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Roxanna Panufnik's ongoing mission to build musical bridges between different faiths was inspired by the birth of her first child in 2002, when she started to reflect on the world she was bringing her baby into. Religious conflict and wars caused by it are constantly in the news - but we rarely hear enough about the affirmative aspects of our many faiths, such as the phenomenal beauty of the varied cultures surrounding them. By exploring these cultures, Panufnik has been able to unearth a bounty of stunning chant and verse and has been brought closer to her own personal spiritual beliefs. Each work on this CD focuses on a particular mood or sentiment around the theme of love, expressed in a musical language that echoes the origin of the words. Drawing on texts from different faiths, from the 15th century Zen Master Ikkyū Sōyun to the well-loved 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians; from the Christian mass setting to the 14th Century Sufi poet and mystic Rumi, to the ancient Hebrew Psalm 136 (135). And marrying traditional Anglican text with a Catholic one – creating a truly Ecumenical Magnificat. Within the music you hear fragments of Spanish Sephardic chant, Christian plainsong, Sufi rhythms and a Japanese lullaby to soothe the soul. Love Abide encapsulates the very contemporary ethos of multicultural spiritual devotion in a world populated by a rich diversity of faiths – all feeling, as deeply and as aesthetically, the compelling potency of music with love. ★★★★★ A rich offering on the theme of interfaith connectivity - BBC Music Magazine [An] impressively varied and diverse collection. A music of hope in dark and troubled times - Gramophone A soothing soundworld - The Northern Echo -
Ian Venables studied composition with Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with John Joubert, Andrew Downes and John Mayer at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His works encompass many genres and he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as ‘Britain’s greatest living composer of art song’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney’ (BBC Music Magazine), Ian Venables has written over 80 works in this genre, including nine song-cycles. As the title suggests, the works on this disc are predominantly reflective in mood although this does not preclude the use of faster-moving music whenever the poetry requires it. Its subject matter celebrates the timelessness of love through the poetry of James Joyce, John Drinkwater, Edward Thomas, John Clare, Robert Nichols and the modern poet Jennifer Andrews; the celebration and commemoration of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in Sir Andrew Motion’s remarkable narrative poem Remember This and the collective remembrance of those who died in the First World War: the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy and the less well-known Francis St. Vincent Morris providing the impetus for one of Ian Venables’ most dramatic and profoundly moving cycles. All downloads include booklets. -
"The experience of being lovesick is universal. We are not the first to encounter it and there is no place safe from feeling this particular brand of melancholy. A favourite topic in art since the medieval period, museums are bursting with portrayals of love’s rebuke, and lovesickness has been studied as a legitimate medical illness, not least of all by Sigmund Freud who called it ‘a kind of craziness’. The 17th century was a unique period when feeling these bittersweet emotions was embraced as fuel for artistic expression. Love triggers an amphetamine-like euphoria in a dozen regions of the brain, similar to cocaine, dopamine, and oxytocin. In the thralls of an amorous high, one easily forgets the opposite of that ecstasy; unrequited or faded love that brings a despair all its own, causing depression, confusion, apathy, mood swings, and insomnia — the physical manifestation of heartbreak" - Randall Scotting His second album on Signum Records, counter-tenor Randall Scotting is joined by celebrated lutenist Stephen Stubbs for a collection of anti-Valentine's songs focussing on heartbreak and loss from the 17th century. "Perhaps there is no cure for lovesickness; but we are confident that this album will be comfort for all those who have loved, lost, and hope to love again". - Wendy Heller, Chair, Dept of Music, Princeton University. Stephen Stubbs plays on three instruments at A=415 Hz; a 10-course bass lute by Lawrence K. Brown, a baroque guitar by Ivo Magherini, and a 10-course renaissance lute by Stephen Barber. "The programme is skilfully planned and beautifully executed…Scotting sings throughout with rich, even tone and clear diction" - Gramophone ★★★★ Performance ★★★★ Recording "[The album] offers a worthy platform for the acclaimed musical and dramatic skills of Randall Scotting and Stephen Stubbs" - BBC Music Magazine "Any risk of addiction? So much the better – these songs are worth it!" - Musicweb International ★★★★½ "American countertenor Randall Scotting’s strapping image runs counter to what you might expect. There is a robustness to the voice, too, but refined through his extensive operatic experience. The opera house and the salon coexist in this dramatic yet intimate themed recital in which the legendary Stephen Stubbs, playing renaissance and baroque lutes and a baroque guitar, deploys his legendary arsenal of colours and expressive gestures" - Limelight -
Julian Bliss and Joby Burgess combine forces for these recordings made during the 2020 UK lockdown. Working from their homes (although only a few miles apart from each other), each performer combines multiple layers of clarinet and percussion to create these exciting and dynamic new arrangements of much- loved standards of the American Band Music world. Composer John Mackey describes Asphalt Cocktail as “a five-minute opener, designed to shout, from the opening measure, “We’re here.” With biting trombones, blaring trumpets, and percussion dominated by cross- rhythms and back beats ... Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides.” The composer’s favourite month, Eric Whitacre’s October contains “simple, pastoral melodies and subsequent harmonies inspired by the great English Romantics (Vaughn Williams, Elgar) ... perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season.” Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades is a love letter to blues and jazz music, mixed through the composers own compositional voice: “Blue notes (flattened 3rds, 5ths and 7ths) ... Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many “shades of blue” are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.” "This relatively brief EP finds Julian Bliss on tremendous form... Congrats, Julian – another corker" - Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine -
Gustavo Díaz-Jerez is one of the leading composers and pianists in Spain. His compositional output spans all genres, from solo works to opera. His works have been premiered by prestigious ensembles and orchestras. His orchestral work Ymarxa, commissioned by the XXVII Canary Islands Music Festival, was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit. In 2018, his first opera was premiered, La casa imaginaria. This album represents the culmination of more than ten years of compositional work. A unique endeavour in the history of music in the Canary Islands, it comprises seven symphonic poems – almost two and a half hours of music – which evoke the landscapes and natural beauty of the Canaries. The cycle takes its name, Maghek (“the one who creates brightness”), from the sun-goddess of the Guanches, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Each piece is inspired by a specific locale on a different island; some resurrect forgotten stories. Naturalistic tonal painting (the sea, the wind, the rugged scenery) is a constant feature throughout the cycle. All downloads include booklets. -
Continuing their Magnificat series, and the last album of Andrew Nethsingha’s tenure as director, The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge present Magnificat 4 with works from composers including Judith Weir, Jonathan Dove, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Charles Villiers Stanford. The album features two items commissioned specially for St John’s by Judith Weir alongside the world premiere of a new piece by Jonathan Dove. ★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording "Imaginative programming of innovative contemporary works rubbing shoulders with canonical repertoire...the distinctive St John's 'sound', with its immaculate balance, luminous tone and elegant yet unaffected phrasing...Andrew Nethsingha has departed from St John's with a sense of promise fulfilled and bright hope for the future" - BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★ "The stand-out for me is the concluding Worcester Service by Piers Connor Kennedy, with its echoes of plainchant. As organist George Herbert writes in his excellent booklet notes, it 'inspires a real feeling of worship and understatement'." - Choir and Organ "Every detail has been polished and beautifully presented...Piers Connor Kennedy’s a cappella Worcester Service (2015) is distinguished for being the only Latin setting on the disc and for the sheer beauty of its understatement. The album features the premiere of Jonathan Dove’s St John’s Service. His hallmark energy sparkles throughout the Magnificat and contrasts beautifully with the gentlest of Nunc dimittis treatments. George Herbert’s organ-playing is also a joy to behold.Alas, Judith Weir’s 2011 service seems rather dull in comparison. Finest of all, though, is Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s King’s College Service, full of delicious earworms and melting harmonies, and I am confident that this work will remain as popular as Stanford’s classic in 100 years’ time." - Gramophone "These are beautiful canticles. This whole series of St John’s recordings has been a joy to follow." - MusicWebInternational ★★★★1/2 star Performance, ★★★★★ Recording "Technically everything runs like clockwork, musically it is the inner calm, the clean structure and the cantabile nature of his playing that are particularly convincing. In this way he does full justice to the seriousness of Tartini's music." - FONO FORUM -
Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge release the second volume in the highly-praised Magnificat series and present nine settings of the Evening Canticles by celebrated Organist-Composers, written between 1932 and 1952, and non-church musicians from 1974- 1989. The recording culminates with a contemporary setting by Julian Anderson, composed for the Chapel’s 150th anniversary. “These first volumes are designed to complement one another. Magnificat 1 started earlier, with Stanford in the 1880s; Volume Two brings us briefly up to the present day. The first release contained celebrated works by Tippett and Leighton from 1961 and 1972 respectively, in between the two main periods represented on this disc. Both albums contain iconic works by Howells, written a year apart. We hear composers creating different orders of priority for the parameters of composition.” Andrew Nethsingha "Highlights? Well, every item, really! You would travel far to hear a more sensitive start to Howell's Collegium Regale setting, or indeed, a more dramatic Gloria…[Magnificat] This is totally exhilarating…Throughout, the choir exhibits its customary impeccable intonation, but its emotional power derives more from the uninhibited expressions of so wide a range of musical styles and idioms. The treble soloists in particular are wonderful, as indeed are the organists. This is a terrific disc" - Cathedral Music Magazine -
Following their critically acclaimed ‘Psalms’ album, St John’s College, Cambridge and Andrew Nethsingha present a selection of Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis recordings from January and July 2022. Much of the third volume in their series of Evening Canticles focuses on music in a twenty-year period, from 1945 to 1965. Philip Moore’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were commissioned especially for St John’s College, Cambridge. EDITORS CHOICE "Musical jam all the way…programming that makes each disc a satisfying listening sequence…The choir inflect works spanning a world changing few decades, from the First World War to the 1960s, with distinct personality while maintaining a core sound that's always free and full, refreshingly natural… I can't think of a greater or more apt epitaph to the music director's time at St Johns" - Gramophone "The contrasting works…give the choir the chance to display their warm sound and versatility. They do, wholeheartedly" - The Observer "What a wonderful performance. The dynamics, the contrast, the utter confidence in the singing. Philip Moore’s St John’s service is a highly effective contrast, more intimate. And Bryan Kelly in c, is the flamboyant ending—syncopated jazzy, powerfully celebratory. Excellent solos, boys in great fettle, acoustic, well captured; it’s a fine series this is. Anyone who has ever sung or loved this kind of Anglican church music should be impatient for more" - BBC Radio 3 Record Review ★★★★★ "Another excellent disc in this fine series…The performances throughout are outstandingly impressive, beautifully balanced and always entirely suited to the nature of each setting…The superb acoustic of St John's College, Cambridge suits this wide ranging collection of musical styles to a T; Chris Hazell;s production values, and the engineering skills of Simon Eadon and Dave Rowell capture the essence of this fine music-making admirably. The result is what has come to be known as 'state-of-the-art'…A treasurable disc in many ways" - The Organ "Spellbinding…Another triumph for Nethsingha and St John’s" - Classical Explorer "[Kenneth Leighton] A deeply spiritual atmosphere is created at the words ‘For behold from henceforth'... The final phrase, ‘as he promised to our forefathers’, is truly magical…[The album, A] remarkable and striking work…documentation of truly outstanding quality" - Musicweb International "Andrew Nethsingha…gives masterful readings of the works and offers a very measured interpretation with tension, introspection and the true human need to communicate" - Sonograma "Nethsingha brings a marvellous sweep to the Magnificat, with well-judged tempi and thrilling support from organ scholar George Herbert. The trebles are exceptionally good and raise the roof in the final bars…this disc is a worthy successor to volume 2 in the series….The CD comes with excellent booklet notes, including a forward by the Revd. Lucy Winkett and an illuminating essay on Howells by Andrew Reid. Images of handwritten manuscripts provide rare glimpses into the compositional processes, and add scholarly value to this highly collectable disc" - Opera Today "A most interesting disc…Another triumph for Nethsingha and St John’s" - Classical Explorer "This is yet another very fine album from Andrew Nethsingha and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. Throughout the programme the performances are consistently fine; they are clearly the work of a choir that has not only been thoroughly trained in the music but which also has a deep collective understanding of the texts they are singing. George Herbert plays the often challenging organ parts with skill and flair…The recorded sound is equally distinguished…This is a rather special disc." - Musicweb International -
One of the finest Mahlerians of our time, Dame Sarah Connolly brings her fierce intellect and glorious voice to the music she has spent a life-time studying and performing. In the first release of series curat- ed and performed by Joseph Middleton that will champion the complete piano accompanied Lieder of Mahler, the ‘superlative’ (New York Times) duo of Connolly and Middleton, present the three great song cycles of Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen, Fünf Rückert Lieder and Kindertotenlieder. This is the first time Sarah has performed all three cycles on one album, which she is justly famous the world over for performing with rare insight and consummate artistry. Her voice is the perfect Mahlerian instrument. "[Sarah Connolly] These songs suit her so well…She has the range in every sense, and so does Joseph Middleton's articulate and beautifully weighted and coloured piano playing" - BBC Radio 3 Record Review ★★★★ "Isn’t there an extra urgency and depth of emotion about her delivery? Listen how she strokes and kisses the word 'liebe' …feel the intense sorrow engulfing her in the final Kindertontenlieder…whatever she sings, you get singing straight from the heart. You also get beautifully nuanced piano playing from Middleton, a musician seeminhly incapable of misjudging the careful balancing act necessary when accompanying lieder" - The Times ★★★★ Performance ★★★★ Recording "Sarah Connolly is too fine a Mahler singer not to let us relish this collection…her rapport with top lieder pianist Joseph Middleton allows for some very special interchanges, and his playing of 'Ich bin de Welt…' … is up there for top artistry…Well worth having if you live this mezzo - and who doesn't?" - BBC Music Magazine -
Sometimes known as ‘The Tragic’ – a title suggested but then withdrawn by the composer – Mahler’s Sixth Symphony embodies much of the inner turmoil and superstition of its composer. Conceived at perhaps one of the happiest periods of Mahler’s life, it seems to foreshadow the personal tragedies that would later befall him – with his wife Alma writing that “The music and what it foretold touched us deeply.” The brass are heroic and dauntingly present throughout – from the tuba that executes a fiendish trill in the finale to the clarion trumpets fan faring the doom-marches - BBC Music Magazine This is a terrific Mahler 6… Where Gergiev achieves a generalised superficial excitement, Salonen’s closer consideration is more rewarding and repays more generously repeated listening - MusicWeb International [Salonen’s] performance is purposeful and revealing - Classic FM Magazine -
In this live recording from the Royal Festival Hall the OAE shines its musical torch into the realms of some later repertoire, shedding new light on the music of Mahler. Conducted by Principal Artist Vladimir Jurowski, this CD includes Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), written in the wake of an unhappy affair with a soprano, and the extraordinarily exciting and powerful Totenfeier, Mahler’s first foray into orchestral music, and later reworked into the opening movement of his second symphony.The OAE's period instruments emphasise its rawness, just as they point up the anguished detail of the accompaniments to the Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen, in which mezzo Sarah Connolly allows the words and Mahler's treatment of them to speak for themselves, without unnecessary gilding - The Guardian Vladimir Jurowski’s brisk and thrusting account with the period instrument players of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment makes a strong case for the composer’s original thoughts - The Irish Times -
For this album, Manía, I wanted to create a playlist of pieces that accompany me and my insomnia, my anxiety, my desperation and my fears in the middle of the night and provide the kind of relief that only music and prescription meds can give. I include an Argentinian composer (Ginastera) for the first time as a nod of admiration towards my incredible, beautiful, life-enhancing wife Mica, a Buenos Aires native. And I also include Albeniz as a mark of profound gratitude that my life is now immeasurably improved as a Spanish citizen living in Madrid. Obviously there is a ton of Bach (in transcriptions that make me weep for all the right reasons), a couple of Chopin nocturnes that are, in every way, quantifiably more than the sum of their parts, some percussive, crunchy, world-weary Prokofiev, opposing sides of Rachmaninov (the eerily calm and the hyper-heroic) and even a transcription of a Strauss song (the good Strauss). Variety is the spice etc... These are some of the pieces that ground me, that calm me and that remind me of what is real and true in a world that seems more and more removed from both reality and truth. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed recording them. "However one responds to James Rhodes's music-making, there's no question that he still commands the will and the means to convey his ideas in sound." - Gramophone -
Martines: The Complete Keyboard Works presents the first complete modern recording of the surviving keyboard music of Marianna Martines (1744–1812), a composer, keyboard virtuoso, and cultural force in eighteenth-century Viennese musical life. Admired in her lifetime for her brilliance as both performer and composer, Martines occupied a central position within the city’s elite musical circles, yet her instrumental music has remained largely absent from the recorded canon. Led by conductor Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, with pianist Idith Meshulam Korman and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, this release brings together Martines’s four surviving keyboard concertos, three sonatas, and her Sinfonia in C major, recorded from newly prepared critical editions. The works reveal a composer writing ambitiously for public performance, combining lyrical vocal writing with striking technical demands, orchestral imagination, and playful formal subversion. Conceived as a major interpretative and restorative project, this release restores Martines’s keyboard music to the Classical canon as a vital and compelling body of work. ★★★★ - "Perfectly captured in this performance" - Pizzicato “The recorded sound is crisp and clear, with a pleasing warmth … this is a disc that would be welcome in any collection.” - Classical Music Daily -
Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge mark the centenary of the 1918 Armistice with a new recording of choral works by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Many of the works were composed in the years immediately following the event, including O clap your hands, Lord, thou hast been our refuge and the Mass in G minor which leads the programme.
Vaughan Williams turned his attention to liturgical music following his service as a wagon orderly during the Great War. Ursula Vaughan Williams, his second wife and biographer, wrote that such work ‘gave Ralph vivid awareness of how men died’. It is perhaps unsurprising that in many of the texts to which he turned after the 1918 Armistice, the fragility and weakness of humanity becomes a recurrent theme. Despite being described as a ‘confirmed atheist’ by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, his heightened exploration of Christian texts, symbols, and images after the War might rather be understood both as an attempt to grapple anew with what might lie, as he put it, ‘beyond sense and knowledge’, and to search for consolation in religious and other inherited traditions amid a world irrevocably changed.
I admire both the outstanding quality of the treble line and the excellent sense of ensemble - Cathedral Music Magazine The great virtues of the disc are the way it brings RVW's into a different focus yet also emphasises the transcendent mysticism which is the essential core to the music - Planet Hugill This is a very fine disc indeed. Andrew Nethsingha has chosen the music with great discernment and conducts it with evident commitment and understanding - Music Web International -
The English musical renaissance of the early twentieth century brought forward an individual figure in Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953). His works, not least those for choir, have enjoyed such recent popularity that it is surprising how difficult it remains to assess his exact position among his contemporaries. In this country, [Pierre Villette (1926 - 1998)] has chiefly become known for his a capella motets on familiar Latin texts, written between 1944 and 1983. The style of these is not unlike Bax's, in their alternation of modal austerity and chromatic sophistication; however, Villette draws upon a French tradition of altogether more static and sensuous textures than Bax's involved dynamism. In any case, the two styles tend to be represented in separate works rather than within each. ★★★★ - BBC Music Magazine -
A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION presents a stockingful of seasonal music for the festivities-songs, carols, and special arrangements.