James Wood is an English percussionist, composer and conductor; he is also a musicologist and instrument designer. Tongues of Fire is a large-scale work for choir and percussion quartet that weaves together an extraordinary range of cultural forms and ideas, from Latin-American Spanish to the works of Hildegard of Bingen, in order to mystically evoke New Testament descriptions of Pentecost. Wood’s expertise in percussion is evident in the musical representation of tongues of fire and rushing wind, in addition to the symbolic import of choral parts in eight different languages. By contrast, Cloud-Polyphonies is a three-part percussion work exploring the movement of natural entities – starlings, clouds and buffalo – an unlikely triumvirate at first glance, but a combination that works spectacularly. Starlings evokes the “extraordinary aerobatic displays” made by these birds before migration using marimbas and woodblocks, and 66 drums conjure the thumping of buffalo hooves on changing earthen terrain. The textures created by Wood and brought to fruition by the Yale Percussion Group are mesmerising and hypnotic, and complemented by a spacious, reverberant acoustic in which the many overtones and subtleties created by the instruments are gloriously evident. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber?…

This is a splendid album from five musicians who are at the top of their game.

The English pianist Paul Lewis continues to stamp his considerable imprimatur on some of the world’s best-loved repertoire.

From 2011 to 2015, the Australian National Academy of Music and the Melbourne Recital Centre presented the Australian Voices concert series, celebrating significant Australian composers. Included was a programme of chamber works by Stuart Greenbaum (b. 1966). This recording, released on ANAM’s own imprint, features seven Academy musicians with harpist and ANAM alumna Jessica Fotinos, performing three works by Greenbaum in which harp plays a central role. Mondrian Interiors is a collection of eight pieces inspired by an exhibition of works by the Dutch artist, with works scored for combinations of oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, piano and harp. Four Finalities is a song cycle written in collaboration with poet Ross Baglin and performed by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. The delicate interplay between Betts-Dean’s forcefully ethereal voice and the harp is utterly captivating, enhanced by a rich and spacious recording sonic. Finally, Nine Candles for Dark Nights is solo harp piece written for Australian harpist Marshall McGuire that explores and expands the sonic capacities of this instrument. This is a tremendously accessible collection of works that balances the obvious beauty of the harp with subtly nuanced complementary sonorities. The performances are fresh and exciting, and it’s to be hoped that we’ll… Continue reading Get…

No man or woman alive knows more about the inner-workings of Schumann’s music than Holliger.

Charles O’Brien was a Scottish composer, who doesn’t have much new to say outside (or inside) the British orchestral oeuvre of the early 20th century. However, his music is forthright and attractive, occasionally with a decided Celtic lilt. Hamish MacCunn was his composition teacher, and The Land of the Mountain and the Flood was clearly an influence. The 45-minute Symphony in F Minor begins soberly before entering into some robust 19th-century symphonic rhetoric, punctuated by Teutonic tuttis. There’s barely a hint of the Highlands; its feet are planted firmly in 19th-century Vienna. The slow movement is thoughtful, without any particularly interesting ideas, the second a graceful Menuetto. The last movement is a vigorous tribute to German Romanticism. Again, well scored, but lacking true inspiration. The music of the Ellangowan Concert Overture is instantly recognisable as Celtic; the only missing instrument is a bagpipe. It’s an enjoyable Scottish romp with a gentle conclusion. The overture is more successful than the symphony. It knows where it lives. The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Paul Mann, who directs the music with understanding. Competent but undistinguished playing, likewise the recording. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a…

I’ve always regarded Ginastera as a sort of Aaron Copland of the Pampas, with a dash of Villa-Lobos thrown in. This CD contains two ballet suites, from Ollantay and Pampeana No 3, and the complete Estancia (Cattle Ranch). Ollantay and Pampeana No 3 are both based on blood-thirsty pre-Colombian themes with descriptions of anacondas slithering through primeval slime and rather beautiful evocations of dawn and night. Ginastera certainly knew how to orchestrate. Most people who buy this release will want it for the rarely heard complete Estancia, rather than the frequently heard Malambo, guaranteed to bring any audience to its feet. This is worth hearing in full, but half the work consists of Malambo-like movements, which anticipate the finale so heavily that Ginastera virtually steals his own thunder. The work’s subject is a city slicker’s attempt to prove himself in a world dominated by machismo-flaunting gauchos (cowboys). Juanjo Mena and the BBC Phil play well but there’s not enough testosterone. The dances sound like a clique of haughty Argentinian polo players who’ve eloped with English heiresses. What’s really bizarre is the narration and songs interpolated into the score, cheesily crooned by Lucas Somoza Osterc. It’s as if Leonard Bernstein recited…

Paired here with Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and his Tallis Fantasia are several big Elgars: the Introduction and Allegro and Serenade for Strings. A few of Elgar’s ‘pocket tunes’, Salut d’amour, Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit make a welcome appearance. Plus, a novelty! The world premiere recording of Julian Milon’s arrangement of Elgar’s In Moonlight for solo viola (played by Zukerman), strings and harp. Along with Zukerman the Soloist we get Zukerman the Conductor. These days he is equally at home on the podium – in this case the one in front of the orchestra of which he is Principal Guest Conductor: the Royal Philharmonic. Zukerman first recorded the Lark with the English Chamber Orchestra 40 years ago – not the chart-topper then that it is now. He did it as a favour to Barenboim in 1973 at short notice. A casual comparison of durations indicates a more leisurely approach today than on the 1973 ECO recording. The phrasing is uncluttered and fluid. The overwhelming gift of this disk (and especially this work) is Zukerman’s warmth of tone and organic pacing. He brings the intellect of a conductor to these familiar works – so often… Continue reading Get…

Live recording reveals Davis's hero to be surprisingly earthbound.

After earlier Vivaldi and Handel recitals with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and Andrea Marcon, it’s back to the Baroque for Czech mezzo Magdalena Kožená, who again teams up with Marcon for a programme devoted to the music of one of Kožená’s teenage crushes: Claudio Monteverdi. Apparently Kožená was just 16 years old when she co-founded her own early music ensemble to perform the Mantuan master’s music. So this recording is a homecoming of sorts, and if Kožená is nowadays more associated with Romantic repertoire you need only look to the complex, extravagant and emotionally charged music and lyrics of these madrigals and opera excerpts to see how there’s not really that much of a leap between Monteverdi and Mahler. Of course, there’s also a lot more scope for improvisation in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, and therefore more legitimate opportunities for the performer to stamp their own personality on the score. This heightens rather than diminishes the music’s emotional impact. There is also more room to ‘orchestrate’ in the sense of which instrumental colours to include; here, La Cetra comprises strings, a cornett, lutes, guitar, psaltery, harpsichord, organ and percussion. Thus the opening Zefiro torna, e di soave accenti… Continue reading…

Australian flautist Derek Jones’ new album Flute Perspectives opens with Peter Sculthorpe’s Songs of Sea and Sky, an adaption of a traditional dance song from Saibai, an island in Torres Strait. Originally for clarinet and piano, the music juxtaposes distinctive melodies from the region with the music of the missionaries, whose melodies and forms seeped into those of the Torres Strait Islands in the 19th century. The tension between these ideas styles is most potent in the fourth movement, Mission Hymn. A simple hymn tune in the piano, played by Leigh Harrold, is both peaceful and anachronistic against bird-like chirping and fluttering in the flute part. Sculthorpe’s influence on Australian music was pervasive and reverberates through many of the works on this disc. A student of Sculthorpe, Barry Conyngham’s Flute alternates burbling, flourishes in the instrument’s low register with declamatory snatches of melody. Australian jazz musician Brian Brown, Sculthorpe’s contemporary, improvised the dance-like Lily’s Garden, playing through a midi channel into computer notation software. The work celebrates the birth of Lily Jones – Derek Jones’ daughter and Brown’s granddaughter. Jones’ own composition on the album, Stillness, first appeared on his self-published album Sun Down Moon Up and is also grounded……

Boston Early Music Festival singers and period instrument players, co-directed by lutenists Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, are in cracking form on this studio recording of Handel’s buoyant pastoral. The vocal ensemble are exceptional, especially in their opening number O the Pleasure of the Plains (which always reminds me of For unto us a Child is born from Messiah). Handel wrote Acis and Galatea for the Duke of Chandos to celebrate his marriage and the building of his lavish mansion, the Cannons, in Middlesex. The house had its own orchestra as well as extensive gardens with the latest water features. It didn’t survive for long, however, for within 20 years it was demolished and its features sold off when Chandos’s fortune took a dive in the South Sea Bubble. In Ovid’s tale, the shepherd Acis is metamorphosed into a fountain by his lover Galatea after the jealous cyclops Polyphemus launches a boulder which crushes him. Thus the gardens of Cannons made the perfect setting for this pastoral tale. Handel was briefly the Duke’s resident composer while things were quiet in London (and where he was having trouble managing to stage his Italian operas). Hats off to the excellent soloists, tenor…