Boyce: The 3 Concerti Grossi, Overtures

William Boyce is among the most important English composers of the late Baroque period, 25 years younger than Handel, whom he outlived by twenty years. He was a rival of Arne and in 1757 became Master of the King's Music. His works include a variety of music for both church and theatre. Boyce produced a generous quantity of music during his career, and is most widely recognized for his symphonies, anthems, overtures and three concerti grossi. His set of Twelve Trio Sonatas followed a fashion that had started with Corelli in the previous century and was now coming to an end.

Monteverdi: Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi

Each of them definitely established Montserrat Figueras as one of the best performers of Claudio Monteverdi’s vocal music. At this time, she developed an innovative style of interpretation, characterised by great fidelity to historical sources, combined with an extraordinary creative and expressive power, that has exerted a decisive influence on the whole historical music movement.

 

Vocal music before 1800 required a new technical and stylistic approach capable of restoring to the beauty and emotion of the voice, that most human of all forms of expression, the necessary balance between singing and declamation, with an emphasis on the poetic and spiritual dimension of the text.

Schubert: Piano Sonatas

“The first word that comes to mind, after extensive listening, is 'unflinching'. These performances don't prioritise finesse per se but they are fiercely honest.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2014

“The D major Sonata, D850, can often seem too explosive, but Barenboim gives as convincing an account of it as I've heard. He is even finer in the Sonata in G major, the most lyrical of them all...There is noble music-making here, but it is less consistent than we expect from this great artist.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2014 ***

The CD Collection

Donna Summer is to be celebrated with the release of Donna, two spectacular Vinyl and CD Box sets featuring seven albums with a host of compelling extras. Released on Donna Summer's own Driven By The Music imprint through the Crimson record label on 1 December 2014 Donna features The Wanderer, Donna Summer, Cats Without Claws, All Systems Go, Another Place And Time, Mistaken Identity and I'm A Rainbow.

End Of The Week (1981)

Also included within the box are six individual postcards, produced from Family approved photographs from Donna Summer's archives, stylized to compliment the CD outer box. The individual re-mastered re-issues, are packaged in sumptuous case-bound books, containing the original full album credits and acknowledgements, the lyrics, as included in the original Geffen and Atlantic LP Records and newly authored liner notes by noted US writers Christian John Wikane and Justin 'Musicology' Kantor.

Roussel: Concertos Pour Orchestre

Albert Roussel's compositions have the sea in their very soul. The music sways and bucks in waves of oceanic scale. It should come as no surprise that the composer reached the rank of sub-lieutenant in the French navy before resigning to study music. This 1998 recording captures Roussel's adventuresome spirit.

Roussel's Little Suite for Orchestra is particularly evocative, building its swirling, blustery theme around a simple, almost hurdy-gurdy-like rhythm. His structural techniques and his extensive use of counterpoint are vastly different from the style of his contemporaries.

These distinctive Roussel qualities are found in all of the pieces on this album. Alexandre Tharaud's deft piano work on the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra reverberates deeply, a building storm reaching its climax. David Stern and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris take a slightly different tack with the Concerto for Small Orchestra, and yet the composition remains true to the same vital pulse.

American Record Guide (5-6/00, p.178) - Recommended

Orff: Carmina Burana

This is a terrifically exciting performance of Orff's popular chestnut. Tempos are swift, from the opening "O fortuna" onward. The soloists are uniformly excellent, especially Judith Blegen, whose "In trutina" remains one of the most beautiful ever recorded. Robert Page's Cleveland Orchestra Chorus sings with musicality, enthusiasm, and superb discipline. Of the composer's Bavarian roots and earthy humor there's nary a shred. This is Orff seen through the lens of Stravinsky's Les Noces. Michael Tilson Thomas hammers home the work's repetitive rhythms with obsessive, mechanical precision, aided by playing of characteristic brilliance and transparency from the Cleveland Orchestra.

It is certainly a legitimate view of the work, but one about as far removed from Jochum's warmth and folksiness (DG) as Cleveland is from Munich. The sonics, multi-miked to the hilt and originally designed to present a different placement of each individual number, may strike your ears as overly processed (big surprise)--but they actually support the interpretation. In sum--an unusual and extreme rendition, really well done.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Sir Arnold Bax: Four Orchestral Pieces & Phantasy

“Dukes deliver the Phantasy's solo part with a forthright energy that seems to thwart loveliness of tone. In every other department these performances could hardly be finer. The orchestral playing is vivid and precise, as is the recorded sound; and Davis's conducting is a masterclass in how to conjure atmosphere.” --BBC Music Magazine, November 2014 ****/*****

“there's little with which to quibble performance-wise...Drawing some first-rate playing from the BBC Phiharmonic, Davis imparts plenty of confident swagger and twinkling fun to both outer movements...every Baxian will surely want to investigate this new Chandos survey.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2014

Sir Andrew Davis is among the most distinguished interpreters of British music today and here turns to the works of Sir Arnold Bax. With the inclusion of the Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra, this disc marks the completion of Chandos’s long project to record Bax’s complete orchestral music over time.

Born in 1883 into a wealthy family in London, Arnold Bax began a love affair with Ireland as a young man. He moved there in 1911 and his Four Orchestral Pieces from 1912 – 13 are deeply influenced by the landscape of the countryside near his Dublin home. The first three are better known in revised versions, from 1928, as Three Pieces for Small Orchestra. Here ‘The Dance of Wild Irravel’ joins the other three movements for the premiere recording of the four Pieces as Bax originally conceived and orchestrated them.

The Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra from 1920 was inspired by the strong feelings with which Bax responded to the Irish political turmoil at the time, underlined by his use of the Sinn Fein Marching Song (later the Irish national anthem) at its climax. Bax is celebrated for his melodic invention and this passionately lyrical score must be one of the finest examples of his gift. Here the soloist is Philip Dukes, described by The Times as ‘Great Britain’s most outstanding viola player’.

By 1927 Bax’s style was changing and the opening of the Overture, Elegy and Rondo is reminiscent of a classical concerto, suggesting a leaning towards then-fashionable neoclassicism. The long, dreamy melody of the middle section and brilliant, colourful orchestration, however, are unmistakable hallmarks of Bax’s individual voice.