Sep 18, 2024 | CD reviews
Ex CathedraJeffrey Skidmore director Métier MEX 77125 Liz Dilnot Johnson has been composer-in-residence with Ex Cathedra since 2021. As well as choral music, her activities have included writing for film, dance, opera, vocal and orchestral works. This recording...
Aug 26, 2024 | CD reviews
Brian Thornsett tenorRichard Masters piano EMR Records CD087 Do you read poetry and if so, do you read Tennyson? He was extremely popular a few generations ago, but now? His most famous poems are Maud (1855) and In Memoriam (1850), an elegy on the death of his friend...
Aug 26, 2024 | CD reviews
BBC PhilharmonicBen Gernon conductorXiayin Wang piano Chandos 20341 Gerard Schurmann was born in Java in January 1924, so in this, his centenary year, Chandos have brought out a disc of four fascinating works complementing their first Schurmann recording in 1980 (CHAN...
Aug 26, 2024 | CD reviews
BBC Philharmonic OrchestraAlbany Symphony Orchestra Lyrita SRCD 2418 Lloyd’s seventh symphony ‘Proserpine’ of 1959 is a long three movement work opening with the joyful dancing side of life, beginning with a repeated xylophone anticipating John Adams’ Short ride in a...
Aug 19, 2024 | CD reviews
Plus String Chamber Music Divine Art ddx 21246Divine Art ddx 21137 Here are three discs celebrating the musical accomplishment of Thomas Pitfield and his contemporaries. Thomas Pitfield (1903–1999) was a largely self-taught as a composer, but he was also an...
Aug 15, 2024 | CD reviews
Mahler Chamber OrchestraGeorge Benjamin conductor Nimbus N18116 At little more than an hour and a bit it was no hardship to watch Picture a Day Like This twice at the Royal Opera Studio last year, although this recording is actually from the Aix-en-Provence première....
