Sheffield music hub awarded £3.5m funding

Sheffield music hub awarded £3.5m funding

Plans to transform a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield city centre into a new music hub for the region has been boosted by £3.5m of funding from Arts Council England. The grant has been awarded to music education charity Harmony Works, and follows an award of...
STEPHEN GOSS: Landscape and Memory

STEPHEN GOSS: Landscape and Memory

DEUX-ELLES DXL 1202 (3 Discs) This is a hugely rewarding issue by one of the most innovative and appealing composers of our time, and is highly recommended. Most pieces here (but not all) include guitar, reflecting Goss’s distinguished career as performer and academic...
MARTIN BUSSEY: A Brother Abroad

MARTIN BUSSEY: A Brother Abroad

Marcus Farnsworth baritoneAlison Rose sopranoMartin Bussey conductor RESONUS RES10350  Peter of Bologna (c1260-1332), Suffragan Bishop of Corbavia (in Croatia) ministered across Europe and spent the last 15 years of his life in England. He dedicated Pinner Parish...
GAVIN HIGGINS: The Faerie Bride / Horn Concerto

GAVIN HIGGINS: The Faerie Bride / Horn Concerto

BBC National Orchestra of WalesJaime Martin, Martyn Brabbins conductorsLyrita SRCD440 [2 CDs]Born in 1983 in the Forest of Dean, Gavin Higgins has been composer in association with the BBC NOW. His multi-award-winning works are not part of the avant-garde but grow out...
Versatile musician Elgar Howarth dies aged 89

Versatile musician Elgar Howarth dies aged 89

We regret to inform members of the death on January 13th of the versatile musician, Elgar Howarth.  A trumpeter, composer and later, conductor of repute, he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music  (as it was then called) where his fellow students...
BMS AGM 2025

BMS AGM 2025

The BMS AGM will be held on Saturday 22nd February 2025 in St Barnabas Church, Pitshanger Lane, Ealing at 5.30pm – in the break between Ealing Symphony Orchestra’s rehearsal and the concert which starts at 7pm. The ESO concert opens with Ruth Gipps...
TOM COULT: Pieces That Disappear

TOM COULT: Pieces That Disappear

BBC Philharmonic Elena Schwarz, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Gourlay conductors NMC NMCD261 Tom Coult, born in London in 1988, has had considerable success in a variety of musical genres and is currently composer in association with the BBC Philharmonic. That...
LEIGHTON/VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: That Sweet City

LEIGHTON/VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: That Sweet City

Rowan Atkinson narratorChoir of The Queen’s College, OxfordBritten Sinfonia SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD917 I imagine that for a lot of our members this issue, with its headline title That Sweet City, will be self-recommending. The fact that it is also an outstanding...
PAMELA HARRISON: Lonely Landscape

PAMELA HARRISON: Lonely Landscape

Royal Welsh Chamber Players James Gilchrist  tenorAlice Neary cello  Jâms Coleman piano RESONUS 10351 This is now the second disc to come my way, from the enterprising Resonus label, of chamber music by Pamela Harrison (1915-1990.)  The first was RES10313. This time...
BRITISH CELLO WORKS VOL. 3

BRITISH CELLO WORKS VOL. 3

Hurlstone, Swinstead, Carwithen, Bridge Lionel Handy celloJennifer Walsh piano LYRITA SRCD 441 This is actually the fourth Lyrita disc from these artists and it brings us a sheaf of recorded premières and one ‘near-staple’. Hurlstone’s 1899 Sonata steps out with...