aim of the recording is to enable these compositions to find new audiences and to promote the creation of new choral works. At a time when the sacred choral tradition is under severe threat from budget cuts, Beauty for Ashes reveals the vibrancy and variety of contemporary composition. "You can hear works from well-established names from the choral scene like Bob Chilcott and Judith Weir. A lovely disc to add to your collection.” - Scala Radio ★★★★★ "The choir's tuning in the a cappella pieces is superb. A cracking album to which I'll be returning frequently." - Choir and Organ -
The second volume of celebrated pianist, composer and conductor Thomas Adès and the Britten Sinfonia’s collaborative performances of the works of Beethoven and Gerald Barry. Beethoven’s 4th, 5th and 6th symphonies are interspersed with Barry’s ‘Viola Concerto’ (featuring Lawrence Power) and piece for orchestra and bass ‘The Conquest of Ireland’ (featuring Joshua Bloom). The pairing is ideal, for Gerald Barry’s compositional style was greatly influenced by Beethoven, giving a piece a title such as Beethoven would suggest an attempt at emulating his legacy nearly two centuries after his death. His music also shows his major influence from radio, moving from the sublime and the ridiculous with carefree abandon. All downloads include booklets. "The performances of both symphonies are terrific from start to finish…I love the outdoor, festively martial quality he [Adès] gives to the Fifth, and how the coda generates tremendous excitement while remaining light on its feet…under Adès the Britten Sinfonia play both scores for all their worth... Heartily recommended." - Gramophone "Particularly poised and precise in the Finale; an urgent and blazing Fifth; and, as a whole, a standout fresh-faced ‘Pastoral’, especially notable for a nippy Scherzo and an elemental ‘Storm’…The recorded sound is excellent." - Colin's Column -
The final installment in the BEETHOVEN & BARRY recording series which, over three volumes, has traced all nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies coupled with music by the celebrated Irish composer Gerald Barry. “This set [Vol.1] cuts pristine interpretations of Beethoven’s early symphonies with Gerald Barry’s 21st- century zesty homage ... tightly knit performances ...” - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★ Performance ★★★★ Recording "The Britten Sinfonia rises brilliantly to the challenges" - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★ "Alert, skilful playing of the Britten Sinfonia" - Financial Times