A CELLO GALAXY: British Women Composers

Jun 25, 2025 | CD reviews

Catherine Wilmers cello Jill Morton piano  DIVINE ART DDX 21134 Whilst listening to the middle movement, a set of variations in the 1899 Cello Sonata by Amy Horrocks (d.1919) I found myself asking, why don’t we know this music? The whirlwind finale is also captivating...

The Changing World of Recorded Music

Jun 25, 2025 | Features

Where have we come from and where are we going? Do you remember when CDs first appeared in the record shops? Did you have conversations about which was better: CD’s or Vinyl – or even cassettes? Today the discussions seem to be centred around the relative merits...

BLISS: The Composer Conducts

Jun 24, 2025 | CD reviews

A Fiftieth anniversary Tribute SOMM ARIADNE 5039-2 [2CDs] Sir Arthur Bliss was an excellent conductor of his own music, but surprisingly he made very few commercial recordings. SOMM here celebrates the 50th anniversary of his death with a 2-CD set of archive...

Obituary: Garry Humphreys

Jun 24, 2025 | News

22 February 1946 – 7 May 2025 Garry Humphreys ALA, FGMS, FRSA – baritone, conductor, writer, researcher, and business librarian – was born in Nottingham and grew up in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. He was adopted at birth, by the couple with whom his...

Remembering Anthony Gilbert

Jun 22, 2025 | Features

Jack Van Zandt looks back on the life of composer Anthony Gilbert who died two years ago July 5th marks the second anniversary of the passing of celebrated composer and longtime Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) composition professor Anthony ‘Tony’ Gilbert...

THOMAS PITFIELD: Orchestral Music

Jun 22, 2025 | CD reviews

Liepaja Symphony OrchestraPaul Mann conductorEmma McGrath violin Toccata Classics TOCC 0765 [75] This important release builds on the success of the recordings of Thomas Pitfield’s chamber and vocal music that recently appeared on the Divine Art label. With the...

Bite-Back: it’s not a second hand book!

Jun 20, 2025 | News

I am grateful to Dr Strachan for his generally favourable and fair review of my book: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: English Composer (26 May 2025 | Book reviews). In his review it was good to read relevant and amusing information on, for instance, Parry, that was new to...

BRIAN ANDREW INGLIS: To Byzantium and Beyond

Jun 20, 2025 | CD reviews

Elizabeth Knatt & Rachel Barnes recorders KAIROS 0022034KAI The two electronic pieces on this fascinating disc might be described as mood music of the kind that is regularly encountered on Radio 3’s Night Tracks. I found the shortest, Burmese Memory, to be the...

Panufnik Legacies IV

Jun 20, 2025 | CD reviews

London Symphony OrchestraJack Sheen conductor LSO LIVE 5135 This is the fourth CD resulting from the LSO’s Discovery programme showcasing new composers, guided by Colin Matthews (whose own mastery of orchestration was doubtless most useful). Most of the figures...

July release for one act opera

Jun 19, 2025 | News

The Parlour, an opera in one act by Grace Williams, will be released on 4 July. The Arts Council’s Welsh Committee approached Grace Williams in 1959 with the offer of a commission to write a one-act opera. The composer turned to the French satirist Guy de Maupassant’s...