Andrew Hamilton: Music for People
Andrew Hamilton‘s Music for People, a new album on NMC, contains three works by the composer: music for people who like art, for voice and ensemble; To the People for soprano and percussion; andmusic for…
CD Review: Philip Venables, Below the Belt
If there’s a British composer on a roll at the moment, it’s Philip Venables. His first major opera, a setting of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, premiered in 2016 at the Royal…
‘The Silver Stars at Play’: Contemporary Christmas Carols Review
'The Silver Stars at Play' from Primae Facie Records features 23 world premiere carol recordings. At over 70 minutes it is a generous programme, with a cross-section of both significant and lesser-known…
An Eventful Morning in East London: 21st Century Violin Concertos
Harriet Mackenzie (violin), Retorica, English Symphony Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Kenneth Woods (conductor). Nimbus NI 6295. Violinist Harriet Mackenzie and conductor Kenneth Woods have both made appearances on this blog before.…
Rhona Clarke: A Different Game
Piano Trios 2, 3 and 4 (‘A Different Game’); Gleann Da Lough (solo piano), Con Coro (violin, cello and tape), In Umbra (solo cello). The Fidelio Trio, Métier msv 28561.…
Tarik O’Regan: A Celestial Map of the Sky
NMC D220 Hallé, Hallé Youth Choir, The Manchester Grammar School Choir, Jamie Phillips and Sir Mark Elder. It seems ridiculous that a disk that has no overt political agenda should, as the clock…
Chaya Czernowin The Quiet
Chaya Czernowin was born and raised in Israel but has subsequently lived in Germany, Austria, Japan and now the US. Given such a peripatetic lifestyle it is, perhaps, unsurprising that…
The Norway Option
No, not a follow-up to my Brexit post—though I could easily wax lyrical about its advantages in that context—but, rather, a recent CD from Norwegian record label Lawo. Perpetuum Trompetuum is a…
CD Review: Jonathan Harvey, Deo
Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge, Edward Picton-Turbevill (organ), Andrew Nethsingha (conductor). Signum Classics (SIGCD456). If Jonathan Harvey was always considered to be a modernist, he was certainly one of…
Martin Smolka: Poema De Balcones
The music of Czech composer Martin Smolka was unfamiliar to me until I came across this new disk of his choral works on Wergo. The programme contains his Poema De Balcones; Walden, The Distiller…