from the British Music Society
News, reviews & features
New BMS recording: Howells piano music volume 2
Pianist Matthew Schellhorn has announced that his new album of Howells piano music (volume 2) will be released on 2 December…
Busy season for Madeleine
Violinist Madeliene Mitchell reports on her busy season of festivals and music courses in Italy, France and Wales…
New RVW album released
An album of less well-known works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and featuring Mark Bebbington is due to be released by Resonus Classics in early December…
Help revive Shamus O’Brien
BMS members may be interested to know of a forthcoming project to record Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s most famous and popular opera, Shamus O’Brien…
Music and the British Monarchy
The Spectator has published an interesting article tracing the influence and involvement of the British monarchy on British music over the centuries…
CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD: Cushendall
This is surely the first time that these song cycles, five of them, have been put together on a CD, and it is a very good idea to share them between two fine singers who have ideal voices for this repertoire…
CHROMOSPHERE
Each of the five composers inhabits a different sound world, so there is a variety of contrasting musical idioms which makes for a satisfying listen, even all in one sitting.
RICHARD BLACKFORD: Songs of Nadia Anjuman
Richard Blackford has chosen a group of poems which vividly expresses the stark contrasts in Anjuman’s own life. The joy in her own creativity, black despair at the absence of personal freedom, and even the possibility of self-destruction…
Remembering Karel Janovicky
The Czech composer Karel Janovicky died in London recently at the age of 93. Karel lived in London most of his life, having fled his home country – then Czechoslovakia…
RAVEL, BERKELEY & POUNDS
An odd sort of programme? Well, no. The link is that Berkeley received informal lessons from Ravel and Pounds from Berkeley…