May 27, 2025 | CD reviews
Emma McGrath violinLiepaja Symphony OrchestraPaul Mann conductor Toccata Classics TOCC 0765 Pitfield supporters during his lifetime boasted Sir John Barbirolli, David Ellis (Head of Music for Radio 3 North), Leo Black (BBC Radio 3 producer), as well as many...
May 26, 2025 | Book reviews, Reviews
Simon Webb The Langley Press This book is probably best regarded as a short (98 pages) introduction to the life and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. It is written mainly from the perspective of Coleridge-Taylor’s status as a black composer in Victorian...
May 26, 2025 | CD reviews
The Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge Benjamin Sheen director CRD 3558 This release from Jesus College, Cambridge celebrates the choral music that has been written for the college choir. Several items are being recorded for the first time. Some of the lyricists...
May 26, 2025 | CD reviews
The Choir of Bath AbbeyHuw Williams Director CRD 3556 This CD is being issued to mark the 125th anniversary of the Bath Abbey Boys Choir. The programme is an enterprising blend of well-known choral items with others which are much less familiar. Given the nature of...
May 24, 2025 | CD reviews
Duncan Honeybourne piano HERITAGE HTGCD 132 Slowly the music of Thomas Pitfield is emerging from obscurity: following occasional recordings there has recently been a critical biography, and a two-CD set of his chamber works from the admirable Heritage label; while a...
May 23, 2025 | CD reviews
The Choir of Buckfast Abbey Matthew Searles Director Ad Fontes 014 In his Introduction to this disc the Abbot of Buckfast, Rt. Rev. David Charlesworth OSB, explains the rationale for this recording. The feast of Corpus Christi was instituted in the reign of Pope Urban...
May 23, 2025 | CD reviews
Hallé OrchestraThomas Adès conductor SIEMENS CD HLL 7567 This, above all, is a showcase for the Hallé, who play with brilliance and authority in these kaleidoscopic scores. Their titles may suggest that they are all programmatic in a sense, although in the case of...
May 23, 2025 | CD reviews
Nicholas Daniel Oboe Adam Walker Flute Amy Harman BassoonAntonio Oyarzábal Piano CHANDOS 20344 By a happy accident just a few days before this CD plopped on my doormat, I had heard an excellent performance of Dring’s Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano in Hereford. It had...
