Jun 19, 2025 | CD reviews
By C.W. Orr and his contemporaries Ben Alden tenor Andrew Plant piano CD available at www.ben-alden.com The background to this disc is given in its subtitle ‘A celebration of love and the English Landscape underpinned by the poetry of...
Jun 19, 2025 | CD reviews
Ensemble RezaThe Barefaced Violas CLAUDIO Contemporary CC6054-2 Unfoldings, the 10th volume of music by Barry Mills (b. 1949) contains five String Quartets, one String Quintet (an extra viola) and one Viola Quartet. The overall title Unfoldings, comes from the final...
Jun 19, 2025 | CD reviews
Melbourne Symphony OrchestraJaime Martin conductor MSO 0003 It is now 25 years since Colin Matthews produced his masterful Pluto, the Renewer to append to Holst’s wondrous score. In his second recording of the main work (2006), Simon Rattle also added four more...
Jun 17, 2025 | CD reviews
English String OrchestraEnglish Symphony OrchestraBBC National Orchestra of WalesWilliam Boughton conductor NIMBUS RECORDS NI 1712 This is a budget-priced four-disc set in celebration of the conductor’s distinguished career. The tracks were recorded in different...
Jun 17, 2025 | CD reviews
Alexander Baillie celloJohn Thwaites piano SOMM CD 0704 This disc of Bax’s complete music for cello and piano takes its title from the thematic links between that orchestral work and his Cello Sonata. This is a big serious piece; its earnest first movement has...
Jun 17, 2025 | CD reviews
London Choral SinfoniaMichael Waldron conductor Orchid Classics ORC100362 It would be hard to overstate the pleasure that this revelatory disc has afforded, and unfamiliarity with the works in question should hinder no-one from obtaining a copy with alacrity. The...
May 27, 2025 | CD reviews
Welsh National Opera CompanyWelsh National Opera ChorusCity of Birmingham Symphony OrchestraBrian Balkwill conductor LYRITA REAM.1147 Grace Williams’ solitary stage work is based on a short story by Guy Maupassant, En famille, and it is presented here in an excellent...
