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

The sound is clear and alive, the presentation exactly what one would want … Kynoch’s accompaniments are beautifully sensitive, flexible and transparent throughout, and all three singers engage intelligently with the texts … These are all refreshing and unfailingly engaging performances (Gramophone)

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)

An exemplary group, perfectly balanced, warmly focussed and totally committed to this deliciously attractive music (Gramophone)

Excellent discipline and well blended ensemble under the guiding spirit of conductor Mark Ford (BBC Music)

A musical triumph (American Choral Review)

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)

Settings of poems by Emily Dickinson

Related Artists: Nadine Benjamin, Nicole Panizza

Catalogue No: 5060192780864

Reviews

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)

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)

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

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

Catalogue No: 5060192780840

Reviews

Sonatinas for violin and piano

Related Artists: Fenella Humphreys, Nicola Eimer

Catalogue No: 5060192780826

Reviews

Christmas music from Ardingly College

Related Artists: Ardingly College Schola Cantorum, Richard Stafford

Catalogue No: 5060192780857

Reviews

John Cage’s music arranged for guitar

WATCH VIDEO

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)

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)

Settings of sonnets by Britten, Liszt, Dankworth & Ellington

Related Artists: Daniel Norman, Christopher Gould

Catalogue No: 5060192780734

Reviews

PRAISE FOR NORMAN & GOULD’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)

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)

WATCH VIDEO

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)

Hits from the golden age of Broadway musicals

Related Artists: Rodney Earl Clarke, Christopher Gould

Catalogue No: 5060192780758

Reviews

The songs are performed throughout in an excellent style … always in fine vocal form … When a greatly gifted singer lends their artistry to such vocally-rewarding music as this, the result is a disc of much pleasure – which is what, surely, it was intended to be – and when partnered by the excellent Christopher Gould, one can only urge the disc’s acquisition. Comprehensively recommended (Musical Opinion)

Works by living composer Michael Stimpson, inspired by Charles Darwin

WATCH VIDEO

Related Artists: Michael Stimpson, Maya Iwabuchi, Tom Poster, Stuart Stratford

Catalogue No: 5060192780741

Reviews

PRAISE FOR STIMPSON’S JESSE OWENS:

CRITICS CHOICE – Jesse Owens (1913–1980), the legendary African–American track-and-field athlete, grew up in poverty in Alabama but went on to win four gold medals—an unprecedented achievement—at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. (This reportedly displeased Hitler, who expected the Games to be a display of Aryan athletic superiority.) British composer Michael Stimpson’s opera about Owens is represented here by five tracks of incidental music for full orchestra, and eight songs in reductions for soprano, baritone, and piano. The songs provide a good overview of both Jesse’s triumphs and his struggles. Stimpson’s expressive, immediately accessible music reveals hints of the blues and period popular music, but mostly it has a firm classical grounding, evoking the dignity and historical importance of Owens’s life and achievements. The haunting and mournful “Home” starts with a slow, steady bass ostinato as the middle-aged Jesse (baritone Johnny Herford) and his wife Minnie (soprano Abigail Kelly) pay tribute to Jesse’s hardworking father, who could barely make ends meet as a sharecropper. Both Herford and Kelly sing with stirring dramatic depth, and they blend well. Next comes a bouncy, breathlessly flirty number as young Jesse and Minnie meet in junior high school; Herford and Kelly do a nice job of lightening their voices to play the kids. The third number, “Minnie’s Song,” is a standout, set in the wistful mode of G harmonic minor, as she contemplates what exactly she loves in Jesse. Kelly gives an arresting, well-controlled performance of this gentle but emotionally probing number, all the way up to a very expressive high C. She also has a strong turn as the ghost of Luz Long, a German athlete who helped Jesse prepare for his long jump event. “Jim Crowe” (with Kelly singing the part of Jesse’s coach) features some affecting duet singing about “them poplar trees” that make no judgments about a person’s skin color. “Four world records” begins as an excited family scene just after Jesse’s historic showing at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships in 1935. It ends, however, much more fraught, as Jesse reflects, “It all counts for nothing / If the battle over myself ain’t the battle I win.” “Money lies” covers some of the indignities Jesse suffered upon returning home after his Olympic wins. Disappointment and domestic strife are treated with encroaching dissonance and starker textures. Despite unusual passages like this, all the deliberately paced, tonally similar laments run together after a while; as a result, the closing duet, “The empty stadium,” doesn’t have the impact it should. The five tracks of incidental music, however—sumptuously played by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Stuart Stratford—indicate that the complete work contains plenty of variety. This collection thus proves to be a good argument for a complete recording of the full opera. The five Preludes In Our Time, performed nimbly by the skilled and sensitive pianist Megumi Fujita (who is also the pianist for the vocal selections), offer further evidence of Stimpson’s versatility, and some welcome forays into rhythmically and harmonically spikier territory. (Opera News)

Live recording from the world-famous Oxford Lieder Festival

Related Artists: Sophie Daneman, Julius Drake

Catalogue No: 5060192780727

Reviews

Daneman’s graceful direction contributed to the splendid effects in both entertainments. A world-class soprano and stage director, she moved her singers behind and among the musicians, while understanding what the former are capable of, and the latter are comfortable with. (Seen and Heard)