from the British Music Society
News, reviews & features
Appreciation of classical music hits six year peak
The proportion of UK adults who enjoy exploring classical music at home has hit a six-year peak, according to new figures from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra…
New book charts life of distinguished musician
In Time to Declare: My Life in Church Music, the distinguished organist and choral conductor Martin Neary offers an extraordinary journey through his life in music…
Choir of King’s College to release new Christmas album
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, is to release a new Christmas album featuring a selection of arrangements and original works for choir and orchestra…
Bite-Back: selling CDs as recorded music evolves
After reading our recent article about the changing world of recorded music, a BMS member asks how to sell a CD collection…
Concert celebrates Bradford’s forgotten composer
The life and music of the forgotten Bradford composer Frederic Cliffe will be remembered at a special concert taking place next month…
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphonies 5 & 9
There is (of course) the dreaded acoustic of the Barbican Concert Hall to contend with, but especially in No 5 I felt the engineers had done very well in presenting the music clearly and atmospherically…
TIPPETT, BRITTEN & WALTON
A beautifully recorded disc, and an intriguing programme, with some superb playing…
EDWARD COWIE: Because They Have Songs
Why do birds sing? – Because They Have Songs.’ Edward Cowie takes that answer from an African text as the title for the fourth in his series of compositions inspired by birdsong…
BLISS: Miracle in the Gorbals | Metamorphic Variations
Well – in a word, this is superb. You only need to listen to the opening of the ballet to hear timpani thwacks which, were you playing the recording on an LP, would have the stylus jumping out of the groove…
BEAUTY VEIL’D: Dare, Howell, Matthay, McEwen
Marie Dare is a new name to me; if her Phantasy Quintet starts with a surging Baxian theme, it soon relaxes into something rather more suave and loosely pastoral, with a hint of Ravel’s airy textures…