A first-class production of absorbing music.

Following their final William Byrd album’s accolade of Record of the Year in the 2010 Gramophone Awards – only once before bestowed on an early music disc – The Cardinall’s Musick boldly go where many, many choirs have gone before. In his informative liner note, Andrew Carwood elucidates the convoluted history of the familiar modern version of Allegri’s Miserere and the happy mistranscription of that stratospheric C (here sung by a soprano). He doesn’t explain, however, why his interpretation is pitched close to a semitone higher than any other I’ve heard on record or in concert. No matter. It’s not a cheap thrill but rather a rare and radiant pleasure. The vocal sound is enveloping, though the recording is a little distant and the reverb doesn’t seem entirely natural to the church acoustic. Even the most exposed moments of vocal counterpoint are lush and well nigh flawless. Readings by The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen are more measured, as if in a solemn procession, but The Cardinall’s Musick take a more supple, refreshing approach. The main event on this disc is Missa cantantibus organis, a collaborative… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber?…

Leslie Howard’s 99-CD set of Liszt’s piano music has recast the Liszt problem for 2011: it’s not that his music is underrated, misconstrued or maligned, it’s that most of it simply hasn’t been heard. With this CD of rarely programmed works, Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire makes his own compellingly listenable – and relatively concise – case for why there’s more to Liszt than Liebestraum. However, not all the pieces on the disc are lost gems. Freire opts for one of the least played Hungarian Rhapsodies, the thanklessly stark No 3, which he imbues with a sensitivity the piece probably does not merit. More worthy of revival is the Ballade No 2. This is a fierce and entertaining tussle of Sturm vs Drang, a more rhetorical and grandiloquent work than any of Chopin’s four, but with a lyrical middle section to rival any by the Polish composer (who dubbed Liszt “a clever craftsman without a vestige… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Dutch singer Caro Emerald holds the record for the longest time at No 1 on the Netherlands pop charts. But Deleted Scenes has even more impressive things to recommend it. Emerald has taken the sound world of 1920s Chicago and given it a slick, studio sound of today. So you could use it to dance the Charleston, or the krump, or whatever it is the kids do nowadays. I can handle the electronic beats, but the synthesized horns really cheapen this recording. But all in all, a delightful bit of Eurotrash to titillate fans of Helen Kane, Fats Waller and maybe even Amy Winehouse. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This CD shows tenor David Hobson in his most appealing guise – as a purveyor of song. From pop (Roy Orbison’s Crying) to showtunes (The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha) to folk (O Waly Waly), Hobson is very comfortable in an idiom he describes in the liner notes as his “second home”. There is a natural ease to his voice and delivery that makes him compare very favourably to the likes of crossover crooners such as Clay Aiken and Russell Watson. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Grammy-winning vocalist describes this album as “definitive” Kurt Elling. One thing’s for certain: his move to producer Don Was results in a more highly produced album, featuring layered backing vocals and other effects which, in a way, detract from Elling’s natural “wow factor”. Even more assured, however, with a maturing grainy crackle around the edges, are the highlights of The Gate – two songs only six years apart in birthdate, but poles apart in DNA – the Davis/Evans Blue in Green and the Lennon/McCartney Norwegian Wood. Laurence Hobgood remains a prized collaborator and foil. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

For those who have followed Jane Monheit’s career since she was a 20-year-old runner-up to Teri Thornton in the 1998 Thelonious Monk Institute vocal competition (Roberta Gambarini was third), this is the album we have been waiting for. At 33, eleven years after her recording debut, she has come of age as a jazz singer. This shows in her sense of dynamics and the confident way she tackles a lyric – with a voice like a shot of whiskey and honey. Her scat singing, especially, befits someone who cites Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé among her early influences. There are many highlights: the spirited feistiness of Everything I Have is Yours with Mark O’Connor’s violin; plumbing the emotional depths in I’ll Be Around; and the romanticism of There’s a Small Hotel with lovely piano by Michael Kanan. They all show she’s the real deal. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Vincent D’Indy wrote a bucketload of music in his productive lifetime, much of which is now forgotten. If one knows music by this composer then it is likely to be his tone poem, Ishtar, or the Symphony on a French Mountain Air, a quasi-piano concerto that is arguably the best thing he ever wrote. He was a mover and shaker in French music. A passionate Wagnerite, he attended the premiere of the Ring Cycle, and Wagner’s influence can be heard in his music. If a case can be made for D’Indy’s lushly attractive (if discursive) music, then Maestro Gamba can do it. His collaborator in this adventure is the Iceland Symphony: a fine ensemble that delivers all that the conductor asks of it, playing the music with sensitivity and a… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Two decades have passed since Latvia achieved independence but we are still hearing a “singing revolution”.

Geoffrey Simon’s London Sound series started many years ago with the first London Cello Sound. This unlikely idea (since adopted by many others) simply took one instrument, multiplied it by 8, 12 or 16, and produced an orchestra of instrumental siblings. We’ve had three or four cello discs, as well as discs of nothing but trumpets, horns, violas (there’s revenge for you), violins, basses and now harps – at least eleven discs so far. In this latest offering there are no fewer than 16 of these magnificent instruments – each one an orchestra in its own right – playing really clever arrangements of everything from Edith Piaf (and no they don’t regret it) to music originally written for the instrument. Of course this stuff must be played at the highest level to work, and so it is. The players are some of the world’s finest, from Skaila Kanga, Professor Emerita of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music and Principal Harp of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, to Virginie Gout-Zschäbitz, solo harp at Deutsche Oper Berlin, who also… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

These are invigorating accounts of three Mozart string quartets that neatly encapsulate the history of his writing for this musical medium. Mozart’s string quartets fall into three major brackets of works spread over 17 or 18 years, each represented here. The first quartet K157 in C major dates from 1772, when Mozart was just 17 years old. The quartet form was undergoing rapid development at this stage and Mozart, fresh from his musical explorations across Europe, was brimming with ideas. His youthful zest is already tempered by deep reflection, as shown in the astonishing depth of the Allegro which makes up the first movement. His prodigious development as a musician is reflected in the clutch of works known as the “Haydn” quartets. Here is Mozart in 1784, not quite 30 but already in his full maturity as a composer. The performance here of the Hunt quartet (K458) shows why this bracket of quartets is regarded as the finest he ever wrote. Mozart evidently thought he had pretty well exhausted his explorations of the genre, for although he was later commissioned… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Lavish collections of Australian composers’ orchestral work are sadly all too rare, making this is a disc to be treasured. It contains four substantial works by Richard Mills written over a two-decade period, beginning with 1989’s Bamaga Diptych and progressing chronologically to 2008’s Symphony of Nocturnes. Richard Mills has long enjoyed a multifaceted career; he first rose through the ranks of the orchestra as a percussionist before making a name as a composer and conductor. His commitment to Australian music has been profound, cemented recently by his exhaustive 20-disc Australian Composers Series leading the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, so the dedicated focus here on his own music is well deserved. The works here are classic Mills: sweeping and confident, full of malleable shapes and exotic turns of phrase. His renowned magic as an orchestrator is abundant here, with bold colours reminiscent of Ravel and Stravinsky shining… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in