The third disc in a four-disc series that will comprise the first complete recording of the songs of Roger Quilter (1877-1953).

Related Artists: Mark Stone, Stephen Barlow

Catalogue No: 5060192780956

Reviews

EDITOR’S CHOICE – Mark Stone could not be more sensitive in his response to the words with his remarkably clear diction, and his accompanist, Stephen Barlow, is comparably understanding, helped by the realistic sound quality recorded in the Champs Hill Music Room. Stone’s own detailed notes on each song as well as his brief biography of Quilter ideally enhance enjoyment. An outstanding disc of English song, making one look forward to the forthcoming issues in this Quilter songbook. (Gramophone)

CHOICE FOR THE CURIOUS (The New Release Show, Classic FM)

Stone’s sturdy baritone and Barlow’s bright accompaniment bring out the Debussyian melodic elegance in Quilter’s songs, while avoiding the preciosity that sometimes afflicts them **** (BBC Music)

Stephen Barlow’s project to record all of Quilter’s songs is a worthy one… this first instalment, sensitively sung by baritone Mark Stone with Barlow accompanying, is a promising start (The Guardian)

Stone’s engagingly natural style and immaculate diction are supported by Barlow’s sympathetic playing. (Sunday Times)

Rich in nuance, sensual contrasts of colour and range of textual expression… collectively eloquent and ideally committed to extracting the essence of each song – **** (Classic FM Magazine)

His lyric baritone has warmth, and he is quite effective at conveying words and meaning as well as phrasing with sensitivity. If you have either or both of the discs I mentioned, and feel that you have all the Quilter you need, this may be superfluous. But if you don’t have those and you are a collector of vocal music—particularly English vocal music—this is definitely worth acquiring. Also, if either of those earlier discs turned you into a serious Quilter fan, here is a very good way of expanding your collection … Stephen Barlow is an alert, colorful collaborator at the piano, and the natural recorded sound is perfectly balanced between voice and keyboard. Stone provides excellent notes about the young Quilter (presumably subsequent volumes will focus on his later years) along with specific notes about each song or group of songs along with complete texts. This is a model of how to produce a disc of this nature. (Fanfare)

Piano music by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Related Artists: Viv McLean

Catalogue No: 5060192780970

Reviews

Extraordinary originality, superb simplicity, and fingers of steel hidden behind muscles of velvet. He is an otherworldly young man – he plays with the genius one finds in those who know how to forget themselves, naturally placing themselves at the right point to meet the music, this mystery of the moment (Le Monde, Paris)

Songs by Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)

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Related Artists: Anastasia Prokofieva, Sergey Rybin

Catalogue No: 5060192780888

Reviews

A Russian duo brings a lightness and freshness to Hahn’s lovely melodies. Despite a considerable musical output covering works for the stage and large-scale orchestral works, it is for his songs that Reynaldo Hahn is best known. There is a handful of well-known ones, melodies which singers love to bask in, but there are plenty more which repay investigation. On this new disc of Reynaldo Hahn’s songs L’heure exquise on Stone Records, soprano Anastasia Prokofieva and pianist Sergey Rybin given us a wide selection, from Si mes vers avaient des ailes! which was an instant success in 1888 (when he was 14!) right through to Au fil de l’eau and Mon reve etait d’avoir.. from the 1934 film La Dame aux Camelias, to a pair of songs from 9 Mélodies retrouvées published posthumously in 1955. The selection casts its net widely though the majority of songs date from before 1914, which reflects Hahn’s output which declined partly because he served during World War I, and then after the war devoted time to conducting, being general manager of Cannes Casino Opera House and writing criticism for Le Figaro. But it is also because Hahn belonged to the pre-World War One world, to the beau monde, and as he got older and Paris belonged to Stravinsky and Les Six, musically Hahn did not move and stayed true his revered teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Massenet. The CD booklet includes an excellent essay by Richard Stokes which provides plenty of background on the songs and their texts, but in fact gives us no hint of the criteria for selection, or for arrangement. Certainly Prokofieva and Rybin ignore the published order of the songs, selecting individual songs from collections, but then everyone does. (Planet Hugill)

Chamber music by Schumann, Gade & Mendelssohn

Related Artists: The Phoenix Piano Trio

Catalogue No: 5060192780949

Reviews

An intelligently programmed disc, with two familiar trios framing the less well-known Novelletten by Gade. The Phoenix Trio are in splendidly vibrant form throughout, but especially in the Mendelssohn **** (BBC Music)

Robert Schumann’s F-major Piano Trio (Opus 80) opens this Leipzig-centric recording with a burst of energy that takes the listener with it, and also establishes the Phoenix Piano Trio (Jonathan Stone, violin, Christian Elliott, cello, and Sholto Kynoch) as an estimable ensemble, driving Schumann’s Sehr lebhaft with dynamism but also light and shade and knowing just when to ease off the gas a little. This opening movement is also indicative of David Rowell’s perfectly engineered sound; intimate yet airy. Schumann’s remaining three movements are also brought off with style and discernment, revealing the composer’s confidences, mood-swings and likeable quirks. If the work as a whole isn’t Schumann at his supreme best (he might have found it tricky to follow the standout opening movement), then there can be no doubt as to the masterpiece status of Felix Mendelssohn’s C-minor Piano Trio (Opus 66). Following a surreptitious yet ardent Allegro energico e con fuoco (exactly that from the Phoenix members) is a blissful Andante espressivo, then a feather-light mercurial Scherzo (trademark Mendelssohn), the musicians deftly matching the prescribed Molto allegro quasi presto. The second-subject basis of the final movement, Allegro appassionato, is one of those Heaven-sent melodies – noble-heroic – that you listen to in wonder (where did Mendelssohn find that from?), nowhere more so than on its ultimate utterance, most-tenderly addressed by Kynoch. In case you are wondering how Copenhagen-born Niels Gade (1817-1890) fits into the Leipzig scene, well Mendelssohn conducted his music, and Gade moved there in 1843 to assist him and also assist him. A couple of years later Gade substituted for an ailing composer to conduct the premiere of Mendelssohn’s E-minor Violin Concerto (Ferdinand David as soloist) and succeeded him as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, a short-lived appointment given war broke out between Prussia and Denmark and Gade returned to Copenhagen. His five Novelletten are charming, leaning more to Schumann (whom Gade also knew on friendly terms) than Mendelssohn. (Colin’s Column)

It’s interesting to see what can be achieved with a little bit of imaginative programming. It’s not too much of a leap to pair Niels Gade with the two composers with whom he was on close terms in Leipzig in the 1840s, Mendelssohn and Schumann – and if pressed, I’d probably have described his music as most closely resembling Mendelssohn’s. Yet if this attractive programme from the Phoenix Piano Trio demonstrates anything, it’s Gade’s temperamental kinship to Schumann: that same fondness for short forms, and that balancing act between tender inwardness and headlong, euphoric verve. The Phoenix Piano Trio capture all those qualities with unaffected freshness and charm, both in Gade’s Novelletten and in Schumann’s relatively more familiar F major Piano Trio. The opening of each of these two works, in fact, is practically supercharged … in the many passages of lightness, lyricism and delicacy, these performances are thoroughly engaging: the playful lilt of Schumann’s third-movement intermezzo; Sholto Kynoch’s limpid piano-playing in Gade’s Larghetto; and the unforced, plain-spoken tone of the two string players. It’s real chamber music, in other words, though the closing performance of Mendelssohn’s woefully underrated C minor Trio lacks nothing in terms of fantasy or symphonic sweep – and the speed and agility of the Scherzo (one of those fairy music moto perpetuos) positively takes the breath away. In many ways, a rewarding disc. (Gramophone)

On 31 October 1847, the Danish composer Niels Gade visited Clara and Robert Schumann in Dresden, with the news that Felix Mendelssohn was seriously ill in Leipzig. Mendelssohn died a few days later after a series of strokes; Schumann and Gade were pall-bearers. This disc from the Phoenix Piano Trio (Sholto Kynoch, piano, Jonathan Stone, violin, Christian Elliott, cello) celebrates the links between the three composers who all came to know each other in Leipzig in the 1830s and 1840s. The links between Schumann and Mendelssohn are well known, but the presence of the Danish composer Niels Gade is more intriguing, yet when Mendelssohn died it was Gade who was seen as his natural successor in charge of the Gewandhaus Orchester. The Prussian/Danish war of Schleswig-Holstein put paid to that and Gade, returning to Denmark, would live until 1890, becoming a somewhat old-fashioned figure in the Wagnerian flush of the later 19th century. When Schumann wrote a mad rush of chamber music in 1842, he never quite finished a piano trio, and when he returned to chamber music in 1847 he wrote two, the Piano Trio in D minor Op. 63, and the Piano Trio in F major Op. 80. The first rather troubled, the second (the one on this disc) rather friendlier. Perhaps one stimulus was that his wife had already written her piano trio, her magnum opus, in 1846. The first movement of Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2, however friendly, is full of drama. Its extrovert opening is well captured by the players, with more thoughtful moments as the movement develops and some distinctly Bachian writing in the development. As with much of Schumann’s piano chamber music, this is a piano-led piece but Sholto Kynoch never pushes himself forward overmuch and what impresses is the thoughtful give and take between the players. The atmospheric slow movement opens with a wonderful passage with the two strings weaving quiet lines over Kynoch’s throbbing chords, the sympathy of the three creating real magic. The third movement is a sort of melancholy waltz with a strange syncopated rhythm which makes it lurch along, hoppity-kick. The players make it rather haunting and with hints of underlying unease. The finale is light textured and exhilarating, and rather recalls Schumann’s piano writing. In fact, Schumann’s piano based chamber music can often seem an extension of his piano solo writing, but here the trio almost make that a virtue and all three players contribute equally to the thoughtful atmosphere. It was Schumann who seems to have used the term Noveletten for his piano pieces Opus 21, and Gade adopted it for his 1853 pieces for piano trio which were written in Copenhagen. The work consists of five contrasting movements, which showcase Gade’s melodic felicity and feeling for the chamber textures of the genre. The first lively, dramatic and scherzo-ish with attractively varied textures formed from three independent lines, the second movement graceful and fluid, with lovely intertwining lines and the spirit of Schumann not far away. The players make the third movement strongly characterised, and full of interesting rhythms, with a delicate middle section, then comes a lovely a song without words, again with a lovely fluidity to the scoring, and the finale full of Schuman-esque charm and impetuous drama. Mendelssohn’s second piano trio dates from 1845, just two years before his death and a period when he managed to cram in writing music such as the Violin Concerto, along with being administrator and conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig. The piano writing in both Mendelssohn’s trios is virtuoso (he had rewritten his first trio at composer Ferdinand Hiller’s urging to make it more ‘modern’). The result can sometimes turn the works into mini-piano concertos without a sympathetic performance such as the one it gets here. The first movement is fast, but quiet and very atmospheric, with very mobile dynamics and some wonderful textures, moments of urgent excitement. A sense of the dynamism of the textures and the vivid dynamics is something which seems to characterise all the movements in the piece. Neither string player has a really fat sound, so they combine intensity with elegance, and Kynoch’s piano is finely virtuoso without ever turning the work into a concerto. The slow movement starts out as a song without words, with the piano eventually being joined by the strings to develop the texture with some lovely singing lines. The scherzo is full of vivid scurrying, the fairies were very much back, with the three players giving us some brilliant playing, and excitement too. The Finale begins lyrically passionate, again with a very mobile texture with a lovely give and take between the players. And then the music dissolves into a chorale, then Mendelssohn combines the two into something lyrically passionate. (Planet Hugill)

I daresay this isn’t the first recording to focus on the confluence of talent in Leipzig in the middle of the 19^th century, but in the piano trio genre, it is certainly the first time that a Gade piece has been included with those of his “old friends” (Schumann’s words). The Schumann Piano Quintet is one of my favourite chamber works, so I have always found it odd that I have struggled to warm to any of his three trios. Schumann’s description of his second trio was that it “makes a friendlier and more immediate impression” than the stormy first and the jaunty opening certainly bears witness to that. I’m pleased to report that the Phoenix Piano Trio is nudging me towards a greater appreciation with a performance of sparkle, charm and emotion. The five miniatures that Gade named after the Schumann piano set are certainly a very appropriate inclusion as the influences of his “old friends” are very obvious. I will probably offend aficionados of the composer by saying that melodic invention wasn’t his strongest suit, but the alternating fast-slow movements are always enjoyable company with plenty of rhythmic vitality and interest. The fourth movement Larghetto con moto is particularly charming (MusicWeb International)

English and American choral masterpieces

Related Artists: Mark Ford, Jonathan Schranz, The Purcell Singers

Catalogue No: 5060192780925

Reviews

This is a lovely collection in every way. The singing is beautiful, the program is very wisely chosen, and the recording is spacious without being muddy. There is a sufficient range of musical styles here to hold one’s interest over the disc’s one hour length. The Purcell Singers was founded in 1994 by Mark Ford, who continues to serve as their music director. The group should not be confused with the Purcell Singers that were founded in 1932 by Imogen Holst. I am not sure whether this group chose its name to honor the earlier ensemble or not. These a cappella choral works all date from the twentieth century, either from England or America. There are some unfamiliar pieces and some that will be well known to lovers of choral music. Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium has been recorded many times, and while I will not claim that the present performance tops all the others, I can confidently say that it is as good as any I have heard. The Purcell Singers, whether conducted by their founder Mark Ford or by frequent guest conductor Jonathan Schranz, seem never content to just sing the notes correctly. They are sensitive to the texts and the colors of the music, communicating those elements vividly. Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei is the composer’s own arrangement of his Adagio for Strings (he knew a hit tune when he found one), and it is as lovely and effective in this choral setting as in either the original string quartet form or the full string orchestra version. Benjamin Britten’s Flower Songs were composed in 1950 as a 25th wedding anniversary present for Leonard and Dorothy Emhirst, good friends of the composer who were, among other things, keen botanists. Thus the subject of the lovely cycle, which finds Britten at his most straightforward and direct. The major work on the disc, which gives the CD its title, is When David Heard by Eric Whitacre. This 13-minute score was composed in 1999, and its origin is surely part of the reason for its power. It was commissioned by Dr. Ronald Staheli through the Brigham Young University Singers on the occasion of the death of Staheli’s son in an automobile accident. Whitacre took his text from the Second Book of Samuel, “When David heard that Absalom was slain, He went up into his chamber over the gate, and wept. And thus he said, ‘O my son, my son Absalom!’ Would God I had died for thee! O Absalom my son, my son!” You can see how these grieving sentiments would be enormously powerful, and Whitacre has applied great imagination in depicting the emptiness felt by King David without becoming maudlin. I found this performance much more impactful than an earlier recording with the Brigham Young University Singers, partly because the actual recorded sound has more presence here (the earlier recording was overly reverberant) and partly because the Purcell Singers inflect the text with far greater specificity. Everything on this disc was a pleasure to hear. From the hushed beauty of James Erb’s arrangement of Shenendoah to the powerful anthem Bring Us, O Lord God by the British composer William Henry Harris, the wide range of emotion makes for a totally absorbing experience. Excellent notes along with complete texts round out the picture. Five stars: A lovely and moving collection of choral works, beautifully sung and recorded (Fanfare)

This mixed bag of a programme from the Purcell Singers ranges from Elgar (a characterful account of the popular My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land) to Eric Whitacre’s When David Heard, by way of Barber’s Agnus Dei, Howells’s Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing, and Britten’s Five Flower Songs, among others. The conducting is shared our between Messrs Ford and Schranz. The Purcell Singers make a pleasing, well-blended sound, beautifully showcased on many tracks on this CD, but perhaps nowhere more so than in James Erb’s arrangement of Shenandoah … more often than not they create a very special choral magic, such as in Morten Lauridsen’s popular O magnum mysterium **** (Choir & Organ)

Although these are all new recordings, this programme is intended as a retrospective of favourite pieces The Purcell Singers have performed since conductor Mark Ford founded the London-based chamber choir 25 years ago. Its 40 members make a warmly-blended sound in the opening track, Elgar’s ‘My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land’, with alertly sharpened accents on the pulsing rhythms of verses three and four, and a sudden flaring of emotion when the dead lover’s heart is contemplated in the final line, ‘colder that the clay’. That mix of fulsome tonal blend and insightful word-pointing continues throughout the recital, in a feelingly shaped Barber ‘Agnus Dei’, a dynamically proactive take on Harris’s eight-art ‘Bring us, O Lord God’ and a probing account of Howells’s ‘Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing’. Britten’s ‘Flower Songs’ pose bigger technical challenges, but the Purcell Singers meet them impressively in a punchy, crisply articulated ‘Marsh Flowers’ and a version of ‘The Ballad of Green Broom’ which is nimbly playful while avoiding archness. Eric Whitacre’s 13-minute ‘When David Heard’ is another major test of technique and concentration, and while the clustered harmonies don’t always emerge with pinpoint clarity the searing emotional arc of the piece is compellingly communicated, with telling demarcations between the successive stages on its journey of grief and lamentation. Conducting duties are shared between Mark Ford and Jonathan Schranz, and the sound is excellent. ****/***** (BBC Music)

The tenth disc in the first complete recording of the songs of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), recorded live at the Oxford Lieder Festival, featuring the settings of Goethe.

Related Artists: Louise Alder, Fflur Wyn, Katarina Karnéus, Rowan Hellier, Adrian Thompson, Roderick Williams, Neal Davies, Sholto Kynoch

Catalogue No: 5060192780918

Reviews

When an individual is “outed” to a new acquaintance as a classical musician, the first question that invariably arises is “Who is your favorite composer?” I suspect that although most performers of art song might be expected to name Schubert or Schumann, most would instead offer up Hugo Wolf. The Austrian composer’s collected lieder are the musical equivalent of an enormous box of fine chocolates. Each morsel is sumptuous, full of intriguing flavors ranging from the delicate to the shockingly potent. The power of Wolf’s music lies in the application of a wide-ranging Wagnerian harmonic palette to a variety of texts. Wolf was attracted to poems from all sources, from high-minded poets like Goethe to the folksy village banter found in the Italienisches Liederbuch. Although he composed quickly, Wolf somehow managed to incorporate a staggering amount of detail in every one of his songs, the music perfectly dovetailing with the meaning of the poem. It is perhaps this specificity which always impresses. The critic Ernest Newman believed that Wolf understood the psychology of Goethe in a way no other composer (including Schubert) could. In a misguided attempt to promote Wolf, Newman furiously bashed Schubert’s settings of the poems from Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, claiming that Schubert merely selected “pretty poems” for his songs rather than attempting to comprehend Goethe’s texts as Wolf did. It is of course not necessary to attack Schubert’s songwriting ability or intellect in order to praise Wolf’s Goethe settings; the younger man’s music speaks for itself. Listen to the three tragic Harfenspieler songs in which the mysterious harper sings of his guilty secret, a secret that will have major ramifications for other characters in the novel. Wolf’s harmonies take very unexpected turns, underlining the torturous emotions of the harper. The accompaniment of these songs is sparse, making audible the emptiness of the harper’s heart. It is a successful musical evocation of energy sapped from years of self-blame. Contrast this with the sumptuous, yearning, desperate, and ecstatic “Kennst du das Land.” That song emanates from a different character from Wilhelm Meister, the beautiful Mignon. “Kennst du das Land” dramatizes not only Mignon’s longing for her homeland, but also her unaware sensuousness and mysterious origins. The piano texture is orchestral, filled with tremolos, massive chordal attacks, and widely-spaced lines that Wolf carefully delineates in the score. The vocal part is blatantly operatic in its scope, calling for a voice which is far beyond anything a 13-year-old could summon in real life. His setting of Goethe’s beautiful poetry is spot-on, and never fails to spark a response in the listener. This CD includes the first 19 of the 51 Goethe Lieder performed in the printed order. The CD was recorded live during the Oxford Lieder Festival, and is taken from two different performances. Credit must first be given to the wonderful pianist Sholto Kynoch, who plays with great sensitivity and color throughout. The fingerbusting Der Rattenfänger is dispatched with verve and no sense of stress, in total defiance of the intense demands made on the pianist by Wolf. The extreme chromatic nature of Wolf’s piano writing means that it can be very easy to take a wrong turn; considering that the recordings were made live in concert, the accuracy of Kynoch’s playing throughout the disc is in itself impressive. With the exception of Katarina Karnéus, the female singers are given little to do, but they sing beautifully when called upon. Louise Alder’s Philine is delightful, perfectly capturing the empty-headed and playful actress depicted in Wilhelm Meister. Karnéus has long been familiar to lovers of art song, her debut album for EMI featuring songs of Mahler, Marx, and Strauss. Her singing of the Mignon lieder is deeply moving, featuring kaleidoscopic colors, impeccable phrasing, and exemplary diction. I hope that she can be persuaded to record more Joseph Marx lieder, as well as more Strauss. The men are equally strong in their assignments. The singing of Roderick Williams is always a joy; his vital, masculine timbre is a perfect fit for the muscular Rattenfänger, as well as the Cophtisches Lieder. Neal Davies’s subtle and perceptive performances of the Harfenspieler songs are a major achievement. I am used to hearing the last track Epiphanias sung by a single performer, but on this album a number of the singers were utilized in order to emulate the song’s first performance, which featured the three children of Wolf’s girlfriend. The song is a boisterous depiction of the Three Kings of the nativity, all of whom are more interested in getting drunk than worshipping the Christ child. Although the CD includes some known Wolf settings, many of these lieder are not often heard on recital programs. Listeners who wish to explore Wolf for the first time may want to find a more mainstream collection of the “greatest hits” variety, but those who wish to hear an in-depth exploration of the Goethe lieder will enjoy this album. This is the penultimate release in this series, I look forward to the final instalment (MusicWeb International)

Vaughan Williams’ settings of A E Housman for tenor, piano and string quartet

Related Artists: Daniel Norman, Sholto Kynoch, Brodsky Quartet

Catalogue No: 5060192780901

Reviews

PRAISE FOR NORMAN’S PREVIOUS BRITTEN DISC ON STONE RECORDS:

Both sets of performances are very fine. Those from Oxford around Norman are easier on the ear … The Oxford performance has a wider-ranging essay by recent Britten biographer Paul Kildea … Both discs are well recorded. (International Record Review)

This release is  a valuable addition to the Britten discography (Classical Iconoclast)

Those expecting five “canticles” will not be disappointed (Fanfare)

Cello sonatas by Lawrence Rose and Shostakovich

Related Artists: Katherine Jenkinson, Alison Farr, Nicholas Holland

Catalogue No: 5060192780895

Reviews

You compose with an impressively confident and clear voice. I can express nothing but admiration for your continued achievement. Bravo. (Gerald Elias, Boston Symphony Orchestra)

The string writing was very well-written indeed! Wonderful music. (Peggy Nolan, Eblana String Trio)

Everything seems to grow organically. (Jeremy Hulin, Maastricht Conservatorium)

Chamber music by English living composer Nicholas Simpson

Related Artists: Charlotte Trepess, Zelkova Quartet

Catalogue No: 5060192780871

Reviews

Now in his early sixties, Nicholas Simpson studied composition during the 1980s with John Tavener at Trinity College, London. However, one is more likely to detect the influence of late 19th- and early 20th-century tonality on the two string quartets heard here. The disc’s title, ‘Remembered Music’, is taken from a line by the poet Kathleen Raine, whose On a Deserted Shore forms the basis for the earliest featured work. Composed in 1988, Remembered Music for voice and quartet is an evocative setting that benefits from a thoughtful and sensitively shaped response to the text from soprano Charlotte Trepess. Simpson’s style has sometimes been compared with his older namesake, Robert, but his music bears as much the trace of Eastern European and Scandinavian influences. His predilection for developing ideas from small, germ-like motifs is evident in both quartets. Bartók’s late Sixth Quartet is suggested in the String Quartet in G minor (2013), which opens hesitatingly with a rising and falling two-note figure. Passed around between the ensemble in a question-and-answer-type texture, this two-note idea takes on a more intensive character as the movement unfolds. A three-note pattern is heard at the beginning of a dynamic, dancelike second movement, which soon transforms itself into a syncopated folk-like tune. A slow third movement revisits the first’s two-note idea against gradually rising, wedge-like harmonic shifts that call to mind the sound world of Einojuhani Rautavaara. The first movement of Simpson’s earlier String Quartet in C evinces a mosaic-like structure, while its Beethoven-inspired finale amply demonstrates the composer’s solid contrapuntal technique. The Zelkova Quartet display impressive control and command over the material throughout. Simpson reveals in the booklet notes that he only truly re-embraced composition during the 1990s, when ‘the great serialist terror was coming to an end’. Sympathetic listeners will no doubt identify with Simpson’s unfussy tonal style; others more willing to embrace modernist ideals and the spirit of the avant-garde may well dwell ruefully on the rather perverse notion that, as a point of comparison, James Dillon’s String Quartet No 2 was being written at almost exactly the same time as Simpson’s String Quartet in C. (Gramophone)

Remembered Music is a disc of chamber music by Nicholas Simpson, a one-time pupil of John Tavener (1944-2013). He was born in Manchester and studied (at Nottingham University) and practised law (in London). After a spell playing guitar in rock bands he moved to studies at Trinity College of Music. There he won the Chappell Prize for composition and the Ricordi for conducting. His worklist includes three very substantial symphonies, a piano concerto, chamber music and an oratorio, Recreation. Going by title alone (admittedly chancy) Simpson also has a well-tuned sense of humour. I have not heard them but the following promise well: orchestral works: Blighty, Ilkley Moor Sans Chapeau and Bachianas Mancuniensis. There is a piano solo called Dropping Anka and Four Reasons Why Jazz is Rubbish for wind quintet. He is currently work away at an opera on Jim Crace’s 1995 Booker-shortlisted novel Quarantine. Simpson is not a complete neophyte when it comes to recordings. His clarinet quartet Mardale Changes was issued by Delphian in an anthology project. This work refers to the bells heard from the now flooded and sunken Mardale Church. These world-première recordings are given with impressive skill and concentration by the Zelkova String Quartet. They are very much a family affair. The quartet is named after the Zelkova tree. Simpson’s two string quartets – each in three movements – lie almost two decades apart. They are not numbered; not yet. The character adopted by the composer or which has seized his creative imagination is deadly serious. Serious, yes, but frankly tonal and often melodic – witness the middle movement of the 1994 Quartet. At times he had me thinking of another Simpson: Robert. This is especially in relation to the older composer’s quartets 4-6 which are modelled after the Beethoven Rasumovsky quartets. Another composer evoked was Tippett but not the dense lyricism of the Tippett of the 1930s. My thoughts turned to two works where, in Tippett’s later years, he struck out in new directions and was gripped by an over-weaning lyrical impulse: Rose Lake and the middle movement of the Triple Concerto. The G minor work has a central Dvořákian hustle and bustle to it which is all the more affecting because it is framed by two meditative movements. In neither of the quartets is Simpson’s language likely to be an obstacle to discovering appreciation or even pleasure in this music. It is noted that in what can be a very severe genre Simpson has the music talking to the majority of modern listeners by keeping the total length of the works to less than 24 minutes and even then balancing the ‘plot’ in three movements. The 1994 quartet is at first convulsed by a jerky and persistent figure but this is followed by a cool and chastened lyricism. The finale of this quartet is at times smilingly lively and is very moving. Between the two quartets we hear Remembered Music to a text by one of John Tavener’s friends, Kathleen Raine (1908-2003). The words are rooted in the perfection of love, of loss and in the natural world of the West Highlands for which both Raine and Simpson had and have a deep affection. They are cradled quietly and sung with steady security and commanding control by Charlotte Trepess. Hers is a name we have heard before and you may also have heard her in Albert Herring. The sung verses are printed in full in the booklet. Remembered Music would go well in a concert with Warlock’s The Curlewand Butterworth’s Love Blows as the Wind Blows. All three Simpson pieces are recorded for Stone in pristine quality by David Coyle. The liner-notes, which are by the composer, are cleanly laid out. They’re quite personal, disarming and seemingly candid. The disc has a quite short playing time. This is a pity as the music is as engaging as it is serious. (MusicWeb International)

Settings of poems by Emily Dickinson

Related Artists: Nadine Benjamin, Nicole Panizza

Catalogue No: 5060192780864

Reviews

Benjamin and Panizza achieve near perfection … This release is highly recommended. (Journal of singing)

Nadine Benjamin’s renditions of 20th- and 21st-century musical settings of poems by Emily Dickinson are a great tribute. The singing is beautifully controlled, with care for the text **** (BBC Music)

This Dickinson programme is built around Copland’s classic Twelve Poems (1950), but his successors, Luigi Zaninelli (b1932) and Juliana Hall (b1958), belong to the same tradition. Hall’s cycles, To Meet and Flower (written for Benjamin in 2009) and In Reverence (1985), deserve wider airing. Benjamin’s clear diction and beautiful singing are backed up by her pianist’s committed playing. (Sunday Times)

The recorded sound is very good, andt the booklet offers good notes and full texts. This disc is a real winner, especially for the Hall songs, which should be performed more often. (MusicWeb International)

Christmas music from Ardingly College

Related Artists: Ardingly College Schola Cantorum, Richard Stafford

Catalogue No: 5060192780857

Reviews

Chamber music for flute, oboe, clarinet, viola & piano

Related Artists: Juliette Bausor, Daniel Bates, Matthew Hunt, Adam Newman, Olga Jegunova

Catalogue No: 5060192780840

Reviews

John Cage’s music arranged for guitar

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Related Artists: Aaron Larget-Caplan

Catalogue No: 5060192780833

Reviews

One scenario I yearn to witness is a quiz-master demolishing anotherwise unassailable contestant by asking him to name a work by John Cage, other than 4’33”. Possible answers are numerous, but known only to those who’ve done their homework. What Cage apparently didn’t do was compose for guitar, leaving a gap that is definitively filled by this ear-opening release from American guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan. Drawing on Cage’s catalog for piano and prepared piano, Larget-Caplan eases the listener into the proceedings with the hypnotic soundscape of A Room, the word “minimalist” being invoked for a second time in the performer’s notes, alongside a disclaimer that “Cage did not use the term.” Whatever the genre, the two-part textures have a transparency ideally suited to the guitar. This is enhanced by Larget-Caplan’s tidy and understated playing, the feeling of brightness and focus well-captured by engineer Steve Hunt. Likewise Three Easy Pieces, in which the tonal/modal language prompts Larget-Caplan to suggest the first two pieces “could easily be mistaken for 19th century guitar compositions.” Few are likely to confuse Cage with Carulli, but the comparison is not without merit. As the album progresses, occasional sharp edges emerge, most notably in the deliciously noisy Bacchanale, arranged for two prepared guitars. However, anyone hoping this CD will perpetuate the false image of Cage as merely a purveyor of the impenetrable will leave empty-handed. (Classical Guitar)

It’s evening, the end of a busy day. Aaron Larget-Caplan’s record is spinning on my cd player while I write this notes. It’s the third or fourth time that I listen to it, without interruption. I lost the count, I looped it. For the first two plays I remained focused, I listened to all the music in succession, with concentration and attention, then I let the music flow and I started to concentrate my thoughts on what I wanted to write. Bad day today in Italy, wind, rain, high water, while I write bad weather continues to scourge my country, so it’s nice to be at home, in the evening, to write and listen to this music. Aaron Larget-Caplan did a great job: he made the first complete monograph of music by John Cage for classical guitar. Cage has never written for guitar, we know, but this doesn’t really matter to an experimenter of his level. John Cage was one of the most revolutionary musicians of the twentieth century, whose work has been able to broaden the horizons of contemporary music. His innovative spirit, that has considered music as a sound, a sound that is also silence and noise, has been of unparalleled originality. He didn’t believe in the centrality of a single philosophical culture or current, and his use of indeterminacy and chance led to a wider, global relational dimension, rich in oscillations and contaminations between different cultures. The fact that Aaron Larget-Caplan decided to “enter” the structure of Cage’s music and “convert” it for his classical guitar doesn’t detract from the composer’s vision but interpenetrates his work by giving his creations the opportunity to be examined from other points of view. I suggest this record to those who have a mainly “noisy” idea of Cage’s music. These compositions, made between 1933 and 1948 show a much more intimate and even melodic soul and can be an excellent introduction to those who want to approach for the first time to his music. Highly recommended. (NeuGuitars)

This disc, quite properly, knows no fear in its blend of delicacy, complexity and amiable simplicity (MusicWeb International)

John Cage on guitar? Why not? Though the American maverick never wrote explicitly for the instrument, some of his early piano music was adaptable enough for guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan to arrange for his instrument. The results, out now John Cage: Guitar, are often enticing and plenty appealing. Larget-Caplan’s program consists of seven Cage pieces, all of which originated in the 1930s and ‘40s, a couple of which are remarkably prescient. The opener, A Room, for instance, anticipates the Minimalist procedures of a later generation or two. And the prepared-guitar closer, Bacchanale, sounds a couple decades younger than it is, almost like a kind of high-brow anticipation of Jimi Hendrix. In between come Cage’s Three Easy Pieces, which sound like just that: a set of short, contrapuntal exercises that exude not a little bit of charm, especially the central “Duo.” Chess Pieces and Dream are more substantial. The former is adapted from a composition that appears in a 1944 Cage painting while the latter, a ruminative essay, was originally conceived as a dance piece. In a Landscape is another affecting, resonant meditation. Then there are Six Pieces, a set of radiant miniatures for violin and guitar, in which Larget-Caplan’s joined by violinist Sharon Leventhal. Cage’s writing here is highly specific – the violin part, for instance, indicates which string each note is supposed to be played on – but the music itself is anything but restrained, ranging from the quiet ecstasy of “Melody 1” to the jaunty syncopations of “Melody 3” and the subdued glow of “Melody 6.” Larget-Caplan’s performances are excellent. Technically, he’s got everything under control, no matter how involved the arrangements get. What’s more, his playing brims with charisma and understanding: Cage can be a tough composer to really bring to life. Larget-Caplan (and Leventhal, in Six Pieces) manage the feat impressively. (The Artsfuse)

Sonatinas for violin and piano

Related Artists: Fenella Humphreys, Nicola Eimer

Catalogue No: 5060192780826

Reviews

British choral music

Related Artists: Trinity Boys Choir, David Swinson

Catalogue No: 5060192780819

Reviews

Trinity Boys Choir sounded glorious (The Financial Times)

Choral singing of majestic splendour (The Guardian)

Trinity Boys Choir is uncommonly good (The Times)

Trinity Boys Choir couldn’t be bettered (The Daily Telegraph)

A superbly disciplined group in every respect (The Independent)

Classic film lullabies from your childhood

Related Artists: Máire Flavin

Catalogue No: 5060192780802

Reviews

Máire Flavin has a commanding stage presence, and she gave a moving performance of Mimí, beautifully sung. (Opera)

Recital of songs by Georg Schumann (1866-1952)

Related Artists: Mary Nelson, Mark Ford

Catalogue No: 5060192780796

Reviews

Mary Nelson, is surely the ideal interpreter. Mark Ford’s contributions throughout find him as an equal magician, while his booklet notes are expert and add immensely to the pleasure one can gain from this experience. The recording is excellent throughout. Any of these songs would slip perfectly and easily into any self-respecting recital of Romantic Lied. Muscologists, too, might wish to explore or encourage doctoral students to sharpen their pencils (or boot up their iMacs). Strongly recommended. (Fanfare)

The music of Georg Schumann has been making small inroads over the last decade or so, spearheaded by CPO’s exploration of his big orchestral music, though longer ago than that Guild released a disc devoted to his choral music. This is pertinent in the context of this new release because two of the musicians, Mark Ford and Mary Nelson, make a reappearance here on Stone’s ambitious release that includes no fewer than seven song cycles. In the Guild disc Mary Nelson shared solo vocal duties with Geraldine McGreevy and Ford directed The Purcell Singers. Clearly the Schumann bug bit hard because seven years later they recorded the cycles presented here. Schumann’s song cycles date from two concentrated periods, 1895-96 and 1904-06 and all the songs here comes from these periods. He had favourite poets to whom he returned such as Gustav Kastropp and poets whose works form whole cycles; Paul Heyse, author of the Op.35 settings, and Johanna Voigt, three of whose lyrics form the Op.13 set (the ‘Johanna Ambrosius’ set). The ethos is largely Brahmsian as the second song of the Op.10 cycle shows with great ardour though there are brief Schubertian intimations from time to time and elements that hint at ballad-like Loewe. The expressive temperature of the cycles shits definably. The five songs that form the Op.11 set are more withdrawn than the Op.10 set, a wistfulness cemented by the piano commentaries though the final song establishes equability via some droll charm; an oddly affirmatory end to a set that is predominantly wistful. He is more than capable of simple, direct settings such as the Wiegenlied that ends the three Op.16 settings, whereas he is also convincing in his more extended contemplative songs, such as form the bulk of Op.35. The probing and exciting Drunten auf der Gassen is one of his best songs, full of drama even in the context of these Mädchenlieder. Indeed, the most notable thing about the Op.35 set is the way in which the temperature moves from muted to rapturous; convincing psychology and successful composition. The two Op.46 songs are quietly melancholic, the second exhibiting another of Schumann’s gifts, which is for eloquent piano postludes, and the concise Op.48 set reprises those elements of brisk characterisation that mark out the majority of his songs. Sometimes, rarely, the soprano line can take the singer high, sometimes uncomfortably and ungratefully so, but in the main this is not a consideration. Nelson is a thoughtful interpreter and Ford an imaginative pianist and they have been well recorded. Those on the lookout for harmonically rich late Romantic songs that draw on an axis point around Brahms, Strauss (there are some echoes along the way), Liszt and as far back as Schubert might care to lend an ear to this body of music. (MusicWeb International)

English song cycles by Finzi and Vaughan Williams

Related Artists: Colin Judson, Richard Black

Catalogue No: 5060192780789

Reviews

Colin Judson’s clarion tenor shines as both the Schoolmaster and, briefly, a bloodlust-crazed Mosquito, eyeing up Hrůša for juiciness (Gramophone)

A recital of songs by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

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Related Artists: Anush Hovhannisyan, Yuriy Yurchuk, Sergey Rybin

Catalogue No: 5060192780772

Reviews

With the exception of The Nightingale and the Rose, Rimsky’s art songs are less well known than they deserve, so it is astute of Stone to present two rising young artists in a disc entirely devoted to these beautiful Romances. The Armenian Hovhannisyan wraps her bright, sensuous soprano around this famous number, but it is the Ukrainian baritone Yurchuk’s wonderful legato and superb Russian delivery that make this collection irresistible. (Sunday Times)

Sacred songs, hymns and meditations by Holst, Rubbra and Vaughan Williams

Related Artists: Lawrence Wiliford, Marie Bérard, Keith Hamm, Steven Philcox

Catalogue No: 5060192780765

Reviews

Wiliford sings beautifully in what one might call the ‘Aldeburgh style.’ It’s light, clear, sensitive and every word is clearly audible…it does the music full justice. (Opera Canada)

The latest in tenor Lawrence Wiliford’s extensive discography is O Gladsome Light, released on Stone Records; the album is a collection of sacred songs by Gustav Holst, his friend and colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams, and his composition pupil Edmund Rubbra. “This project was largely inspired by my upbringing in the church (my father and mother are both pastors) and my musically formative years singing sacred works in the American Boychoir and the St. Olaf Choir.” O Gladsome Light groups together some of Canada’s best in song and chamber music. Wiliford is joined by pianist Stephen Philcox, frequent recital partner of the tenor’s and co-founder of the Canadian Art Song Project, violinist Marie Bérard, and violist Keith Hamm, both members of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. They play in varied combinations, and throughout the album the four musicians create a sound that is timeless and almost pan-stylistic, a beautiful and eerie effect. Wiliford’s own upbringing, strongly rooted in the church, is perhaps why O Gladsome Light is full of gorgeous surprises, no predictable survey of sacred music. The songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams are well-known among art song lovers, yet his Four Hymns for Tenor, piano and Viola are rarer gems. Philcox begins the set with a dreamy piano sound, and the set seems to fill out boldly, boasting a symphonic sound that belies the small ensemble. Rare and welcome too are the songs by Gustav Holst, a composer perhaps better known for his orchestral work. His Four Songs for Voice and Violin are haunting, with a sound that could be from any place, at any time. The simplicity of combining voice and strings – the purity of the harmonies and of Wiliford’s assured tone – feels like a nod to a very old tradition. The songs by Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986) are the real find in this album. His sound is unique, and his is style that’s difficult to place, but eventually emerges as English – yet with an edge. The selections of O Gladsome Light are dense in meaning, and the interpretation by Wiliford is magnetic. There’s humility in Rubbra’s Rune of Hospitality, the rock of a lullaby in A Duan of Barra, and something beautifully feminine about Jesukin. In a lovely nod to Rubbra’s versatility as a composer, the album includes two moving solo pieces: his Variations on a Phrygian Theme for solo violin (played by Marie Bérard), and Meditations on a Byzantine Hymn for solo viola (played by Keith Hamm). Throughout this album, Wiliford’s sound is strong yet gentle, always thoughtful. O Gladsome Light is a carefully crafted album that shows the tenor’s constant attention to detail, from the research and curation of this inspired collection of repertoire, to the music-making itself. (Schmopera)

That tenor Lawrence Wiliford’s voice is perfectly suited to English repertoire is clearly illustrated on this recording. In songs and hymns by Gustav Holst, his lesser-known student Edmund Rubbra and contemporary Ralph Vaughan Williams, Wiliford displays his gift for expressiveness, sensitivity to text and challengingly high tessitura. These qualities were assimilated through his experiences singing in the church since boyhood, roles in Canadian Opera Company productions and as co-founder of the Canadian Art Song Project along with pianist Steven Philcox (who also accompanies beautifully on this recording). Because Rubbra is relatively unknown, we are grateful for the singer’s inclusion of transcendent modal songs such as The Mystery and Rosa Mundi as well as Meditations on a Byzantine Hymn for solo viola played sublimely by Keith Hamm and Variations on a Phrygian Theme for solo violin on which Marie Bérard displays her signature sweetness of tone. (Both Hamm and Bérard are members of the COC orchestra.) Also of note from Rubbra is Hymn to the Virgin and Jesukin. Upon first hearing, I spent several minutes searching through liner notes for the name of the harpist. In fact, Rubbra had cleverly composed his accompaniment by the use of spread piano chords, resulting in a “harp-like rendition” played so rockingly gentle by Philcox that one is easily lulled and thus bewildered, but happily so. (The Whole Note)

This Canadian tenor has the kind of voice that could convince rock ’n’ roll fans to give art song and even opera a fair shake. Unlike the many classically trained singers who sacrifice texts on the altar of sound, Wiliford adds to his skillfully modulated purity of tone a clarity of diction that makes what he’s singing easy to understand. So although the printed lyrics of these 19 exquisite “sacred songs, hymns and meditations by Holst, Rubbra and Vaughan Williams” (the subtitle) are included, you won’t need them. (World Magazine)

Wiliford has become a matchless artist (The Globe and Mail)