Piano concertos are dramatic affairs performed live, with virtuoso pianist, conductor and orchestra all adding to the visual spectacle taking place on stage. Concertos are rarely run of the mill – too costly for that. Only the best performers will do. And at the moment, mid-pandemic, deprived of live performances of this nature, we have…
Striking a harpsichord: Mahan Esfahani, ‘Musique?’
It’s impossible to resist writing about this tour-de-force of an album, a CD I’ve lived with now for a few weeks and keep feeling drawn back to, certain in the knowledge there’s always more to hear, more to appreciate. I would be happy to recommend any of Mahan Esfahani’s recordings, but my true favourites are…
Window to the inner world: Heather Leigh, ‘Glory Days’
Heather Leigh’s previous release, ‘Throne’, was one of my favourite albums of 2018. Picking up the record unawares, you might expect country rock – Leigh sings, and her chief instrument is pedal steel guitar – but that would be a mistake. On first listen, you might wonder just what it is you’ve let yourself in…
London Bridge Trio Records Leipzig Circle Volume Two
I love piano trios. For me, piano, cello and violin is a holy trinity of instruments which magically creates that big sound I seek. I was therefore delighted to listen to the CD of The Leipzig Circle Vol 11, recorded by the London Bridge Trio on Somm Recordings. Formed in 2002, the London Bridge…
Blistering Performance by Stuart Jackson on ‘Flax and Fire’
On Flax and Fire, operatic tenor Stuart Jackson offers a recording of love songs from the romantic repertoire of Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Hugo Wolf, with more contemporary works by William Denis Browne and Benjamin Britten. Britten opens the album with homages to Purcell but I really started to listen from track three. Um Mitternacht…
Navarra Quartet take on ‘Love and Death’
On the 17th July the Navarra Quartet release ‘Love and Death’ on Orchid Classics, profound themes that power artistic creation. Joaquín Turina’s exotic and passionate La oración del torero (The bullfighter’s prayer) is an invigorating start to the album. Originally a work composed for four lutes in the 1920s, the arrangement for violin, viola…
Body and soul: Anakronos, ‘The Red Book of Ossory’
This brilliant suite of songs practises its own apparent witchcraft, seducing you more or less straightaway with its beauty – which doesn’t fade after repeated listens. But as the debut album from Anakronos grows more familiar, it reveals and revels in layer after layer of sinister chills and thought-provoking arrangements and effects. Anakronos are a…
The Velvet Underground & Nico: The Ultimate Statement of Popular Art?
Guest post by Doug Thomas I recently re-immersed myself in the works of The Velvet Underground — especially The Velvet Underground & Nico (TVU&N) — and self-flagellated myself for not having written anything about it before. The album, released in 1967, is The Ultimate Statement of Popular Art, and an incredibly accurate portrait of the…
Sound travels: Xuefei Yang, Melbourne Guitar Festival
Xuefei Yang had prepared a globe-trotting programme that had the happy effect of demonstrating her breathtaking versatility across so many styles
Mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge and Irish composer Sir Hamilton Harty
Sir Hamilton Harty, composer of many songs of the Edwardian era, has the sort of name you would associate with the character from a Woodhouse novel. He was however a serious musician of Irish extraction from County Down. In 1901 he left Dublin, where he was church organist, and headed to London. Though virtually unknown…
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