Bringing Britain’s musical heritage alive
Founded in 1979, the British Music Society is dedicated to promoting and preserving Britain’s musical heritage with particular emphasis on 20th century composers through recordings, publications and events
Latest features & reviews
BEAUTY VEIL’D: Dare, Howell, Matthay, McEwen
Marie Dare is a new name to me; if her Phantasy Quintet starts with a surging Baxian theme, it soon relaxes into something rather more suave and loosely pastoral, with a hint of Ravel’s airy textures…
Review: Opera North – Earth & Sky
A field of butterflies on the Pennine Moors, ethereal poetry and fascinating music in your ears as you explore the wild landscape above Haworth in West Yorkshire…
INCANDESCENT INCANTATIONS: Works for solo violin & reciter
In the field of music for solo violin and speaker, Alan Ridout’s Ferdinand the Bull has roamed, largely unchallenged, for over 50 years. The two commissions here that attempt to rectify the balance are therefore to be commended…
AND THE BLACKBIRD SANG: Choral Music
An invigorating issue of fascinating material, Excalibur Voices are a well-balanced ensemble whose phrasing, if not always the tidiest, is natural and musical…
PIANO QUINTETS: Godfrey, Hodgson, Walthew, McCabe
Percy Godfrey? No, me neither; but this 1900 Piano Quintet is quite the find. The first movement surges with full-bodied invention…
THE BLESSED DAMOZEL: Songs of Arnold Box
It is tempting to reverse the customary credits to read ‘for piano and baritone’ as Mozart and Beethoven used to do with their violin sonatas, since Paula Fan certainly earns the title of ‘collaborative pianist’ here…