Jun 19, 2024 | CD reviews
Lumas Winds Champs Hill Records CHRCD170 The five players are recent graduates of the Royal Academy, and the Royal College of Music. They were winners of the 2023 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition. They are lively group of excellent players who bring much...
Jun 18, 2024 | CD reviews
James Gilchrist tenorAnna Tilbrook Piano CHANDOS 20322 When I opened the packaging for this disc, I suspected that much of music would also be found on one of my favourite discs of English songs, that by Anthony Rolfe-Johnson with Lisa Milne and others, on Naxos...
Jun 18, 2024 | CD reviews
BBC PhilharmonicJohn Wilson conductor CHANDOS 20292 Volume 1 of Coates’ orchestral music was issued in 2019, and now, five years on, we have reached volume 4. As has been the custom, significant works are interleaved with shorter lighter ones, thus providing a...
Jun 13, 2024 | CD reviews
Martin Roscoe pianoKathryn Stott pianoBBC Philharmonic OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraGeorge Lloyd conductor LYRITA SRCD 2421 3 The piano was not George Lloyd’s instrument and thus he came to writing piano concertos later in his life. The composition of the four...
May 28, 2024 | CD reviews
Plus Songs and Folk song arrangements Mary Lewis, Tudor Davies, etcBritish National Opera CompanyMalcolm Sargent conductor Albion Records ALBCD060 The operas of Vaughan Williams have never gained a permanent place in the repertory, which is a pity. Hugh the Drover,...
May 28, 2024 | CD reviews
Plus Variations for Strings and Double Concerto for Violin and Viola Sara Trickey violinSarah-Jane Bradley violaEnglish Symphony OrchestraEnglish String OrchestraKenneth Woods conductor Nimbus Alliance NI 6382 Kenneth Woods, conductor of the English Symphony...
May 28, 2024 | CD reviews
Rarities for Recorder (two CDs) John Turner recorderStephen Bettaney pianoLaura Robinson recorderCatherine Yates violaAlex Mitchell viola DIVINE ART ddx 21245 John Turner is the doyen of British recorder players, having premièred some 600 works. He continues to...
May 27, 2024 | CD reviews
Symphony No 3, Songs of Loss and Regret, Fanfare April Fredrick sopranoEnglish Symphony OrchestraEnglish String OrchestraKenneth Woods conductor Philip Sawyers’ Third Symphony of (so far) six symphonies was completed in 2016, and it is a muscular work rooted in tonal...
